It is when we are on walks. I live in a dog friendly apartment complex, so there are dogs around a lot. I avoid confrontation with them by walking in a different direction, but even if he sees them from far away he becomes fixated.
I use a flat collar in the house, but I was not sure what would be the best tool for outside.
Is loading the clicker where you just click and treat? I did this and he caught on right away.

 Quote: steph schneider

It is when we are on walks. I live in a dog friendly apartment complex, so there are dogs around a lot. I avoid confrontation with them by walking in a different direction, but even if he sees them from far away he becomes fixated. ... I use a flat collar in the house, but I was not sure what would be the best tool for outside.

Is this the usual scenario? " ... he does not lunge at other dogs ... He has started whining and almost screaming at other dogs a few times, but not every time. I am wondering if these are female dogs that he wants to go play with because he has no problem with female dogs. The noises he makes sounds more like frustration and not aggression."

How far away is "far away"?

I'm not just typing aimlessly. I'm casting about for whether you are able to get the dog to a route where the distance between him and other dogs is non-reactive. I personally would not choose to flood the dog with a bunch of other dogs every day, every walk, at this point. I would want to be working on focus (as well as basic ob marker work) at home, gradually changing venue from one room to the next, then to outside low-distraction places, etc., then to areas described in the links provided on the previous page, where you have control of the distance between your dog and other dogs passing by.

So I'm trying to figure out how you can set this up.

For example, are there a couple of times of day when other owners are not out with their dogs?

He vocalizes at dogs that are across the street, but he will fixate on any he can see no matter how far away they are. The vocalization has only happened three times, but it is embarrassing. Maybe I could walk him later at night, there seems to be less dogs, but there are still people around.
He will stare at people, but I have never had a problem besides that. He is friendly with people that I let into the house, but he will bark if he sees someone outside. (When I go to check it out he stops. He just wants to make sure I am o.k. with it.)

I really appreciate your advice. It is much better to hear about my specific situation instead of always looking at articles online.

 Quote: steph schneider

I really appreciate your advice. It is much better to hear about my specific situation instead of always looking at articles online.

I understand, but you will never get folks to re-type a whole detailed protocol that happens to be exactly applicable to your dog when they have already typed it out and are now linking you to it. (Those weren't articles; they were forum threads like yours.)

For example, if you follow this link from the previous page, you will see that the post it takes you to describes how to minimize the dog's opportunity to zero in on the object of his reactivity by striding purposefully. http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=134&Number=249885&Searchpage=2&Main=24037&Words=desensitize&topic=0&Search=true#Post249885

Picking up the pace may sound kind of vague or useless, but actually it can be very useful. Before the dog has a chance to zoom in his gaze and turn it into a stare, you've moved past the object of it.

Again, it's done calmly and purposefully, like your changes of directions. Not at all in a nervous, let's get out of here way, but in an I'm in charge and I say where we are going way. There is a collateral benefit to this, too. It reinforces the dog's perception that it's not his concern who is heading his way or what "enemies" lie in wait, because YOU, his pack leader, have everything under control (like when he "tells" you that there is someone outside and you take charge and tell him it's OK -- you are telling him on walks by your whole demeanor that "it's OK; I'm in charge").

Each of those links I posted leads to a thread that talks about dogs like yours.

 Quote: Steph Schneider

He vocalizes at dogs that are across the street, but he will fixate on any he can see no matter how far away they are. The vocalization has only happened three times, but it is embarrassing. Maybe I could walk him later at night, there seems to be less dogs, but there are still people around. He will stare at people, but I have never had a problem besides that.

Well, I'd go for the time when there are fewer dogs. About the fixating on people, can you describe this? Is he turning his head to look back after you have passed them? Or do you mean people approaching you?

When we are approaching people he will stare very intently at them. As we walk by them he continues to stare until we are completely past them. I have a hard time getting him to look at me. He makes people nervous because they see a Doberman and assume that he is mean. I am also pretty small so maybe they think I can't control him, but he is not lunging or barking.

Sometimes when I take him out to potty he won't go if there are people around. He just stares at them, even though I know he has to go. I have to constantly regain his focus. It will just take time for us to work on this. He is very attached to me, he is just extremely excitable.

Should I be using a prong collar or will that make him more reactive? If I use a flat collar he will drag me instead of walking nicely.

there is a lot of good info here about focus (stare) at the following link..'Training with markers or clickers: Learn the details of training your dog with Marker. It's revolutionary. ... to re-direct or dog away from dogs and people while on walks or when it's getting into' ... http://leerburg.com/markers.htm


Did you take a look at this? Throughout the types and at the bottom Ed F. provides a lot of info re: prong. If you go to the dominant collar page there is info about that as well.

http://leerburg.com/prong.htm

 Quote: Steph Schneider

... Should I be using a prong collar or will that make him more reactive? If I use a flat collar he will drag me instead of walking nicely.

Steph, do you mean that he pulls, period, aside from the staring issue?

Yeah, if I don't use a prong collar he will pull. I started with trying a head halter (suggested by a friend) and it did nothing, but after about a week of the prong I can use either the head halter or the prong. (I don't like the head halter though because I can't give corrections.) He just gets so excited when we are outside that he needs to be reminded that I am still there. I am not discouraged though, I have not had him that long compared to how long he was with his other family. I know it will just take some time and more work.