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Originally Posted by Cha Cha  Personally, I don't like a spray bottle. IMO dogs are smart enough to know when you have the bottle in hand. IMO your trainer is asking your dog to act out only so she can spray him or make a correction. Even if the other dog is the one to first act, your dog gets sprayed. That doesn't seem right to me.
It kind of sounds to me like you might want to consider your actions to Cody's behavior. Dogs absolutely respond to your own body language. Maybe without really knowing it you are asking him to protect you, as you say, you allow him to be ahead of, or in front of you. Maybe he feels the need to protect you rather than be dog aggressive. While walking, on a leash, I never allow my dogs to meet nose to nose with another. Ever. I also expect their attention to always be on me. I can tell when my dogs see something. A rabbit, bird, or even another dog approaching and I know by their behavior or body language when they are not focused on me. I don't have to see their face. I give them a come back to me focus command, "hey" and if they don't obey, I give them a nudge on their harness to say, pay attention to me, and we keep walking uninterrupted. I never have any issues with other dogs. |
I totally agree with all that you have said, I need to re-train myself. 40 years of having dogs, walking them a certain way all now needs to be changed by ME. I know dogs feed off you, I know I need to be relaxed, I know all of this affects the dogs reaction, I admit, I need the training more then him lol. I am sure Cody now knows about the spray bottle. Yes my trainer makes me walk as close as if safe near the other dog, when the trainer took the leash, yes she walked close to the minipin, the other dog was focused on the owner, he didn't even look at Cody, it was Cody that did the lunging, I am not happy about the spray bottle, I was quite upset when she used it, but it did work. I don't walk Cody at my side, yes, all my dogs walked in front of me, with them there was never any issue, that's why I say, I HAVE to change my ways, I have to re-train myself. Thing is, Cody is not leash walked a lot, I have a big yard where he runs and hunts. I do take him out on leash but not very often, too many big dogs get out of their yards or dash out of front door. I take Cody out for one reason only. I live in a heavily wooded area, god forbid he ever gets out of the house he will know his way back home, that is if he stays on the road he will know what his driveway and area smells like, if he gets into the woods he will be gone forever. So when I do walk him he is out front, if I am out of town and on city side walks I agree, he should walk by my side, I have to train him on that. Thank you for your input. I will work on keeping his focus on me, that is one of the things my trainer told me last week. This is all new to Cody and I see he gets very distracted easily, I think in time as he gets use to going for these sessions he will be less distracted. He works fine at home on commands, but there are no distractions here.