i was walking teagan (known dog aggression) and another dog came within sight (the other side of the street).
she stayed in a heel next to me, and didn't turn her head (could see it without doing so), but i could feel her entire body tense. normally i will correct in that situation if she breaks the heel or stops paying attention to me. but she didn't.
i did not correct her, but i wondered - she was showing the first signs of aggression, but since she held and did what i asked of her, i thought it was unfair of me to correct her.
....just after that dog turned down a side street, another dog - tiny - came into view, and she did break her attention and heel and was corrected (popped back into place) then.
You're never going to make Teagan completely ignore other dogs. It's just not going to happen. If she is holding her heel, not staring the other dog down, and otherwise being obedient, I wouldn't correct for tensing up a little. The only thing that will do is drive the warning signs even deeper, so to speak.
She'll just mask her distaste for other dogs, to the extent that you won't realize it's there, and you won't have a warning sign that she sees another dog.
that's sort of what i thought, but then i wondered if i should be expecting her to stay calm - inwardly as well as outwardly. but really i thought, she's holding herself outwardly calm for me b/c that's what i expect her to do, against all her better judgement.
and correcting away the warning signs is something i worry about. she already isn't exactly the biggest exhibitor of warning signs (to experienced people's eyes as well as mine) and it took me a while to learn the little things that she does do. i'm not sure if she shows few signs b/c she's smart or b/c she was inappropriately corrected by previous owners, but i don't want to make it worse.
i think it's just a matter of i'm not sure how much i can expect from her. can i turn her into a dog that doesn't care about other dogs? i don't think i can, but then i always read about those dogs people get that were super aggressive (usually fear aggressive though, which i don't think is her problem), that get rehabilitated and turn into wonderfully social dogs. (not that teagan isnt' a wonderfully social dog, just she seems to need a smaller social circle). so then i wonder, what am i doing wrong? but maybe it's not a matter of that.
IMO, whether or not the dog can be made to enjoy the company of other dogs is a matter of what caused the dog aggression in the first place, and the dog's personality.
Many dogs can, just as many can't.
My attitude is, why does a dog need "friends" that aren't a part of it's established family? It's one thing to ask your dog to get along with other dogs in the home, but I don't think it's fair to ask a dog to get alone with other dogs it meets.
It's asking a lot- I don't ask it of my GSD, and she has no issues with other dogs. I just don't feel it's a reasonable request of her.
Going back to the wolf approach, (excluding young wolves breaking away to start their own packs) wolf packs don't socialize with other wolf packs. They stick to their own territory, and their own wolves.
My attitude is, why does a dog need "friends" that aren't a part of it's established family? It's one thing to ask your dog to get along with other dogs in the home, but I don't think it's fair to ask a dog to get alone with other dogs it meets.
and actually, b/c of luc's discomfort (fear) of other dogs....he was friends w/an 18 year old tiny little terrier, that was about his speed, but he was scared of little dogs, big dogs, forward dogs, quiet dogs - didn't matter - he's a lot better now - i adopted teagan so he could have a dog friend and be socialized w/another dog, and i didn't have to take him to the dog park or worry about the other owner.
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