Barking frantically at other dogs when on lead

I have a lovely 1yrs old black lab, Toby he's quite an over excitable dog and has some of the common issues I've been reading about on this site. However he has one trait that I'm really struggling with, he's not an aggressive dog and when off the lead on the field is friendly and excited to greet and play with other dogs, but when he's on the lead it's a different story.
When I'm walking him on lead along the street and he comes across another dog on a lead he barks frantically, pulls and lunges towards the other dog, I've already put him on a head collar due to pulling issues but he almost chokes himself trying to get to the other dog, although I know he's not a nasty dog the owners of the others obviously don't!! I've started crossing the road to put some distance between them and I try to get his attention with treats to distract him but nothing seems to work, some training sites suggest it could be frustration because he can't go and play, has anyone else had this issue? willing to try anything to get my boy to be polite on his lead.

 

I'm probably going to sound like a broken record to other forum members as I always reply to questions like this, but this behaviour was the bane of my existence with my beloved boy who passed away last year. He was NOT a Lab but a Rottie (that's him in my avatar), but when this behaviour pops up the breed makes no difference. Only that perhaps people expect it more from a Rottie than a Lab due to breed reputations.

So first of all, I really sympathise. It's so hard to understand why a dog can be fine off leash and turn into a psycho on leash.

Here is what eventually worked for me, through trial and error. I am not a trainer and others here may have better ideas, so take this with a grain of salt. I also will say that it took a LONG time to change and part of that I think was down to me and my own expectations (that he would lunge every time) and frustrations. Learning to stay really zen and neutral was critical for me - i.e. not tensing up when you see another dog in your path and keeping your reactions positive (so no harsh verbal or leash corrections).

So - I needed to be more interesting than another dog. That meant that I carried bags of freshly cooked chicken breast or chicken liver in my pockets for every excursion. I also needed to be very aware of my environment and my dog's triggers. At the first a trigger was ANY other dog, then as he improved I learned to recognise that certain dogs set him off more than others. But regardless, I needed to see my dog's triggers way before he did. You have the right idea to get your pup across the street at this stage. The key is to get to him and get his attention away from the other dog and focused on you BEFORE he reacts to the other dog. Once he reacts it's a lost game. I'd say I could see my boy's brains dribble out his ears as he lost all good sense. So my job was to get his focus before that happened. I did this by blocking his view of the other dog with my body, getting his eyes on me and feeding that chicken or liver like mad as long as he kept his composure. Training the "look at me" command at home without distractions first is also key, as then you can put it into use "in the field" where other dogs are then a distraction.

It also important to realise what your dog can and can't tolerate - bite off progress in little doses. What I mean by this is that today your dog may only be able to succeed if he is a kilometre away from another dog with you feeding him treats by the bucket load. But once he succeeds at that, you can slowly bring him into closer proximity to other dogs. I can't stress how slow of a process this is - even one bad experience sets you back so slow, steady and positive are better than testing or "flooding" your dog.

Solid training at home as a base was also really helpful to me. My boy loved training, so repeating his training (tight heel, "watch me", "touch", simple sit/downs) and keeping his focus on me and his commands really helped remove his attention from the other dogs. We took a lot of training classes together as well to get more and more experience in maintaining his focus and doing something fun and positive while he was on leash around other dogs. I would also take him to dog parks as he got better and walk him around the perimeter (first outside the fence then inside) while on leash and maintaining his focus, rewarding him constantly (with chicken and praise) if he did not react. I kept these sessions super short (only minutes at first) - it was really important to keep it positive, know when the temptation to lunge was too much, and get him out of there to end on a positive note.

I used a head collar as well and it was important to me in the early stages as I have balance problems and delicate skin on my hands that would bleed easily. However, you'll find head collars aren't so popular here on the forum and that has made me re-think my use of one. I think it may have made my problem go on longer than it should have as it allowed me to control my dog even when he was going nuts, where I should have taken smaller positive steps in what I was exposing him to. But I can't go back in time and test that theory, so I'll just say that be aware that the head collar is a powerful tool that is just that - a tool that doesn't replace training.

