Originally Posted by
Smokey Joe
Smokey is actually good off the leash.
That is excellent! Good news there at least
My friend has a boxer and they love to play with each other in my friend's yard.
Great, but watch how they play - boxer play can be very boisterous and it can teach other dogs to be overly boisterous with dogs in general if they only ever play with, say, boxers (obviously I'm working on limited info here!).
Also, my sister has a pug... the pug doesn't like him so much because the pug is old and Smokey is so big and excitable but Smokey does not try to attack him. So off the leash he's pretty good.
All good.
On the leash is a total other story.
Sounds as if he has what some term "leash aggression" - this is almost always due to the dog not being able to exercise his "fight or flight" option if necesssary as he is on lead. If this is the case, you will need to work on altering his emotional reaction and this usually involves classical conditioning - this is about "association" loosely, rather than about rewarding for good behaviour.
I know he would bite another dog if given the chance when on the leash... one time when he was kind of calm (months ago), I had another German Shepherd approach us (also on a leash) and as soon as the dog got close Smokey snapped at his nose, instantly. So since then, I am hesitant to bring him near other dogs on the leash.
Are you certain the behaviour is not actually just frustration? a lot of dogs appear to be leash aggressive but are in fact just very frustrated.
I got Smokey when he was 3 months and I tried to make it a point to socialize him with a lot of people/dogs. I know how important that is...
Absolutely right, although at 12 weeks for a GSD it's not ideal. They need pro active habituation/socialisation from well before then really, in an ideal world...
I've had a few other dogs before. I live near a boardwalk and in the summer there are tons of dogs and people down there.
Just wondering here but...is it possible you actually overdid it? socialising is so important, but the problem is if he was not socialised before this age (do you know his history before you got him??) then this might have caused a flooding reaction or just made him fearful (in the worst case scenario, again I'm working only from limitd information)
So when I first got him, I would take him there for about 20 minutes and let him check everything out.
What was his attitude and his body language like?
He was ok with other dogs initially (some, not all) but everything else was just fine. Then all of a sudden about 6 weeks later, I took him to the same beach we go to every day and he completely flipped out on a bicyclist.... out of nowhere, never did that before and he saw them every day up to that point.
When you say he "flipped out" do you mean he tried to chase, or barked??
Then slowly it progressed... every dog was now bad, then joggers and rollerbladers. Now just recently in the last couple of weeks, he goes after random strangers and even cars. Why did this develop when they were never a problem before?
It's possible he generalised one particular fear (ie fear of bikes) to being fearful of other things in the same place (dogs can become afraid of hot air balloons and even the smell of cut grass if they associate it with fear!!
Sadly for training, they don't generalise that well, but DO generalise well, very often, when fear is involved, as I think it probably is with Smokey.
I think it could be a fear issue but how do I break him out of that?
My advice is to find an excellent behaviourist who uses modern reward methods based on science of how dogs learn....as mentioned above, if it is fear (and IMO this is very likely!) you need to work on the conditioned emotional reaction ... so you need to work on helping the dog associate whatever he is fearful about with good things. This may take some time and you would need help IMO.
Each time he is made to pass other dogs on lead, any fear he does feel (if it is fear) will be reinforced as will his behaviour as he feels it "works".
Or maybe it is that his protective instincts are in overdrive?
I'd say very doubtful from what you've said. It's more likely he's learning to "aggress" successfully as he is maturing and gains more confidence in himself, but really, confident dogs don't feel the need to behave in this way and would only tend to do so if they sense their owners are worried...do you think you could be sending your dog worried messages down the lead at all?
. Also if you ask your dog to do things (eg sit before lead is on, you control what happens at the front door etc) then they tend to turn to the owner for guidance rather than be too over protective.
What is his breeding, do you know?
He's on adult food now because he was growing too fast according to my vet. One week a couple of months ago, he had a terrible limp in his front paw so I took him in for x-rays. They saw nothing but dark spots on his bones (all 4 legs) which the vet told me was his bones calcifying too fast. He was getting too much protein in his puppy food. I switched him to adult food and 2 days later he was fine. $500 for the vet to tell me my dog had 'growing pains'. Ha!
I'm no vet expert but I understand this can be very painful for some dogs, which might explain some of his behaviour.
However, behaviour can also be "learnt" and this is the case if the dog "practises" it over time. So you do'nt want to be giving him the opportunity to keep practising it, you need to exercise him away from stress just until you find a really good behaviourist, which in my view is the best option in the long run (rather than a collar which may cause some discomfort or pain, which he may associate with other dogs... which will not help in the long run... and may make him worse...IMO).
Both trainers told me the same things/techniques as did all the books I've read.
Just to say, dogs won't eat if they are stressed, and if he's not eating then he is too stressed to actually learn anything.
You need to work firstly
outside his reactive area, at a distance so he notices the trigger but
does not react except by say, a flicking of his ears or a head turn. He will be able to learn more at this distance which can slowly be lessened over time.
If he's not eating, he's way too close.
Hard I know in a urban environment (not sure where you tend to walk etc) if so try checking out
Pam Dennison's book about improving problem dogs in this environment
http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTB953
You may also enjoy this just as a training book:
http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTB759
He does get pretty obsessed with his squeeky toys so maybe if he carries one with him he'll feel like he has a job.
This could be worth a try.
YOu could keep a toy very special and bring it out for play and fun as another dog comes near, and then gently take it away when the other dog goes away. A Jean Donaldson method called "bar open, bar close" which I used successfully on my BSD who became nervous aggressive due to being attacked several times without provocation.
The idea is that the dog associates the presence of other dogs with the best of fun and games and good things, instead of bad things.
And one thing that has helped the last few days when I walk him is if I constantly say 'no, no, no, no....' when I notice him starting to go into full alert. I sound pretty crazy but at this point I on't care. This has helped with passing people and cars a bit but not really with other dogs... yet. This is kind of the opposite of what the trainers told me to do because the 'no no no' creates an excited tone but whatever...
What sort of tone do you use?
And the other people don't really want to hear that or help me.
It's hard and you must feel a bit alone with the problem at times. We've had similar gsd youngsters in our classes but we are very careful as to how they integrate, if at all, with the other pups as we have to be careful no pup has a bad experience.
Hth a bit