The Most Dog Friendly Community Online
Join and Discover the Best Things to do with your Dog

Register

Hi dog lovers

Thank you
I’ve joined this forum hoping other dog owners can help with some anxieties I’m experiencing with my dog. Just over 2 years ago I had I had a staffy from our local dogs home. I quickly realise how anxious she is around busy roads and other dogs. I’ve never let her off the lead because she becomes very anxious and shows signs of aggression And growling and tries to go for them when around other dogs. A few weeks ago a boxer dog got free from its owner and headed straight for me and my dog. After 5 minutes of trying to separate them my dog lost control of her bowels and bladder and passed out. It was the most terrifying experience I’ve ever had and it’s left me feeling anxious every time I see another dog that’s either off the lead or looks like it’s heading for us. My dog is now back to square one and becomes very anxious and aggressive every time she see’a a dog. I’m so worried that she will harm another dog because of what’s happened to her. And my anxiety won’t be helping my dog either.
 
Your poor girl, that is a very extreme reaction.

There are things you can do to help but if she is as anxious as that, I'd also suggest you speak to her vet about something to calm her, because a dog that is highly stressed won't be able to learn.
 
Is it possible for you to walk somewhere away from busy roads and where you won't see other dogs? The more you can avoid incidents that make her anxious/aggressive, the calmer she will be - and the more amenable to whatever training you do to address this. Training would involve always (as far as possible) working within her comfort zone - so if she's only comfortable 200 metres from another dog, that's where you'd have to start.

First and foremost, though, I'd get her fitted for a muzzle. As well as preventing actual harm, it will help you keep calm, and she will pick up on that. You need a basket-style one that allows her mouth to open, so she can pant while wearing it. It might actually encourage people to stop their dog from approaching her too, though I wouldn't count on it!

We can give more details of what the training would actually look like, but it would be helpful to know first how easy you'd find it to avoid her triggers.
 
Hi, thanks for your reply. yes I do tend to walk away from busy roads, I’ve found a nice walk but because it’s away from the roads there are more dogs around especially off the lead.
Someone stopped to speak to me across the road few days ago and their dog had its back to my dog from a distance and she seemed ok with that but if a dog gives her eye contact of starts to pull on the lead and will growl.
She is the loveliest, calmest dog when in the house but outside she’s the complete opposite.
I tried a muzzle but she wasn’t having any, she started to snap at me and when it was trying her best to get it off so I purchased a bright orange lead that says ‘NO DOGS’
I don’t know what else I can do, at the minute the dog trainers aren’t taking appts due to Covid 19
 
Ali Nicklin said:
their dog had its back to my dog from a distance and she seemed ok with that but if a dog gives her eye contact of starts to pull on the lead and will growl
Click to expand...

This is really helpful information.

First a little bit about canine body language. To a dog, direct eye to eye contact is really intimidating so she is at least tuned into that and aware that the dog facing away was not being threatening. And that thing that @@judyn said about distance - a road width is easier to manage than 200m.

So, she will have an invisible radius of space around her where she feels secure - it's called flight distance; anything closer will trigger the fight or flight stress response which you may have heard of. That dog, combined with looking away, seems to have been outside of her flight distance at that particular time (more later on that)..

There are things you can do to help make her more comfortable at shorter distances.

This link might be helpful

http://careforreactivedogs.com


So, gradually, over weeks and months, not days, you are working on reducing the distance and at the same time, creating a positive emotional response . As Judy said, this may mean you have to be selective where you walk - choose places with good visibility so you can turn and walk away easily if a dog appears and is going to get into her space before she is ready. But - and this is the thing about the timing of the meeting - if your dog has had a stressful episode the stress hormone can stay in the body for some time (days) so a distance she was comfortable with the day before might be too close that day. So the safe distance can change, watch her body language.

Trainers describe behaviour like this with reference to the three Ds. Distance, as above but also be aware of Duration (your dog might be tolerant for 10 seconds, but not 15) and Distraction - how distracting the stimulus is; a calm dog might not trigger any reaction at a given distance but a bouncy one might.

Alongside that you could train a 'watch me'. As your dog looks at you, mark and reward the behaviour. Ask for longer periods of watching. Then if a dog approaches, after you have worked on the distance issue, you can get your dog to focus on you and not the other dog. BUT - some dogs find this scary as they cannot see the thing they are anxious about so you need to judge your dog.
 
You might be able to get her used to wearing a muzzle - start by smearing the inside with something like cream cheese and let her put her head in to lick it out. Once her response on seeing the muzzle is to stick her nose straight in, hold the straps loosely round the back of her head, & progress to doing them up and undoing them straight away. Once you can do them up, leave the muzzle on for a few seconds, building up time gradually, while feeding her more delicious treats through it. Then while she's wearing it, do something like getting her to do a quick bit of training that she enjoys...

I would do this in a very low-key way, only at a level where she's completely happy with it, because the last thing either of you need right now is extra stress. If you never get to the point where she will happily wear it on walks you haven't lost anything by trying, and even if all you manage over the next 12 months is being able to get a muzzle on her and fastened, it may come in useful one day for vet procedures when she needs one.
 
If you can’t easily change place where you walk so you can avoid other dogs - perhaps you can change time? When I had to avoid dogs with our first dog for a while - I found that at 5 AM most places are quite empty....
 
Hello, welcome.
You have joined a lovely friendly forum here.
You will get loads of helpful and knowledgeable information here. We all love to help if we can.:D

.
 
Thanks everyone, you’ve all got some good advice and tips for me to try, I think I’ve done the best thing joining this group it’s give me some reassurance straight away.
 
Hi and welcome:) Have a look at neondog.co.uk they do hi-vis tabards for the human to wear asking people to keep their dogs away from you and yours, printed front and back. Maybe worth wearing one also? It must be so awful for your poor dog(and you) getting so stressed, but you will get good advice on here;).. Have to ask, any pics of your lovely girl??
 
Ari_RR said:
If you can’t easily change place where you walk so you can avoid other dogs - perhaps you can change time? When I had to avoid dogs with our first dog for a while - I found that at 5 AM most places are quite empty....
Click to expand...
I walk my dogs at 430am every morning all year as one of mine is reactive. ..to men ....if you can walk early it will be so much less stressful for you ;);)
 
Geez 4.30 am , what times bedtime 21.00 hehe,
 
My bedtime in the winter with dark nights is usually around 9pm, but summertime I can last until 11pm.
 
I go to bed at 2100 these days if I possibly can, but years ago I was often out with the dog long enough to see the dawn come up. It's a magical time. Not so good if you have to go to work, though.
 
I'm not an early morning person... actually nowadays, I'm not a late night person either! I normally head upstairs around 9.30-10pm, but that's so I can get a good hour's reading in before OH comes up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top