Somewhere in the top ten reasons that people contact me for training help is on-leash aggression. Often when they do contact me people are bewildered — their otherwise friendly dog simply goes crazy when they encounter another dog while out on a walk!
This is a very common problem. Why does it happen?
- Frustration – having a leash tied to his neck means your dog cannot move freely. When this means that he cannot check out a nearby dog, it leads to frustration. Repeat this a few hundred times and the frustration can become automatic.
- Fear – a dog that is already nervous around other dogs can feel restrained or confined by a leash. Similar to the pattern with frustration, if this happens enough just seeing another dog on leash can cue the anxiety.
- Bad experiences – a bad experience on-leash can cause a bad association to seeing dogs on leash.
These are all variations on a theme – being on-leash becomes associated with fear and frustration. So what can be done to avoid or alleviate this problem?
Well, if you are not already experiencing this problem here are a few key steps:
- Train your dog to walk nicely on leash. If your dog is well-behaved on leash he is probably paying attention to you and not other dogs. That’s more than half of the game right there.
- Avoid on-leash greetings. When dogs greet each other on leash, their movement is limited and misunderstandings can very easily happen. Moreover, if your dog expects to be able to greet other dogs on leash, you have already set him up for frustration!
- If you see trouble avoid it. Discretion is the better part of valor. It only takes one bad experience!
How can you alleviate it? Well, you may need to seek some help from a trainer. There is no quick fix for this issue. Implementing the list of preventative steps above will go a long way toward making on-leash aggression easier to deal with, but it will not go away by itself.
Like most behavior problems, systematic counter-conditioning and desensitization are going to be a part of the solution. Gradually introducing other dogs at a distance, and then closing the distance while giving your dog very high value rewards (often food), and practicing defensive on-leash techniques, changes your dog’s opinion reduces the fear and frustration.
Classes like St. Hubert’s Dog Training School’s Feisty Fido class are geared toward practicing these techniques. These classes are fantastic since your dog gets the attention required to keep things safe, while also providing you with access to other dogs for the training.
I’ll be revisiting this issue a few more times over the next few weeks. Are you experiencing this problem? What have you tried to address it? Have you had success? Let me know in the comments.
Buster is aggressive on leash when he sees other dogs. But no harm comes (at least from Buster) because all he wants to do is meet and greet the other dog. Ty is fearful on leash when he sees other dogs. This does create problems because Ty will want to attack. It makes for interesting walks when one of us is walking both dogs!
Viva is agressive on leash. She is adopted some months ago. And since she has/had a recall problem I have not had her a lot off leash. But the encounters we had off leash turned out positive each time, so it could point to the leash being a problem. She either chooses to go and greet the dog or just go the other way. The dogs she doesn’t like are the one that come very confident and direct. When the other dog is sending calming signals early on, there is no problem.
I also started reading the booklet of P.McConnell, “Feisty Fido: the leash reactive dog” to try to zoom into this. I am a newbie at dealing with fear and agression in dogs.
My dog Mason is generally aggressive towards dogs 9and unknown people). The suspicion is that it is generally based in fear. This has made walks with him particularly difficult. As a very young puppy he was inherently fearful and learned aggression as a coping mechanism very quickly (he's a smart dog). The interesting thing about walks is that the other dog is always walking toward you and then walking away from you. If Mason lunges at the dog when we're abreast of it, then the dog will naturally walk away. I suspect that in his mind he's won and managed to fend off a potentially dangerous dog.
For the last 3 months, I've been actively trying to modify Mason's behavior using the techniques described in Patricia McConell's booklet Feisty Fido. While McConnell does the best job I've seen so far of describing this process, I have found that it is still difficult to implement in the real world. There are simply too many variables when walking your dog around your neighborhood to capture in a 70 page booklet and finding good structure for that sort of process can be difficult.
That being said, we have managed to make slow progress and under most circumstances, Mason will no longer react to dogs that we pass on the other side of a 45 ft wide street. By react, I refer to growling and lunging. He still displays other signs that indicate that he's not quite comfortable at those distances yet. Before we decrease the distance, I want Mason showing no signs that the other dogs bother him.
The biggest hurdle will be decreasing the distance and I think this is where the process becomes difficult. In my neighborhood, streets are 45 ft – 55 ft wide or 20 ft – to 25 ft wide. There's no safe way to gradually decrease the distance without walking in the middle of the street. So in that context (walking in our neighborhood) the best I can do is half the distance and then turn around when we get too close to the other dog for Mason. I feel that this will likely be very inconsistent. To compound matters, many of the dogs in our neighborhood will ignore Mason at 45 ft. but bark or focus on him at 20 ft.
Anything by Patricia is going to be great. She is an incredibly talented behaviorist and writer.
The physical logistics get very complicated as you progress with a DS&CC program. It's quite a challenge. This is another advantage of finding someone that has a “growlie” class.
Keep us posted!
The desire to play is a big factor, but it can still lead to misunderstandings. I am working with a young puppy with this problem right now. Did you happen to notice if the harness helped at all with this? Sometimes the collar can be a trigger too. I'll be covering that soon also.
The desire to play is THE motivation with Buster. The harnessed has lessened the pulling (actually redirecting the energy of the pulling), but Buster also growls, barks, and jumps around. It is intimidating to the people we are passing by, but Buster has never bit another dog. When he gets to the dog, there's only sniffing and happy tail wags. I have also noticed that Buster is “worse” when Amy is walking him alone or if she is walking Buster and I am walking Ty.
The desire to play is THE motivation with Buster. The harnessed has lessened the pulling (actually redirecting the energy of the pulling), but Buster also growls, barks, and jumps around. It is intimidating to the people we are passing by, but Buster has never bit another dog. When he gets to the dog, there's only sniffing and happy tail wags. I have also noticed that Buster is “worse” when Amy is walking him alone or if she is walking Buster and I am walking Ty.
