It’s not really aggression, (although I’ve noticed that if the dog behind the fence is escalatin ghte agressiveness my dog, who is beyond sweet, seems to have more aggression in his tone) it’s just hysteria. He LOVES other dogs. We can be having a perfect walk, perfect control, he’s paying attention to me, la la la… a dog behind a fence barks and he’s nuts. The nuttier the dog, the nuttier he gets. I do what my trainer taught, turn the and walk the other way, but my dog is incredibly powerful for his size and it’s not really that simple, it’s a fight. So I’ve taken to grabbing him by the face and getting right in his face, which helps a little bit. But really, not all that much.
I’m now using a type of lead that seems to work as long as the other dog isn’t TOO intense or interesting, it goes under his legs through his “armpits” so to speak, and pulls there. He responds better to that than anything around his neck or his chest, he’ll strangle himself no problem.
I’ve also been trying to Cesarize him, I watch and correct the first sign of tension or excitement…but it makes no difference.
In all other ways he’s lovely and extremely aware and respectful of my authority. I love to show off the way he rushes to his bowl at feeding time and stands there waiting for me to say ok before he eats. He won’t go out the front door standing open, he won’t cross the back gate standing open, he will stay in his kennel for hours without making the tiniest noise… he’s a very good dog that’s very focused on me. But this is a toughie.
Yeah I think Cesar would tell you that you’re getting yourself too riled up. You’re just waiting for him to get excited so you can correct him. So you’re tense and the dog is tense and everything just falls apart.
Have you tried practicing just walking by the fenced-in dogs with no correction? Also with no tenseness and no fear on your part?
I’ve got an 80-lb dog and every day we walk past a fenced-in yard with two very excited dogs inside, and on our other side is a busy street (no sidewalks - yay!) It’s very important that on this part of our walk I am carrying on in a very determined manner that conveys to the dog “ok we are walking briskly down this path and ignoring those two dogs.” It is amazing how well this simple technique works.
Since Dolly is already trained really well, I don’t have to worry about stopping to correct her. I honestly think that - even if you don’t know it - you are tense as hell in these situations and that is why it’s not working out for you. The difference between us is that you are waiting to correct and I am steadfastly marching on to the other side.
This is good advice. Make it as nonchalant, matter of fact, or even boring as you can while walking past. No tension.
Alternatively, you can stop and sit there a while and make it boring that way. I walk my three big dogs (one 90 lb and two 65 lb) all at once, so we need a fair amount of discipline in our little pack. The one thing that worked for me when training them to go past a barking dog behind a fence was to stop and make them all sit there while the other dog barked its head off. After sitting for a while, they would get bored. The dog behind the fence would also get bored and stop barking. And pretty soon we could continue on our way without fuss. Repeat every day for about a week, and you’ve got it down. Even if the dog behind the fence would start barking again, my dogs would realize that nothing interesting whatsoever was going to happen, and they would keep going.*
The boring technique also worked for me to get them all to heel and not pull while walking. Take a few steps. Anybody gets excited or pulls, you stop. And wait. Take a few more steps. Anybody pulls ahead, you stop and wait. Take several more steps. Stop again, if necessary. Repeat ad nauseum. They pretty quickly figured out that pulling or walking ahead got them nowhere. Works great! Nowadays, I only have a problem if they have too much pent up energy and want to pull ahead. But I can always nip it in the bud with a few repetitions of the you-pull-I-stop routine.
Oh, yeah. And don’t undervalue the Cesar routine of running them ragged until they don’t have the energy to act out. Then walk past the fence with the barking dog without a fuss. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
*Mind you, my dogs’ issue is fear aggression, so this may not work for other personalities, YMMV, I am not a trainer, etc., etc., and other disclaimers.
So far, all very good advice and observations. I know all about being confident and projecting the right energy, and I also know how damn difficult it is when he’s so nuts.
