My rescue lurcher

[Penelope]

Hi I am new to this forum. I live in Scotland and two months ago adopted a 2 year old rescue lurcher called Isaac. He is a lovely dog very sweet natured good with people, children and dogs he has come to know. My problem is really only his pulling on leash when he sees either people and other dogs. He only wants to talk to the people but has a mixed reaction to dogs. He is beginning to walk loose leash but if he sees a dog, especially in town, he is raring to go. I am able to take him to the beach two or three times a week so he can run and have now taken him a dozen times and he has always come back to the whistle

[KOPsarah]

It sounds like you and your new dog are already doing really well in such a short time. Keep up the training and exercise and keep introducing your dog to new things. It sounds like your dog has not had a lot of socialization with its previous owners and is therefore not sure how to react to other dogs and unfamiliar things. If you can, try to find people with dogs who are willing to help you socialize Isaac. It will help if these dogs are very friendly and relaxed. Introduce them to each other in neutral territory such as at the beach or a park. Start with them on leashes and apart from each other walking along with their owners. Then once they are used to each others presence and showing no aggressive signs let them both off the leash and let them interact. This is possible as you say your dog responds well to "come" and it helps to have them off the leash as being introduced nose to nose while on leashes limits the dogs natural tendency in a scary situation, usually they will consider "fight or flight" when in a situation they are unsure of. When the dogs are on leads they cannot use flight so fight is more common. Continue to introduce your dog to other dogs in this way and he will soon learn that other dogs are neither scary nor rare and will take less notice during walks.

Remember if at any time you think your dog may be aggressive muzzle him while with other dogs. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.