# Why does my dog bark at other dogs when on the lead?



## rabbitlovemydog (Feb 23, 2011)

My dog who is four years old has started barking at other dogs when we are walking and he is on the lead. He's recently started doing this and I dont understand why. I did lots of training and dog socializing with him from when he was eight weeks old and he gets on with other dogs, but seems to have developed a problem when on the lead! Does anyone know why this is and what I can do to retrain him? :confused1:


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## goodvic2 (Nov 23, 2008)

You say he does it on the lead. Is he ok off the lead then?


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## rabbitlovemydog (Feb 23, 2011)

Yes that is what is strange, he only does it when he is on the lead! Thanks


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## goodvic2 (Nov 23, 2008)

It's difficult without seeing how he is barking. Is it excitment/fear/aggression?

If he is ok off the lead and had good social skills then I would think that he is excited. Unless something has occured with him on the lead, which may have caused him to be nervous?

X


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## Malmum (Aug 1, 2010)

Bruce does this when i'm holding his lead, however he doesn't do it if someone else is holding his lead. I'm told i'm giving out the wrong signals to him. :


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## sharps218 (Sep 10, 2010)

sorry to hear about you recently acquired predicament, it can be quite annoying when your dog appears to all of a sudden develop an undesired trait, i empathise with you.

it's highly likely that a certain situation has triggered this off, is there only you who walks the dog?

remember there's four things a dog will do when faced with a situation, fight, flight, avoid or submit. when the dogs on the lead, its options are limited i.e. restricted by the lead, so may demonstrate different behaviours when on and off the lead, in this case barking at other dogs,

difficult thing as stated above is 1. whats caused your dog to start barking and 2. the intent of the bark


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## rabbitlovemydog (Feb 23, 2011)

I'm the one who does walk him mostly. He does have a lovely Granny that looks after him if I'm away but mostly its me. Nothing has ever happened to him on the lead that has been a bad experience. Whether its fear or excitement I dont actually know. I think he does a kind of growl, which I assume is aggression?

It is really frustrating as I've had a perfectly well behaved dog which is now behaving differently! I try to be relaxed on the lead when I pass other dogs so he does not tense up. I do know that he behaves like this more so with other people than me when on the lead.

It sounds like the first thing I need to find out is whether its fear, aggression or excitement? Does anyone know how I read the signals for each one?

Many thanks to everyone by the way for all your kind tips and responses.


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## rabbitlovemydog (Feb 23, 2011)

Its definitely not excitement bark when he passes another dog on the lead. On the way home tonight walking along we passed another dog on the pavement and he growled while on the lead. What I dont know is if the growl barking is fear or aggression? It would be good to know what I should do when he growls. Do I ignore him? Stand still and make sure he sits to try and change his behaviour?


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## fulwood (Feb 12, 2011)

Hi there. This is a good article that will give you an over-view of leashreaction, but as another post above rightly said, you need to try and find out what kind of reaction on leash your dog is giving. If he's excited, you can try and tap into this by being more interesting than the original stimulus. If it's mild to moderate fear, it's a bit harder to tap into them. Have a look and see what you think: Pawsitive Feedback's Dog Blog - www.pawsitivefeedback.com: What is a Leash Reactive Dog?


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## rabbitlovemydog (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks so much will have a look at the link.


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## Marley boy (Sep 6, 2010)

my dog is the same if he is on the lead he barks and can some time be a little aggresive ie growling, but take him off the lead he is fine and happy to play. i think its because he feels trapped on a lead and cant move away when he wants.


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## dee2912 (Feb 25, 2011)

My 5year old spaniel has started to bark at other dogs when out on a lead with me but not when other people have her out. It could be a pack leader thing but I don't know how to stop her doing this. I have tried distracting her with a clicker and this sometimes works. Use the clicker when you see another dog approaching and distract with a reward, it sometimes works but have only just started this. Time will tell.


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## rabbitlovemydog (Feb 23, 2011)

dee2912 said:


> My 5year old spaniel has started to bark at other dogs when out on a lead with me but not when other people have her out. It could be a pack leader thing but I don't know how to stop her doing this. I have tried distracting her with a clicker and this sometimes works. Use the clicker when you see another dog approaching and distract with a reward, it sometimes works but have only just started this. Time will tell.


