Dogs on lead, dogs off lead - rant

ali-t

*Robin* wrote: »

As we passed them, both times the GSD slipped her collar and ran past us - I told the owner I'd keep going and ignore his dog. Sure enough, she circled back and returned to her owner within a minute or so.
.

I would first ask him to tighten the dogs collar or get one that fits better. If his dog does this to a less friendly dog it may get hurt, the dog may then end up deciding it needs to get in first in future.

Your plan sounds like a good idea but I think he needs a back up plan too about the collar.

meames_2

thanks for the link to the article. I think that is probaly what I was trying to say in the first place and certainly fits in with Wombles
behaviour.

However, the next day after posting, the same situatiion happened. Another staffie puppie , spotted us, came bounding over, luckily I got inbetween them. People don't seem to realise its not alright to let a dog runaround as if it owns the place and do as it wishes. Once this dog was on the lead, I made my dog sit, gave hime a fuss, placed his leadon the floor and because there was a couple of feet between them, fussed the othee dog a little. womble stayed still and didn't bother, as long as I alternated the fuss!

Sagaris

ali-t wrote: »

Soubrette, I was thinking of the same one and here it is if it is the same one?
http://flyingdogpress.com/content/view/42/97/

I wish I could thank you more than once - this is our beagle to a T!! She's not aggressive, but really flies for some dogs who come bounding over to her - reading that article has put it into perspective and given us some things to try next time a 'rude' dog comes bounding over to her.

She's not allowed off lead as she's a beagle (get a good scent and say goodbye for a week!) and we've tried her off lead at training classes, but even our trainer said she's a hard nut to crack! As she was 5 when we got her (a year ago) she has been hard work in some aspects, but we are still learning.

Soubrette

It is a great article isn't it. It also emphasises the responsibility that we have to our aggressive dogs to try and help them. My dog has a few dogs he is friendly with (he likes them more than they like him ) and we've worked hard to get him to where he is today but it is so sad that due to his early life (racing greyhound) he is poorly socialised and misses out so much from interacting with other dogs.

When we first had him at 8, a dog passing him close by would get him inappropriately excited and barky, once he went up to a dog quietly sitting while I was chatting to the owner, sniffed her and then growled .

We've carefully introduced him to some dogs, we've followed dogs on walk at reducing distances and I go ahead and interact with other dogs if two of us are walking him to show there is nothing to fear and everything to like about other dogs. We even look after another dog in the holidays so he can see his little whippet friend interacting with other dogs as well as interacting together. I also took the tip from this article of stepping between him and other dogs if they bound up - this is not as easy as it seems though as some of those dogs are quite persistent.

Now three years later he will ignore another strange dog that ignores him, even in close proximity. He just can't handle strange dogs bounding up to him whether friendly or not - he can't read their intentions I think, and unfortunately being aggressive gets rid of them, reinforcing his behaviour.