How to Train Your Dog to Be Calm Around Other Dogs

Hello Emily, I would hire a professional trainer who is very experienced with aggression, leash reactivity, and prey drive to help you in person. The bike aggression is similar to car chasing - often triggered by a prey drive or suspicion of the fast moving object. This usually takes a higher level of obedience, desensitization and counter conditioning around bikes, starting with a stationary bike, slow moving bike, then progressively faster bike, while pup works on attention on you, leaving the bike alone, and heeling, being rewarded for all good responses - including no response to the bike, around the bike. The dog aggression, is sometimes specific to pup being on leash, and a similar approach is taken, where other dogs are in the distance, pup practices obedience with you, and pup is rewarded for all good responses while dogs are in the area. The training then progressively gets harder as pup improves, by decreasing the distance between the dogs, adding more excitement and movement from the other dog (think working gradually up to another dog fetching a ball in the area where pup can see them running around in the distance), or additional dogs and new dogs being practiced around. Sometimes a remote training collar is needed when it comes to the bikes if there is a really strong prey drive reaction, but I wouldn't do that training on your own. I would hire a professional trainer who has used that tool to address prey drive to guide that type of training very carefully, combined with rewards for wanted behavior, like calm responses, focus on you, and relaxed body language. If corrections are used incorrectly, they can make reactivity worse. It needs to be carefully layered with clear communication, teaching pup commands so they know what's expected and how to do that instead, rewarding good responses and desensitizing gradually, and correcting with good timing and at the right level of correction - to simply interrupt pup's aroused state long enough to make an opening to give pup feedback like a command, which you can then reward if pup obeys - relying most on the communication and rewards to modify behavior with corrections serving just as an interrupter and way to communicate no, while also communicating yes for behavior you want instead. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Hello Laura, https://www.solidk9training.com/ https://www.upstatecanine.com/ Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Hello Tania, I would practice the Passing Approach method from the article I have linked below, recruiting friends or family with friendly dogs to help you. The goal with this method is for pup to practice passing the same dog over and over and over and over again, until that dog becomes more boring and pup can respond calmly with the dog far enough away to help with that calmness, then reward pup for focusing on your instead of the other dog. Passing Approach method: https://wagwalking.com/training/greet-other-dogs Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Hello Anaelys, It sounds like a lot of the interactions she does have are highly arousing and a bit tense for her - the dog park is a hard, highly arousing, unstructured location for most dogs who aren't super well socialized to know how to cope with that; having a dog run up to your dog face to face off-leash is very rude on the part of the other dog, and can put a lot of dogs on edge. I would look for social interactions that are controlled and facilitate calm time with other dogs, starting from a distance first, and avoid future interactions that are too arousing since that seems to be hard for her. Even once she does better around other dogs, look for things like dog hiking and walking groups on leash or with well trained dog-social dogs who are calmer, classes, one-on-one play dates with a dog who plays similarly and your dog likes, without other dogs present, or spaces where you can simply hang out with others and their dogs without the dogs having to interact, like training practice in public places with friends, where the dogs are working on focusing on you and being with but ignoring the other dog present. To address the reactivity first, I would see if there is a G.R.O.W.L. class in your area if the behavior is more severe. If pup's reactivity is something you feel you can work on on your own, check out the Passing Approach and Walking Together method from the article I have linked below. In your case, your goal won't be the nose to nose, side by side greeting or walking at first, but simply practicing being able to pass by and walk around another dog with pup calm, the repetition and control of distance are very important for success, so you will need others who can do this with you, so you can go back and forth. If you don't have anyone to practice this around, a dog training group with access to lots of other dogs would be good to work with. Look for someone who specializes in behavior issues like reactivity and has access to lots of other dogs for practice around. Passing Approach Method and Walking Together method: https://wagwalking.com/training/greet-other-dogs Check out this video as well. Even though this situation is different than yours, you can still see desensitization being done in this case. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n_fPKPLA2g I would also desensitize pup to wearing a basket muzzle ahead of time gradually using food rewards for future use training with up close interactions. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Hello Genevieve, Check out the resources I have linked below. Heel article - The turns method: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-poodle-to-heel Heel Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTiKVc4ZZWo Once pup is doing better on the leash without other dogs around, I would also practice the Passing Approach then the Walking Together methods from the article I have linked below. https://wagwalking.com/training/greet-other-dogs Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden