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Unruly behaviour around other dogs


Guest Dawn_Ontario
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Guest Dawn_Ontario

Please help....I have a 10 month old neutered Border Collie who is absolutely awful when he sees other dogs. He starts barking and whining and carrying on and will practically drag me down the road; he'll start "flipping" out and acutally pulled his nose out of his "Haltie"/ Gentle Leader the other day. When he gets to the other dog he is not aggressive and, normally, he is a fairly submissive, timid guy. He won't listen to a word I say and I've tried to distract him by putting one of his favourite toys in his face and he just pulls away. I've tried correcting him by telling him out and no and turning his face away from the direction of the other dog to face me, but he won't listen he just starts jumping around and pulling towards the other dog (he'll actually pull his front feet right off the ground on both his Haltie and his choker). Any advise would be great, as I am enrolling him and "his big sister" (older female Border Collie) into Agility in May and need to rectiify this inappropriate behaviour. By the way, he just started doing this about a month and a half ago.

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Hi Dawn,

This is a tough one, I'm still going through it with my guy. He's been obedience classes for 4 months now and we are still working on it. (He is 12 months) He loves Agility (we do it at home) but I cannot put him in a class until I get through this behavior with him. One of the things I did was use a squirt bottle with water and a little vineger. That got his attention and then I would tell him to sit,then treat and praise him for behaveing properly. This helped a little but it's hard to hold a dog and squirt him at the same time. I had other trainers and friends to help me out. I also had to pin him to the ground a time or two. I don't really like that approach but it was the only way to get him under control. There are a number of other things that I have tried and still doing but if I went through them all here you would be reading a book. Feel free to e-mail if you want,I know how frustrating it can be! I'll try to help out as much as I can.

One other thing that you mentioned is him pulling his feet off the ground with a choke on. This can be very dangerous for you dog. It could cause trechea, neck and back injuries.

Hope this helps some, if not e-mail me smile.gif

 

Tomi

Albion, IN

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Tomi Jo, Dawn, you both have my sympathies, cos I'm with you both on this one and I'm convinced it's the lead. Every Wednesday night we go agility training and while we set up the equipment all the dogs have a little play together. Every single dog plays nicely with the others. Chasing, no snapping or fighting and if one handler has the time he/she will throw a ball for them and it's a race to see who gets there first. Again this is all done without any form of aggression. Then the leads go on for the start of training, and Tess goes absolutely balistic. Bark, bark, bark...pulling on the lead [i already have a frozen shoulder from her pulling]...and some nights she is so bad I have to put her back in the car. This is the only time she's like this, although she will whine to see another dog when we're out walking there's no excitement. As I say I'm sure it's being on the leash that does it. I'm sorry I don't have any answers, but when I find something that works, I'll post back.

Best Wishes, Val, noisy Tess, Peps and Isa

 

[This message has been edited by Dynamite Tess Again (edited 03-28-2000).]

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Hi Dawn!

We had the same problem. Time and patience has helped, although today we saw a pit bull walk by, and I had to literally dig in my heels and lean back with all my strength to keep Huntley from dragging me over to him. He wears a pinch collar for that reason. It won't damage his trachea like the choke collar will, and I think gives a more gentle correction. He wants to say hello to every dog, and is not dog aggressive. With people, he is somewhat schizophrenic, and sometimes won't let anyone come up to me, and other times seems fearful and shrinks behind me. I think it is my vibes. If I am cool, he is cool, if I am fearful, he is fearful and swings either way, protective or afraid. I blame me when this happens. He is totally tuned in to me, and I am doing my darndest to build trust between us. It is slowly growing.

Keep working at it, and try the pinch collar. I am anxious to hear what others think, too!

Patti

 

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quote:

Patti & Wayne McAhren

2264 Fairway Drive

Mobile, AL 36606

USA

(334) 479-1777 (H)

Master Printing Company

(334) 476-6979 (W)

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Guest Dawn_Ontario

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. I went out last night to Super Pet and Pet Value and was unable to find an appropriate prong collar, so I'm going to hit the internet and search. I am also going to try some of the suggestions I have received and hopefully alleviate this problem now. I registered Dallas for obedience classes that start tonight, so it will be interesting to see how he behaves. He will probably be great at agility and stay focused because off-lead I seem to have his attention much better than on-lead!

 

Thanks again,

Dawn

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I agree that some of it is the lead too, and some of it is me being nervous or tense. I try to keep his lead loose and stay calm but it's not always easy. Sometimes he is fine and other times he is a complete nut! If it's just one or two dogs he does good , it's when you get 50 or more dogs in one building that he starts in on the pulling and lungeing. He's not a barker, he just stares the dog down and then jumps at them! No warning, no snarling and his tail is usually wagging or dropped down along with his head like he's trying to give them the 'eye'. He has great attention off-lead at home and at the club when it is empty but I can't trust him enough during class to work with him off-lead there.

