As some of you know, I've just started walking my brother's Rotti X Dobe, in an effort to improve her life from crap to good!  She's doing well, and a lot happier - I've had no high-pitched ear splitting yelps to try and get someone to take her out since I started, so all is good.

For a quick history - she's 7 years old and a rescue - as far as I know, she was stray at around 6 months old (possibly a year, not too sure), went into the Dogs Trust kennels up North then was brought down to CHestfield, Kent, as she couldn't fnid a home - she'd been in kennels for around 18 months to two years.  She came to Chestfield not long at all before my brother and his ex went to pick a dog, and they brought her home, so she would have been 2-3 years old then.  Now she's 7 1/2.

She pulls like a steam train, but the halti harness is curbing that enough for me to control ehr, and for the most part she walks well.  The problem is other dogs.  Inside the house, she's fine - I groom dogs, and every now and then, she opens the door to the dining room and invites herself and my own two dogs in to say hi - not helpful of course!  but, she's always friendly to any dogs she meets, even if they aren't (I am now using a bungee cord to hold the door shut regardless!).  Outside, however, it's like Jekkyl and Hyde!!!

If she sees a dog, she'll get very interested - ears up, as upright as she can make herself still with 4 paws on the ground, tail wagging.  The closer they get, she starts to get agitated.  This is between 60 feet and about 30 feet, depending on the other dog.  If they get really close - for example, if we're on a pavement and I have nowhere to go to get out of the way, she goes berserk - up on the hind feet, making the most godawful "I want to kill you!" type noises, it's quite horrific.  But, for the most part her hackles aren't up.  She makes an incredible fuss, then takes about a minute to calm down again afterwards and carry on walking as before the "offending" dog.

She seems to have more problems with smaller dogs - jack russels in particular, for some reason.  What I need to know is how I can communicate to her that she doesn't need to get worried or kick up a fuss - that the other dog isn't interested, and is no threat.

Normally, I would continue walking, and ignore her rantings completely - but it isn't an option.  If I so much as move a foot, her sheer strength will pull me straight towards the other dog.  All I can do at the moment is stand stock still and brace myself, and hold on tight.  I don't want to tighten the leash (even though she does that anyway), but if I give her too much slack she can throw herself around more, and I lose my footing.

So, any wonderful ideas?  As far as I know my brother does the same thing on the odd days he does take her out - but I suspect someone's mentioned (or he's driven by and seen me) that I'm walking her; since Monday, he's walked her for ten minutes twice (maybe, possibly once) - Monday night and Saturday night.  He hasn't even shown up otherwise, so I know he hasn't walked her.  I'm giving her about an hour each day, give or take, and she's going out twice.  I try to walk her in open places to give other dogs a wide berth if we see them, but of course on a pavement it isn't an option.

The timing of the outbursts also vary - the other day I walked her to the park in the morning, and had to stop on a pavement to let a staff X by (lovely dog, he's friends with mine) - Tia was fine until he was right next to us, and just as the owners asked if she was ok with other dogs, she went crazy.  But a jack russel on the other side of a road the other day made her absolutely bonkers!  But then again, a basset up the park, which we'd walked some distance behind, caused no problems - she got within 30 feet and was just interested, tail wagging and pulling a little, but no noise or defensive (or offensive) posturing that I could see.

I do know that when she was first with my brother and his ex at their old house, they hired a behaviourist - he told them just ignore other dogs and keep walking.  The ex tried it and it did work (after about the third walk round the park) - but she seems to be worse since then, and I just can't move when she starts or i'll be pulled to the other dog.  She won't accept a regular halti, btw, only the harness type.

Edit to say - apologies for that being a rediculously long post!!!!!!!

Why on earth did your brother get a dog if he can't exercise and socialise her? Especially a rescue who needs even more work than a pup! :rolleyes: Thank goodness she's got you. :-)

Have you tried food treats? Try teaching her to sit in front of you and watch you in return for a treat. A clicker could help her here. Start indoors and gradually move outside until you have her full attention. That way she will learn to focus on you and not the other dog but you can stand still as I know it is hard to keep moving while a dog is doing that and stay upright! Everytime she so much as glances at you you click and feed her. It will take time but I have never known it to fail. What you should find eventually is she will see another dog approaching and will sit and look at you waiting for her treat. Use really scrummy food like baked liver, liver cake, chicken or cheese. You could play with her with a toy if she prefers but most Dobes and Rotties are quite food orientated so that might work more.

