Need Help With Proper Dog Greetings

[msheedy]

Hello,

A bit of history...
I have a 2 year old mix breed, Satchel. He is a lab/hound/Rottie mix. He is best described as looking like a minnie rottie with a curled up tail and stands about 19 inches. Since he was 8 weeks old he was a very insecure pup. He never ran up to people like most pups do. I realized that I needed to socialize him a lot which I did. I also took him to obedience class which he excelled at. He obeys his commands well, walks nicely on a leash and does not bark or lung at people or dogs while on our walks. He is now calm when strangers visit. He will come up to people in his own time to sniff and check them out. He will then just go lie down. I also have had him in agility for about a year to continue with his confidence building. Agility is helping him and he even does some competion. I also started T-Touch nightly with him. He has come a very long, long way.

Satchel does have issues with close encounters with dogs. For example, in agility class while we are waiting our turn it is common for the other dogs to be in close proximity to each other. He is OK with smaller dogs but will start "air-snapping" at the larger dogs. It seems that the higher energy dogs freak him out the most. This is especially true when they go right up to his face. I have been sitting at the edge of class to avoid this but I really want to help him solve this problem. The dogs in class are friendly and I want him to be able to at least ignore them. I guess I did not do a great job socializing him enough with other dogs when he was younger. He does love our other mixed breed Darla and I think she actually rules the roost. Darla is a dog with total love of people and other dogs and is a therapy dog.

Any suggestions how I can help Satchel be more calm in class when close to the other dogs?

Mary Ellen

[Annie]

thankyou for writing this so thoughtfully and clearly....I also have similar problems, and must have gone wrong somewhere with my sweet dog.....but I´m sure someone out there can help us

[MaxHollyNoah]

Hi there.

Satchel's issue sounds just like our 2 yrs old Noah's problem. The only difference is that Noah is very good with people, except for a couple of men so far. He likes to be patted so he likes to visit with strangers too.

Noah was fine with other dogs until he started attending intermediate training class where he was barked at and lunged at by an aggressive pit bull. He became very aggressive with other dogs in the off-leash park, especially he has a ball in his mouth. He snapped at handful of dogs and had a bad reputation at the park.

I finally realized that he became more protective when he was fetching a ball and I stopped throwing balls for him completely. It was a right decision because he became more relaxed since then.

I took some agility classes with my other rescued dog, Holly, and I know that some dogs get very excited by doing agility. In fact, Holly barks a lot in the class. My guess is that Satchel also feels the excitement and that might contribute to his nervousness.

We adopted Noah about a year ago when he was already an adult dog so I don't know if he had a proper socialization or not. Therefore, after he got the aggression issue, I started taking Noah to doggie day care once a week for a few hours just to get used to other dogs, as well as to the off-leash park almost everyday. Because Noah has leash aggression, it is best for him to meet with other dogs in an open area. He used to snap at dogs when they stared at him with their faces too close to him but now he has learned to ignore them and just move himself away from those dogs. When I see him being nervous or rolling his lips at a dog, I either reassure him by saying "Be nice, Noah" or recall him by saying "Noah, come over here". He listens to me and he rarely snaps these days. I am very pleased with his improvement.

I thought I was giving him fun and building his confidence by throwing balls for him since he was so good at fetch but I was just building his protectiveness. I miss playing fetch with him but I decided not to start it until he really learns to get along with any kind of dog.

I hope this will help. Good luck

[msheedy]

Hi,

It sounds like you found the right combination of things to do to help your dog. Congradulations! Satchel's root issue, I believe, is his low confidence which tends to make him act out. Dog parks at this time are a very bad place for him to go to since his insecurity acts like a magnet attracting other dogs to be aggressive to him. To be perfectly honest I do not care for dog parks in general. I guess it depends on the mix present at the time. I find that most handlers really have little control over their dogs. However I do like the idea of organized play groups where you know the handler and know the temperment of their dog. Satchel needs to gain his experience at first with dogs of calm temperment. So my plan is to start organizing his social life a bit more. As I look back over all our training I realize that I have been remiss in his dog socialization work. There is a nice calm golden retriever in our neighborhood that I plan to borrow to go on walks with us. that's a good way for us to start.

Thanks for your imput, it is appreciated.

Mary Ellen

[MaxHollyNoah]

Hi msheedy.

I think your plan sounds the best - Satchel needs to be around good temperament dogs to gain his confidence.

As you said, there are a bunch of people who don't control their dogs and there ARE some dogs that are aggressive too. In fact, my dog Noah was one of them until just recently.

I had my sister's dog, a German shepherd mix, with us last weekend. It was a first meet for Noah. Of course Noah got nervous at first and he even snapped because the dog was bigger than Noah. Eventually, he learned to just pass by him without making any attempt of snapping or making faces and toward the end of their stay Noah was somewhat comfortable with the dog.

I thought something like this would be beneficial for Noah.

Your idea of borrowing the Golden retriever sounds like a good start!!

Good luck

[msheedy]

Hi,

Once Noah started snapping at the visiting dog how did you handle correcting him? Just curious about what others do.

Mary Ellen