German Shepherds Forum banner

Dog Reacts to Other Dogs and Some People.

2K views 17 replies 4 participants last post by  Steve Strom 
#1 · (Edited)
I go on walks with my dog and when other people come close with their own dogs Charlie barks at them and pulls/lunges towards them. If the dog is across the street then his attention focuses in on the dog. When this happens I give as many prong collar corrections as needed to get his attention away from the dog. Am I dealing with this correctly?

Yesterday my neighbour has his grandchildren over and they were playing in their backyard. Charlie saw them and had a barking fit and started jumping around. He has this weird obsessive focus on certain things that is difficult to break. He only had on a flat collar because I was just taking him out in the backyard so he could poop.

When I'm out on walks, if someone is walking towards us on the same side walk I usually shorten the leash to pretty much nothing in case I need to make a correction. Usually in those situations he is completely fine.

So it seems like it's other dogs and children running around and making a lot of noise that gets Charlie to go into a hyper fit. How do I correct this properly.

It seems like on Mondays the local highschool has several soccer games going on in the back. I usually take him to those and make him sit. He usually sits quietly for 10 minutes, then he makes a scene by barking, crying and pulling.

I've read a lot of people on this forum talk about how GSD's are supposed to be aloof, but Charlie is everything but aloof. How do I get him to just ignore other people and dogs?
 
See less See more
#3 ·
No evaluation has been done. I have no idea why he does it, unfortunately. Whenever I walk him, it's just the 2 of us. All the experience I have with "large" dogs comes from my last 2.5 years with Charlie. I grew up with tonnes of small dogs and I had my grandmother's husky for a while, but other than that, I don't have a lot of experience with large dogs. I've spent probably too much time reading up about them online and in books, but I'm trying my best with what I have.

The only training "class" he's been to was one at Petsmart *GASPS*, but that was just to get him around other dogs at a young age. All the other training has been done by me at home. I've done quite a bit, but because I've been doing everything myself, he is missing a few key things that I need to go back and teach him. But for now, this lunging/barking thing is at the top of my list.
 
#4 ·
Then the first suggestion is have an eval done. Determine what you are dealing with. Could be anything from over excitement to fear aggression. Without seeing the dog in action, his body language, there isn't a way to give good advice on what to do.

I will make one suggestion however. Things like the soccer games, you seem to be able to predict when your dog will act out. Leave before he reaches that point. Also, keep the leash loose meaning no tension on it.

For the eval, locate a trainer experienced in aggression. Verify the experience and verify they are experienced in large working breeds - even better if GSD experience. You don't want the yank and crank variety, what you are looking for is a balanced approach.
 
#5 ·
I know for certain that it's no aggression. If I had to throw it in a category, I could confidently say this it's over excitement. He has other things that will trigger excitement, but I can accurately predict them. With the dog and some strangers, I find it difficult to predict when he will start acting out. I must have misunderstood your first post. He has zero history of aggression but the rap sheet for him losing control because he is excited is incredibly extensive.
 
#7 · (Edited)
I'm really glad that you brought that up. His favourite toy is a bouncy ball. I have a poodle that we allow on the furniture so that she can have a private space, and he'll wait for her to jump up onto a couch and he'll lunge for her when she does. It happens nearly every time, multiple times per day. I always suspected that it was the sudden movement that made him lunge for her. He's never hurt her, but it's annoying to say the least.

"Leave it" was one of the first commands we taught him because he would bother the poodle and chew on furniture.

Oddly enough people on bikes and cars don't phase him in the slightest.
 
#8 ·
May be you haven't been consistent enough with leave it? Letting him get away with it sometimes. Its kinda like random rewards. Makes him want it that much more. Leave it should be enough with the kids in their backyard. I think you should spend some time on that.

I like using distance to teach them some self control like you are. But if he's reacting like that at 10mins, I agree that you need to do things a little different. Either a little more distance at first or a little less time, you want to give him the chance to have been right. Then over time, you shorten the distance. Be careful about using random people and dogs to work on this though. Its better to have people and dogs you know help you. Keep everything controlled and think safety. Prey drive still means biting.
 
#10 ·
The difficult thing with Charlie lunging for Tiny when she jumps up on furniture is that I can't always be around to correct it. It's also difficult to time properly. I can certainly try my best as I usually don't find myself correcting that specific behaviour for some reason.
 
#14 ·
A soccer game can be distracting for even the best of dogs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrtdyeq2hKo. Don't set him up to fail- take him to the game, and walk away before he starts reacting- say at 8 minutes in. Reward him with tug, play, give him an outlet for that prey drive. I don't like the constant nagging "leave it, leave it, leave it". The dog starts building up frustration. Actually, personally I don't even teach "leave it". I teach an alternative command "come", "heel", "on-by".

This just sound like frustrated dog that is triggered by movement. Not an aggressive dog. I have one like that and she's learned to ignore non-important distractions, and respond to my commands even under extreme distraction (skateboards trigger her chase/prey drive the most). It took time, but mostly I made sure to give her an outlet for her drives, and corrected- one correction- inappropriate behavior. Lunging and barking? Nope, that it not OK. Give him alternative behavior. And give him an outlet for his drives- chuck-it, tug, Frisbee.

How much training have you done with him? How much exercise is he getting?
 
#15 ·
I took Charlie to the soccer game today and he did pretty good. I had him lay down and I have him a bone with peanut butter in it. He began to focus on the kids more than the bone, so I picked it up and left. I was probably there for 4 minutes. No barking and no freaking out. He remained in adequate control of himself. Is that what I should be doing as I gradually build up the time, until it no longer phases him?
 
#16 ·
Muskeg is more on point then the way I replied. Its not a matter of just hanging out, you teach an alternate behavior. I like sit, at a distance at first because I don't really like to just go on by when there is no distance. I've had too many people not control their dog when there isn't a lot of distance.

But it's an obedience. The dog has to learn to deal with the distractions or whatever the problem may be, and like was said, you set him up to succeed.
 
#17 ·
Muskeg is more on point then the way I replied. Its not a matter of just hanging out, you teach an alternate behavior. I like sit, at a distance at first because I don't really like to just go on by when there is no distance. I've had too many people not control their dog when there isn't a lot of distance.

But it's an obedience. The dog has to learn to deal with the distractions or whatever the problem may be, and like was said, you set him up to succeed.
Do you mean that there isn't a lot of distance between the dog and the distractions?
 
#18 ·
At some point or maybe when you have no choice, yeah. Say you're hiking and here comes someone the other way with their dog. My usual plan is step off to the side, sit him and ask them to go by. I feel more in control and able to keep a strange dog from making contact with mine. That's with my friendly, social one or my nervy one.

Others will handle it a different way, but the basic idea is teaching your dog to behave around whatever is stimulating it or distracting it. Does that make more sense ?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top