I have, thanks to help from this forum, controlled the barking of my dog Theo at the fence. I go up to him thank him, give him a treat and he stops. Now can you help me with meeting other dogs on our walks,when he becomes very aggressive, particularly with big dogs! Theo is a lovely Cavalier, well behaved in the house and car but at the moment a nightmare outside. I have been taking him down to a local dog walking field where he has begun meeting small dogs but getting to the field is a nightmare. We are still working on not pulling on the lead as well. I have been told it may be my anxiety when I see a dog coming that is the problem. Any ideas on helping me!!!

He's frightened and I don't blame him a lot of small dogs are very afraid of bigger dogs for good reason, so put on a show to deter any threat.

How old is Theo?

Walking off lead from puppyhood is what builds confidence with other dogs who are most unlikely to attack a puppy (although there is the odd rogue dog who even will do that) it gives a puppy the chance to meet and greet with your vigilance and not get a bad reaction, which builds that confidence, (however one bad reaction can throw the whole process into reverse, so you should always ask the owner if the dog is ok with others first) then allow puppy and dog to sniff and greet. It also helps to train recall and a pup will stay with it's owner. The pup learns to socialise with all dogs and people and the fear aggression does not build.

Once adolescence is reached then a long line may be needed with continued recall training and meet and greet as dogs often wish to ignore their owners and may follow other dogs, however the fear of other dogs is not there as they have socialised well during puppyhood.

Keeping your dog on lead at the puppy - adolescence stage interferes with them building that confidence, they feel restricted and unable to get away so the only stance is aggression or a submissive role.

Did you go to puppy classes with him for socialisation with other dogs also? As this builds confidence too.

This may be a good place to start if he is older and missed out on the puppy off lead stage, you could go in for the KC bronze and build up, he will only stop reacting if he feels safe and the only way to do that is to slowly introduce him to bigger dogs who you know are trusted, talk to people on your walk and see if you can find an older 'couldn't care less' kind of dog as obviously barking aggressively from yours could cause a reaction especially to an adolescent, you can also include sitting down on the grass in the field and offering a treat whenever he does not bark at other dogs to re-enforce the message. :-)

http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/loose_leash_diagramed.doc
http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/letsgoforawalktogether.pdf
http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/strolling_on_lead.doc
http://www.learningaboutdogs.com/acatalog/walktogdvd.html
http://www.clickertraining.com/node/541

Look under loose leash walking here:

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/index.htm#basic

Sounds like barrier frustration to me on the lead.

See here

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2001b/desensitizing.htm

Agree with everything carrington said and would definitely be trying to find some "good" puppy classes where class sizes are smaller and I would also be looking at lead work to help you both.

As well as mentioned before how old? Neutered yet? (hopefully not!) And how have you been handling it?I would be trying to sort out lead issues when no dogs around and when he starts barking I would simply ignore it completely. No food at all at these points or you are reinforcing the wrongthe behaviour.Try teaching a hand touch command and on the approach of another dog say next week when you both know what you're doing,try asking for it on the approach of bigger dogs. That way hopefully you will be rewarding a correct behaviour which will happily coincide with the approach of dogs thereby having a positive effect.

Best thing is to get to a trainer though before it goes on too long. Dealt with lots of puppies going through these little fear phases, it's normal, they do come out the other side just takes time and patience.   

Are you sure it's aggression and not manic excitement? My Cav Henry used to be very embarrassing, if offlead he would gallop miles off to meet other dogs, and if onlead he would bark frantically and nearly choke himself trying to get to them to say hello. Took a fair bit of training, experience in working out what would work for him, and him growing up, before we got it under control! A good trainer or behaviourist would be my recommendation, one that knows body language and can tell you whether it's over excitement or aggression - unusual (though not unheard of I grant you) in a Cavalier!

I am sure it is manic excitement as he hasn`t got an aggressive bone in his body. Small children he loves, they can stroke him and play with him no problem.  As you say he barks and almost chokes himself to get to the dogs that we meet. You have described exactly what happens with Theo. Got a different trainer coming to see us on Sunday so fingers crossed. Thanks

Glad to hear it - still something that needs working on of course, but a much 'nicer' problem than aggression! What helped with Henry (as well as maturity) was teaching him a 'wait' or 'steady' command. He could do a recall, but refused to listen if there was a dog he wanted to greet. As he got older (and we're talking 18 months or 2 years, I'm afraid!), he did manage to slow down or stop with a 'wait' command so I could put his lead on and get a bit of control into the greeting. :-)

My Vic used to be quite like Theo and your dog Lucy, he used to bark,scream and lunge due to his excitement, it was dreadful - I had to be so vigilant about were he could go off lead otherwise he would gallop up to other peoples dogs at 30mph to say hi :(
I found the clicker solutions page that someone has posted up already to be very useful. It has lots of helpful clearly written articles, 'help my dog is pulling my arm off' was a godsend for me and there are a few others in there that might give you some inspiration for things you could try with Theo to help him learn some self-control :)
My horrid screamer is now 3yrs old and a really nice dog, it was hard work but so satisying to help him be his best, he still makes the odd peep and whistle at other dogs but he is a lurcher and his 'talkiness' is part of his charm (how can a big gangly thing like that sound so much like a baby bird?)
Good luck for Sunday!

Had a new trainer come on Sunday who gave some really common sense answers and help. We`ve got some things to work on for the next 2-3 weeks then we can have another visit if we wish. Theo responded well even in the 2 hours that she was here and I now know what I should be doing to help him. I liked her methods and ideas far more than the other 2 who came and I suppose that is really important. Thanks for the support.

Thank goodness I found this forum. I am suffering from this problem too (rushing up on and off lead). 

Is there any chance Theo you could share your trainers words.

I am desperate to solve this as it is the only real problem I have with my 18month welsh springer. It ruins our walks.

Alternatively can you share the details of the trainer so I can see if they are local to me?

Many thanks

Kilo

I live in North Nottinghamshire and the lady just lives locally. She dog walks and helps with behaviour, she just had an advert on her car so I rang her. I had gone through 2 other trainers that I had found on internet but thought I had nothing to lose by trying this lady and it seems,hopefully, to be a more positive start than the others. I think it`s a case of trying until you find a person who you feel right with. Good luck