Hi everyone,
me and my partner recently rescued Lenny from the Bristol cats and dogs home (last week), His name is Lenny and hes a collie x staffie ( but quite alot smaller than most collies and staffies) The RSPCA think he is about 1 or 2 years old.When he was rescued he was a stray.
At home he's been really really well behaved, he's had no accidents in the house, hes really affectionate and loving, hes quiet about 95% of the time, he doesn't beg for food and he does't appear to be restless of stressed/ and hes been really good at meeting new people that come into the flat. The only problems he's had at home is that he seems a bit unnerved if one of us leaves the room but hes not following us from room to room - he just looks like hes wondering where we are going and I put that down to the fact hes not 100% settled yet and I know staffies can be very clingy ( sometimes if one of us takes a shower or pops to the shop he will go into our bed and lie completely under the duvet- he probably finds it comforting). He seems to be a quick learner and can sit and stay and is starting to learn recall ( unless there are squirrels around!!) and hes great on the lead and on walks if he meets a'' friendly dog'' ( he recently had a great play with two jack russell puppies- he was on an extension lead and they were off lead) he is very friendly back and he'll have a sniff and a play with them.
Our only concern is that he seems quite reactive- if a dog is barking, growling or a bit ''in his face'' with him he tends to bark,lunge and can be aggressive towards them, I'm sure its out of fear as he hasn't ''started'' it, and sometimes when a dog barks he'll avoid the aggressive dog with his ears down in a nervous looking manner. Other times he just seems quite tense and his ears shoot up and he freezes if we're getting close to an energetic dog. He also had a bit of fight with a slightly grumpy shitzu at my mums house (after this we are not going to expose him to dogs inside a house for a while till we've got him a bit more confident)
We really want to work on this problem , we know its going to be hard and we are fully prepared to do things in baby steps with lots of praise and patience. Does anyone have any tips on how to start calming his fears and start to get him socialised with different dogs? I don't want to force him into situations he finds stressful but its definitely something we need to work on as we live in a city where there are lots of dogs and lots of people who let there dogs off lead and I want him to be fully confident and happy as he's such a lovely dog.
Fear aggression in my new rescue dog
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Re: Fear aggression in my new rescue dog
Congratulations on your new addition 
You'll get more views if you repost this in the Dog Training Advice section of the forum.
For the moment I would work on keeping his focus on you and a solid recall. I would not be in a major hurry for him to be interacting with other dogs just yet. If he can remain calm at a distance from the other dogs I would work on that, so he sees another dog and gets a reward from you. He may need some more time before he's confident enough to be around excitied dogs.
Staffies can have short fuses and can be easily riled up so some self control exercises may help him learn to keep his cool a bit better. Do you do any clicker training with him? If so free shaping or 101 things to do with a box wold be good exercises to help build his confidence.
You'll get more views if you repost this in the Dog Training Advice section of the forum.
For the moment I would work on keeping his focus on you and a solid recall. I would not be in a major hurry for him to be interacting with other dogs just yet. If he can remain calm at a distance from the other dogs I would work on that, so he sees another dog and gets a reward from you. He may need some more time before he's confident enough to be around excitied dogs.
Staffies can have short fuses and can be easily riled up so some self control exercises may help him learn to keep his cool a bit better. Do you do any clicker training with him? If so free shaping or 101 things to do with a box wold be good exercises to help build his confidence.
Operant conditioning rocks but classical conditioning rules
Re: Fear aggression in my new rescue dog
I second that!
Let's think about this.. what would you expect him to do if a strange dog is growling at him or a bit ''in his face'' with him?
What would you do if a human was growling at you or in your face?
He probably doesn't yet have the diplomatic skills to diffuse such situations... I think best at this point is to avoid this from happening in the first place, by keeping such growly and "in your face" dogs away from him, or him away from such dogs,. and keep his interactions to known, chill, friendly, and well behaved dogs.
Let's think about this.. what would you expect him to do if a strange dog is growling at him or a bit ''in his face'' with him?
What would you do if a human was growling at you or in your face?
He probably doesn't yet have the diplomatic skills to diffuse such situations... I think best at this point is to avoid this from happening in the first place, by keeping such growly and "in your face" dogs away from him, or him away from such dogs,. and keep his interactions to known, chill, friendly, and well behaved dogs.