My mix breed puppy is 8 months old. About 1 or 1.5 months ago I was walking my adult foster dog and my friend was walking the pup. We were approaching a "T" intersection where the sidewalk terminated at another sidewalk, which was lined with a fence. There was a gate or opening at the end of the sidewalk we were on.

A female jogger was coming up the left side of the T, and we were about 6 feet from the intersection when the jogger suddenly decided to turn and basically jog through us, without warning and without slowing down. She practically ran into us, but kept on going without slowing down.

Now up to that point I had been working with my puppy, who was somewhat shy and wary of people, to not be shy. The jogger startled him so badly that he expelled his anal glands and basically went ballistic, barking snarling hackling etc.

Ever since then my puppy cannot stand female joggers. He goes nuts when he sees them, barking aggressively, even when we are in the car and driving past.

What I would like to do now is train my puppy that joggers are NOT all bad. I wanted to put an ad in our local Internet classifieds and maybe hire some strangers to jog by us in the park so he can get comfortable.

My question is what should I have the joggers do? Should they ignore him totally (after I explain to them what his reaction will be) and I lure him to ignore them too by using ob commands and treats, or should he learn they mean him no harm where they stop and crouch down and give him treats or what???

Thanks!

I would go back to basic OB with him first. You need to start easy, with something that you know he will pass with flying colors. The object is to set the stage for what you want him to do, rather than focusing your attention on what you don't want him to do. Then progress to "distractions" with the same things you were doing. (Like, for instance, a sit - stay until the person/ distraction is past) Really work on keeping his attention on YOU. Then get some friends/family to do the jogger thing while you are doing the same OB work, with the same standards. He stay focused on YOU. He'll either learn that joggers are fine, or will learn to be indifferent to them. Either way it's a win. But you want praise/treats coming from you to keep his focus ON you. Getting handouts from joggers will just increase his attention TO the joggers.

Angela, take this with a grain of salt (I haven't had to deal with this personally)...

If it were me, I would try to find a spot about 20-30 feet away from a jogging path (or further away, until you reach the distance where he is non reactive to the passing joggers)
Do something fun with him and get him focusing on you. Move a little bit closer to the path and keep his attention on you. Easier to do if he likes to tug, or do some obedience w/ high value treats or whatever it takes to keep his attention on you.

I'd do this over the course of several visits to try to desensitize him to being in the general vicinity of joggers. Once he's within 10 feet or so of the path (and comfortable being there) I would enlist the help of a friend to be your jogger. Have her jog by and gently toss a hotdog or piece of steak on the ground near the dog. Have her turn around and repeat it a few times, so that your pup figures out where the treat is coming from. If you both had cell phones it might be easier to get the timing right.

I don't think you'd have to actually have a jogger hand him the treat though. For one thing, if you do that, then the person is no longer jogging (which seems to be the trigger, right?)

I agree with both Lynne and Cameron, back to the basics with OB and focus on you! The reaction he had to the jogger being as strong as it was and now having continued to practise it for a month I think I would remove the joggers from the equation until you have near perfect obedience; tough, I know, when your pup is only 8 months old.

As far as his being shy; does he shy away and cower from people or does he become aggressive? What happened immediately following this incident? How did you respond to him? How did your friend react? What was the reaction of your other dog? Why was your friend walking the pup instead of you? (These questions are asked to clarify the incident for me; they are in no way meant to be critical...I feel like there might have been more than the jogger that triggered his response but I can't get a handle on it)