Over-excited greeting towards other dogs

[laileikhim]

Hi everyone

 

My 7-month old rescue dog started off very shy and terrified when I adopted her at 9 weeks. She is now doing great, and a lot more confident. She is able to calm herself and look at me or distract herself by sniffing when we run into people while out on walks, with the occasional lunge.

 

But with dogs, she is always over-excited. Whenever we see a dog approach, she would crouch like she is waiting to pounce, and then run up to the dog to sniff and play. I can tell that some dogs are very uncomfortable with her greeting style. They try to evade her. When I try to pull her away (or the other owner leads their dog away), she barks and lunges and refuses to leave the other dog alone. Other times, when a friendly dog wants to leave the play, she exhibits the same ugly behaviour, sometimes even snarling and looking really menacing. A meet and greet is never enough for her - she always wants to play. All this is on leash. I dare not let her go off leash as I cannot be sure I won't lose her, or that she won't react to random people who get in her way.

 

How do I get her to be more gracious and gentle in her greeting, and to know when to leave it if the other dog has had enough?

 

Much thanks.

lk

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hello and welcome to the forums,

Kudos to you for helping a shy and terrified dog turn into a dog who is more confident! I like that she has learned to look at you upon spotting people on walks.

 

With other dogs, if your dog is truly fond of being around them and wants to play, you are likely describing a dog who is displaying what is known as "barrier frustration." You can read more about this here along with tips on how to deal with this issue.

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/barrier-frustration/

 

I would not encourage her to run up to other dogs. Not only because this greeting styles can make other dogs uncomfortable (and she may greet the wrong dog who may even attack her), but also because by encouraging this behavior, you are increasing the likeliness of her throwing her barrier frustration "tantrum."

 

In such cases, distance is your best friend. If you keep distance from other dogs, your dog is more likely to be calmer and this leaves space for her to cognitively function, so that she can learn to engage in alternate behaviors such as sitting as other dogs walk by, or doing some attention heeling. If we allow her to greet in this overexcited state of mind, we will be reinforcing that excitement along with the whole package of lunging, snarling etc. and these behavior will put more roots and become more difficult to eradicate.

 

Once she has learned to better control herself, then we can start working more closely around dogs and encourage calmer behaviors. Group dog training classes or Reactive Rover classes are a great way to accomplish this as your dog will have to learn to pay attention to you for several weeks while in presence of other dogs.

 

If you have some friends who own dogs, you can also practice some great structured impulse control exercises like having your dog walk in circles around the other dogs calmly, or weaving in and out nearby them. You will have to do this in small incremental steps otherwise we would put her to fail. High-value treats are needed to help the dog make good choice and reinforce desired behaviors.

 

If any time her behavior seems to start breaking down, that is often indicative that she wasn't ready for that level of a challenge yet. So a few steps back need to be taken. Finding some good walking buddies (where the dogs just parallel-walk without interacting) is also a good way to allow dogs like yours to learn to act calmer.

 

Please note: a phenomenon we need to be aware of is an "extinction burst." If every time, your dog has seen other dogs in the past, she pulled towards them reaching them successfully, expect her for some time to pull harder, bark and lunge more forcefully than before in hopes of reaching them. It's important to be determined and prevent her to go greet the dog (use a front-attachment harness if she drags you), even better, keep distance from other dogs so that she won't reach that point that triggers her pulling and desire to greet behavior.

Edited October 15, 2019 by Adrienne Farricelli