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Dog on dog aggression
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Dog on dog aggression
I adopted Zeke a year ago. He is a two year old neutered Australian shepherd/heeler mix. He had no prior training, poorly socialized, and he came with a lot of really bad habits. Whenever he saw another dog he would react aggressively, unmanageable for the first few months. Screaming, lunging, bearing teeth, out of control. After a year of work with treats and a prong collar, his behavior is better, but still far from acceptable. On walks and runs he is constantly on alert looking for dogs and cats, he never relaxes while we’re out. He also doesn’t heel well despite hours of training, he darts around a lot, causing me to trip over him quite often. When he sees another dog he raises his hackles and growls but doesn’t lunge as badly anymore thanks to the prong collar training. As we are approaching other dogs I tell him to leave it, and he looks at me, I’ll tell him to sit or turn (spin in a circle). He obeys that command but won’t stay in a sit and continues the growling and fixation on other dogs. Then I say “No” and pop the leash, he looks at me, and goes right back to growling and barking. “No” again and more leash pops, and the behavior gets worse. How on earth can I get him to be calm around other dogs? I realize that this will take time but I’m losing patience and beginning to think he’s never going to be a good running companion.
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3 Replies
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Hi Christy, it does take a lot of work, who knows what he has been thru.
One thing with Reactivity is that the main thing is to work with the dog in a calm setting
where he can be controlled and maybe one other calm dog of a friend. Maybe the running is still a little much for him now. Watch the Reactivity videos. Three main takeaways
1) loose leash 2) NO CORRECTIONS, the dog corrects himself when you abruptly turn away walk 5/7 steps and return 3) You will notice in the videos for Reactivity that Robert does not use treats for these exercises. When ZEKE looks at you a gentle pet for 2 seconds and a calm Good Boy is all. Treats can excite and giving a treat may indicate to him that his behavior is being rewarded. Naturally there is somewhat more to it than this but these are the 3 basics.
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If he is scanning and darting around before there are any dogs then I would probably address that first.
I would work on getting him to direct his drive and energy toward focusing and engaging with you. When you’re walking give him things to do. Turn the walk into a training routine. If you’re having trouble getting him to heel and pay attention without any dogs around then your foundation needs to be stronger.
Do the majority of your training in a much less stimulating environment and build on your obedience to the point to where Zeke doesn’t think about doing the commands, he just does them as a muscle memory reaction. Add in your distractions very slowly.
When you’re out on your walks reward him for just looking to you, this is one area where hand feeding can help you out a lot.
If your corrections are agitating him then you are too close to the subject stimulus. The closer you are, the harder the correction has to be in order to interrupt the aggressive behavior. If you are close enough that the dog needs a severe correction, then normal corrections will agitate him further (especially on a prong collar.) This is where some trainers use e collars and light dogs up, but that should be the absolute last resort. Add lots of distance and work your obedience where the dog won’t get so frustrated.
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Thank you. When we walk I am feeding him his dinner by hand. Every time he looks at me he gets kibble. I’ve tried other higher value treats but it doesn’t make much
difference. He loves cheese but his behavior and compliance are the same
no matter what I give him. He’s gotten pretty good at keeping his eyes on me, especially in the past couple of weeks. The trouble comes when we’re in an area that he remembers getting excited about something in the past. For my dog it seems that what Robert calls “prey drive” is more bullying in nature than fear or play. Anyway we’ll keep working on meals while walking.Unfortunately he’s injured right now so we haven’t been on a walk for a few days, and won’t go out again for at least a week. The down time is a good opportunity to work on other tricks and training.
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