I'm sorry, when i hear lunging, I think aggression... oops.

popping the collar is a correction though, and I've had bad results with that when i first started training. Now I would wait them out. even when my fear reactive boy freaks (which is always my fault... I got too close) I let him freak, and stand perfectly still, pretty much ignoring him (but he has to be safe) when he stops, and is silent for a second, I click/treat. but I dont get my voice in the way. then if he's still calm-ish, I click after another second or two, and keep clicking/treating with a very high level of re-inforcement for calm. if the dog he's reacting to is calm I may keep it up for awhile, but mostly after 5 or 6 clicks I turn away, clicking for Oliver coming with me. If he's not ready to turn away, i will ask the other owner if they can move their dog away, until Oliver feels comfortable enough to move with me willingly. I never force him, or correct him in any way... he hit the floor, or jumped sky high if i popped the leash. he's alot better now that I've been working on calming signals, and stress management (for me LOL)

With an unaggressive, boysterous dog, I would probably work in a similar way, using the front clip harness. I will never put a head collar on any dog... I really dislike them, nor would I use a choke/prong/e-collar, tho I had used a prong before I was reformed.

I also found the best way to teach a dog to heel was the tree method... the dog pulls, I stop dead, wait until the pressure is off the leash, click, treat then move forward again... It worked really well for us... well for my hearing dog the deafies get a thumbs' up, and constant reinforcement from treats in my hand

I rarely muck up the dog by talking to them. I let my body language, facial expressions and click/thumbs' up do the talking for me. I think our voices often just confuse the dog, especially when just starting out... not that I dont talk to my dogs, I do... even my deaf ones LOL

Sorry I dont want to keep adding lots and lots here in case I end up confusing you (through my fault, not yours) but another things I found very useful was using clicker and toys, (I'm just assuming he likes food) click/reward him everytime he looks at you, steps towards you, glances at you of his own accord while out on walks. This not only makes you more of a focus in a good way but enhances recall and builds the idea of you being rewarding and trustworthy to him, making him far more responsive which helps later on as you progress with him. At the moment, no food or toy will take his focus off a dog once he has that obsessive staring, lunging, want to play attitude BUT if you start doing that whenever its quiet in the park and he just looks at you of his own accord (you click and he then has to come back for a reward) is walking alongside you in the street and glances at you, gets a click/reward......eventually it can help tone him down around dogs because they are not his sole focus of 'fun' on a walk so dosnt just forget you the minute he sees a dog/horse or whatever.

Another thing - this is a dog that is screaming he loves fun! Try to have plenty interactive fun with him too, not just giving him a toy, but have a game of tug every now and again, stop the game while he still wants more - end on a positive and then put the toy away and get on with whatever your doing, then do this in the garden...and so on until you can eventually work up to him being focussed on the toy out in public places etc

HI SARA 'N' SCOUT:


You may be right in suggesting that 'popping' the lead is making it worse; it's certainly not helping. So I think I will follow the advice kindly given by you and a few others and stop using my voice as I'm sure I get shrill when Dex lunges...

Re harness - I have four different brands here. None of them have managed to stop Dex lunging. I dislike using a head collar but at present there is no choice, as I have to keep us both safe.

That said, I'm now looking at trying the Mekuti Harness as recommended by people in this forum, and I really hope that might help...

Hi, I agree that popping the lead and saying "heel" is not going to be very useful and indeed, I think it's more likely seting up a very difficult scenario for the owner.

I'd be looking at reward based methods to control the dog and possibly alter his emotional reaction, e.g. if he is frustarated, teaching him how to deal with frustation, so you can set up training situations involving Sit and Wait for your Dinner (only a few seconds, not ages...) Sit and Wait for your lead off, Sit and Wait for the Toy... and so on. Vary how long you ask to wait and build up very slowly. Make it lots of fun and aim for the dog understanding self control and enjoying doinng that.

This is just an example off the top of my head (and very quick as I am called to dinner ) but basically teaching things in life generally can generalise to situations like the one you describe. Agree also with teaching useful commands and so on...

Wys
x

WYSIWYG - many thanks, that sounds logical to me


DOBERMANN - fab advice, and I think you are absolutely right, Dex lives to play

We do play tug a lot but I hadn't thought of doing it outside so I will try that - thank you so much!

When you play tuggy (do it alot to get it supastrong) whilst you are tugging add some more key words, Im im playing train in these phrases that the dog links with the toy, great in emergancys.

"ready Steady" "tuggytugtugsgetit" "Haighhhhhhha"

I'd be careful about using a body harness or headcollar.

Both work by making the lunging uncomfortable, but because of their application rarely stop the dog completely.
This leaves you with a dog who still lunges and gets corrected for it (by running out of lead) but isn't sufficently motivated by the correction to quit lunging. This approach (of ineffective corrections) is regularly used in schutzand and ppd training to increase a dogs drive in association with the thing its lunging at.

Adam

Haven't you forgotten the whip & baton

Don't forget that whether your dog is wearing a harness or headcollar, you are still required to have a collar & tag on your dog & I certainly would never advise anyone only to use a harness or a headcollar alone

JOEDEE -


My dog has his collar and ID tag on from the second he wakes up until last thing at night.

The only time I take his collar off are the rare times he's home alone. And I would never, ever let him out the house without his collar. Never.