Crazy dog on lead

[JillianG]

Hi
This my first post on this forum so I hope I do it right!
Ziggy is a 2 year old Boxer-Labrador cross male. He is a high energy, spirited dog who is very quick to pick up training goals but is also stubborn & wilful at times! In fact he is very much the teenager !! I am a firm believer in positive training & we have worked on many issues using this ethos. We have recently introduced clicker training which he has taken to very easily. He gets exercised every day ( at dog minder 3 days per week & 2 to 3 walks a day when I and/or my husband are at home). I also try to introduce mental stimulation activities for him as well. He is fed twice daily with good quality wet food & dry food combination. He is affectionate & friendly to people & dogs although can be a bit exuberant!! We focus a lot on not jumping up, etc.
Recently we have been focusing on his impulse control & have got him to the stage where he will sit & wait to go through open doors, outside, etc. We also bring him to obedience classes with a trainer who trains with positive methods.
So, so far so good!! But, there are two outstanding issues that we are finding difficult to resolve:-
1. On the lead, on walks, he can be very reactive to other dogs- lunging, barking, gets over excited. He's not being aggressive. I think he wants to play but goes over the top!! We use positive reinforcement to counter this with varying success!! In group training classes, he does the same thing! We could do individual classes with the trainer but we feel he needs to learn how to be on the lead around other dogs in a controlled environment.
2. On on-lead walks, especially with me he goes into "crazy mode"- swinging out of the lead, jumping up & trying to bite at my clothes, etc. I try varying methods to tackle this- standing still & ignoring him (arms folded, turning away from him, no talking) until he settles. If that doesn't work I do some treat & clicker training ( sit, down, heel work) to get him back into calmer mode &, then rewarding good behaviour by giving him a toy he can carry in his mouth ( which he loves to do). This also redirects his behaviour away from crazy dog mode. This combination was working well for me & him up until recently. But it seems like he's figured out what I'm up to & has decided to up the ante!! He will continue to "misbehave" as I've described no matter what I do! It can be soul destroying at times. He is a very strong dog physically & by the time I get home I can be exhausted!! These episodes always happen on the way home from a walk so I do try to preempt them but with less & less success!!
Would love to hear from anyone who has experienced this situation & any advice, etc would be gratefully received!!!!
Thanks in advance, Jillian

[JudyN]

I'm not an expert, but I did have the jumping-up & biting issue with my dog. He's also a big lad and I know just how dispiriting it is to have to face this every single walk. Mine used to grab my arms and I had to wear a thick demin jacket all summer both to protect my arms and hide the atrocious bruises!

What helped me:

1) More frequent, shorter walks, as he was more likely to do this if he was getting a little tired towards the end of the walk.
2) Avoiding places that were triggers - for him, this was open fields or wide paths, so we kept to narrow paths through the woods and hugged the edges of fields.
3) Trying to be close to trees or a fence I could wrap his lead round if he did kick off. I could then stand a couple of feet away and he couldn't jump up or bite, and I could wait till he'd calmed down.
4) Turning away, folding my arms and ignoring him. This is what seemed to work once I was really consistent - though sometimes once he'd calmed down we'd walk a couple of steps and he'd start up again. The last 100 yards or so of the walk could take a loooooong time

My dog did go through phases of getting better and worse again - he particularly got worse if he'd been under any stress - so hopefully if you can be really consistent your lad will calm down as he matures. Though given his mix, he's likely always to be bouncy!

As for reacting to other dogs - I think the best alternative could be to try to avoid other dogs for now, and make being with you and focusing on you on walks as interesting as possible. I'm not sure it's a good idea to be in a class with other dogs to 'teach' him how to be calm with them if he finds it impossible to do that - each time he gets overexcited, it just reinforces the behaviour. My dog used to do well for the first half of the class, then turn into a kangaroo for the second half - I wish now we'd just left halfway through because there was no point staying once he was oerwhelmed.

[Erica]

As for reacting to other dogs - I think the best alternative could be to try to avoid other dogs for now, and make being with you and focusing on you on walks as interesting as possible. I'm not sure it's a good idea to be in a class with other dogs to 'teach' him how to be calm with them if he finds it impossible to do that - each time he gets overexcited, it just reinforces the behaviour. My dog used to do well for the first half of the class, then turn into a kangaroo for the second half - I wish now we'd just left halfway through because there was no point staying once he was oerwhelmed.

Additionally, if it's the same dogs every class, your dog may just adapt to those dogs in that situation. If you want to learn the skills taught in the class, talk to the instructor and see what accommodations are made for reactive dogs. Some classes can make visual barriers so you can see what's happening but the dog isn't constantly fixated on staring at the other dogs. Some can offer a distance large enough that your dog may feel safer. However, if your goal is to get your dog to be calm on walks around other dogs, you'll be much better off working on his behavior on walks. We get many people who come to class and learn a lot, and their dog's behavior improves drastically in the classroom -- but there's not much of a change on walks. (The exception is extremely fearful puppies who still have an open socialization window. With careful, supervised interaction with the right dogs, they can make great improvements in class and outside of it. Most of the time, though, you do just have to work on walks to get improvements on walks!)

Agreed with Judy. For the next while, avoid dogs as much as possible. You'll probably notice (as life happens and dogs appear from everywhere when you try to avoid them!) at what distance he goes from "da dee da, nice lovely walk, doo dee doo" to "Oh, hmm, there's a dog. Must watch carefully." and then to "HEY! YOU! HELLO THERE OTHER DOG!" Your job will be to keep him in the first distance as much as possible. After a week or so of that, you can start going to distance two -- where he's aware of the other dog but can still think other thoughts. When you're at that distance, work on calm behaviors like sit, watch me, etc. I would recommend that he never plays with another dog on leash, or even greets them on leash. Dogs don't handle "sometimes" well, and if he gets to "sometimes" meet other dogs, he'll try to greet them ALL the time and get very frustrated when he can't. Now, if you know some dogs he likes to play with, arrange playdates with them by all means! Get him together for fun times with other dogs -- but not when you're walking.

[JillianG]

Hello ladies
Thank you for all your advice! What you say about working on his behaviour on his walks makes sense. I do try to avoid other dogs on walks & I agree that greeting them is a no-no at the moment. He is a different dog off lead & loves to play with dogs!! I suppose his on lead behaviour is the lesser of my problems really as I'm able, within reason, to keep him at the distance that reduces his reactiveness to other dogs. As for his misbehaving with me, I'll just have to persevere with the ignoring, etc!! But, I can relate to the bruises!!