Ignoring aggressive dogs

[TankGrrl66]

I'll keep it short n' sweet.

Post your experience with having your dog ignore other dogs acting aggressive to it.

Example for what I am trying to accomplish: If another dog is acting aggressive or barking at my 9mo puppy, I want her to stay focused on me when I ask. I don't want her lunging and barking back (which is what she is currently doing). She does not do this with benign other dogs, but she goes nuts if they are acting aggressively at her. I can understand where she is coming from, but I don't want her acting like that.

I need a good review of LAT too!

**I would like to stay without using a prong as much as I can.
Nothing against them but I would like to see if this can be accomplished without one. That, and they are 20 freakin dollars (I'm a college student, lol)

[Jax08]

I tell Jax "Leave it". She might still keep an eye on them but it's not a focused watch and she mostly watches me. Definitely work on LAT but start with dogs that are well behaved.

[BR870]

With Abbie, I started by keeping her moving and focused on a treat. At first I would keep as much distance as possible. If she stayed focused on me and did not respond she would get several treats and praise, if she responded to their provocations she got a verbal reprimand and no treat. We mostly worked on this by walking past fences with barking dogs in our neighborhood.

[Lucy Dog]

I put lucy in an immediate heel when we pass a dog that's lunging or barking. All focus is on me. She gets a correction (prong) if she breaks the focus on me.

99% of the time she doesn't ever need a correction and full focus is on me no matter how crazy the other dog is getting.

[Jack's Dad]

Exactly what Paul said. I started Jack really young to ignore distractions. People, dogs, cars etc...
I have now been able to walk past crazy dogs or anything else and he really pretty much ignores it all.

[martemchik]

I've got the United Nations dog so he tries to break up any fight he hears. Generally he wants to play with dogs that are being aggressive towards him, he just doesn't get it until it gets really bad and then decides he should defend himself. Very rarely do we run into aggressive dogs on leash but when we do I try to get him into heel and make sure he looks at me the whole time.

[JLOCKHART29]

Tough to walk away from aggressive dog like that for him. As has been said get him to focus on you and not the other dog. If a treat or tug works great but you need to be prepared for it not to be enough. My year and half male has looked for a fight since he was five months. He was breed and I am training him in Sch. so I don't have a problem with that BUT I need to be able to control that. He has now learned to ignore other dogs for the most part. A pinch helps but can, with some dogs, increase agitation and aggression. You don't need to have a pinch to get his attention. A fur saver can as well just ask my male!LOL When you come to an aggressive dog or anything you want ignored ask for focused on you. Try the treats and walk away. You could wave a ribeye at Auron if another dog is growling at him and he would ignore it. In his case I just give the foos or heal command and turn away from the distraction keeping a short and tight grip on the lead. No screaming or big production just foos, turn and go. Everything from his neck up is coming with me. His choice as to how he wants it. If he struggles I repeat the command and make another turn but never toward the distraction. Try not to make a big production of it but depending on the dog, age, ext he may need to be snatched on pretty good to make him understand he must comply. At yours age I would think just turn and go. When he does turn without fighting and gives focus by All MEANS reward and praise him.

[mysweetkaos]

With Sherman, this was a problem at first. Not so much lunging or barking, but if another dog acted aggressively he stood his ground and would just stare. What I've started doing is when passing other dogs or people, I tell him "side", he steps off the walking area off to the side, I put him in a sit, treat him, and give him the wait until they are passed. Same goes for passing a house with someone barking in the yard. I put him in a sit, tell him "look" so he looks at me, treat him and then start him back on heel command until we are passed. Works so far...requires a lot of work and time, but it is worth it to have a non reactive dog. My old Kaos pays attention to NOTHING while walking he is so non reactive, we were walking the other night, a coyote jutted accross the road, sat about 40 feet from us and just stared, Kaos didn't even give it a second glance. I on the other hand may have wet my pants