He does good with my sisters dogs, they ride in the same vehicle on the way to class and we work together often during the week and he is fine. Once in a while though, while we waiting for our class to start he will see her out of the corner of his eye and lunge at her too. He does put his mouth on her but he don't bite, it's more like he's running into her with his mouth open.

Dawn, some good places on the net to find prong collars is J and J Dog Supplies, SitStay.com, and JB wholesales. Thunders prong did wonders for him!

 

Tomi

Albion, IN

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What i've done when everything else didn't work(treats, toys, luckily my last two "visitors" were small no dragging!) is set them up. I use a dog, that i know will not hurt them ,but will put them in their place. I let them go visiting, and when they get harshed on i call them back to me, and say "what happened!" i give them atreat for coming, and praise. It doens't take long for them to realize not everyone wants them! After i can get control i add a command. With my last face sucker, it was "no visiting" When ever we went to class,i wouldtell her no visiting, or when ever we met a dog somewhere, no visiting. she learned that unless i told her she could go play that she wasn't allowed to suck anyones head! I would rather be harsh on my dog for running to strange dogs, than to have them seriously hurt by a strange dog.

 

Kelli

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Advice about PINCH COLLARS and UNRULY BEHAVIOR AROUND OTHER DOGS: I'm a fan of pinch (prong) collars and have used them frequently; however, be aware that they do sometimes snap apart unexpectedly and your dog may end up free. Also, if your dog gets pinched while trying to go after the other dog, it may increase the aggression factor.

 

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Good Advice about the pinch collar snapping free. I've had it happen once, and I try to be very careful when putting it on. Huntley only wears it when needed, which gets less and less as our bond grows.

 

 

------------------

quote:

Patti & Wayne McAhren

2264 Fairway Drive

Mobile, AL 36606

USA

(334) 479-1777 (H)

Master Printing Company

(334) 476-6979 (W)

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I haven't been keeping up with my reading like I should be, so I'm a little behind with this one. Tomi Jo mentioned something near the beginning of the stream, One other thing that you mentioned is him pulling his feet off the ground with a choke on. This can be very dangerous for you dog. It could cause trechea, neck and back injuries. I can totally agree with that. My family owns a 13 year old Lab Retriever who was home trained on a choke collar. He learned all his commands very well, and wouldn't do a THING without being told to first! The problem is, now that he's older, for the last 2 or 3 years, he's been caughing and hacking like an 80 year old man. He sounds AWFUL! If someone even so much as touches his throat, he'll start to cough and gag. All because he's got scar tissue built up, and damage to his trechea from the use of the choke collar. They just got a new Lab Retriever puppy, and are using a pinch collar with him in training and a Gentle Leader when walking. Just thought I'd make a mention of that. smile.gif

 

About the pulling part, Koal (who's 5 months old) doesn't pull when she see's other dogs, but if she's off her lead she has her good days and bad. Some days, she'll be off the lead, and will start to run towards other dogs (she's just a really friendly dog and wants to say HELLO to everyone! smile.gif ), I'll call her back, and she'll come. Other days, like yesterday, there was a Border Collie puppy in the park, and she was playing off the lead with her Lab/Chow friend (neighbour) who she always plays with. The two of them together took of and WOULD NOT come back, no matter HOW much I called them. I had to go over there, physically pin Koal down and put her on the lead. Even then she kept pulling to play. The puppy wanted to play too, and had to be put on the lead until they got away from each other.

 

One thing I've noticed though is, she knows the command "Leave it". I use it insead of "No" and only use No if she's been really bad. If she starts to sniff something while out on a walk (she's CONSTANTLY sniffing), I'll tell her Leave It, she does. If I see her eyeing up another dog to go over and greet, I'll just tell her "leave it" and she will start looking for something else to get in to. It's as if you can teach them to ignore something, then use that command when you see them eyeing up the dog, they'll ignore it. Just like you wouldn't use the command "drop it" on just one specific ball, but on a ball, toy, sock, etc. See if there's a command that you use to get her to leave stuff alone or to drop her attention from it, and use it on the dogs too, first on the lead until she gets it, and then off. That way, while she's on the lead, if she won't drop her attention, you can give her a gentle tug to get her attention back, and then distract her with conversation or something.

 

I hope that this can be of some help for you!

 

 

****************

Jennifer and Koal

London, Ontario, Canada

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