holly has so far encountered a couple of dogs on a walk she generally approaches the owner not the dog however on most occasions she sniffs and walks away on one occasion a huge retiever male sniffed and they trotted along happilly a small border terrier approached her she was on the lead they sniffed holly stood stiff the wee terrier snapped and fluff flew the terrier was not on a lead and was female on another occasion 2 poodles came bounding out the bushes up in her face and she stood stiff growled and i pulled her away my mum has a retriever now when we first got holly my mums dog...wait for it MOLLY !! ( WE GOT HOLLY FIRST BY THE WAY) was a wee beggar and was a very dominant dog pinning holly down as pups when we took her round for the first time after getting her back she growled and kept walking away from molly who even though is 2 weeks younger than holly is like a giant excited puppy ALWAYS she wanted to play holly didnt yada yada growl snap and ignore....so dylan took her round another time when i wasnt there she had a growl and they settled fine shes been back round a few times now and all was ok so tonight i took her round molly did the usual bounding about holly kept walking away i then wanted the toy out hollys mouth and asked holly to lie down at the samw rime molly lied down face to face and boom growl snap poor molly ran away there was another occasion when she was swimming and very close proximity playing with another dog for an hour when we left the water the other dog came bounding out the grass and holly went mental again she was on the lead this is clearly to me a face thing each time shes had a power snap the dog has been in her face what do i do about this she is super off the lead weve had her at the park where theres been in excess of 10 dogs throughout and shes not bothered about them ive started walking her on the lead when i see a dog approach and explaining myself when people stop to let their dogs sniff and not knowing what to say please someone help me i am worried she will always be like this and it makes walking her scary
Hello there - I'm sure this is distressing for you, and also for Holly. Really, you could do with professional advice on this, but I do know that is easier said than done. But if you do know a good trainer, or a good behaviourist, then it would be wise to get some help if you can. It sounds like Holly is reactive to other dogs on lead. It well may be the case that the other dogs are also misbehaving, but that doesn't take away from the fact that Holly is reactive to a fair few dogs that she'll meet day in day out. The thing to try to do, as a first step, is not to put her in a position where she feels threatened. You don't want her to snap and growl, because this means she is scared and you also do not want her to rehearse that behaviour. You can train a few things that will allow you to avoid trouble - like a really fast U turn away from other dogs, and a 'quick' cue where Holly will jump towards you, away from another dog (even if she has already gone stiff etc).
when she growled at mums dog she was off the lead and running around Mollys garden space when shes off the lead she is always interested in the person not the dog tail wagging and happy i then get over there and encourage her to walk on which she does no problem with most of the dogs we have seen theres never been an issue she just trots away she doesnt mind the wee sniff but if they get too up in her face she doesnt like it and by that point weve walked on no problem but the 3x that she has growled and fluff flew she was on the lead which i understand from google that its not their normal habitat to be on a lead so when confronted feel threatened hence the snarling etc its just odd because almost always theres never been an issue only woth these 3 dogs and i think tonight with mums dog was a jealousy issue and the fact that molly was right in her face because they have been fine the last few times
The thing is, that you can say 'the other dog was right in her face' but this is a normal thing to happen - dogs get into my dog's face every day. The world is full of dogs that don't know any better than to dash into another dog's space. Indeed, most young Labradors don't know better (the most numerous dog in the UK and in most other places) and they are the absolute worst for it, mostly. My dog doesn't like dogs in his face either, so I manage situations as best I can so this doesn't happen, and I've trained him to leave quickly if it does - I do think it's important to do this, and not excuse growling and reactivity. It only gets worse if you don't deal with it.
im not excusing it in the slightest and i agree it is normal dog behaviour to be up in faces its just very odd shes fine with 1 but not another when u talk about a quick cue what do you mean ?
i have noticed if i talk to her and touch her when we are stopped talking to another dog owner she is relatively more relaxed the time with the poodles she was bearing teeth and when intouched her side she stopped and calmed quite quickly is this what u mean by a quick cue ?
A lot of people use the work 'QUICK!' or 'FAST' said in a particular tone - usually quite excited. It's like an emergency attention getting cue. It's not like a normal attention getting cue (mind is a tongue click) that is good but perhaps not perfect (because it gets daily use, so has wear and tear). The emergency attention getting cue, is a bit like an emergency recall. You train the dog to turn rapidly towards you, usually when you are very close to the dog as you would be with the dog on lead, for amazing rewards. 'QUICK' means whip round to me, something amazing is going to happen. You need to work on it, and work on it. so it's strong enough to work when the dog is a bit scared. It probably won't work if the dog is a lot scared.... It's the same as the rapid U turn, really, except the U turn is used to avoid the thing, the QUICK is when that's failed, and you want your dog to disengage. These are just the things I do, with a remarkably unreactive dog that can just sometimes get a bit put out (he is also an entire male, and does meet other males that react badly so I use it for that too) - like I said earlier, professional advice based on your on dog's behaviour is best, but I've found that really difficult to find.....
she loves to chase rabbits....if i shout leave it high enough she does just that and will keep to heal so im guessing shouting something in that tone to get her attention all the while not looking like an eejit at the other dog owner is worth a try i will also contact a behaviourist for advice perhaps do some 'puppy' classes socialise her with males and females thank u again
