I need some help , meeting other dogs :s

[loza123]

Oooo yes please Mattie:)

A quick update,
I took him out last night , well it was about hakf 2 and we were coming off the field he was on his 10 ft lead and we saw a dog at the other side of the field. Bob looked around a few times watching it but i distracted him a little just telling him to 'come on bob and lets go' in a high pitch voice And there was no running after it . He happily followed me.

Today i again took him out about 1 and we had gone around the field when i saw a woman coming towards us, i asked her if she had a dog and she said she had so i put bob on his halti, the dog looked like a small GSD cross and it was face to face that they saw each other, both dogs were staring at each other and wouldn't take there eyes of each other while the woman talked to me. I noticed bobs hackles were raised fromhis head to his shoulders as one point he lied down while the dog was still stareing at him and then bob pulled and started to bark about 5 times as the dog was heading off bob still pulled and barked before quickly settleing back down and chasing his ball. We were about to head of another field to go home when another dog a JR came this dog doesn't really like other dogs anyway, it did't like my other dog and bob and this JR doesn't like each other. Again but was pulled and a bit of lundging along with barking and his hackles were up from his head to his shoulders. Both dogs were male, stareing at bob and he was stareing back and if it matters it was both face toface.

His fine if there no other dogs but its just when he sees dogs.Help?

[Nettle]

You were too close to the other dogs.

If you are going to chat to someone, your dog's safety is still your first priority. So get him behind you on a short lead and back away from the other dog, using your body to break the line of sight between them so thye are not eyeballing each other. You have to commit to this absolutely, but it soon becomes second nature, and you find you can carry on a nice conversation while protecting your dog. Every time they eyeball, move between them again.

If another dog is lungeing at yours, again you are too close so move away with your dog at the side furthest from the other dog. Don't pull him away because that leaves him out in front and exposed. Push him back with your leg while you face down the other dog. Always take yourself and your dog away from the threatening dog but do not run, just step purposefully away.

[loza123]

Yeh i was thinking of taking him off in another direction for a second to break it but i didn't want to come across as being rude type thing the woman came to me now me to her .

I have been using the clicker with bob and he seems to be picking it up well, i can leav some hame on his paw and he goes to smell it though when i say leave it he turns his head i click etc I have been doing it with toys throwing them and telling him to leave it then click and treat as he liked to chase crows and other birds and when i mean chase even when they are flying off he will still chase them , silly dog. I have also been teaching him drop and am getting him to wait at the door as its opened and shut as he like to go charging in when we have guest etc.

Another thing is when he hears something, a car door shutting,dogs barking, or seeing people walk pass the house he will sometimes bark and go straight to the front door all alert and barkand bark and bark a gooed 6-7 times. I know his protecting his terrtory but theres a limit! Another thing is when the post comes he barks jumps up at the door , bit the post and bark at the post man until his gone. I was thinking of teaching him the command quiet. So iwas thinking of when he is barking wait until his quiet tell him quiet and treat him. But theres still the jumping up at the door Any help

And when guests do come if its someone he does not know he has to bark for about 30 seconds before .

Any ideas? Would be brillant!

[loza123]

Thanks mattie:) am going to take the advice

Update from today -bad walk!
Bob was on his long lead as we saw no other dogs on the first field so made our way through a passage way , the council has put a great big mental container . Well its abouts 8ft high by 12 ft in length and about 2-3 meters wide. Any how i thought i would just practice the clicker training a little bit so he will come back to be quicker when i let him off. He was busy sniffing, so i tried to get his attention again. A little terrier i met before, Amber popped out from behind this container and i saw her but for some reason i kinda froze next thing i know bobs running towards her and i have fallen and landed of my thigh am swearing my head off while being dragged along , i just see my left arm infront of me as the lead has a loop in it which was around my wrist our he stopped pulling. I was in shock though i called him back to me and he came i was unable to get off the ground for about 5 mins while bob started to bark and pull at amber it was then that i saw amber had a tennis ball and that could of being why. When i finally got up, Bob was barking more wagging his tail for most of it his hackles raised a little yet he was lying down then barking, sitting when i told him to and then actually playing bow. Still barking, i think his really frustrated bless him i decided not to take him on that field as there was a red setter coming around so i headed off in the other direction , went another way to the second field though there was a JR which i felt i couldn't let him run of his 10ft lead incase the same thing happened so i took him back on the other field my thigh and whole right leg hurting. Put him on his 10ft lead and he liked smelling etc again i decided to do a bit of clicker training but as soon as i started i saw a golden lab by itself bob hadn't seen it yet so i moved him on later we saw a chocolate lab and he looked but did not seem to mind though we were far away. So am currently at home feeling sorry for myself as i wanted to let him have a good run and i couldn't plus my legs really aching

