How to Socialize
 

Hey,

My yorkie Bailey is about two and a half. She's my only dog and she hasn't had many opportunities to be around other dogs. About a year ago my friend brought her puppy over and they kind of played although Bailey would always turn a little nippy towards him. She hasn't seen him in a long time though. When we go on walks if she sees other dogs she tenses up and wants to bark at them. I have to hold her to make sure she won't try to bite.

I'm wondering what's the best way to go about getting her more used to other dogs without any incidents. I don't want to take her to a dog park or something because that would surely be chaos. I've thought of getting a second dog, though I'm not sure I'm up to the extra care right now.

Suggestions please?

dog park!
 

i think you should take baily to a dog park but you might need to hold her in your arms sometimes because of the large dogs:exclaim:





I:hearts-xxdogs :woof:and :cat: cats:exclaim:
:yorkietal

Maybe look for a dog playgroup in your area, the inside space might be a little safer and you can have her on a leash until she gets used to being around other dogs. This may take a few times of going. Meetup.com is a great way to find any dog events in your area.

The moment I got engaged, I have taken my wife everywhere I could. It helped a lot.

Same with pups. Let them experience sights, sounds, people, other dogs, car rides, walks in different territory. Carlo and I used to sit out in front of large Mall stores and the train station so he would meet a lot of people while he was a pup. It worked! Now out Yourkie Maxine was not as exposed, and she does not care for anyone but the family, and sometimes not even us! Best of luck.

Just as an FYI, holding her probably makes it worse. She's learned that barking hysterically will get her held. Also, when they are higher up, they become a lot more defensive. Jackson is probably the most socialized dog I know, yet if I am holding him up in my arms and a dog tries to jump on us or something, he has growled and I couldn't believe it as I had never seen him do that before. But I often see people with little dogs holding them up in the air, or walking into dog parks with them in their arms, or keeping them on a leash while all the dogs surround them, and it just makes the situations worse.

As for the walking and barking/lunging at other dogs... try using her favorite treats (for jack-pot rewards, I use chicken or cheese). Watch her body language and try to catch her BEFORE she goes into a fit. You can teach a command like "watch me" etc and every time she turns and makes eye contact towards you, and not the other dog or object she's barking at, give her a treat and praise her. If she starts barking, simply turn the other way and start walking. Each time she barks, you turn around. Turn each walk into a training session for a while -- it's the only way you're going to get her to stop or improve.

Try watching YouTube account kikopup. She has some fantastic training videos on how to stop this kind of behavior.

:eyetearss

Oh wait wait wait... I mean that is just um... :eyetearss that is just wrong. How could you :eyetearss say something like that about a woman who clearly loves and :eyetearss adores you. Wrong I tell you; wrong! :eyetearss

Obedience class might be a good start. It's a controlled environment and you'll both learn to work on commands. That'll help in situations outside. Instead of lunging at another dog, she can be focused on your commands.

Start in controlled environments like sitting outside at a Starbucks or an outdoor mall. Use treats and praise for calm reactions. Use walk time for training too. She needs to be exposed to a wide variety of sights, sounds, smells, people, and other dogs but not too much at a time. A training class is a great idea. It would be a controlled environment to socialize and you would be able to work on training techniques. I would definitely not take a nervous dog to a dog park or a meetup group until she is better socialized. That is just inviting trouble. I would also not recommend another dog at this time. Even if she is comfortable around a new dog, which is a big gamble, that would still not help her learn to be comfortable around all dogs. I agree that holding her up may be making the problem worse. Ideally, the socialization should start when the pup is still young, before 12-16 weeks, but the more you can expose her too the better, even at 2 1/2 years old. She's had 2 1/2 years to learn to be fearful and to learn that barking gets her held and makes the scary thing go away, so be patient with her. It will take time and work to change this behavior. Good luck and please keep us posted on her progress.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. Bailey's really well socialized to other people/places/car rides. She loves people and car rides. However when she was a puppy I didn't know anyone with dogs to get her familiar with them. Let me clarify a little bit. The situation is usually not Bailey sees dog, barks wildly, and I pick her up. The first time we ran into a couple who had two smaller dogs I stopped nearby so she could see/smell them. The other dogs were investigating her too. But when one of the dogs got too close for comfort she started growling and I saw that she was about to get nippy so that's when I picked her up so we didn't have a bite situation. She's usually more growling at the other dogs than barking. With big dogs I do get more nervous and sometimes pick her up when I see them coming, because I know she could still get hostile towards them and if they respond she'd have no chance. She's so small, under 4 pounds.

I see how turning and walking her the other way makes more sense than picking her up, but she freezes and won't walk. I'd have to drag her. She's actually been doing that more lately on our walks, even if there are no dogs around. She's getting me to hold her a lot just because I want to keep moving. :rolleyes:

Last summer I actually took her to a dog beach and though I never took her off leash she was fine. She didn't get too close to any other dogs but was able to observe them from afar.

You are right to not take her to a dog park at the moment. You need a more controlled environment. The best way to socialize her is with another very well socialized dog. Do you have any friends that have a mellow pup that the two of you can spend some time with?

Another thing you can try is to just watch other dogs. When she starts to tense up, distract her with her favorite toy or a sound. When she turns to look at you or the toy, reward her with a high value treat (chicken or the like). You want to let her know that being relaxed and focused on you = good/ focusing on the other dog= no treat.

I'm not normally a fan of Victoria Stillwell, but many of her episodes reinforce this technique for desensitizing. I'm sure you can find some of her videos on youtube.