Please help! Worst walk with Ollie EVER.

[Carriesue]

I have been reading various things on the forum about this, I dunno... I'd just feel better if I could "talk" to someone about it too rather then just reading other people's experiences.

So Ollie just turned 5 months old and he has started probably a fairly common behavior for a pup his age(I hope heh heh)... He has started barking at other dogs on our walks, at first it started out with just occasionally barking but today he lunged and or barked at EVERY dog that went by. Needless to say we did not get one "awww cute puppy" today.

WHAT is this behavior? Is this a surge of hormones? I know most if not all of this is my fault... I didn't say no to people(usually people that had dogs with them so he got to sniff and greet a lot growing up) who wanted to swoon all over him when he was a little puppy. I know I'm being ignorant but it just confuses me because he is so well behaved with dogs off leash.

This is how it usually goes... He will see the dog and get very focused and excited about the dog, then as the dog gets closer he will pull on the leash or jump/lunge at the dog while "big boy" barking. Today was a completely new experience with the intensity and I will admit I got caught without treats... I tried to put him in a sit and to get his focus off the dog but to no avail. I will be better prepared next time!

Well first thing I did after this was stopped at the pet shop and picked up a prong... I have a front clip harness which is nice for casual walks but doesn't give me much control of him in these situations. I tried a martingale, he had no response to it and pulled worse on it. I have been working on loose leash walking and most of the time he is fine but when he gets excited about something he can already drag me(I'm pretty small).

I took him to Petco after the walk to get his prong and a few other things, of course there was a training class in session and he started lunging and barking at the dogs much to my embarrassment. I asked the cashier if I could go grab some treats from the bone bar, grabbed some and brought Ollie back next to the dogs and made him sit and focus his attention on me and the food. He did well as long as I kept him focused with the treat otherwise he'd go back to being excited about the dogs.

I DO plan to get him into a other group class(not a chain store one) as soon as possible, hopefully in a week or two depending on what's available and the training center.

But what can I do in the mean time? And should I stop letting him play with other dogs at the park for now? Like I said, off leash he is amazing with dogs big and small. And this is ONLY dogs, otherwise out in public is he super calm, well mannered, loves greeting new people and is very polite, does not jump on or bark at them... And he LOVES and is so gentle with children.

Thank you!

[gsdlover91]

It is normal...I think/hope. Berlin barks at dogs all the time. But I think he is just saying "HEY, i'm over here, this is my human and my area...." He is not aggressive toward any dog really, he just is VERY vocal. I also have a prong used for walks, and it does help. Make sure you use it correctly though. When you say lunging is he aggressive about it?...or excited?...like he wants to play? A bark isnt always aggressive, it's how dogs communicate! So maybe Ollie just wants to play/say hello.

And if i'm not mistaken, socializing him while young is a VERY GOOD thing, not a bad thing on your part. I let every single person/kid/dog/anything say hello to Berlin when he was little (and still do) so he was exposed to a variety of things.

[Jag]

I hope you get some useful answers to this! I wish I had one... but Grim's giving me a run for my money right now as well! Maybe this is all a hormone thing, as I'm noticing a few posts about pups doing different things than they used to about this age. I was glad to read that you could at least get his attention with treats. Better than I'm doing!!

[llombardo]

Start taking him to places where there are dogs...start at a distance, put him in a sit and focused on you. Once he starts getting it move closer to the dogs. Use lots of treats, use a noisy toy(to get his attention) Lots of dogs walk and behave better off leash. I prefer to have mine on a leash so its important to teach them to focus with distractions. I've been lucky with mine, she completely ignores dogs that she doesn't know, but its a whole different ball game when she sees a dog that she knows.

[gsdlover91]

Originally Posted by Jag

I hope you get some useful answers to this! I wish I had one... but Grim's giving me a run for my money right now as well! Maybe this is all a hormone thing, as I'm noticing a few posts about pups doing different things than they used to about this age. I was glad to read that you could at least get his attention with treats. Better than I'm doing!!

I'm in this boat as well! My 7 month old has evolved into this crazy, trouble making, barking, loud, hyper, STRONG, beast, who decided he cant hear me anymore!

[Carriesue]

I'm pretty sure with the lunging its just a HEY I WANT TO SEE U type thing, with big dogs anyways... With little dogs I can't quite tell, he seems to get more excited and aggressive looking with them. He lives with two small dogs although I have a hard time getting him to stop trying to play with and harass them, they are kept separated most of the time unless I'm doing training with them.

He is definitely more dog then I've ever had before... I'm totally in love with him though, I just need to nip this in the bud because its very important that I be able to take him out in public with me.

[Carriesue]

With the prong I tried to put it behind his ears but it keeps slipping, I need to read more here about fitting it correctly.

[Ziltoid]

I'm having the same problem with my boy, he's only a week or so younger than yours.

Haha!! I wish I had an answer for you (and me).

Sounds similar with mine. I take him to the dog park and he'll big boy bark at them before we get in there but once inside the park he's fine... unless no one else is there when we arrive; in which case he'll bark at the first dog/s to arrive until they come in and he meets them, then he's fine.

On walks he'll bark at other dogs. When we go for a walk with dogs I know he'll bark at them until he sniffs them, then he's fine for the walk.

I try to make him sit and relax but it's hard to get his attention as he squims around whining or still barking. The only thing that really seems to stop it is actually 'meeting' the other dog/s.

I'm going to just start waiting outside the dog park with him until he calms down... hopefully after a while he just gets desensitized to the whole thing.

I'm also starting obedience classes next week so as long as we don't get kicked out, it should force him to get used to the idea that dogs will be around that he can't necessarily sniff and barking is not going to get him anywhere.


I'd really like to get it sorted before he's much older and bigger. People put up with it from a puppy but it's not so cute coming from a bigger dog.

[Odin24]

My GSD turned 8 months on Tuesday and has started acting just like what everyone is describing. I thought there might be a medical reason so I took him to the vet yesterday for the full behavior screening. The vet doubts anything will turn up in the bloodwork though. He recommended a better trainer.

[Shade]

Look up LAT training, it's a great tool to use to improve focus, especially around other dogs

It's hard balancing dog socialization with obedience, we deliberately take puppies out to meet other dogs and they start to expect it and get excited. Then suddenly the human is telling them NO, be quiet and calm and ignore that dog we're walking towards.

Delgado went through the same thing, offleash no issues, but onleash he wanted to run over and greet them and I was stopping him. He started barking out of frustration, and it was downright embarrasing. Walking by anything, even cats. squirrels, or birds onleash he knew to leave them alone, but with dogs no frickin way was he passing up a play oppertunity

I worked hard on his thresholds, learning at what point he would react and catching it before he got excited. He's still not perfect, if the other dog is excited and barking then it's a harder struggle but every day it's a little bit better. I found the prong collar helped keep his body under control, and I would use my body to steer him away from the distraction. Now especially with calm dogs we can actually pass them! Sometimes it's one or two quick barks at the other dog but no more jumping or maniac barking. Huge improvement and we're still not 100% there but getting better

The main thing that helped me was realizing WHY he was doing it and then encouraging him to do what I wanted to do, in this case focus on me and not focus or bark at the other dog. Even now if he walks right by a dog it's a huge party! You can just see the happiness glowing from him as he knows he did something great as I fuss over him and praise him