[jacksdad]

if you are going to go some place where you run a high risk of other dogs being there, you need to use shorter leashes for now. 6 foot at most. Bob is too reactive/interested in other dogs right now to be on a longer lead if other dogs are around.

I went months before I would put jack on anything other then a 6foot leash. now, he is calmer and less likely to go into reactive mode when other dogs are around, so in some places I will put him on 15 foot lead and occasionally I break out a 30 foot leash. But when your dog is still likely to go reactive then you need to use a shorter leash for his and your safety.

If you want to give him more freedom, either running off leash or with long leashes you will need to find places your odds of running into dog are slim to none. This may mean driving, but it will be worth it to give your dog both a break and some more freedom. you will enjoy it too.

[loza123]

Thanks for the advice, there arent alot of places were i can let him off without there being a high risk of seeing another dog. So i will use a shorter lead. Also i feel he does wanna play but like alot of people have told me i need to get him calm, yet i dont really know how i can go about calming bob down when he sees another dog.

[jacksdad]

Finding a place that is 100% dog free 100% of the time is near impossible. BUT if you look around and are willing to drive, I bet you could find places where you could go and only say run into 1 or 2 dogs and hopeful there is enough room that they are in the distance by default. I have yet to find a place I can take Jack were I know there will never be another dog, but I have found a couple places I can go and only risk running into a a couple dogs and they will be off in the distance. Give it shot, it will be well worth the effort.

It's very possible that sometimes Bob THINKS he wants to play. The problem is the closer you get to the other dog, it's also equally possible Bob will be doing a "gulp" and change his mind and then the "fun" begins. Jack did and does this. which is why I work to just not have meet and greets with strange dogs. I really want Jack to default to a look not "touch" attitude a high percentage of the time.

Once Bob goes into his "reactive" mode, not much you can do in that instance to calm him down except as genitally and quickly as possible get him away from and out of line of sight of the other dog.

For time he isn't reactive you can as already mention try and find places with no to low chance of meeting a dog. When that is not possible, keeping bob at a distance he can be calm around other dogs. Then when he notices other dogs and is calm, reward him. he looks at a dog, stays calm, call his name, when he looks at you reward with a treat. with Jack I don't even do that sometimes, I loaded the word yes just like you do a clicker. when he is looking at a dog, if I catch him quick enough I can say "yes", he breaks his focus off the other dog and to me for a treat. I am also rebuilding the watch me option (I have to rebuild because I messed up months ago before I had a better understanding how to use it). Same idea. ask him to watch you while you pass or the other dog passes and you feed him treats for looking at you and staying calm.

because even success and calm can be stressful, you need to find ways/places to exercise bob 2 or 3 times a week where he won't have to deal with dogs coming close. ideally if possible no dogs at all, but that can be near impossible.

the whole "try and find places with no dogs" and "avoiding dogs" is short term. as bob builds new habits and associations regarding strange dogs you can relax these things a lot. but it takes a little time to get to this point.

[emmabeth]

Can you go out earlier in the morning... its light at like 5am now if not before, (not sure if thats too early for you to go out on your own though!)... thats usually a good way to find dog free places.

If you havent actually done much clicker training outdoors though I woudl stick with your garden and then maybe the pavement in front of your house if its fairly quiet there, as he will currently associate outside with walkies and sniffing things and all sorts of exciting stuff so you might find its a bit of a battle to have him listen when hes right at the field... try it nearer home first and work your way up.

The harness mattie suggested is good and safe for letting Bob run adn trail a long line, it wont make any difference to whether you can hold him if he lunges or takes off, because that isnt waht it is for. If you use a halti to help walk him, when you get to the field just pop the leash onto his harness and take the halti off, and then swap back again for your walk home.

