Zara's barking AGAIN! (Does your dog do this?)

Ok- so, I think we have established that Zara is a 'barker' around other dogs
I have been given some great advice, but have never been able to fully describe the behaviour to you all, so it's been difficult trying to pin-point the problem.

Anyway, I FINALLY managed to capture this behaviour on video and I would appreciate it if you could watch the it and comment on what you think Zara means by her barking. In the video, this is a very, very mild case of what usually happens, she is usually a lot more barky. Some dogs are fine with this behaviour and will play with Zara, others turn on her.

She doesn't use a nasty ferocious bark, but a strange high pitched 'puppy bark'. She will run up to EVERY dog possible and do this, so for that reason, we put her on the lead when we see another dog approaching. Unfortunately, I think this had made it a little worse.

Any suggestions as to what you think this could be? I would love to socialise Zara more, but people just don't like her, they get frightened when they see her barking with her hackles raised, so I just don't allow her to mix with strange dogs any more, which doesn't help the matter. We have had such a negative reaction to her that I often muzzle her on walks, despite the fact that she has never bitten anyone/anything. She has been bitten by other dogs before, though.

Any ideas on how to stop her from doing this? Also, how can I get her to leave other dogs alone on walks? If there far enough away, then she won't bother running that far, but if they are close enough, she can't resist. She isn't that fussed on food (tried cheese, ham, salmon etc) but she likes her ball. However, NOTHING compares to a game of chase with another dogs.

Notice at around 26 seconds, if you look close, you can see she barks showing her teeth .

Zara is the black and tan short haired one:

http://s283.photobucket.com/albums/k...andZara005.flv

Any ideas/help please?

Thank you x

Hi, I have watched it twice and can see nothing to suggest anything other than play in her body language.

Perhaps others can see something different?

No just looks like a happy dog excited and wanting to play to me.

Looks like a pup having fun

Different breeds play differently and their are many badly behaived GSD's out their so other dogs may be going for her due to bad experiences with other dogs

Charging up and barking will of course be seen rude to some dogs

How old is she?? They do get less wanting to run up to every dog as they grow up - honest!!

I would find people who are happy to let her play with their dogs then have her onlead and reward her for good behaviour by letting her go and play with the dogs
If nothing can compair with playing with other dogs then let it be the reward
Dont ask too much, even just a tiny look at you then let her off. Over time she will be able to give you more attention

You can also work on her greeting other dogs nicely by meeting onlead. any barkyness means she dosent get any closer to the other dog, nice and calm gets a treat and to sniff the dog some more

Thanks so much for your replies

I'm glad that you can't see anything sinister in her behaviour! As I said, the video wasn't a very good example of her barking as she is usually a lot worse! Same high pitched bark, but more continuous.

I think the problem is that quite often, if she doesn't know the dog, her hackles go up. In the video, he hackles were down, as she knows that dog well.

I think people get scared when they see a dog run up and bark with their hackles raised, so as I said, we just don't allow her to do it.

Does anyone know why she raises her hackles?

Good idea, Ben Mcfuzzylugs (hehe, great name!) about using the dogs as the reward, I hadn't thought of that.
I honestly don't worry about not giving me attention on walks, I walk Zara for her, not me. If she wants to run about, then she is more than welcome to, so long as she has good recall (she does) and is able to listen to my commands, then I have no problem!

Zara turned two last week, so is an adult in body, but a puppy in her mind! She wasn't socialized as a pup, due to a leg injury, so that hasn't helped.

Anyway, I'll keep going with her.
She met a Lab X today, he came out of know were. She was on lead, and since she was being so quiet, I let her have a sniff. She sniffed for a few seconds, but then barked, so I said 'no' and turned around and walked away.
She also met a lovely little Yorkie, again it just came out of no were with it's little tail wagging like crazy! Zara was made up and had a sniff, but didn't bark this time, so I was made up!

Thanks again for your thoughts!

You're not alone, my Molly does this too! It's difficult because although you know they are just playing, other dogs & other owners may not realize this and may mentally brand your dog as 'agressive'.

I started a similar thread a while back on roughly the same topic & someone suggested to me to use the 'watch me' command where you say watch me and raise a treat to your face. They then get the treat when they make & hold eye contact with you & you gradually increase the amount of time they have to hold eye contact with you for before getting the treat. I have to say, it has worked really well for Molly, especially when I use it in conjunction with the technique of walking away from a dog if she starts barking at it.

Good luck, I hope you get everything sorted out!