Hi,  As some of you know I have been working on socialising my dog with others since I got him last July and he has come on leaps and bounds but I do have a couple of questions around this topic if anyone can help,

1.  How do I get him to slow his approach to other dogs - he will approach other dogs as if he has been fired out of a catapult - whether he has two steps to get there or twenty. 

2.  Sometimes when he gets to them he stops and stands still - then says hello nicely and quietly or sometimes will bark once and walk away.  Any idea what the 'stand still might mean' - is it an inidication of nervousness 

3. sometimes he bends his front down and bounces away runs a couple of steps and comes back quick bark and repeats - I'm taking this as a 'come play' would that be right?

Just to add - he doesnt run far away - I'm not talking big distances - I'm talking the longest it might take him 10 seconds to get to the other dog and if I call him he comes straight back.

the reason I am asking is an incident that happened yesterday and I'm not sure if I should have recognised anything...

He bolted off to go see another dog - I called him back so before he got as far as the dog he turned round whilst running and headed back towards me.  The other dog had seen him so chased him towards me - they got close to me - veered a bit to the side of me ran round each other once and stopped.  My dog barked once - like a shall we do that again type of thing I thought - and the other dog went for him.  My dog was straight down - a yelp/scream - the other dogs owner called it and it went straight away.  So no problems - no rows between owners just wondered if I should have seen it coming.....   

Quite a lot there - sorry!

Maxine

This should answer some of your questions :)
Turid Rugaas - Calming signals
Just click on the blue..and you'll soon be able to speak 'dog' :D

Some very interesting stuff there. I've bookmarked it. :)

I've book marked that site too. My girl is 18mths & when she approaches dogs she walks slowly forward & as they get closer she jumps in circles. She seems to really show off. She is so excited to see all dogs. I guess that's better than being aggressive, but a EBT jumping in circles is quite a handful! I do hold her harness rather than her lead to control her now, perhaps time will calm her!!

My God!! I read the article and found this bit
This signal is frequently used as a calming signal, and it is the main reason why dogs may react so strongly towards meeting dogs when they are forced to walk straight at someone.. Their instincts tell them that it is wrong to approach someone like that - the owner says differently. The dog gets anxious and defensive. And we get a dog who is barking and lunging at other dogs, and eventually we have an aggressive dog.

At Tansy's training classes one of the exercises was to walk your dog toward another, face to face, and then get them to 'sit' or 'down'....the poor thing must have been terrified. (She never would 'down' either) The more I read, the more concerned I am that alot of Tansy's problems come from that class.

Thank you - I've ordered the book -

Maxine

Thank you for such an interesting link.  Hoping it make me aware of some signals I may be missing re my post aggression to particular puppy.  Thanks

I have just read the whole article and I think you may have solved my problem with Merlin my 1 year old black lab and his aggression to two different black lab puppies.  I was forcing him to interact with them in a direct way (Wrong in so many ways I now realise!!!!!)  So I will give them a wide berth and him a loose lead and let him tell me.  Keeping my fingers crossed and thanks again for the link.

think my little puli has learnt a bit himself today about slowing his approach.  He was off lead with OH over the park and ahead was a man with two dogs - Louis screamed off but 3/4 of the way there paid attention to who he was approaching - in my OH's language two of the biggest rottweillers he has ever seen - one on a lead and muzzled - the other off lead standing still and staring.  Louis turned around in mid runback to OH - had another think went back towards the Rotty slowly got part of the way there heard the rotty bark and thought - no maybe not - and went back and hid behind OH's legs....

OH spoke to the man who told him that the dog that was muzzled would have eaten him alive without a blink but the one off the lead would do as he was told no problem - they passed without event.

So maybe this is proof of 'Turids' theory - let the dogs make their own approaches and read each other....  who knows ....  but at least my dog is learning

Maxine

For Husky Gal - Just wanted to let you know how much of a help the book you recommended by Turid Ragas has been.  I have really been able to see the signals in other dogs and my own helping me to see whats coming when we meet with other dogs.  But the crowning moment has to be what happened today.

My neighbour at the caravan site has a 25 year old down syndrome son who always tries to talk to my dog and wants to stroke him etc.  However every time he opens his mouth or so much as looks at my dog - Louis really barks and our neighbour gets scared and backs away.  Today he tried - Louis started barking really loudly.  I told the neighbours son turn your head to the side and dont look at him - immediately Louis stopped barking and went and sniffed his feet.  I was really pleased and my neighbour was really excited - it has been a year and we go every weekend and all the holidays and this is the first time Louis has greeted the neighbours son like that!!  I didnt push it too far we walked away then and promised that we would try to build on it - but how fantastic was that,,,,,

Thansk for your help

Maxine

That's a great story Maxine.  How nice that this man has shown willing after all this time he could so easily have just become too frightened to try.  I hope they will grow to be friends the chap certainly deserved it for sticking with you :)

:) Thats lovely to hear Maxine, certainly a warming story for such a cold night tonight.
Thanks for sharing that, its a wonderful world that opens up with a bit of knowledge isnt it :)
Ive been to 2 of Turid's seminars, hoping she will be coming to the UK at the end of the year..definately worth going to if she does!

Are you still going to those classes??

I had a really BAD experience at a training class, but I wasn't confident enough to realise she just wasn't the right trainer for my dog and me, so I stayed the course, and it set back my training by MONTHS...

I would advise ANYBODY who gets an uneasy feeling about a training class to LEAVE - there are loads of dog trainers out there, but you've got to live with your dog for life...