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have aqquired a rescue dog after much thought i might add she is a collie mix, extremely intelligent and generally well behaved, we have mastered "come" "sit" "lay down" "stay" on the come command she will come to me no matter where she is on a field if i am hidden she will look for me just to show what standard we are at with her commands, all of this was re-inforced on reward of a stroke,food or play.
the problem i have is with other dogs no matter what i say or have in my hands she gets very boisterous, and on one occasion another dog owner got just as aggresive with me because she was being aggresive with his dog.
on this occasion she jumped off a 4 ft tall wall and thro a wooded area to get to this dog!
please advice on how to handle this as walking the dog has become much less a pleasure and more a worry, i still let her off the lead but have lost all confidence she will come back if another dog is around.
That's pretty alarming. I did a lot of research into behaviour guides and remembered Dogs Trust had a behavioural problem guide. This is what it said:
If your dog is already showing aggressive behaviour towards humans or dogs, then a professional behaviourist will use various techniques depending on the type and cause of the aggression involved, to
solve or improve the problem. In the meantime we would recommend that you consider using a muzzle on your dog in situations where he
is likely to be aggressive - especially in public because of the legal implications involved. This is to protect your dog from getting into trouble, as much as to protect other dogs or people from being bitten. Please ask
your vet or a behaviourist to show you how to safely introduce your dog to wearing a muzzle. It would also be very advisable to obtain third party insurance against your dog causing an injury.
I don't know if Victoria can recommend any techniques in particular without actually seeing the problem occur (but I might be wrong). Also, depending on where you live some schools (at least, the one I went to with our dog) hold classes to help dog-to-dog aggression. If you live in either the US or the UK, there are links to Pet Trainer associations on Victoria's link page.
Also, the past experiences might have played a part in it. Phone the rescue centre and see if they know anything about it or have deduced anything about your dog's past.
thanks for that i did contact a behaviour therapist for advice, we live in the uk by the way,
never thought of a muzzle be peace of mind at least.
think the thing is she wants to play but because i have no history of her neither did the home which wasnt very helpful full stop, i dont know if she been socialized in the past or not.
i have 2 other dogs and she is playful sometimes a bit rough but i made a loud noise twice when i caught it completly distracted her and hasnt done it since, but is much easier to control in an enclosed enviroment and where she knows the people and animals, very different on a field.
getting there been working on "come" everywhere no matter what we doing walk, round the house, anytime she was investigating something or just resting or in the middle of play and rewarded her with chicken gradually increased each distraction such as getting kids to knock on the door and getting a mate to walk past the gate with a dog, everytime she showed intrest i would use the "come "command and reward her.
today for a test i took her the local park which i had been avoiding tokk a ball and chicken and let her off the lead within 20 seconds she met a dog and started getting really playfull, isued the "come" command no hesitation straight over to me much to the other dogs bewilderment, i let her go again everytime she got a bit to playful i called her over again, after 10 minutes she was playing really calm.
dunno if what i did was the correct method but is working at the moment
been working on "come" everywhere no matter what we doing walk, round the house, anytime she was investigating something or just resting or in the middle of play and rewarded her with chicken gradually increased each distraction such as getting kids to knock on the door and getting a mate to walk past the gate with a dog, everytime she showed intrest i would use the "come "command and reward her.