Quote:
Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly  Going great? You mean he's been acting more calmly around passing dogs as he focuses on the meat and fast-walking? If that's what you meant, that's wonderful.
You poor thing - no wonder your boy went into full frenzy mode when that huge dog came at you both - he's just begun training and this dog came belligerently into his private space, no doubt with his tail and ears pricked, hackles raised and without any attempted normal greeting of butt-sniffing or friendly signals - just barged up to your little guy. Thank goodness nobody was hurt. Sounds as if not too many people in that area obey leash laws or are afraid of their off-lead dogs hurting others or getting hurt, lost, stolen or run-over by being off leash and just taking off on a whim, as I'm pretty certain few of them are trained to stop and stay in place at the owner's command when off lead and as you say their dog does not either understand or obey the owners command, this incidentally is not true with Toby who [as long as there is no perceived threat would sit at first command, lie down with one gesticulation from me and roll over of his own accord, bring in a perceived threat and it all goes to the wall.
But it sounds as if things were maybe going great, he was learning not to go ballistic at every dog that passed by, until this episode and you two are still on track and can reset and start out again, this time with some behavior-modification skills having been learned by your little guy so he won't be that hard to get back into his training. Just remember to keep the sessions very, very short, frequent, keep him distracted and at a far distance from the other dog until he's accepting of them being nearby and passing as he's learning that not all of them are going to try to hurt him or you and once you no longer need the distracting chicken or circle-walking and then you can allow him to pass by other dogs more closely. |
Toby was learning at a fast pace, as he picks these things up very quickly, nothing to do now but to go back to base one and start again, I have bought him some treats designed especially for dogs in training[or so the packet says] he loves them but, seriously I only give them as a reward for correct responses and accompanying good behaviour. You talk about owners and leash laws, seems you know about these and your right in what you say and imply,absolutely right, not many of these dogs and they are nearly always big dogs that are off a leash are under correct control. I have found that most owners will shout harshly at their dog to regain control of it when it is off a leash and venturing to attack another dog