Advice Urgently Sought

[merlot]

Lou Lou today let her self down badly and slipped out of her collar and attacked another dog. If anything positive can be said about the incident it is only that the other dog was not hurt. Until I can trust her she will have to wear a harness instead of a collar which is far from ideal but I feel I have no choice. My other dog – Max – will sometimes also be very aggressive when passing other dogs. Can anyone provide advice on training to eliminate this problem? Tried the carrot approach with Max (given a treat if he behaves himself) but that had no effect whatsoever.

[Sara]

Hi, all I can suggest is using an old lemonade bottle, around 1 litre size, 3/4 filled with small stones. When either dog starts to lunge forwards aggresively bang the bottle down on the floor just in front of them and stenly shout out 'NO' - this should have the affect of the dog backing off and then you can then immediately praise them for backing off.
In time you would want just to say 'No' and the dog backs off but it'll take time and it obviously goes without saying that you never hit the dog with the bottle..
Do you muzzle your dogs when out and about?
Good luck, hope this helps.

[merlot]

I will sometimes use a muzzle with Lou Lou but not a big fan of them. If a dog slips out of its collar it will of course remove a muzzle at the same time and they are only totally effective if every dog is wearing one. I could have Lou Lou of the lead but with a muzzle fitted to prevent her causing harm to another dog but its more than likely the other dog will not be wearing a muzzle and so could seriously injure Lou Lou. Talked to someone today who runs a dog training class but when I told her it was 2 ex racing greyhounds I am having difficulty with she was a bit lost for advice and we both felt it might be safer not to bring the dogs to classes held which are essentially for training puppies - my two would have a field day!!! I'm thinking such problems come with the territory and I love greyhounds whatever their faults and would never consider any other breed. I take note of your advice and action of a similar kind is something worth considering.

[Johnny]

I think dogs can act aggressively for a variety of reasons:

1. Authority: Within a wild dog or wolf pack, there's a natural pecking order of seniority. I've noticed how dogs can sometimes be quite happy around some dogs, but are more confrontational with others.
How dogs "square up" to each other, could be explained if two dogs both feel they have seniority over the other. Therefore a show of strength/aggression is displayed to assert authority over the newcomer.

2. Protection: When you are out walking your dog - you are part of "the pack" so to speak. Sometimes dogs can behave in an agggressive manner because they feel they have to protect their owners from the unwanted intrusion from other dogs.
This seems to occur more often with dogs that have been spoilt rotten, or allowed to get away with things, and have not been disciplined by their owners. Thus they have assumed for themsleves an elevated status within "the pack", where they feel that they are the leader, and as such they look upon it as their job to see off intruders

3. Jealousy: This ties in a little with the previous point, and is probably not the reason in your case. But I thought it was worth mentioning anyway.
We see a type of jealousy, with our two.
If I make a fuss of Sugar, when I put her down, Star always attacks her - not to hurt her, but to simply "put her in her place", to assert his position over her again. It's a simple case of him showing jealousy towards the fact that I'm showing attention to Sugar, which he percieves as a threat to his position within the pack.

Everyone has their own ideas on how to discipline dogs, and I can only say how we do it. Some owners may agree or dissagree with the following method, but we find it works with our two:
When your dog does something naughty, it is important to discipline it right away. If you leave it longer than a few seconds, the dog will not comprehend what it's being told off for.

Let's say that Kitty & I were out walking our two, and one of them behaved aggressively to another dog.
I would hold our dog firmly around the muzzle (being careful not to snap it's jaws shut I hasten to add), stare straight into it's eyes, and say it a loud deep voice "NO". The staring straight into the eyes bit is important for two reasons. Firstly, by doing so, the dog knows you are talking directly to him, and secondly - to the dog, to stare straight into it's eyes is asserting your authority as "pack leader". If the dog looks at you in this role, believe me - it will pay attention.

Our two dogs do play up from time to time, but generally they are quite well behaved, and I put that down to the method employed above.

[merlot]

I have tried a similar training approach with Max over the years but his behaviour did not improve and I resigned myself some time ago to the fact he can never be allowed of the lead in any area where there could be other animals (pets, live stock, wildlife) he may possibly harm (it’s a shame other dog owners cannot act in a similar responsible way). You touch on points that at least in part explain his behaviour but with the new member of the family – Lou Lou – what I am seeing is simply the desire to chase (and possibly harm) anything small and furry. She does not react in the same way towards larger dogs and it is, of course, how you would expect an ex racing greyhound to behave (she took part in 152 races). I am determined she doesn’t end up like Max and so it’s essential any worrying behaviour is nipped in the bud now before it is allowed to get any worse. Whilst it is very early days she does seem to be responding to training so I am confident about the outcome. What I need to do is get her mixing with other smaller dogs and this I am hoping to do shortly. There is of course a real possibility she will copy Max and so a final attempt at resolving his behaviour is also in progress and it might be, short term, worth walking the two separately but this is far from ideal for me. I was probably too soft with Max in the past and should not expect too much now. On a more positive note, Max and Lou Lou seem to be getting on very well together and this was the most important factor of all.