I really don't want you to get into trouble with your Mum, but if she isnt going to listen, and is going to recall Bob by yelling at him and then hitting him... teach him a new recall word (ideally.... get yourself a gundog whistle if you can shop online, or pets at home might have them, the beauty of the gundog whistle is, the pitch is marked on it so you can always replace it with an identical one should you lose it or need another the same... ) - teach him this and NEVER let Mum use that whistle. So that he comes to that whistle and NEVER ever gets hit for coming back to you.

Then if your Mum wants to ruin the recall word by yelling and hitting him... just walk away from her (pretend you dropped something) and take no part in it, that way Bob should not lose his trust in you, even if he does lose his trust in your Mum (ideally though I would avoid her walking him offlead if at all possible, but I know... sometimes you just cant tell your Mum waht to do!)

[Mattie]

I am still trying to get in touch with Jess, she is a member on here, but she must be on holiday because she isn't on any of the boards either, not even TDL. She has just taken on a new dog, GSD to bring up as a teaching dog with Angela Stockdale's help.

[loza123]

Thanks Emma and Mattie.

As far as the whistle goes i remember victoria used a whistle for Dally the dalmatian. And i bought a plastic one and thought i would try it with Bob he did response but slowly type thing every time he heard it and came i gave him a treat . But stupid me made the mistake of taking him out when they were no dogs on the field ( about 9pm) but there were rabbits and if its a contest between me and rabbits then searching for rabbits is much more fun then coming back to me So i have to work on that, i know alot of dogs like this but bob will come back to me whistleing and getting his attention by calling his name and running in the other direction.

My mum does not trust him really she isn't confident enough to let him off his lead and when me and her take Bob out. She does call him alot like ' Bob, bob, bob, Bob drop ( he normally has a tennis ball in his mouth) and he doesn't normally listen to her really and I do get frustrated with my mum as ..Well it would be nice to just let him be a dog you know not calling him back all the time as it will get to the point were he wont listen to his name. Though with me am quite happy to play will him for a bit but also allow him to sniff and i will use his ball as a reward . Eg while he is sniffing etc if he comes back to me , sits waits etc he gets its then sometimes i start to run and he comes chargeing after me which is a nice feeling.

He does respone well to the clicker actually I have been getting him to wait while the dog opens, am trying to get him to leave the post by making him wait, but thats hard as i dont no when the post man comes lol. Though too things that are really annoying me is Bob has a squeaky newspaper and he loves it yet if Bob and my brother,Scott are playing Scott with tell him to drop it even though there playing tug of war and i do say to him " He wont drop it as your playing with him" But i just get told to " Shut up Laur!" which is always nice. The other thing is its kinda seen as mine thing to train bob. Okay i did it will Josh but all i was really doing was practising come, sit, stay ,paw etc. Bob is a completely different kettle of fish and my parents need to help me aswell its not all down to me.

I told a dog trainer about Bob ( she also has a horse were i keep mine thats how i know her) and she said that i need to distract him i said he likes toys better and she said get something like liver as that will bring out the lab in Bob . I told my mum and asked if we should get some for bob I got ' Ohh no, not liver.' So were sticking with hot dogs or ham at the moment

Bob does have a gencon which i arent keen on using it as bob doesn't like it, trying to get it off quite alot my parents will still use it as my mum says she can only control him in that and i can control him in a halti , i did find he response better to a halti and has the odd moments of wanting to get it off his snout. But what i normally do is have 2 leads if Bob pulls , gently pull on his normal collar and if he still does the gently on his halti. Also , 5am is very early for me Emma:) But i might try it

[jjphoenix]

Hi i AM HERE

Bear with me, my mum has come up to Hull to visit me but I will get back online later tonight or tommorrow, I will send you a pm with my email details, as your in hull it would be great to meet up with our dogs as I have a few teaching dogs at my disposal here, then hopefully we can set your mind at rest and also help with the recall. The harnesses Mattie has suggested are wonderful, I use them also with my dogs. Everything mattie has said sounds spot on, he can come out on some lovely country walks with ours and learn some manners and polite behaviour, also I can have a look at the herding and we can figure out a workable solution together