stopping a charging loose dog if your dog is dog reactive

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jacksdad
Posts: 4887
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2009 10:48 pm

stopping a charging loose dog if your dog is dog reactive

Post by jacksdad »

http://www.theotherendoftheleash.com/it ... -emergency

A commonly asked question is what do you do if a loose dogs comes up to you while your walking your dog reactive dog. One option is the "treat" bomb and in the video shown on on Patrica's site you can see it in action. She references an emergency sit stay, where you ask your dog to sit and stay while you deal with the loose dog...and I trust her that it works, BUT you do need to keep in mind that it's NOT something you can do out of the blue with a reactive dog. it's something that has to be trained for. The closest I have ever gotten with my terrier mix is him choosing to stay behind me...which I suppose is close enough, but it wasn't in a sit. So, I would say dog staying behind you is good enough and expecting an actual sit might be too much for some dogs. And will ONLY work if your dog KNOWS you are dealing with the other dog. putting your reactive dog into a sit/stay and still allowing the other dog to get close isn't doing it right and asking for big trouble with a capital T.

The treat bomb though does work. I have used it exactly as shown in the video and it works. since knowing this option I have only had one dog ignore the treats and body blocks took care of that dog.

So if you have a loose dog charging up to you and your reactive dog and taking away their credit card isn't an option, throw some treats at it and then lead your dog away.

another use of treat bombs is to distract your own dog and or "change the subject". example you see a dog and their human approaching, they will pass but a little too close and you have no where to go...throw some treats on the ground for your dog to hoover up and move to be in between your dog and other dog as they pass.

You can also use it to change the subject. if your dog is reacting to another dog and you can't get it to follow you way without dragging it, toss some treats on the ground and move to stand between your dog and the other dog as it passes.

both these will only work if your dog isn't way over threshold and completely going nuts and reacting. at that point your dog would probably ignore the world most amazing treat. but for that little grey area between full on reactiveness and calm it can make the difference if you respond quick enough.
Keli&benj
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2013 4:28 am

Re: stopping a charging loose dog if your dog is dog reactive

Post by Keli&benj »

What a great idea! I could have done with this tip last night.. Benji was on his lead and a dog ran up to him that came from nowhere (we were on the street!) I shouted to the owner to get their dog but it attacked! There was a pause where a treat bomb could have helped. Am getting loads of tips from this forum for my reactive dog. Thanks for posting :D
jacksdad
Posts: 4887
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2009 10:48 pm

Re: stopping a charging loose dog if your dog is dog reactive

Post by jacksdad »

Keli&benj wrote:What a great idea! I could have done with this tip last night.. Benji was on his lead and a dog ran up to him that came from nowhere (we were on the street!) I shouted to the owner to get their dog but it attacked! There was a pause where a treat bomb could have helped. Am getting loads of tips from this forum for my reactive dog. Thanks for posting :D
I actually don't even bother yelling to the other owner to collect their dog. I just deal with their dog myself. And sometimes that causes the owner to come running quicker than if I called for them. ;)

I do not do anything cruel, mean, harmful etc. but I do make it very clear their dog isn't wanted....often just crouching a little and moving to block their dog is enough to make some people suddenly worry and come running. one lady nearly had a panic attack when I did this to her dobbie. nice dog, friendly and all, but was more than a little on the rude side and thought it would be FUN to RUN up to me an my dog. the lady didn't seem to have any problems with her dog RUNNING up to us...but when I crouched to block her dog (which stopped the dog charging at us) .... :shock: OH MY did she have a change of hart. suddenly she was collecting her dog and apologizing. :lol: and in the friendliest voice I could simply said "no worries".

The other reason I don't bother just yelling is I have watched many times someone with a dog fearful dog just "standing" there yelling and waving their arms and looking around for the other dog's owner. all the while their dog is being overwhelmed by a loose or unwanted dog. My approach...if the loose dogs makes it to us, I am WATCHING the dogs and dealing with the situation, doing my best to block away the unwanted dog, getting between and my dog etc. even this has been fairly effective in getting the other dog's owner's attention and they often come over and quickly take their dog away. But if the loose dog makes close enough to start sniffing or doing something, my eyes are ON THE DOGs...not looking for the human that should have been watching the loose dog.

The best thing you can do is learn to read even basic dog signals, then have as many different options for dealing with the loose dog as possible. as you gain experience, you will figure out which options works best with which situation.
Ari_RR
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Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2011 10:07 am
Location: USA
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Re: stopping a charging loose dog if your dog is dog reactive

Post by Ari_RR »

Agree!
Another thing to keep in mind, especially with the dog the size and power of Benji-the-bouvier, is to try and keep him as calm as possible, and his human screaming/yelling wouldn't help that at all...
Keli&benj
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2013 4:28 am

Re: stopping a charging loose dog if your dog is dog reactive

Post by Keli&benj »

Ari_RR wrote:Agree!
Another thing to keep in mind, especially with the dog the size and power of Benji-the-bouvier, is to try and keep him as calm as possible, and his human screaming/yelling wouldn't help that at all...
You should have heard me screaming when the dog attacked Benji :oops:
Laure
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2013 3:50 am

Re: stopping a charging loose dog if your dog is dog reactive

Post by Laure »

This is very interesting and the treat bomb is probably something I will try.
My dog isn't reactive but he is a teenage entire male and got attacked this morning by a loose dog while on the lead so maybe in this instance the treat bomb would have been useful in preventing the other dog from approaching. Good tip there!
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