I found it has helped my girl Sweetie to not do a face to face meeting on leash but to casually start walking side by side. This allows her to see the dog poses no threat to her or to me. By walking side by side, she seems to understand both dogs are doing a job and she is much more calm. She does a whole show of how fiece and scary she is when another dog tries to come up and say hello. Same dog in a dog park…THE OPPOSITE. She will allow a dog to come and say hello and maintain a nice level of calmness when in “neutral” territory like the dog park.
You are helping me write next Tuesday's post right now!
Parallel walking is a very useful exercise!
Parallel walking is a very useful exercise!
Speaking about this- Goodman isn't aggressive (on or off leash), and walks nicely on leash 95% of the time.
However. when he sees one of his doggy friends he will pull terribly trying to get to them (not other dogs- just his specific friends).
What will be the best way to handle this, without causing him too much frustration?
Right now when he does it I simply stop in my tracks until he stops pulling, then we move a bit, he pulls again, we stop again etc.
He will ignore “this way” or “not yours” (our “leave it” cue) in this situation (the only situation that he will ignore these cues).
Ideas?
Thanks!
Speaking about this- Goodman isn't aggressive (on or off leash), and walks nicely on leash 95% of the time.
However. when he sees one of his doggy friends he will pull terribly trying to get to them (not other dogs- just his specific friends).
What will be the best way to handle this, without causing him too much frustration?
Right now when he does it I simply stop in my tracks until he stops pulling, then we move a bit, he pulls again, we stop again etc.
He will ignore “this way” or “not yours” (our “leave it” cue) in this situation (the only situation that he will ignore these cues).
Ideas?
Thanks!
Lilly has gotten much better about this. I tell people all the time that she doesn't mind other dogs, as long as they DON'T pay attention to her. Her bark/growl/posturing is very much on the model of a Good Offense is the Best Defense. Overly friendly dogs or dogs with poor leash manners freak her out, especially those on a flexi-leash who are ruling the trail roost.
We do two things when we see other dogs coming. If we need space, we take it, and I ask Lilly to sit so that we can click into Relaxation Protocol mode. If she seems mostly OK, and I think I can handle the situation (or the other dog seems mannered enough), then I ask Lilly to switch heel sides, and I put myself between her and the other dog. I ask her to watch me, and we move past the other dog(s) with purpose together.
Lilly has gotten much better about this. I tell people all the time that she doesn't mind other dogs, as long as they DON'T pay attention to her. Her bark/growl/posturing is very much on the model of a Good Offense is the Best Defense. Overly friendly dogs or dogs with poor leash manners freak her out, especially those on a flexi-leash who are ruling the trail roost.
We do two things when we see other dogs coming. If we need space, we take it, and I ask Lilly to sit so that we can click into Relaxation Protocol mode. If she seems mostly OK, and I think I can handle the situation (or the other dog seems mannered enough), then I ask Lilly to switch heel sides, and I put myself between her and the other dog. I ask her to watch me, and we move past the other dog(s) with purpose together.
The Feisties class can be a lot of work and frustration, especially compared to private lessons. The problem with privates, and I have done both, is that you run out of things to do. With the classes you have other dogs there and the work can progress more quickly and further in the long run.
Goodman is not responding to “this way” and “not yours” because by the time you use them, he is already too excited. You need to try to use them much earlier in the process.
I would use this way as soon as he notices the other dogs and only allow him to approach closer when he exhibits calm behavior.
Sounds like you really have this under control. Nice job.
Hi Eric,
I certainly respect your knowledge and trust your training, maybe I just hit a bad class.
Running out of things to do would be good!! I am no dog training expert and I could be very wrong. I can only go with my gut and hope it is correct. But it seems to me that physically holding and forcing my dog to stay down, scolding when she reacts to other dogs ( while walking on the leash) may re-enforce the idea that being around other dogs is a bad experience. I am afraid these actions will backfire on me.
I can't imagine my dog is finding anything to enjoy in this experience and so I wonder if she is gaining any growth out of it. The frustration is I can't or don't know how to help her.
Is the class still running? I would talk to the instructors about your concerns. (Actually I would talk to them whether the class is still running or not. We're there to help.)
Like always you have me coming back and reading more! Time and Time again I have found your words of wisdom to be beneficial to me and, as hand outs to my clients. Keep up the good work.
PS +R Behavior Professional here training for Fear, Frustration, and Bad experiences may be trained the same way, for those persons with more than one dog with opposite personalities!
It must be summer because we're all writing about leash reactivity! I evaluated a resource published by Kim Moeller that I think is fantastic for owners. It's an easy to read booklet and also includes a DVD: http://www.moellerdog.com/resources.htm.
Today when I was walking my two dogs another dog came around the corner. I tried to walk them into the woods but then my girl who would not hurt a fly off leash went balistic and my other dog tried to get off his leash. My boy dog who would hurt another dog did not have any hair raised, I think he was reacting to her. It is very frustrating. I drive to a place where there are usually no other dogs to try and avoid this. I spent a lot of money on obedience training and that did not seem to help. As soon as the class was completed my girl dog became agressive at the window and in the car. My boy dog who is aggressive off leash behaves in the car and at the window.
There’s a good chance he was reacting to her arousal.
It sounds to me like you need to see someone who can work with aggression and behavior modification.
Storm is very friendly to dogs when off leash. But has recently started to lunge, barking and growling at nearly all dogs when he is on leash. The funny thing is, he will strain to meet the dogs, sniff them for a couple of minutes and then go beserk, even if the other dog or dogs are really calm.
I would see a trainer about this. It’s not going to go away by itself.