Excited Screaming

[NedaHadisadegh]

My dog used to get so excited when we went for walks she would start screaming, not just any screaming, high pitched screaming that sounded like I was torturing her.  My neighbor saw this happen on several occasions and commented that they were going to think I was beating my dog and take her away when I was only taking her for a walk.  After some training and going straight home this behavior greatly lessened, but since quarantine whenever we are on a walk and she even sees another dog she starts the same loud, high-pitched screaming and tries to go for the other dog which scares them and anyone else around makes it almost impossible to go out when other people are walking their dogs.  She does learn and I can get her to calm down faster, but the screaming behavior has not stopped.

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of behavior?  I've never seen anything like it and have found no one who can relate or give advice to end this for good.

[Adrienne]

Hi there, 

Welcome to the forums,

It must be very frustrating dealing with neighbors who don't understand this behavior and misinterpret it. I hope they were able to understand what is truly going on.

I have seen many dogs do the oddest vocalizations on walks including whining, whimpering, yelping and some even howling and baying when they see other dogs on walks. It's often a mix of excitement and if the dog is pulling and lunging to the point of scaring other dogs, there may also be some element of barrier frustration. In this case, the dog is super excited and charged and the dog may even end up acting in a way that may even appear aggressive. 

You can read about barrier frustration here, let me know if it sounds like this and if your dig fits the description:

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

When a dog is too excited or nervous or stressed, there are lower chances for learning to take place, so it's important for owners of such dogs to get accustomed with a dog's threshold levels, you can read more about threshold levels in dogs here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/

It sounds like though things are getting better. The fact that your dog does learn and you can get her to calm down faster is good. I think your dog may benefit from some "Look at that exercises if you can have her watch dogs passing by from a window or behind a fence. You can find the look at that exercise here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/

On walks, try to keep distance from other dogs as best as you can. If dogs are coming too close, do an about face as described in the emergency u turn article here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/emergency-u-turn/

If at any time she reacts, it's often sign that she is too over threshold and you need to provide more distance so that she's in a calmer state. Reward her for performing behaviors that are incompatible with screaming and pulling such as doing attention heeling as you pass by other dogs: 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/heeling-attention-heeling/

Since this takes time to master, in your initial walks you can train her to go on a treasure hunt the moment she spots a dog. As soon as you both spot a dog at a distance, make a smacking sound with your mouth (as in the Look at that exercise) bring a treat at eye level and toss several treats to the ground so that she needs to go search for them in a fun treasure hunt. 

With dogs like this, you may also find the open bar/closed bar method helpful. It involves having her watch dogs pass by where their appearance translates in treats and the disappearance translates to no more treats. It's described here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/open-bar-closed-bar/

Finally, these exercises can help dogs who benefit from some extra impulse control:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/impulse-control-frustration-tolerance/

And these are a few threads with owners dealing with dogs showing similar behaviors as yours (please note though that treatments may vary based on individual factors such as whether the behavior is triggered by fear/aggression).

 I hope this helps,

 Let me know if you have any questions and feel free to update on how things go.