Advice on correcting on-leash barrier frustration behaviour.

Hi. My name is Sara and this is my first post, here at Dogsey.

We have a three year old Beagle who we took on from a family who could no longer look after him. He's been with us four months now and has settled in really well. The only problem we have with him is when we approach or pass another dog whilst he's on-leash. He becomes extemely over-excited and vocal, lunging and baying his head off, which looks and sounds awful to anyone not understanding the breed. It also looks like I can't control my dog, when really, apart from these incidents, I have him very well trained. We do try to meet and greet all dogs whenever possible and after a quick sniff he becomes pretty uninterested and will move on. However, it's not always possible to meet and greet and as he gets his first walk really early in the morning I would like to try and prevent the commotion before it happens.

I've tried distracting with treats and using the 'leave it' command, but once he spots the other dog he's oblivious to me. The only way to prevent the situation is to make sure I spot the dog first and avoid it altogether which is beginning to make walks less enjoyable. We took him to training classes thinking it would help desensitise him to other dogs. Typically, he was great there and didn't display any of the above behaviour on, or off leash, but it seemed to only increase the behaviour we experienced whilst out walking.

Does anyone have any tips on how I can try to correct this behaviour?

Hia you are in the best place for advice! dogsey really helped me and my GSD with exactly the same behaviour, although i did think it was aggression....turned out to be pure excitement and i know the looks you get!

nothing worse that people picking up their dogs and jumping in a bush when they see you coming!!


well it's taken a while but i can honestly say the ignore the unwanted and praise the good! it really does work but also takes alot of love time and patience, frustration and tears come along too at times, as like you said, walking the dog becomes a dread. just keep going, completely ignore the behaviour and treat and praise as soon as he looks at you even if he has been barking, avoiding dogs is fine and works, just keep to the distance your dog shows no sign of stress, then gradually walk closer and back off if any sign of barking or lunging happens and start the process again.

i have found taking my dog with loads of dogs to desensitize DID NOT work, he just stressed out and became oblivious to me which, again makes him more likely to react after! good luck i'm sure you'll be fine xxx

make sure you reward and treat before the behaviour starts and walk away once he's seen the dog but before you loose his interest or he will be far to stressed to look at you or even probably want a treat x

hope that helps! xx

it could be that your dog is a little anxious so is making a lot of noise just in case.
When on lead a dog doesn`t have control of the space between him and approaching dogs - and nervous dogs can get quite stressed by this. Remember the main line of defence should the other dog get nasty is for your boy to run away - which he can`t do on lead.
I know it`s difficult but could you try giving other dogs a wider berth to see if this is the problem? If it works, reward your dog and gradually decrease the distance.
You might find a well-run dog club can help - one I went to would have timid dogs just sitting and watching at a distance to get them used to other dogs.
Of course it could also be that he just doesn`t know how to behave round other dogs - in which case the more he can mix with well-mannered dogs the better.
You could also try walking him on a long line so he can greet other dogs or avoid them as he wishes?

Well said GSDGirl

Easier to say than do but just ignore what other people think - they are not important.
Reward your dog when its calm and then walk away before he has a chance to bark then over time you will find you can get closer and closer without him reacting
and if you cant walk away and he reacts just keep calm and reward him the sec he is able to calm and pay attention to you

thank you! i've had some good advice xxx

A few points about rewards and reinforcement that aren't always mentioned but should be kept in mind

1) Novelty - animals respond more intensely to novel food rewards. This means not to use
the food or the usual treats. Have a few things that are exclusively for training and
rotate them

2) Value - dog have a spectrum of how they value rewards. Usually, smelly, moist, and sweet things ranking highly. They will find some rewards more meaningful than others. Use these.


3) Satiety - a hungry dog will find a food bit more meaningful than one that just ate. A kenneled dog will be more excited by play than one whose been doing it all day.

I would also change from direct to parallel approaches with you and the other owner doing some blocking
dog- you - other - dog

Hi, sorry for the delayed reply, been awfully busy lately.

Thank you for all the advice, I now have some things to work on, mostly not worrying what people think of us.

That was the best advice I was ever given (my dog barks on lead).

I find that it's best not to approach head on also, and never walk towards a god on the same side of the road. I cross over the road and put myself between my dog and the other dog.

With my dog, I can tell when he's going to go into barking mode (his head and ears go up) and I find to stop the behaviour at this point is really important. If I don't distract him then, he just goes into the zone and nothing stops him. So, if you can figure out your dog's signals then stop the barking before it happens the barking will become less and less.

Cheese is a good treat to use - I cut it up into the tiniest cubes possible.

I've found it's best to take baby steps as well. Some days will be worse than others. I've been working with my dog on the same kind of issue for about 2 years and now he can go a couple of days without barking. Then some days he will bark at every dog he sees