There's a whole lot to all this, but for the time being, keep him at a distance where he isn't lunging or barking or even thinking about the other dogs or people. Just do that one thing for right now.

 Quote: Duane Hull

I'll stand by this...

"The tether creates barrier aggression..."

If I'm not mistaken, you've already seen it for yourself. On top of that, you have the added agitation of the flirt pole. You are driving his prey drive through the roof, which is going to make it difficult to desensitize anything.

Without realizing it, you are doing one of the beginning exercises in bitework; tying the dog off and building prey drive by teasing with a flirt. This should not be done where you cannot control the environment.

lol, i AM realizing this, a variation of this was suggested on the other board to get him interested in the tug.
i'm outside for 2 hours every day and i was looking for ways to keep him interested (after the first or second round of playing flirt, tug and fetch he'd stop being interested in them so someone suggested that)


ok, i will stop tying him up, i will let him drag the 30 ft line.
oi'm sure you ARE right about the barrier aggression (i didn't know that was the name for it) but his behavior was the reason i started tying him up, me tying him up didn't cause the behavior.

maybe tying up is not helping anything (except me having control) but the aggression was there before i started tying him up

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

Almost all of this post it is about desensitizing (and there are volumes written on the board about it);

thank you for this, i didn't know this word would bring up all these results, going through them now

... i can't, i can try but i can't guarantee this happening. first of all, i can't always see a dog approaching in time, second of all, i never know which person or kid he will react to (ever since i've been working with him he hasn't reacted to people or kids).

i'm reading up on it now.

Yes you can, you have to. Put the 30' line away and keep him on a sturdy 6' leash. You haven't done anything terrible with him, but you need to teach him some things before every little thing gets out of hand.

the 30' line is for the park, on the street he's on a 4' leash.

how can i make sure no dogs get near him? i do try my best but i can't catch them in time every time. there will be times (and have been) where dogs walk up on us and he sees them before i do.

and how do i keep him from people? i won't have enough sidewalks, there are always people walking on the streets, even at night. besides, he doesn't bark at all people, it's 1 in 100 (and not lately, lately he hasn't barked at all), so why even try to distance him from all people (and i can't even if i try)

I'm taller than my dogs. I can see a lot farther ahead. When I'm desensitizing a dog, I am calmly scanning at all times. I'm looking ahead for other dogs. For weeks (maybe months) when I start this work, there is nothing distracting me from the route ahead and what we are about to encounter.

This is critically important.


As far as other people go, I'm moving briskly, and so is the dog. The reactive dog has a job, and that job is marching right along. He has no time to focus on, sniff at, and react to a person passing the other way.

Desensitizing means that you are on the job (with a calm and in-charge demeanor) at all times. It means that if you see fit to calmly change direction, you do it.


I'm thinking that a lot of reading on the desensitizing threads will be eye-opening.

It will be positive for you, too, because so many people on this board have dialed back the reactivity to a manageable level using desensitizing techniques.


If you would like me to hunt up more threads tomorrow, I will be happy to. Working with reactive dogs is something I do a lot of. (And I'm not the only one here.) This work is so worthwhile --- I can't overemphasize it.

Giving the dog a fallback behavior and every other part of desensitizing means that you engage with the dog. If you start this work at home, indoors, you will have a foundation to build on outside where all the excitement happens.



Edited to add:

You see, there's that "engagement" word again. This doesn't just happen. And for me, this starts where there is zero distraction.

To a reactive dog, other dogs are the ultimate distraction.

What if that 1 out of a hundred is the one he bites? What if the loose dog you didn't see attacks your dog?

I understand what you're saying Natalie, but I'm trying to tell you that its important enough for you to make some changes in how you do things and the way you think with him. Drive him to the park and keep him at a distance for now. Don't walk him on sidewalks with other people for right now. You need to think in terms of pre-empting a lot of things while you work on some training with him.

... i know this is a long thread but i did say that he's not aggressive to dogs, if i let him go EVERY TIME he will go and play.

a trainer that saw him said he's just too excited to get to the dog.

anyway, back to the question. how will he bite? he's not close enough to bite.

How will he bite??? He has teeth, that's how. What do you think the lunging is about?

 Quote:

i don't let him get close to the other dog. or the people.

