Afraid of other Dogs

My dog has been twice bitten by other dogs. Now she will run away if another dog approaches. This used to be a major problem when she was younger as she was really quite a fast dog. I think this was the reason she was attacked so often, as the thrill of the chase would over excite the other dogs.

Now she has really slowed down I have to keep her on the lead so that I can shoe away any dog that comes to close. It makes walk time quite sad as often if she sees another dog she will cower behind me and refuse to move until there are no dogs in site.

Any suggestion?

Oh your poor dog, that is really sad that it feels that way.

I am afraid that I have no expertise in this area but there are a lot of members on here who do, so hopefully you will get some advice to help you along soon. I hope you can find some solution soon.

Ps. welcome to Dogsey!

I have a similar problem but Cherry will headbutt any larger dog that comes too close as she has had bad experiences and been bitten.

You need to build up her confidence about other dogs and get her to associate other dogs being near with good things happening. Cherry gets a high value food reward when she is calm and other dogs are near. I don't let other dogs get in her space to push her to the point of reacting-if I see another dog running up that she doesn't know I shout to the other owner that she has an infectious skin disease and they need to leash their dogs (the only way you will get them to move quickly in my experience sadly!) and if the dog is still charging over I use my pet corrector spray to get it to back off.

Also mixing with dogs that I know to be friendly has helped so that now Cherry has a group of dogs that I know she can meet and greet nicely which I never would have thought possible. The other dogs need to be calm and it is best if you walk side by side the dogs separated by the owners in the first place. This is what has helped me anyway. Good luck!