My girl is still being trained for this behavior, part of it is dominant behavior and part is she likes "mixin it up" as she is what she is. I have her to a point where she respects me enough to avoid this behavior but it takes everything shes got, so an incidint like this could just set her back months as Mike said. And I think even as it becomes more second nature to her, an oncoming aggresive dog that makes contact...well I just think she would respond like a Pit. I have pepper spray, I just pray I am quick enough, and folks don't get too upset when I use it. I try to stay calm with her because she gets excited when I do. This is a great thread.......

A few days ago I was walking my two GSD's dogs down a busy street past a convience store. Just outside the store was a fairly large husky mix. The dog, who was not leashed, got up and trotted towards us. My older guy, who is already dog aggressive and always on the defense got into it with the loose dog. I always try to defend my dogs, but I was not carrying a walking stick (as I assumed I'd be safe on a busy street; no strays) and my second dog is only six months old and my main objective was to protect her. Both of my dogs wear prongs when walked together and so I felt very badly that my older guy was trying to fend off the loose dog and getting a (self) correction at the same time. I get really annoyed (and scared) when I encounter strays when I am walking both my dogs at once. It is very hard to drive a stray off when holding two dogs. The idiot that owned the dog came running out of the convience store yelling at this dog and dragged him off, asking "did they hurt each other?" Looking back I wish I would have given him a piece of my mind (ie: "Have you heard of a leash idiot?") but my heart was pounding so hard I felt a bit ill. I can't for the life of me figure out why people can't be bothered to leash there dogs.....what the heck?

1. be paying attention at all times to what is coming down the street/path
2. when you see a loose dog, immediately put your dog in a down/stay.
3. step in between your dog and the oncoming dog
4. if the loose dog comes too close, brandish your hiking staff and order it gruffly to "go home!" or "get out of here!"

it goes without saying that you need to train a reliable down/stay before going out in public with your dog. i got one by using mealtimes twice a day, every day, to reinforce the down/stay. he's so good at it, it's sometimes hard to get him to release from it. he's still waiting for his beef liver! lol.

in this way, your dog will never get a correction in association with the aggression of another dog. also, you will be demonstrating to him that you are a good pack leader, and he can trust you to take care of him. this will give him confidence and reduce his aggression.

i've only had to whack a loose dog on the nose with my hiking staff once. the dog had my dog by the face. the owner of the other dog was very contrite. at that time i didn't know to be the "pack leader" and protect my dog from other dogs. it would not have happened had i used the down/stay, been alert to possible danger, and put myself between my dog and another dog. i will never make that mistake again.

Mike,
How did you do this with your dog? I have similar issues and the morons round here just don't get it (many dogs running loose at once in the street). My bhoy is only ever off leash if there is nothing around for as far as I can see and as soon as I see something I call him back and leash him (he's very good at this usually). I did make one major mistake in my front yard where I was clearing litter and my bhoy was helping me :-) when three dogs (same owner) came bolting round the corner and showed a lot of interest in my bhoy. They are not agressive dogs but he's only 7 months and didn't like the attention at all, setting me back months of socialising as he's now a bit jumpy.

I get so mad sometimes but I can't bring myself to get into it too much with the owners cos I have a real bad temper when I get going, I just give em a look like "I'm NOT happy and you better sort your dogs out" but they are SOOOOO thick.

Polly, Linda. What is the watch / look command?

Cheers

John

John,
The Look command is recommended by a number of trainers, including the author of Feisty Fido. The purpose is to desensitize the dog to stimulation of another animal close by, by distracting the dog. One of my dogs is very aggressive to some other dogs. I have trained her to be far less reactive by teaching her to look at me when I say "look". She then gets a treat. We started in the apartment, then on the street park, when no other dogs were around. I carry a bag of treats, and when I see a dog approaching, I say Look, she looks, I treat etc.

After several weeks of this, she is very improved for most situations. There are still 2 dogs in the area that she really wants to fight, and I am a little afraid to put my hand near her mouth even with a treat, to distract her. I have resorted to holding the whole bag nearby, and that gets her attention. She wears a prong and a dominat dog collar in addition.

Alice, I comletely agree with your suggestions. My young dog will obey even with the distraction of an approaching dog, so that is not a problem. The older dominant dog is very obediant with no dog distraction, but she gets very irate when a strange dog gets too close, and looses her discipline. I am working on this.

polly

The hardest part on this I think is if you have a dog who is dog aggressive, which is not easy to control when an off leash dog comes near him even in a friendly manner.

One evening about a month ago (my GSD puppy 10 months old)as I was walking my dog on a 16’ leash this black lab (dog aggressive) jumped the fence from his yard barking like crazy coming in full attack towards us. My dog did sit until he came close enough (about 6 ft),I was standing between both of them, but then all of the sudden Ben (my dog) as he was silent jumps right at him and bites the lab in the face as he was charging at Ben as well. The black lab retreated right away, and continued barking and growling from the distance. The owners got out and appologised, I looked if Ben got bit but luckily he was fine, I don't know about the other dog.

Hopefully I will reach the point that you have, but than again your dog is not dog aggressive. I have reached the point where if I walk my dog and another dog walks by he will ignore it, but not if the other dog comes close to make physical contact.

your ben is still young. my ben has three years of training on him (yes he is also named ben!)

make that down/stay rock solid reliable, and don't let the other dog get close enough for ben to go for him! you have to be looking ahead and anticipating situations.

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The hardest part on this I think is if you have a dog who is dog aggressive

A dog aggressive dog doesn't mean the dog is untrainable, it just means it's a lil more challenging, my dog is a little dog aggressive but doesnt hate every dog out there, he has more problems with males than females. Just keep working on the dogs obedience and consider another dog a very big distraction, you may never be able to cure the dog aggression, but you should be able to get a dog to tollerate another dog walking in close proximity without breaking a down/stay, just means that the other dog can't play with your dog aggressive dog.

Alice,

I think you clarified for me, where I "let the ball drop." I should have put my dog in a down or at least sit/stay and interfaced with the loose mutt, before he got too close.

Thanks so much for the input. You have pointed out the obvious. Working with my present dog has made me train and recondition alot of ingrained behaviours, all of which are a new experience for me. In the past I've had pups, which were very well socialized. So I never had to work around alot of pre-existing issues. Its all been a real eye opener. Like I mentioned previously, I'm learning so much, because of this dog and the advice from this website!!

Thanks,

Linda