Here's the bad news - I carried chicken/liver with me for three years and throughout his life never stopped scanning our environment to be aware of what may set him off. Here's the good news - anyone who met my dog PAST that first three years did not believe he had a reactive bone in his body. He could walk past a dog going bonkers at him without a single glance and I can't tell you how proud that made me, even when he was an old and grey 12 year old. And as I've bragged here on the forum many times, he passed his mobility service dog exam with flying colors and this included having no reaction to an aggressive dog as part of his week-long testing. The testers said they'd never seen a less reactive dog, which was absolutely an amazing accomplishment to me. Did I mention how proud I was of him?

So don't give up hope, train in baby steps, keep it positive and you'll get there!

 

I'm not a fan of head collars - other people are though. I shudder at the thought of a dog lunging in a head collar. The forces on the head and neck must be terrible. People say that dogs can't lunge in them, but some clearly can! Obviously appreciate that a safe solution for attaching yourself to the dog must be found. A back fastening harness is the thing, but that doesn't give you any mechanical assistance to stop the dog lunging of course so you need to be physically capable of coping with that.

Emily is right that the trick is to reinforce your dog for not lunging. So start to stream high value treats into your dog as soon as he notices the other dog but before he reacts. This is a great deal easier said than done while out and about on walks where you don't know when a dog might appear and you are limited as to what you can do with distance.

With excitable dogs, that is what your dog wants is to move nearer to the dog and also finds access to the environment and moving is reinforcing to some degree, it's particularly problematic working with distance outside controlled situations I find. If you get your distance wrong, and your excitable/frustrated dog reacts the best thing to do is nothing. Stand still and don't move - and have the other dog move away. This doesn't happen 'in real life'. The reason for this is that excitable dogs find moving reinforcing. Even moving the other way can be reinforcing - this is particularly the case with my dog.

I solved this with my dog by finding a trainer with lots of dogs. I spent a summer walking round her field while she brought out dogs on lead. We started with a trained dog that would ignore Charlie, and worked up to puppies and rescue dogs. I was incredibly lucky to find her, and it really, really helped.

 

Aw that's really greasy

Aw thank you that's really useful advice, I'm going to give your suggestions a go. I didn't really want to use a head collar either but I was worried about control issues and am hoping to ditch it once I can get him not reacting to other dogs. You should be very proud of your dog, what an accomplishment! Well done and once again thanks

 

Brilliant reply thank you for all your advice, I'm definitely going to give your tips a go and hopefully be able to get rid of the head collar eventually! You're right to be proud of your dog, amazing result and once again thank you

 

"Aw that's really greasy"

LOL, yes! I swear for years my hand moisturiser really consisted of chicken grease and eau-de-liver. I still can't eat chicken myself as I can't stand the smell (compound that as well by the fact that I cooked five whole chickens a week for Brogan for the entire second half of his life).

"I'm definitely going to give your tips a go and hopefully be able to get rid of the head collar eventually!"

I freely admit that I LOVED that head collar. I don't know if I would have had the confidence to continue taking him out and trying again and again in the face of his - ahem - "issues" if I didn't know that with the head collar I could control him if a situation suddenly got out of hand. My boy never had any physical issues from it and in fact he loved it as well as he associated it with going on walks and having adventures (same for his muzzle that he had to wear at times due to breed laws). I didn't even realise there was any controversy about using one until joining the forum. But seeing other opinions here did make me do some further research and be more aware of how I used it and how I most definitely used it for too long. When your dog can, on command, get his own head collar off the hook, bring it to you, and put his nose into it all by himself, he may not need it anymore.

 

Ha ha yes the greasy comment was predictive text at its best!! But I do know what you mean, feel like I smell like roast chicken or hot dogs most days!! Toby is ok with the head collar too although now and again he will try to remove it using our neighbours privet hedge!! Thanks for your comments, I'll bear the last bit in mind!

 

Predictive text strikes again! I actually thought you meant you didn't want to carry treats with you as they were too greasy! (Which is a pretty valid point, in fact).