Any Advice? - Page 1

Hi all,
 I'm helping this lady with her dog, its a Carolina dog. He's great at his Obedience, and wonderful off lease with everybody, human and canine. The problem we're having is that when he's on leash, he acts like he wants to attack every other dog. Do you have any advice on what to do about this? I've never dealt with this before. From what I've seen, i think him being on the leash around other dogs makes him nervous and anxious. Any ideas on how to possibly fix this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! :)

Nobody has any input? :(

IF the dog is stable, it needs to be obedience trained and made to understand what brings rewards and what behaviors bring hard corrections.

If the dog is not so stable and feels its fight or flight response is limited by the leash, it needs to not be exposed to other dogs on purpose and more tight obedience training  following the protocol mentioned above.

As far as the dog being "great at his obedience", I will say this, great obedience dogs "THINK" before they act because they have been properly trained to do it this way. My dog is VERY animal aggressive, always has been, but, he has learned that acting stupid around other animals has concequences he does not want to deal with so he controls himself and gets rewarded for it.

The leash is not the exact problem. That the dog becomes more aggressive on the leash, than without one, ususally stems from an insecurity that the dog is not sure the holder on the other end, is in control of the situation. In this case, the situation is an approaching, stranger dog, for whatever that reason may be.

It then becomes a vicious circle, the leash holder tenses up, this is perceived by the dog, who is triggered to defend. 

Yes, you need obedience and correction. How well do you both read this dog? Without the proper timing to prevent a lunge or other aggressive act, if the corrections are not done properly, things can get worse. 

A hands on trainer who can observe the dog and its owner in person might be best for you.

Like I've stated, his obedience is A++, on and off leash and from a pretty good distance away from his owner, he focuses on her, remains calm and responds instantly to the cues. Whenever he starts to tense up, she relaxes herself and the tension on the leash, and has tried redirecting his attention and all that, she's stating it isn't working. That was the first thing I looked for and suggested as I had a dog once that would tense up and all, but never truly acted aggressive, just tensed up and her fur stood up until I realized it was my fault for holding the leash tightly and getting nervous myself. Correction may be the key here and unfortunatly, I work as the trainer at Petsmart(ugh) and I get in trouble if I even suggest corrections.. I agree that a trainer with more experience and the freedom to use corrections may be is what is needed, so I will be sending her to my mentor if I don't see a change this saturday. :)  Thank you guys!

I have a dog aggressive rescue. If she even so much LOOKS at another dog when she's on leash, she gets corrected. That's the ONLY way to fix it.

Install a 'watch me' command. Do this at home where there are no distractions. When the dog looks at the handler, immediately reward it with a treat or whatever you and the dog prefer to use for a reward.

Gradually add distractions. It is VERY important to catch the dog the SECOND its attention starts to go to the distraction. Many people are not observant enough to catch this, then they are surprised when the dog lunges. They SHOULD have seen that coming, at least 5 seconds before it actually did.

Try to get the dog to refocus with the 'watch' command. If that fails, do a leash correction and repeat the command. If that fails, find some other way of getting the dog to refocus: turn and go the other way, have the dog sit in front of you so it can no longer see the other dog, etc.

I was working my dog in a class with a very reactive lab. At first, when the lab barked and lunged at her, she would react, too. I kept correcting her, and insisting she focus on me.

By the time we'd been in the class 15 minutes, the closer we got to the other dog, the more she focused on me!!  She was wearing a muzzle, so I could not reward her with food, just with verbal praise.

We finished the class with the 2 dogs in a down-stay, about 12 feet apart.

That's great! Thanks :) I did not train her with the obediance, she did all that herself with the dog, but I am fairly sure she doesn't have a watch me cue. I didn't even think to pay attention to that, its a habit for me to teach it to the students and my own dogs, but it didn't even occur to me to see if she had one. I feel kinda stupid now lol, but I do believe in correcting dogs and if that's what this calls for, I am going to send her to my mentor since i'm not allowed to teach corrections at petsmart. (I am starting to regret getting hired as their trainer now. I can't even help some people becuase of the rules..)

The Carolina dog is a fairly primative breed. So i think that like a lot of parahias they have a much lower thresh hold for fight or flight. This may be a case for a E-collar because then the owner is not "Holding the leash", but can still correct the dog from afar. (I have 0 personal experience in this training method but i know a lot of my local training group use them with much success)

Also this dog may need a lot of "Proofing" with other dogs at a comfortable distance and slowly work up to having them closer. We are currently working with a Pharaho Hound at my club that has some silimar issues. And no E-collar yet. But he is making progress.

Tel her to keep up the good work and train the watch me cue.

Best of luck to her.

Fry

Thank you all :) 

How can you train without corrections?

If you cannot train without an e-collar you have missed something very basic about training in general.

Do not use a device as a substitute for knowledge, you will only make the situation worst.

Socializing is needed and corrections are required to do so, the dog can only learn what you teach it and focus is the key to all training.

If the dog is being distracted then someone did not do the proper ground work in the beginning as happens all too often.

I suggest going back to basics and teach the dog to focus and ignore distractions.

This can be done with a longe line or a leash if you know how and take the time to get it right.

If the dog cannot focus and is being distracted then it is not going to improve until this is corrected.