I agree its really hard to know what to do, exactly as you guys my dog is fine when off the lead. I'm going to try to give him a treat when a dog goes past us but what I'm worried about is my timing if I give him a treat when he is growling its like I'm rewarding him for that behaviour. It might be best just to cross the road in many ways so he doesnt get in the habit of it. Will let you know if I get any results !


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## RobD-BCactive (Jul 1, 2010)

dee2912 said:


> I have tried distracting her with a clicker and this sometimes works. Use the clicker when you see another dog approaching and distract with a reward, it sometimes works but have only just started this


Small thing, though you might have posted not exactly what you meant. Just in case.

The Clicker is used to teach new commands rather than be a distraction (or reward in itself), it is meant to mark the desired behaviour "you got it!", not be a cue or command in itself.

The distraction on command, uses a cue like "Ignore!" so the "bandit" can be noticed, but once taken in focus is changed to you right after with expectation of a reward so you can maintain calmness, have pleasant controlled walk away, or have sit calmly as appropriate. With this method, I was able to have joggers, cyclists and most passing traffic ignored, rather than be watched with fascination (or chased).


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## rabbitlovemydog (Feb 23, 2011)

Yes you are right about the clicker training actually. Wasnt totally clear what you meant about how you stopped your dog chase joggers etc. Do you mean its best to just get them to stay calm by for example doing the 'sit' command and giving him a treat so I'm ignoring any interaction with the other dog that passes us?

Many Thanks


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## RobD-BCactive (Jul 1, 2010)

rabbitlovemydog said:


> I'm going to try to give him a treat when a dog goes past us but what I'm worried about is my timing if I give him a treat when he is growling its like I'm rewarding him for that behaviour. It might be best just to cross the road in many ways so he doesnt get in the habit of it


You reward a calm passing. If your dog gets very excited, you might benefit from reducing the head on time, by turning round in front of bandit, walking slowly and then suddenly turning and passing, so there's just a few seconds to react. If you can prefer a park or wider pavements with verges, so you can set up success by avoiding close confrontations till you've made progress but get practice passing at a comfortable distance. Another technique used on Victoria Stillwell's show was following the dog the client dog "disagreed" with, at a distance to get some familiarisation with proximity (but never getting close up).

The growling is often a distancing signal "you're too close, move & stay away", so you really don't want it to start.

It may help to teach a positive command like "Close!", so you give your dog something to think about and earn reward, which distracts him from other dog, and gives you confidence & control of situation.


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## RobD-BCactive (Jul 1, 2010)

rabbitlovemydog said:


> Wasnt totally clear what you meant about how you stopped your dog chase joggers etc. Do you mean its best to just get them to stay calm by for example doing the 'sit' command and giving him a treat so I'm ignoring any interaction with the other dog that passes us?


OK, Border Collies herd, so they love to chase things, and my pup was naturally attracted to the movement of passing joggers and cyclists.

So what I did, was draw his attention to them by pointing and saying "Ignore!" (obviously after I'd primed the command in a training session first), meaning a nice training treat reward would be given just behind my pups shoulder. That meant, he had to look, take in the "bandit" then turn away to collect the treat.

So basically in stead of ...

oh fun, jogger or cyclist... chasey chasey

It went something like.

Ah I'm to notice that.. oh now I get a yummy, I wonder if I can earn any more?

Just the few seconds of broken attention and concentration, stopped the chase starting, and meant I had his focus, so I could choose how best to deal with the situation. It also helped reduce fear of passing traffic later, because good things happened when vehicles passed rather than regard them as threats.


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## rabbitlovemydog (Feb 23, 2011)

Right that sounds like a good idea thanks. I need to teach him 'ignore', will try to do it this weekend . If I'm teaching it in training session do you reckon I can just point my hand at anything in the room and shout ignore and then give him a treat behind his shoulders? Just that I'm not sure I can do a set up of something moving in training. I'm basically teaching him that the word 'ignore' means he gets a treat?


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## RobD-BCactive (Jul 1, 2010)

Training it you just need to make sure dog expects treat by turning head round to shoulder. Now you are trying to keep things calm so shouting not needed, just cooly and calmly point at something, have it looked at and then head turn round for the treat lure. The reason I am drawing attention to what it is I want ignored, rather than just distracting away, is so there's no surprises or checking it out again, it's evaluated and we decide "no problem".


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