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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Jean is a graduate of Animal Behavior College and teaches basic obedience using positive motivation training techniques. She is a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and has been teaching family dog basic obedience for three years. Jean is also a graduate of Northeastern University and is the co-founder of pupforum.com.
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5/13/2005
Hi, I'm new to this site. I have a 3 year old lab who is really well behaved but for some reason started to growl at other dogs she never met when we go for walks. She has been socialized very well from an early age (8 weeks) with both dogs and people. She knows quite a few dogs in the neighborhood and is fine with them. There are a couple of dogs in the neighborhood that she never met personally but is fine with them when we see them around. She goes to a doggy day care twice a month and is fine with every dog. The day care staff always tells me how well behaved and gentle she is. She has been to obedience training and is very well behaved at home and outside.
If a new dog (big and small) comes close to us she wants to sniff them but she does it by jumping toward the new dog really quickly along with a constant growl but she never touches the other dog. After she sniffs them she is fine but since she growls most people don't want her coming near their small dogs which is understandable. It does look scary and I don't want it to get worse. I know that she doesn't want to attack because she gets scared of other dogs if they growl back. She never gets into a confrontation with my in-laws unfriendly Shih-tzu when the Shih-tzu barks and growls at her. I feel that she is being very overprotective of me and my 9 month old son when we go out for walks. She has been attacked by a border collie a little over a year ago. The border collie came running out of nowhere and started to bite her. She did not have any serious injury though. What is the best way to teach her that she doesn't need to growl when walking by a dog she never met before? (menmypup, Washington)
This is a tough one to assess without seeing the behavior. There is equal evidence in your summary that your dog could be either trying to play, or trying to send a warning. Lots of dogs growl when they are playing or initiating play.
When my own dog started going to doggie daycare, she got to be horrendous on leash. She was great in doggie daycare, but she then started to think that every dog she saw was her playmate and wanted to play with every dog she saw. When I tried to walk past another dog, she reminded me of a 16 year old girl whose parents wouldn’t give her the keys to the car. (But I want to!)
On the other hand, your dog has been attacked on leash before, and that m
ay just as well have made her apprehensive about other dogs when she is on leash. How is your own behavior when another dog approaches? Do you get a little nervous and tighten up the slack in the leash? (Here’s a hint…almost everybody does) If you are showing any apprehension, you’d better believe it would travel right down the leash to your dog.
Also, are you aware that a leash changes the picture for the dog entirely? There are many dogs that play fabulously with other dogs on leash, and turn in to Cujo once a leash is snapped on. The reason for that is that off leash, if the other dog is a jerk, your dog has the option to get away. On leash, your dog knows she can only go 6 feet away, hardly far enough to avoid confrontation.
To assess whether your dog is playing or warning, watch her body language very closely. Is she jumping into a play bow, which is chest lowered to the ground, tail in the air (friendly), or is she truly lunging forward (warning)? Is her tail wagging in broad sweeps (friendly), or wagging in short stiff sweeps, or not at all (warning)? Is her mouth open (friendly), or are her lips pushed forward (warning)? Is the fur between her shoulders standing up (usually a warning)?
If you decide from her body language that she think every dog is her playmate, the solution is easy. Take her back to a dog training class. Remind her that sometimes, even though there are other dogs around, she does not get to play.
If she is fearful of other dogs because she is on leash, the solution is a bit more complicated. There is a 3 step process.
- Avoid other dogs on your walks for a little while so that she is not lunging on every walk. The lunging is like a bad habit you want her to forget about. Do this until you have completed steps 2 and 3.
- Change her attitude about other dogs while on leash.
- Teach her how to behave around other dogs when she is on leash.
I realize that I have not given you nearly enough information to implement steps 2 and 3, but that is because it would take an entire book. The book is called “Click to Calm” by Emma Parsons. When I read the book for the first time, I was already involved in teaching classes for dogs who are aggressive on leash. As I was reading I found myself saying, “We do that! We do that too!” The training plan laid out in her book really works.
Good luck to you!
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