Growling/Barking at other dogs on lead?

vgf1995

Hi all,

I have a bit of a problem with my 2 yo labrador/terrier cross. She's a lovely dog, really good with kids, never possessive with her things or aggressive to humans, and doesn't pull on the leash when walking. However, whenever we bring her for a walk and shes on the leash and meets another dog she goes crazy: her tail shoots straight up, she barks and growls and won't calm down at all. Sometimes she shows her teeth. She has never gone to try bite a dog she meets, it's just really the barking and growling. This is especially apparent with bigger dogs, as she's on the small/medium side.

When we let her off the lead in the dog park, she doesn't have a bother at all. Never growls or barks at dogs big or small and is happy playing with them. We have been socialising her more with other dogs, and we thought maybe she would grow out of it as she got older, but so far we haven't seen a change. Is there anything else we could be doing to help her?

Wildcard7

My dog sadly does the same, she's a devil with other dogs while she's on the lead. Apart from that, she's nice (if a bit intense) to everyone.

I haven't been able to fix it completely, so I can't give you a magic recipe, but I can say one thing: Don't expect that your dog will grow out of it, and go to a class once a week with your dog.

All the advice you can find here, even if well intended and based on years or decades of experience, does not come close to the kind of feedback that a trainer can give you when actually seeing you and your dog regularly.

Dial Hard

One of my old dogs was "lead aggressive" (a term I don't actually care for as the issue is more defensiveness than aggression ime, but anyway) too, but loved dogs otherwise. It's basically down to them feeling that they can't defend themselves or run away when they're on the lead.

A good behaviourist will be able to give you some tips to manage it but she may never be completely "cured".

muddypaws

Dial Hard wrote: »

One of my old dogs was "lead aggressive" (a term I don't actually care for as the issue is more defensiveness than aggression ime, but anyway) too, but loved dogs otherwise. It's basically down to them feeling that they can't defend themselves or run away when they're on the lead.

A good behaviourist will be able to give you some tips to manage it but she may never be completely "cured".

That's why most trainers and behaviourists refer to it as leash reactive

vgf1995

thanks everyone. I guess the best thing to do is to bring her to a trainer and see what they say.

em_cat

vgf1995 wrote: »

thanks everyone. I guess the best thing to do is to bring her to a trainer and see what they say.

Hi OP, you really need someone who is willing to go on a walk with you & your dog to witness her reactivity, there are many differing degrees of reactivity & there isn’t a cookie cutter recipe despite what the internet says.

Although I have some set backs where I end up in tears because our terrier mix had a meltdown, does the same as yours but less predictable, I do have to say with patience and perseverance things can & do improve.

VonVix

How often does she go to the dog park/socialise with other dogs off leash?

Some dogs who socialise with other dogs frequently in an off leash setting can develop a lack of frustration tolerance around other dogs, some dogs get used to being able to greet other dogs immediately, when they can't do that they can end up frustrated on lead, which translates into growling/lunging/barking.

If you go to a trainer, please be careful, some trainers can be extremely poorly trained when it comes to dealing with matters like these, going to the wrong trainer can do more harm than good. If you can give us a general idea of where you are located, I'm sure one of us A&PIers can point you in the right direction.

em_cat

We had a fairly non-reactive walk up to Noshington today, I suspect it was because it was early enough, we even came across a couple of dogs on leads & Mr C grumbled a bit which is good for him, but unfortunately he was chased & ambushed by a tiny version of himself close to home so that’s another setback.

Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.