How to Stop excited sqealing and screaming when spotting a dog

What's the best way to stop Sammy from squealing and screaming every time he sees a dog, he wants to play with them all. I was fine with it at first as it's great to have a friendly dog but it's embarrassing if we are at Pets at Home or are sitting on a bus when another dog gets on. I've had to go out the shop or get off the bus earlier than I wanted as he's so loud and can't be distracted easily.

Tried to edit title but unable to

Brenda might be able to help, i will mention it in chat and see if she could comment

Battery running low so will reply in length later.

Ok so I will ask a few questions first and try to help you with your problem. Is your dog the one mentioned in your profile? If yes then when out walking is there a road that you can cross to the other side? When on a bus or other transport have you got a pet carrier that you can use for a little while?
When I have these answers I can try to help.

Thanks Griff and Brenda

Brenda, yes he's the little terrier in my profile. Not usually able to cross the road as they're quite busy when we're walking to the park. I don't have a pet carrier to use on the bus.


Thanks to whoever changed the title for me

Ok this may be a tricky one. When walking down a road and you hopefully see someone coming towards you in the distance with a dog make a very quick about turn and go back the way you have been coming. Then get Sammy to sit facing you, use either a treat or toy or cream cheese in a tube, primula is good, as the person approaches you with their dog start telling Sammy he is good for watching you and use the treat or toy or whatever you have decided to use. This must be built up gradually over days of seeing another dog. If he sees the dog approaching and starts to make a noise before you can stop him, then start to walk in the opposite direction again and stop and repeat the exercise further down the road. Eventually Sammy will realise that you are not stopping for him to make a scene. When about turning don't say anything as that will alert him to the dog/person coming towards you. Make as though you have forgotten something. If on a bus this can be trickier, if you can get a pet carrier to put him in that would be better as you can turn it around to face the side of the bus. Better than having to get off and start your journey all over again. For the time being I would avoid places that have lots of dogs so that you can build on this new regime. Depending on how long it has been going on for means it will take that bit longer to make him realise that he can't do this. Try it and see.

Thank you so much for that Brenda taking the time to type it all out for me, it's very much appreciated.

I'll follow your instructions. I can avoid buses for now, I usually walk most places anyway as he doesn't even have to see a dog on the bus, he can smell them and starts his nonsense. I have loads of cooked chicken which Sammy loves so will use that, he does most things for a piece of it. There are loads of dogs around here so I should get lots of practice in.

Thanks again.

Oh how I feel your pain. Dahlia was like that when we first got her. She lunged and barked and generally went nuts when she saw another dog. It was SO embarrassing. I had one guy tell me she might be better behaved if she got some exercise (said as I was heading off on a walk and didn't see him and his dog until it was too late as there was a large bush blocking my view) and more than one person ask if she was aggressive.

So what I did was this:

First and foremost, when your dog starts carrying on like that, he is over threshold and cannot learn. So anything you do at that point is just going to be management.

You will want to attempt to stay far enough away from other dogs, but close enough that he notices them but hasn't reacted like that yet. With Dahlia, I started watching for the tell-tale signs she was going to react. For her, her ears would go up, her tail would go up and not move and she'd freeze. It was at that moment, when she was locked onto the dog that I would go into action.

I would say, in a really upbeat excited voice "Look at that!" Which of course got Dahlia's attention and if she so much as even had an ear twitch toward me, I'd give her a reward. "Look at that!" I'd say again and then she would probably turn to me because OMG mom has treats! And I'd reward her again. As long as she stayed calm, she was allowed to look at the dog. When she looked back to me, she got a ward. Over and over and over again.

I always made sure we were far enough away. Which meant yes, crossing sometimes busy streets. I was always aware of where other dogs were and made sure I had plenty of time to get across the street or up a driveway or SOMETHING. Anything to keep her under threshold so she could work.

Once she started turning to me after spotting a dog, I knew that she was starting to get the connection.

And then I upped the ante by moving CLOSER to the other dog. The process would start over again.

And again.

And again.

In small incremental steps. Now she can walk by another dog with no more than a little head movement toward it.

I won't lie. I took several months to get her to a behavior that wasn't out of control over other dogs. But it was WELL worth it.

The game (called "look at that") comes from Leslie McDevitt's book "Control Unleashed." Great book, even for dogs who aren't agility dogs.

Crysania thanks so much for your reply. I thought Sammy carrying on at first was quite cute and it was brilliant as he's so friendly. That was until I went into Pets at Home and realised how loud he was and how embarrassing it was lol I'm lucky that he's so small so people find it cute and don't have a bigger dog like you.

Got caught out with a dog today so quickly fed Sammy some treats. I said to the man I was trying to stop him squealing and screaming but not a sound from Sammy. Another dog came up and still no noise from Sammy so the owners were laughing saying I was lying about him and it's the owners not the dogs so we had a good laugh. That was just a one off though with Sammy wanting to make me out to be a liar As he was so good he got to meet the dogs.

Sammy can smell a dog from about 10 miles a way I reckon, sometimes he starts his nonsense and looks behind him. I can walk a long way up the road with him doing this and then a dog will come around a corner or he tries to run along the road and then once we come to a corner I spot a dog away along the other road.

I'm working between what Brenda said and yourself, possibly not the best thing to do but sometimes we run into dogs just turning a corner. Sammy seems to be improving, not sure it's my good training lol but hopefully we will get there. He's really quick to learn and very biddable so I'm being optimistic that we'll soon overcome this problem.

Thanks again for your reply.