Eye contact between the dogs certainly can make it worse, but remember they have to get pretty close for that.
Infact as a sign of aggression, a dog that DOESsteadily hold eye contact with another dog with a raised tail and stiff body language is a real danger waiting to happen. The eye contact tells a LOT. A truely dominant dog holds eye contact with his underlings till they drop their eyes, if one holds ghis gaaze he KNOWS he has trouble, most dogs cannot hold eye contact with a dog higher in the pack than them under any negative or challenging circumstances.
Well what happened about a month ago, which i why i got one to one training was (i'm so embarrassed about this )
I was out walking with Bailey and we was going down a widish alley and a german shepard was coming from the other end, i knew i should have turned round but i didn't and moved other to the edge he started barking tried to get him to sit, he went deaf! the other dog layed down with his head up. bailey is still barking and then i ended up on my backside, i hung onto him and he didn't get near the other dog. I apologised to the other lady and said he's not aggressive and she said you can see that his tail is wagging. I came home in tears and inside i was calling him all the names under the sun i couldn't believe he done that
Tail wagging is not a sign of happiness. It can also mean stress - I bet the reason why he acted like that is because he felt cornered. Don't beat yourself up about it hun - I have had one too many days like that. Just try to relax on walks practising the turning round and hopefully his behaviour will stop. We are both going through this together so I shall keep you posted if you do the same!
Thankyou I will keep doing the turning around thing and will keep you posted. It's nice to know i'm not the only one. I've been itching to put this post up but have been to embarrassed to up till now.
Stress i wonder... he is not vocal at all at home doesn't bark when theres a knock at the door or postman comes etc. But at my old training class he was very vocal!! but all they said to me was that's alright if he doesn't do it at home. I changed trainers and the one i'm on now is a course of 11 lessons (next week is no10) the first week he was quite vocal but since then he has been fine.
I think Di has covered most aspects of this, but I would say that the incident in the alleyway with the GSD would not have been uncommon.
Look at it from his point of view. He is on a lead and in a confined space (so no way of running to safety) and then he spots a GSD getting closer, then it lies down with it's head up (ready to pounce) and I guess eyeballing your dog (so he is feeling extremely threatened by then), what other option did he have other than try to put on a big bold act?
If he is only going into bark mode when he is on a lead and being eyeballed then I would say he is actually scared and is trying to make himself look like a big brave dog.
Do you find you have a particular difficulty with certain types of dog (GSD's and Border Collies spring to mind) as some dogs do naturally "eye" other dogs and the dogs they are eyeing can find this most upsetting (it frightens the life out of my dogs). In this instance all your training (the distraction and the turning away) should really come in handy, as it's once he meets their glare that sparks could fly, so the quicker you can get his focus on you the better.
What does he do off-lead too, when he meets other dogs? Does he just go charging in or does he wait until you tell him he can go play? Or are there some dogs he would rather avoid? All these things could be clues to why he behaves like this too.
It can happen when it's a small or large dog, i apologise know if i start waffling
On lead if a dog is in front he may or may not whine he hasn't barked yet.
Face to face is when he will bark, heres another one walking round a corner and 2 westies were coming and he starts barking like mad and so did they the lady had to go around me in the road to get past but then again the other day a staff was growling a bit on the opposite side and he didn't do anything i had a treat in my hand.
Walking down the road he was sniffing in the air and there was a westie (not the ones he barked at) behind a gate and i didn't realise until we were there they had a sniff through the gate then as we walked of he gave one bark
Also when we were walking along the river i'm not sure what type of dog is was but it was a large fluffy dog came charging up so to start with they were face on face im thinking oh s--- and bailey was fine had a sniff of each other and of we went
Of lead i only left him of if i now the dog/dogs or there are none around and there has been no problem, the initial meeting 30 sec is a bit mad as in sniff sniff, tail going 10 to the dozen, he is not on them the whole time and comes back most of the time when called.
