It is not an cure, it is the result of a dog being overwhelmed by the number/amount of the stimuli that normally triggers the response so that he shuts down rather than reacts.

I think it's because most of the dogs he meets on the garden and in the house are not bothered about him at all and are generally calmer or bitches. However saying that when he met Leanne's collies in the big outside world it took a good 10 minutes for him to stop and he was blanked by Jed and snapped at by Jessie. He was offlead (muzzled) after about 10 minutes and fine with them for the 2 hour walk. He is generally less reactive with me than with OH and his family, but then they haven't really addressed the issue - they'd lived with it - I can't do that, so for me to be able to walk him I had to do some work with him as he was reactive to other things too - of which he is seemingly fine with now..

When he met my bitch Sadie - he went at her (muzzled), and she just ignored him but then he tried again and she pinned him down - now he's respectful of her. And he just couldn't care less about Louie, although as he has grown up Benjie has started to be a bit stand offish, nothing an "Oi" doesn't fix - Louie ignores it anyway and invites him to play which is rejected because Benj doesn't play.

He is a nervous dog so it could be that he feels safer in his own environment, yet his behaviour is the same, just without the lunging and the barking and the growling and the general "I'm going to rip your throat out", he is however always muzzled until I feel he is calm enough when introduced to new dogs on the garden and in the house.

Oh and something else thats interesting - he's not bothered about our new kitten, however has chased them with the intent to kill before, it ended up in a tree (and it was intent to kill as he has had hold of one before, luckily it escaped with minor injuries) yet not bothered about this one.. and he met it at my parents house - somewhere he doesn't visit regularly so cannot see it as a safe place or maybe he does.

Paley - they're just weird.

Oscar used to be like this and I think it had a lot to do with only picking fights he could win. One on one he used to be a nightmare, very reactive, but in a crowd he wouldn't bat an eyelid. Basically I think he felt he could take on one person/dog, but more than one meant he was outnumbered and therefore if he started something he wouldn't be able to win.

I'm probably anthropomorphising him, but it's just my take on the situations I've been found myself in in the past.

Otherwise known as flooding...........

My keisha is far more reactive on her local, regular walks. Take her somewhere new and she's a different dog. I can only think she is acting territorial of 'her' walks (yeah keisha, like we own the ENTIRE village, paths and fields!) where she is confident and plays the hard girl. Is the lake his regular walk?

And as SB said.. we take her to an agricultural show for e.g, again, different dog - so much going on.

I took Polo for a walk on a common in a different town. There were ponies and Polo freaks at ponies. I had to walk him right past about 8 ponies and he did not react. Too many and too close for comfort.

Then a collie appeared and away he went.

I would be hard pressed to flood Polo with dogs though when he is onlead. He will react to a group of dogs as much as too a single dog.

Only been to the lake about four times, but it's a point I'd also considered.

The only issue I have with the 'flooding' theory is that even when approaching the stores door (I think there were only two or three dogs outside at that point) he did not react, If we'd met three dogs in the street whilst walking it would have been different, also, when Reg reacts I can usually get his attention but he won't eat his treats when stressed out...in the vets he was eating them, would he have done this if he'd gone into 'shut down'?

edited to add...Reg was also much less reactive when on a quick break to Whitby

Flooding rarely works long-term. As SB says, the dog basically shuts down so isn't learning.

For flooding to work, you'd have to flood the dog so regularly that it habituated to the stimuli (in this case other dogs), but it's a long process and not a pleasant one for the dog concerned.

Even if you did this, you'd very likely see a re-surfacing of the problem further down the line

Do you know it's weird, cos I don't recall saying it wasn't?

Like I said, just posting my take on my experiences with Oscar, which required more than one word to be an effective description.

I like to use the following analogy.

Imagine a racist white man with a group of friends and a couple of (insert relevant group with which said man and friends have issues with). Gobby, confrontational, and abusive.

Same man walking alone through a neighbourhood of (group he has issues with) will he exhibit the same behaviour?