I like the idea of just standing there and letting him get it out of his system. But again, he’s very strong…freakishly so for his size, which is about 40 pounds. I’m six times heavier than he is and he could pull me to the ground without breaking a sweat, which is why it’s so hard for me to project genuine confidence- I’m concerned I will go splat if i don’t have a certain level of readiness to react.
Which also speaks to the near futility of wearing him out… a good part of the reason, outside of genes, that he’s so strong is because he’s crazy fit. What we do instead of walking is play WEASEL! And he’s got the moves of a cat in terms of speed, strength, reflexes and his ability to jump. I have not yet managed to wear him out, and frankly I’m afraid to try. I think he’d keep going until his heart gave out. And he’s only a little over two years old so he’s quite the handful when he decides to be!
And finally, the reason I took him walking yesterday in particular is because he appears to have pulled a muscle or something recently and so hasn’t had his daily weasel for about 5 days or so while I let him heal. He was going batshit, so I figured a nice walk would help bleed off some energy but not strain his leg. HA.
I have to say i really miss my Mags…my beautiful amazing Golden retriever that died last fall. She was so completely immune to other dogs you would almost believe she was actually deaf. Dogs would go insane behind fences and she wouldn’t so much as perk her ears up, seriously. And I have no idea what amount of that was a result of training vs. nature, since I got her when she was 3 years old and already flawless in every respect. Spoiled me, but also gave me a chance to learn how to train a dog, since I put MYSELF through beginner to advanced doggie school with her, just to teach me. It worked, too. Like I say, I’ve got some skills.
But Preston is a challenge, for sure. I had hoped that Maggie could help train him, and she did, but not so much in this area.
Yikes. I would never use a weasel. Talk about reinforcing the prey instinct! After countless hours training the dogs to ignore the squirrels, birds, bunnies, and whatnot that would be the last toy I would buy. My dogs would go nuts.
For what it’s worth, Cesar seems to think there is a big difference between the exercise dogs get when going on a good run or walk, versus the exercise they get chasing balls and stuff. It’s about a different mental state. I do both kinds.
As far as the fence training, we will stop and sit when the dogs first notice each other. This could be one house away, across the street, whatever. You stop the excitement before you get close enough that the dog loses all sense, and you have to physically haul them around. I have, what?, 210 lb of dog and tangly leashes held by 150 lb of tall skinny woman with no upper body strength. It can’t be about strength. It has to be about reading the dog’s body language and intervening before the dog goes nuts. If that means stopping half a block away, so be it. Then gradually work your way closer. That’s the only suggestion I have!
Does it clip to the leash in front (on his chest) or in back? The ones that clip in front, like Gentle Leader-type, will actually yank the dog’s legs out from under him if he pulls too much. The other tactic I have seen is to wind the leash in a loop around the dog’s rear half. It seems to control pulling to a certain extent.
Also, have you practiced a command like “Look” to get your dog to look at you? Doing those type of commands all the time, not just under stressful situations, is the key to successfully teaching the dog to focus on you, not the other dog.
Well, I had a good talk with my trainer (who is so great, once you take a class with her, you can call her for the rest of your dog’s life!) who gave me a very interesting recommendation, which I’ve started as of today.
I’m going to feed Preston outside on the walk. I may start just in front of the house and work my way up to walking by barking dogs, but here’s the process and theory (which is in line with my trainer’s methods).
The idea is to always be more interesting than whatever has your dog’s attention. So you use whatever the dog finds most interesting: food, favorite toy… whatever is a very high reward item. And they only get it when they are in front of the thing you don’t want them to react to. So the dog has to choose: eat or go nuts? Because the only time the food option is going to be available is when I’m in front of this crazy ass dog that is making me want to go crazy. So I think I’ll eat instead. What does she call it? Something like “Bar’s open/Bar’s closed” - Crazy dog barking behind fence: bar’s open. Past the crazy dog barking behind fence: bar’s closed.
He comes to associate crazy barking dogs with something really great: getting fed. So instead of going nuts he’ll turn to me with a “Where’s dinner?” attitude.