I thought you said you couldn't do that?

i think we are misunderstanding each other. i'm saying that sometimes i don't see the other dog before he does and he goes into the barking and lunging mode.

i still make the uturn and walk away, they never come close to each other. all i'm saying is that i didn't catch it in time for him to not bark and reinforced his behavior.

See, you're already using distance. My problem with him being "too excited to get to the dog" is that there's no way of knowing whats going to happen when he gets there. I think he needs to learn to behave at a distance, then that distance can shrink so that he can still behave.

 Quote: steve strom

Hey Natalie, what kind of dog is this? How is he with your family? Your kids? Does he want to chase them or does he startle when they run around?

german shepherd. it's only me and my 18 year old daughter. hes very good with both of us, at home we have no problems except the cats.

he's very attached to me, goes into this hysteria, crying and jumping around all over the place and on me when i come in even if i left for a minute. probably some separation anxiety there because this is not healthy behavior in my opinion.
i'm trying to work on it, ignore him when i leave and when i come home.


i really don't have problems with him at home. or maybe i do and i just don't realize that they're problems

Hey Natalie, I looked at the other thread and watched the video but I'm going to reply on this one. First, your question about knowing the command. If I tell him sit without any physical cue at all from me and he does it? As far as I'm concerned, he knows the command. For the time being, don't overthink all the little details, your just creating pressure for both of you that's probably causing the avoidance you see in him.
In the video, he doesn't really have strong enough prey drive for what you're doing and the swapping the toys doesn't help. There are ways you can build on his playing with you, but you have to stick to one toy and if he doesn't play with you, you put him away then give him another chance later. It takes time and its better with a crate. Skip that for right now too.

Speaking of crates, you didn't mention anything or I missed it, but is he crate trained?

The main thing I think you should do is concentrate on setting his boundaries and a routine for right now. I think that's going to fix a lot more then you realize. Sometimes, trying too hard to organize you can lose sight of whats actually going on. You didn't do anything terrible, and I don't think he looks like a reactive problem dog. Just settle into one thing at a time.

Hey Natalie, I looked at the other thread and watched the video but I'm going to reply on this one. First, your question about knowing the command. If I tell him sit without any physical cue at all from me and he does it? As far as I'm concerned, he knows the command. For the time being, don't overthink all the little details, your just creating pressure for both of you that's probably causing the avoidance you see in him.
In the video, he doesn't really have strong enough prey drive for what you're doing and the swapping the toys doesn't help. There are ways you can build on his playing with you, but you have to stick to one toy and if he doesn't play with you, you put him away then give him another chance later. It takes time and its better with a crate. Skip that for right now too.

Speaking of crates, you didn't mention anything or I missed it, but is he crate trained?

The main thing I think you should do is concentrate on setting his boundaries and a routine for right now. I think that's going to fix a lot more then you realize. Sometimes, trying too hard to organize you can lose sight of whats actually going on. You didn't do anything terrible, and I don't think he looks like a reactive problem dog. Just settle into one thing at a time.

 Quote: steve strom

Hey Natalie, I looked at the other thread and watched the video but I'm going to reply on this one. First, your question about knowing the command. If I tell him sit without any physical cue at all from me and he does it? As far as I'm concerned, he knows the command. For the time being, don't overthink all the little details, your just creating pressure for both of you that's probably causing the avoidance you see in him.
In the video, he doesn't really have strong enough prey drive for what you're doing and the swapping the toys doesn't help. There are ways you can build on his playing with you, but you have to stick to one toy and if he doesn't play with you, you put him away then give him another chance later. It takes time and its better with a crate. Skip that for right now too.

Speaking of crates, you didn't mention anything or I missed it, but is he crate trained?

The main thing I think you should do is concentrate on setting his boundaries and a routine for right now. I think that's going to fix a lot more then you realize. Sometimes, trying too hard to organize you can lose sight of whats actually going on. You didn't do anything terrible, and I don't think he looks like a reactive problem dog. Just settle into one thing at a time.

I just want to point out the importance here:

"The main thing I think you should do is concentrate on setting his boundaries and a routine for right now. I think that's going to fix a lot more then you realize. Sometimes, trying too hard to organize, you can lose sight of whats actually going on. You didn't do anything terrible, and I don't think he looks like a reactive problem dog. Just settle into one thing at a time."