Being Protective of Me?

I don't know if any of you remember, but I posted a while ago about Storm lunging and acting quite aggressively towards dogs when he's on the lead? Well, my partner and I are now wondering if Storm is being protective of me, as he (99% of the time) only acts like this if I am walking him, but is usually fine with my partner.

I know that my partner is a lot more relaxed than me when he sees another on lead dog coming towards them, whereas I (though I really try not to show it to Storm) get really anxious as it's happening so often now. But, I am really, really trying to act relaxed and think about something else when we see another dog coming towards us, so that I don't transmit my anxiety onto Storm. He's never like it with small dogs, only ones the same size as him, or larger.

Is it possible he is, for some reason, trying to protect me from the dogs we meet, or do you think I am subconsciously sending out vibes of being anxious? Today it happened twice, once a man was walking towards us with a dog and he put his dog on the outside of him (away from us) and held the lead tight and Storm really went mental! The second time, a couple of lads cycled towards us and they had a Staffy running alongside them (on a lead) and I didn't even notice the dog at first, but Storm did and started going beserk, even though the Staffy didn't even pay him any attention.

I'm really getting stressed and worried by Storm's behaviour now, which I now isn't helping the situation. He is always absolutely fine off lead with other dogs, but walking him is becoming a nightmare whenever there are dogs on leads around and he is also on lead.

Personally, I really don`t think dogs protect us when onlead. Maybe if we got mugged they might have a go, but that`s pretty unusual.
Your dog sounds quite nervous. Maybe the fact that he doesn`t react when walked by your OH is that your OH takes charge and the dog feels more confident with him?
When a dog is on a lead he can`t maintain a safe distance from whatever is worrying him, which is why dogs get so mouthy onlead - they are using the only tactic they can to keep the `threat` at a distance.
If you want to stop this, I would, when you see him begin to tense, turn and walk away from the trigger. Reward the dog when he is calm. You can also teach a watch me command and do a behind sit but IMO since he only does this with you, it`s more a question of training you to adopt a different tactic.

Is he clicker trained?

Merlin has been dog reactive for years but we are at last starting to make headway. I started teaching him the Look At That game from Control Unleashed last year. Now we've been living here for about 6 months he has started to become a lot more settled and less stressed in general, and the Look At That game is really working now.

It's got to the stage where if we see a dog on the other side of the road and I tell him to look, he will glance at it and then automatically make eye contact waiting for his treat! I don't need to click him for it any more, but if he does start to stiffen or stare, all I have to do is ask him to Look then click and the magic sound of the clicker makes him whip his head round, completely breaking his focus on the other dog and stopping him going 'into one'.

Distraction games like this will help Storm (and yourself), I am sure of it.

1 There are two types of guarding in this scenario, resource guarding as in "she is mine and I am going to protect access to her", so similar to any resource ie food, location, toy etc.

2 Actual guarding however this really does not occur unless a dog is trained and if it is trained then a confident, competent dog will not behave like this as it knows the owner will indicate whether it needs to be switched "on" or not.

3 I strongly suspect that your dog is not a confident dog, this combined with being on the lead (barrier frustration) and attached to an anxious owner is leading to the behaviour you have described.

4 one of the reasons that meeting and greeting on leads is not always a success is because of the situation described. The owner of one dog has tensed up, shortening the lead and thus forcing a dog into a body posture which a) it may not naturally choose to adopt and b) that appears threatening to another dog.

5The wheels + a dog again when on lead may be threatening to your dog who is not in a position to back off or even chase. As your dog is a collie cross it may be the collie part of him that wants to chase/herd/manage the situation.

6 I would strongly suggest you try and find an experienced trainer in your area who can cope with this scenario and in addition has access to other dogs/people for training purposes.

This sounds interesting - can you elaborate please? I try to not let Cain stare however, being nervous, he likes to watch what scares him. We've been working on "watch me" which works sometimes but not others. I think if he was allowed to look, but not stare, then watch me, it would work really well for him. (sorry not trying to hijack, I hope this method could help Storm too!).

p.s. Dogs definately pick up on nerves - even when you're trying hard to to be nervous. Cain used to be much better behaved for my dog walker (who is confident with dogs) and my boyfriend (who has never really seen Cain kick off so is not aworried as me) because I showed more nerves. Since I have genuinely felt calmer (rather than desperately tryingt o be calmer!) it has had a postive effect of Cain, but this can only come with time.

Thanks for all the replies and I am now working on some of the suggestions that have been mentioned.

Unfortunately, I cannot afford to pay a trainer at the moment, so I will just try to work through it myself.

The "Look At That" game comes from Leslie McDevitt's book, Control Unleashed.

You will need to start off at a distance with scary things/other dogs, perhaps say in a park, at a distance where your dog is not reacting. (If he starts kicking off then you are too close, so try again further away).

You start off by clicking every time the dog looks at the scary thing/dog. If the dog is below threshold then he should look at you for his treat. After a while you can pair it with the cue "Look at that!". You will soon see -as I did - that it breaks the stare/focus.

If the dog turns away to look again, reward again. It becomes a game for the dog to earn treats, as well as breaking the focus and begins the process of the dog associating the scary thing/dog with something pleasant.

Once you have that working nicely you can start decreasing the distance, always going back to a safe threshold if/when the dog reacts and/or the Look At That stops being effective.

Video demonstrating Look At That:


From this link you can also view a video of the dog, Yoshi, before he started the Look at That training.

Edit: If it doesn't work out too difficult I could possibly photocopy the chapter on the LAT game for anyone interested. The dog does need to be good with the clicker though.

Thanks, that's so helpful! Definately sounds like something that would benefit Cain. He's well versed in the clicker so will have to give it a go

I've got the Control Unleashed book if you want to borrow it

Brilliant! I'll take you up on that thanks