It does sound like he is putting on a show of strength rather than it all being purely excitement. If it was just that he was excited about meeting another dog, he would react the same whether the dog was facing him or not. Also when he is off lead his behaviour sounds fairly normal, he certainly doesn't sound as if he is getting over excited.
Can you think back to when this barking started? Was there anything at that time or just before that maybe triggered it....Did another dog bark at him or growl as you went past...that sort of thing...I'm just trying to work out if it is fear related or if he feels the need to assert himself (I'm assuming he is around 10 -18 months).
When he meets other dogs off lead how does he stand? Does he grovel, ears back and down, tail low or does he stand very upright, ears up, tail up, as this could be an indication of how he feels about himself? Or does it vary from dog to dog?
The barking never use to happen when out walking it use to be the excited shuffling hope i explained that right.
Been trying to think about when it started and i can't at the moment.
When he meets another dog.... well at my new classes they don't agree with dogs mixing to start with. So i can't say there, at my old class which i stopped going to in july, he is on lead at this time and his ears were close to his head and down this is when he doesn't know them but his tail is wagging, it's not between his legs. If a new dog came in to the old class he would bark alot more but it wouldn't be near him. When we were waiting to go in the training area there would be about 6-10 dogs and this is when he would be quite vocal, i'd get his attention with treats and he'd be ok, once we were in the training area he was very different, didn't bark that much and focused on what we was doing. when i asked for advice on this, i got well he doesn't bark that much at home so thats ok
Of lead i can tell he is excited to see them, because he knows them the ears are up and tail going mad.
When my trainer came on tuesday and she got her dog out, his ears went up and tail wagging and whining but he didn't bark at her at all.
I've just thought of something at the end of the summer holidays we were all at woods me, hubby and 3boys and there was a young small dog and it stood staring at bailey for a while he barked back, so we hung back abit from them then the child was holding the dog on an extendable lead and then all of a sudden this little dog came charging back growling and making that snarling noice pulling the child with it and went to have a go at baileys face he started going back at it, i pulled bailey to me he had a halti on at the time, hubby grabbed the other dogs collar and pushed him back he came back again and hubby done the same by this time the mum was over and apologise, then we carried on and there was about 8 collies of lead and bailey was fine with them
Mmmmm I can see that *could* have been the trigger for him to become more defensive. I wonder if it shook his confidence a bit. He maybe thought the situation was all ok, then all of a sudden he was being lunged at and bedlam broke out. Some dogs will just take something like that on the chin, whereas others may think that from now on, they have to get in first.
On a positive note, at least you recognised you have a problem and are taking advise and " doing" something about it before it gets any worse.
Being off lead makes such a huge difference to a scared dog, as they are then not trapped into feeling they have to react. It sounds like he is fine with other dogs off lead....no aggressive/dominant posturing and fairly normal behaviour, so I would say that being on-lead is what is making him anxious, whether that is because he is being stared at by the other dog, or because you are thinking "OMG here we go " and it is travelling down the lead.
Maybe have a word with your trainer about ways of regaining his confidence around other dogs, in the mean time I would definitely be using some kind of distraction as another dog approaches and keep your voice as jolly and light hearted as you can, to stop him picking up on any bad vibes from you.
Thanks Jules for all your advice and everyone else you people are great
I have felt a lot happier since my one to one and speaking to you. and will be taking him out with a positive mind, I love him to bits and will persevere to get it sorted.
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and moved other to the edge he started barking tried to get him to sit, he went deaf! the other dog layed down with his head up. bailey is still barking and then i ended up on my backside, i hung onto him and he didn't get near the other dog. I apologised to the other lady and said he's not aggressive and she said you can see that his tail is wagging. I came home in tears and inside i was calling him all the names under the sun i couldn't believe he done that
I will keep doing the turning around thing and will keep you posted. It's nice to know i'm not the only one. I've been itching to put this post up but have been to embarrassed to up till now.