With regards to the Halti my dogs all hated it too. Have you tried a Gencon Gentle Controller? It isn't as harsh as a Halti and doesn't ride up into their eyes. It is normal for them to protest at first but TBH if I was walking a dog who behaved like her I would insist on it. As for little dogs, maybe she has been attacked by a JRT in the past. One of mine hates small dogs in particular because it is usually them who start fights and because they are little owners tend not to bother so much with training and they never do as they are told!

Good luck :-)

I think perhaps he's an idiot? :p but seriously, when he got her his ex did all the work - training classes etc, took her for two hours' off leash walking every day - it's just that when their relationship failed, Tia came to our house with my brother, and his lack of involvement with ehr was shown for what it really is.

I will try the attention with the clicker training -she is fairly clicker savvy as I use one for all the dogs.  Also, we had a bit of a breakthrough yesterday - in the time she's lived with me (two years mid-august), I've tried many times to do a little training session and given up, simply because she's too bouncy and food-obessesed - she'd spend the whole time sitting, moving a bit, sitting again, all very bouncy to try and get food off me - didn't matter what i tried, and trying to get her to follow a treat made her nervous. go figure!  but, I did manage a session with her yesterday - and I've almost got her doing a nice finish into heel position in one session!  So I think the walks I'm giving her are helping calm her down.  Plus, if she is responmding to me like that now, then the clicker/attention thing may have a great chance of working - if only I'd posted sooner!  She's not especially toy orientated - my other dogs (dobe, rott X) are very food orientated like she is, so I've certainly got practice under me belt in treat training!

Thanks again, I'll let you know how we get on.

Until she changes her view of other dogs, rather than passing close to someone on a pavement, turn and walk back in the direction that you came from until you find a wider place to pass.  Walks might take a bit longer but it does save you from being pulled over and it has the added benefit that it will keep her guessing, teach her an alternative strategy and give her enough space to concentrate on your clicker training routine.

I think her reaction varies because there are two dogs behaviour in this situation - some dogs seem to know how to give off an "I don't want any trouble" sort of signal and others are rather more 'in your face.'  Your dobe x doesn't know how to manage the 'in your face' kind so it's up to you to keep them at a distance she can cope with until she has better associations with other dogs.

Best wishes, this dog is lucky to have someone like you.

To be honest, the dogs we've passed since I've started walking her haven't been in her face at all - they've all just carried on walking regardless of what she's doing.  But I will do the walking the other way thing I think, it'll make the walk take longer but hopefully it will be worth it.

Of course, I'm fighting against anti-trainnig here - she's just gone crazy as brother has been here, he's walking her at the mo - I've just listened to him yelling "WALK!" downstairs in an effort to get her to calmly walk into the hallway (no, he hasn't trained that command), and I watched him take her out to see what he does - nothing.  He has her on a flexi, and I watched her going *backwards* down the road, biting at the lead to drag him with her - she even hit a wheelie bin, she was being so crazy.  but he's just letting her do it. ARG!  Still, at least she behaves with me int hat respect, so that's a start.  Oh, they've jsut got back as I type - I hear the door closing! - gee, that was a whole 12 minutes!!

Dear Nikita, I agree with Colliesrus, control of this dog is essential via a halter.  What if lose your balance or get knocked into?  It culd be a tragedy for you and the dog - not to mention you must be absolutely cream-crackered by the end of the walk.  Our rescue GSDX detested the Halti but it effectively saved his life.  He had a massive problem with traffic and had already been rehomed twice; it was his last chance.  On a collar and lead he nearly had me into the (main) road many a time but the halti gave me control and confidence which communicated itself to the dog.  Having worn out two Haltis and two Gentle Leaders (all hated) we are now on a Dogmatic which doesn't seem to bother him at all, so try that.

As for the brother...bless.

PS The rescue centre didn't mention his 'little problem', they just said he 'wasn't aggressive enough for a  guard dog'!!

I'm afraid that if you want to help her and retrain her you're gonna have to either ban your brother from taking her out, 12 minutes isn't worth it anyway! Or insist he does the same as you. Consistancy is the only way to go. Intelligent dogs in particular will learn the bad behaviour even quicker than the good and for every good half hour session she has with you he will undo it in 15 minutes! :-( Plus if she is scared anyway, him shouting at her will only make her worse as it will get her adrenaline going before she even starts. Sorry I don't have patience with people like your brother, you must be a saint! ;-)