Just wondering how you all go about training your dogs to behave on a lead around distractions.  I went to two boot fairs this morning, the first was okay (in a park n ride car park), a few sudden stops by the dogs to sniff the ground but nothing really annoying.  The second one, tho, nearly drove me crazy!  It was in a field, sheep poo all over the place and interesting smells - both dogs spent the whole time we were there with noses to the ground, randomly eating poo or stopping to sniff suddenly (it hurts the wrists, I tell ya!).  That's the lighter side of the problem - other dogs are the real bone of contention here, although it would be nice not to be dragged backwards when they both stop to smell a lump of grass :D

Opi, my rott X, is the worst with other dogs.  not in a mean way - both my pups (well, 2 yrs olds :p) are exceptionally friendly with other dogs, which caused the trouble; if we pass another dog while they're on lead (basically all the time, while I'm sorting the recalls out), both dogs try their damndest to pull me towards it to say hi.  Remy (dobe) has a halti harness, so I can control him a little better - he pulls anyway, that's why I use it.  But Opi doesn't pull when we're walking, so I only use a normal collar on her - but if there's another dog, even if I'm between ehr and it, she will be straining and up on her back feet, just to say hi!

How do you ppl teach your dogs to be nice and jsut walk past other dogs?  It's getting very annoying now, they're quite well behaved other than this, and I get a lot of comments to that effect as well - I got one this morning from a guy with a snapping schipperke who said to it, "why can't you behave nicely like they are?" I almost laughed, both mine were pulling as hard as they could to say hi to the snarling little beastie at the time - it's only because I'm strong enough to stop them that they looked like they were standing still!  I don't mind them giving the odd tug if a rabbit or squirrel appears, that I can understand, but not dogs.

Any ideas?  They're clicker savvy, so anything along those lines is welcome - well, anything is really :) I'd like to enjoy a boot fair once in a while!  I'm working on "wait" and "leave it" commands at the mo as well as the recall, but I'd like the terrible twosome to understand that they should just walk past other dogs when on leash.  Same off leash ideally, in the end, but I'll worry about that when they have recalls good enough to be let off in the first place!

It's good to have hands on help really for this sort of thing, but you are doing the right thing trying to teach some self control with the Wait and Leave It commands :)

I would suggest setting up training situations and also, only train one dog at a time. Start off at a distance from the other dogs and lots of praise, click and treat, toys etc for behaving. It may be beneficial to teach a Watch Me command, but I haven't done this as i just prefer not to, but we all differ. Then, gradually get closer and closer to other dogs ... this may take a few weeks or even months. I hope I'm making sense, it's not easy to explain over the internet!

Don't let them practice the behaviour, and that means setting themup for success and being very watchful as to what is happening. If the worst happens and they start to pull towards other dogs, try the emergency tip of putting a totally glorious titbit on their nose and leading it round towards you, then plenty of praise along with the titbit. The more you train, and the less they practice pulling towards other dogs, the more obedient they will become. Hopefully!

But ideally get someone to help you and give hands on advice :)

Hth a bit
Lindsay
x

We had similar problems but just taught them both to sit and wait until someone had walked by, they would then get rewarded by a ball game or treat (whichever is more appropriate).  This seems to have worked and will nearly always walk past someone without paying much attention unless it is someone we know and a dog they play with but I cant complain about that.

Claire