Neutered dog is nervous of entire males

[Kaz888]

Hi, we have a rescue corgi x jr called Riley who was obviously neutered when we got him. He is pretty gd and friendly to all dogs except when they are entire males! He can sense them a long way away so we put him on his lead and he shows aggression at the dog until we pass, then he is fine again. Any suggestions how we can help him overcome this issue? Would be grateful of any suggestions!

[JudyN]

This can be a tricky one as you generally don't know if the other dog is an unneutered male until it's too late - so well done in managing to get him on lead before he gets too close to the other dog

What you want to aim for is that when your dog sees another dog, he focuses on you and comes back to you straight away - regardless of whether the other dog is male, female, neutered or not, as you won't know yourself at first sight. Then you need to make sure that you don't get close enough to the other dog that yours will react. Depending on where you are walking, this can involve going down another path or road, or simply turning round and going the other way.

While the other dog is passing, get yours to focus on you and give him treats. If he won't take your treats and/or keeps turning to look at the other dog, you're too near, so you need to keep further away in future encounters.

Eventually,you should be able to reduce the space between him and the other dog. You might not ever be able to eliminate his fear of entire males completely, particularly if you don't encounter them very often, but hopefully you will get to a point where it's much easier to manage. (I've often wondered if you could bottle dog testosterone and desensitise a dog to it!)

[Kaz888]

Thank you Judy, your advice makes good sense. I usually call out to the owner (especially if their dog is off lead) and ask if their dog is entire and tell them that if he is then mine will not like him!! You do tend to get the annoying owners who let their dogs wander off lead towards us saying oh, its fine, mines friendly! This drives me mad!! We can tell by Rileys reaction a good distance away usually as he pulls on the lead and drops the ball he is carrying (highly unusual!) Its hard to get his attention to us as once he is focused on getting past the other dog, its virtually impossible to keep him calm! He wears a harness so minimal damage is done to his neck when pulling. Bottled testosterone would be useful or I did wonder if there was some sort of scent we could spray on Riley so he doesn't feel so insecure!
He is a very high driven dog, loves agility and anything that involves running! He mixes with neutered and un-neutered males at training and we just have to make sure that he has space away from them. Its usually when they are coming towards us that he panics. He wouldn't, for example, run from the start line just to search out un-neutered dog to have a go at, he would just rather they stayed away!

[JudyN]

You do tend to get the annoying owners who let their dogs wander off lead towards us saying oh, its fine, mines friendly! This drives me mad!!

Tell me about it - I normally get 'Don't worry, my dog is very submissive' - that's the sort of dog my (large) dog will go for as he knows he's not going to get beaten up in return!

Good luck - as he mixes with unneutered dogs at training you might have more opportunities to work on this in a controlled environment. I'm not an expert, but others might have some advice on how to make the most of this.

[Ari_RR]

Agree with Judy!

While working on descensitizing your boy, best to keep distance on the streets.

I recently crossed paths with an owner of an intact male dog. Mine is also intact. The dogs got along fine, respectfully sniffed each other and moved on, but interestingly I noticed the guy was carrying a bullwhip... I asked him what's that thing for, and he told me that he is sick and tired of neutered aggressive adolescents attacking his dog, and next time this happens the whip will be put to use

Best to keep distance from anything and anyone that you are unsure of... 4-legged and 2-legged

[emmabeth]

I just want to reiterate something Judy has touched on here.

Get in the habit of keeping that safe distance and rewarding him heavily for seeing ANY dogs at all, because you don't want to end up setting a behaviour pattern in YOU that he follows that tells him 'yeah, T HIS dog is a problem'.

If you call out to every owner and sometimes the answer you get tells YOU that there could be an issue, that affects your behaviour, you'll be a little more tense, you'll be a bit worried, and he will pick up on that (and other stuff, like the other dog being leashed, or owners shouting back or even start to use you asking owners as his trigger for 'get ready there could be a problem here'..)

So if you take evasive action and make it fun, rewarding and NORMAL, there is no (well there might be occasionally because lifes a b.. and sometimes you will need to just turn and run away or get through a sticky situation) 'uh oh' moment to clue him in to the existance of a potential problem.

Plus, its always good if our dogs think seeing another dog when they are on the lead is a GOOD thing!

