hey all, as you may know my parents big boy is moving in with us soon. unfortunately he does not like other dogs (appart from the other family dogs) andreacts badly on a walk to them (he's had a couple of bad experiences)

the hope is that with my bf and i rather than my father whos health is failing and away from 'his' bitches who he is very protective of he will calm down a little. however do you have any advise about the best way to try and establish other dogs as a nice thing and not a threat?

I bought a DVD recently, Fighting Dogs by Ian Dunbar that you might find interesting. (I'm kind of a dog geek = reading books and watching videos). It was interesting to watch how much aggression was unwittingly encouraged by the owner's behaviour and how much better dogs were when they were corrected and praised at the right moments. Lots of people forget the praise part, especially when the dog is behaving. Might be worth a watch (you're kind of a dog geek too aren't you? ;-)) Boils down to letting the dog know you totally disapprove of the aggression and making sure you reward calm behaviour. It's better to see it than to describe it in a post. (and I'm not on commission! LOL)

> you're kind of a dog geek too aren't you?

that does sound interesting, i'll have to get a copy when i've got some cash...

yes. yes i am. i am not ashamed!

he's going to see an increase in his excersise, plus if i'm feeding BARF he shouldn't be getting any nasty additives that might get him going. i genuinely feel that he mostly does it as a defence because dad isn't well and he feels the need to protect him and the girls. in which case being with my partner or i should help with that.

i'm thinking that i'll carry cheese or liver cake and whenever we go near another dog i'll walk him past firmly and distract him with treats in the hope that he'll learn dogs= food= good thing. however this seems simplistic and perhaps wishful thinking.

Hi, with my girl i use high reward treats like you suggested, when a dog approaches i use a clicker, when she looks at the dog i click reward, shes fantastic to walk now every time she sees a dog now she looks to me instead of trying to go for the dog!! hers is fear based aggression.

Best wishes
Hayley

sounds worth a go then, i'll get cooking livercake before my boyo moves in...

I used a muzzle for my boy when he got weird for a short time only - male on male aggression he has bad. Must say for my head space worked a treat as we can't help getting stressed once I see another dog walking my way , as I knew my snoop could not hurt another dog- no more me panicing and making him worse. Must say he calmed down once I got my other girl as every strange dog he met he thought fight time but once he saw my tinkerbell say hi and then mostly end up playing he calmed down alot. It was mostly my fault when I saw a cute pup I would make a fuss of it he was so jealous, would try to attack them . My boy even knows the difference between me saying.." is it a girl " then he's chilled if I say " its a boy" he gets all puffed up &  ready... sod he is !! Well he has calmed down a lot more now but I would still like to let him run free [off lead] and me not worry.

I think I will invest in that DVD !

Buster hasn't shown any aggression to anything (yet, touch wood), but he was incredibly fixated & exited by children, he used to pull like a train, I had a hells job trying to hold him & nothing would get his attention. I changed my tactics, for a while as soon as i saw children just before Buster had change to get wound up I would pull a treat out, say 'whats this' and he would look at the treat, I would then say 'walk nice' (command for walking on a slack lead) and if he walked on a slack lead & concentrated on me he would get a treat. Now, most of the time, when he sees kids he will look at me for a treat and ignore the kids :) (I just need to phase the treats out to random now).
So, to sum up all my waffle, distraction with treats may be worth a try. it has also made Buster think that kids = be nice & calm :)

ETA - Doh!!, only just read Daxters post - similar thing positive association :)
ETA again - sorry Astarte you allready came up with this idea. Note to self - read ALL posts before blabbering on :(

lol something i do as well! no it's good to hear of it working for people, makes it seem less of a silly idea