Ok, so another post about Remi. Can you tell that I've been searching for a forum like this for a while?

About 3 weeks ago I was up at some property that we own up north. A neighbors dog (unfixed female Malamute) came down without the owner. My dogs (including Remi) were outside. Needless to say, we didn't realize she was there until they were playing. I went outside just in time, as the Malamute decided that Remi was not fun anymore and attacked him. Pinned him to the ground and bit him (not hard enough to break skin, but he screamed). I broke up the fight before it escalated and severely rerimanded the owner.

Ever since then, when we are on a walk he will bark and growl at dogs that he does not know. One neighbor has a breeding pair of labs that likes to charge the fence very aggressively when we walk by. Remi has taken to barking back at them. What I did this last time was to correct him and ask him to heel, turn around and around letting him correct himself at the end of the leash until he was paying attention. Then he walked by them looking at me without a problem.

We were at the park (on leash of course) when he spotted another dog across the way. He started barking.

Currently I only have a buckle collar and obviously I can't administer a correction hard enough or he would stop, right?

Is it time for a prong?

QUOTE from Mike: It seems to me that a tug on the dog's collar, a refocusing turn, or two, and a firm 'no' would be the first approach to try END

I couldn't agree more. I would've typed just about that same reply if I hadn't been too lazy.

BEFORE the focus on the other dog is intense.......as in the minute he spies the other dog and opens his mouth to mark.........a quick tug and NO to refocus works well.

Yes, the pop on the leash and refocus seems to be helping. I guess I was concerned that maybe he wasn't seeing me as pack leader, or maybe he has weak nerves???

He's 6 months old right now, and I know he's young but I want to make sure that I raise him right.

I do have other dogs, and so he does get supervised play time with them. However, I'm afraid to let him socialize with anyone else's dogs since I don't have any friends with dogs. And since I don't know the dogs at the park (and most people are stupid "OH he's NEVER done THAT before!) I am hesitant about letting him socialize.

Today we had a similar situation when he first met the horse next door. We went out for our walk and the girl next door was coming down the driveway with her horse. Luckliy, she has dogs so the horse was very calm. He let out one bark and I sternly corrected him with a pop on the leash and worked him for a minute. After that he did calm down and I went to pet the horse and he came up to sniff it, and seemed noticiebly more relaxed.

Perhaps you're right in that he's just going through a phase and me correcting him with a leash pop and re-focus is the way to continue.

I just would really like him to be neutral towards any other dog or animal. I took him to Petco one time and he barked at the dog behind us in line. Of course I got nasty looks... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I should say, that every dog he has met he has never shown any real aggression towards. My parents have an older lab/rott mix that he met. He barked at him first, then went over and played without a problem. Which is why I put the word aggression in quotes. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

QUOTE: Perhaps you're right in that he's just going through a phase and me correcting him with a leash pop and re-focus is the way to continue. END

I am hoping we hear from a moderator on this.

Me too - I'd really like to know what the "experts" think.

I guess I should give these few tidbits of info.

1. He is crate trained in the house. He is the only house dog. The other dogs are outside or kennel dogs. He only gets to play with the other dogs when I allow him to play.
2. He "has eyes" for me (or at least I think he does) he follows me around the house and if I leave the room will follow me without me carrying his leash and will watch me when I am in the same room.
3. He never goes first out a door. Although he doesn't know the command "wait" I make him do it without any commands.
4. He is not free fed, and eats in his crate.
5. He always has a leash on even when he is outside playing with the other dogs.

What are you training this dog for? Pet? Sport?

I don't think it's a case of weak nerves - the dog recieved an unpleasant experience and he's doing what he can to prevent it from happening again ( he's most likely barking to let other dogs know that he's aware of their presence and that they should keep their distance )
But just a single bad episode like what happened can sensitize a dog and set up a feedback loop that results in escalating aggressive responses to other dogs.

As far as socializing him, how old is he again? And is it essential to you that he be socialized to other dogs?
A park ( with dunderheads that don't control their dogs ) would be low on my list of places to seek socialization for my dog. A well run obedience class would top my list.

He's 6 months old on Tuesday. It's not important to me that he be friendly to other dogs. In fact, what I want is for him to not care at all about them. Not go to meet them or bark at them. I was at the park with my kids, and Remi and I were off in a corner away from the kids and people. The dogs were being walked across the park and he let out some low growling woof's. You're probably right, to let them know that he knew about them.

I'm not sure what I'm training him for at this point. We have only just begun obedience (I didn't get him until he was almost 4 months old) and some tracking basics.

I want to see what kind of nerves and drive he has before I commit to what he's going to be doing for his lifetime.

This is also my first GSD and would be my first "working" dog.