[Kaz888]

Thank you everyone, I'm very grateful for your advice!
What an awful person to carry a bullwhip, hope I dont meet anyone like that! I agree I may be the problem and Rils knows as soon as his lead goes on that there is something wrong with the impending situation! I have wondered weather to bring out the clicker and reward him everytime he greets a dog nicely and also to reward when he doesn't bark at neutered dog (even if they are far away!) I don't see much wrong with him barking at the other dog, I really don't think he will ever stop that, but if he can sit still on the lead while intact male walks past then that would be great progress! He must be a bit fearful of them because if we let him off just after passing, he would never turn round and go after the other dog, he is just glad they have gone past!

[JudyN]

Rils knows as soon as his lead goes on that there is something wrong with the impending situation!

Something I've found really useful is to put Jasper on and off lead often, and try to make on-lead time enjoyable too, by allowing him to sniff where he wants and have some say in where we go. This means that he is happy to come back to me and go on lead, and also that he isn't looking around to work out why I want to put him on lead and what fun he might miss out on

[Sarah83]

I don't see much wrong with him barking at the other dog

Except that it can trigger a dog to react in kind which will only reinforce his issues with entire males. So yeah, I would be looking to try and stop his barking, even if it means you have to go out of your way to put more distance between him and them. If he's barking then he's clearly over threshold and not really in a position to learn more appropriate reactions anyway.

I can't say I blame the guy you encountered for carrying a whip Ari. I'll do what it takes to protect my dog from out of control dogs attacking him. I think there are better ways than a whip but I know a hell of a lot of people who carry a stout stick for the same reason. And aren't above using it as a club if using it simply to block the dog doesn't work.

[Kaz888]

Barking is a dogs form of communication though and should not really be stopped. Without a bark or a growl, a dog could bite without warning which could be very dangerous indeed!
Maybe we need to walk somewhere where there are multiple ways to go. Our usual walk is a straight trail so no option but to walk past other owners and dogs.

[JudyN]

Maybe we need to walk somewhere where there are multiple ways to go. Our usual walk is a straight trail so no option but to walk past other owners and dogs.

Yes, if you can do that it would be a great help

You're absolutely right that we shouldn't stop a dog from barking or growling, at least not by punishment. But if the dog feels the need to bark or growl, he is telling you that there is something that is agitating him, so you want to change the situation so he doesn't feel that agitation in the first place.

[Kaz888]

He has a lot agitating him then Judy! Being part corgi he barks at virtually anything! He lets us know when the neighbour has visitors, if I wind the window down in my car he thinks I'm always going to speak to someone so he barks, he growls and grumbles when he doesn't want to get out his cage from the car for a walk, he barks when the smoke alarm is about to go off (about 10 seconds before it does!) etc etc! The funny thing is that when we rescued him, he was the only dog in the centre that was quiet!!
We put some of the above advice into practice today and I stopped myself asking about oncoming dog, it definitely made a difference to Rileys reaction.

[JudyN]

Yes, it does depend on the dog My dog's the opposite, so I know if he barks there's a reason for it. I guess the important thing is to be able to tell the difference between when he's barking because he's upset/scared/stressed and when he's barking just because that's what he does

[Sarah83]

Barking is a dogs form of communication though and should not really be stopped. Without a bark or a growl, a dog could bite without warning which could be very dangerous indeed!
Maybe we need to walk somewhere where there are multiple ways to go. Our usual walk is a straight trail so no option but to walk past other owners and dogs.

If it's stopped by punishment, yes, it can be dangerous. But counter conditioning and desensitizing is another matter, it aims to change the dogs mind set so it doesn't feel the need to react badly, not just stop the dog showing that it's unhappy about something. And for his own safety and well being I would be looking to change his reaction. Partly because if he's reacting that way he's way too worked up which isn't going to be good for him. Partly because there are dogs who will react very badly to it and they're not all kept under control.

I would be looking to walk somewhere where you can put a bit more space between your dog and others for the time being. You should be able to build up to him ignoring dogs passing although he may never be happy with them in his face.

[Kaz888]

Usually if it gets too bad my partner has to stand between Riley and the oncoming dog while I'm asking the owner to get their dog on the lead!! He loves his walks so much its such a shame that this aspect spoils it. I have however noticed that certain dogs if I walk along with the owner and both dogs going in same direction that Rils calms down after awhile