Dog fear aggression - Improved!

[RocketQueen]

Hi all,

You may or may not remember me from earlier this year - I had to change username because I lost my password & the system didn't recognize my e-mail address when I tried to retrieve it. Anyway - it's me with the chihuahua who was attacked by a greyhound and since developed a deep rooted fear of other dogs.

Anyway, thanks to this forum & with expertise advice, this is how our daily walks now look: with a clicker in my hand, & cheese cubes in my pocket (or hand), I walk both doggies as usual but always choose a route that doesn't involve narrow paths/sharp corners. I have to be really aware of my surroundings - something that took a lot of practise. As soon as I see a dog, I slow down but I do not pull the lead in. I found pulling the lead in, caused a slight stress in Buddy as if he was being restrained. I watch him carefully and that split second just before he pricks his ears/tail up, I click. Immidiately (& almost every time) he looks at me. I crouch down, hold the cheese infront of him & distract him a little further by taking my time to give it to him. It works most of the time. If a dog gets too close, there simply isn't anything I can do, as he's in full attack mode & doesn't respond to clickers or cheese. These times are ALWAYS when loose dogs run up to him & invade his personal space. It's disappointing, but I just have to stay positive.

Overall - I can manage this now. Yes, there's a lot of hard work, focus & dedication involved, but it can be done. I see it as prevention rather than cure (as someone mentioned here). I understand that now. Maybe he will be cured one day, but his fear of strange dogs is so deep-rooted, it is going to take a lot of work.

For anyone dealing with dog/dog fear aggression - please don't give up. Dedicate yourself to the training & you will see progress soon enough. Be calm - your dog can sense your stress easily. Be a person your dog can trust - be his safety net. It may seem like a long journey - I'm still at the beginning of it, but it's worth the hard work. If you can make your dogs walks that tiny bit less stressful each day - then that's a huge improvement and great reward for you both!

I'd like to thank all of you helping me with this issue. Now to train my other dogs not to attack our guests! LOL

[vicki]

Well done for all the hard work you've put in. I've got a dog reactive dog and know how hard it is to cure.

[dog2]

will this work for any dog reactive dog do you think?

[ladybug1802]

Well done RocketQueen!!

will this work for any dog reactive dog do you think?

Yes this kind of thing does work.....I have been doing a similar thing with my people reactive rescue....but in an idela world you should start off at a distance from the trigger where the dog doesnt react at all, then click and treat constantly as the trigger passes at a distance. I dont see it as prevention......if you do it long enojugh and in the right way it helps a lot....it has taken us coming uop to a year but now we can walk past people happily without him stressing and lungeing, and we are at the stage at the vet where the vet or nurse can sit next to us and stroke him on the shoulder a couple of times - whereas before they couldnt even come in the waiting room with him. You can then use the clicker to eventually reward more specific behaviour, such as the dog moving out of the way of a person, or lookign at you, or whatever you are wanting to reward. It takes a lot of time and consistency, and as the OP says, my one bug bear has been other dog walkers who let their off lead dog run iup to me when I am clearly off the path and doing training!

[dog2]

yes thats a big problem.getting it right with dogs from afar is one thing but when a dog or worse dogs come out of the blue right up to your dog and start sniffing and worse its so hard to get through that with your dog snarling and pulling and barking out of control.i used to shout a warning if i saw a dog far off my dog is on the lead for a reason do you mind putting your dog on a lead but the dogs that run up offlead made me feel i was going back a step.
well done all your endurance is paying off..bet you are so pleased.