[KristenMarino13]

He started out never barking at anyone.. than we walked by my neighbors house they have a golden her dog lunges at the gate and barks like a crazy dog at my dog than my dog lunges back at the gate growling and barking he is 4 months old ... if we go to the park and he sees another dog he barks they dnt have to bark at him he just sees them and starts barking .. all his hair on his back stands up idk what to do im signing him up for classes but are there any tips for now i try re directing him just dosent work

 

[doggiedad]

going to class is a good idea. whatever the distraction is i would use
it as a part of my training.

 

[Twyla]

As doggiedad said - training class. Let the trainer know beforehand your pup's reactions to dogs.

Also, look at LAT. Set up where there are dogs - at a distance - before your pup begins to react to them. Have treats, he looks at the dog(s), doesn't react, looks back to you, treat. You may have to call his name to begin with to look at you. You are setting the habit to look at you and he is learning good things happen when he sees a dog. If he does react, move back a bit, and start over. Over time (sometimes hours sometimes days) you slowly move closer. You want to make this fun for him, play games, tug, scratch his belly, whatever is fun for him at the moment. What you don't want to do is coddle him 'petting and there there it's ok' type thing. Have an attitude of 'those dogs are no big deal'. Your main goal is to work this routine with pup under threshold and not reacting.

I would try to avoid the neighbor's golden until he has been successful with other dogs and not reacting.

 

[mego]

Hmm, we're doing through something similar over here.

Whenever we see a large dog on a walk Lara starts barking and gets that focused look/hackles up/usually tail wagging. Chicken, high value treats, etc, don't distract her. Even physically moving her away she still cranes her head to see the other dog and sometimes barks. Her threshold is seriously like 100 feet.

However, we've been in puppy class for a month. When we see dogs there, close, far away,etc, she is totally chill, doesn't mind at all, happily greets them...It's just outside on walks. Her friends (3 dogs she sees often) she goes all ears back, wiggling, happy to see them, but new dogs she acts like a tough girl.

I'm assuming its fear based but I'm not sure why she acts differently in class, maybe she's comfortable there. Since treats aren't working, should I just continue to fill her with treats when they're REALLY far away, because obviously anywhere less than 100 feet is too close for the time being?