How to introduce a leash-reactive dog to new dogs?

[cblevs05]

Hi everyone, I’m looking for advice on strategies for introducing my very frustrated greeter to other dogs. He has almost 0 threshold for seeing other dogs without crying, barking, and lunging but is perfect off leash and at daycare. However, he has 0 recall and so must be leashed when arriving to new places.

I have several friends with dog-friendly dogs and puppies that I’d love to introduce him to so we can spend more time together and eventually practice parallel walking and threshold work but I’m not sure what the best practice is for introducing them. I don’t want to feed into his frustration by introducing them on leash. I’m planning on using a Sniffspot so they can be off leash safely but there’s still the issue of actually getting in and out and making sure he’s not rushing them (he has some issues with barriers as well).

Does anyone have any insight or advice? Im fully open to giving up on this as well if it’s not a good idea.

 

[stokinbusuk]

@cblevs05 There is never a guarantee any technique will work, but parallel walking is one of the safest methods to introduce two, or more, dogs.

It is the safest method to introduce dogs. When meeting a new dog it is advised you hold the meeting in a neutral area large enough to keep the dogs in a relatively calm frame of mind. A park or even a parking lot would do. You will require a very large neutral area to work in so that the dogs and their humans can maintain safe distances when first starting out. Start off at a distance where neither dog is overreacting, it could be 20 or 30 feet or less depending on the dogs, and walk for a comfortable distance and time, until the dogs remain calm. As the dogs become more comfortable, close the distance by a few feet and walk until the dogs are comfortable again. Close the distance again and repeat until you and your dog can walk side by side with the other person and their dog and the dogs are comfortable.

The lineup whenever you are walking any dog, reactive or not, should always be: dog - person - person - dog. The people walking between the dogs create a safety barrier for the dogs.

**In part 2, the instructor makes a significant error in the positioning of the dogs.

Explanation of parallel walking

** Demonstration of parallel walking

 

[cblevs05]

@stokinbusuk Thank you!! My concern with this is that my dog has basically 0 threshold. If a dog is in sight, he reacts. We’ve had some good days where we play with his flirt pole in a huge field and can watch dogs pass without barking, but at this point I don’t know if he’d be capable of actually walking along another dog. I’ll definitely take this into consideration and maybe not try introductions until he has more threshold. Thank you!

 

[stokinbusuk]

@cblevs05 Oh, that makes it a little more of a challenge!

May I suggest that when you see a dog(s) and he doesn't react treat him and praise him lavishly with some high value treats. Every single time he doesn't react, give him a party! Teach him that seeing another dog is a really good thing. He should get the idea pretty quickly. At that point you should be able to start decreasing the distance -- even if it is by only a couple of feet. Keep on with this until he is calmer at say 30 feet (this could take a while!) but it should work. At that point you can try parallel walking when he is in his comfort zone and see how that goes.

Is he truly 'leash reactive' or could his behavior be fear based? This is a really good article on dealing with fear of other dogs.

This is a very good series on leash reactivity. They have other training videos on a variety of training and behavior issues.

 

[cblevs05]

@stokinbusuk Thank you! Yeah the engage disengage has worked wonders for us but his threshold for actually seeing a dog for more than a couple seconds is taking a very long time to improve. I’m going to start some training protocols from Ahimsa and FDA this summer which should help us both a lot!!

 

[laneofjasper]

@cblevs05 My dog is also a frustrated greeter (does well at daycare/dog park) and her threshold could be up to 100 yards when we first started training. Now we're down to 25 yards in most cases and we still haven't done any on-leash introductions.

She is good with off-leash introductions but the fence at the dog park we used to frequent burned down last year and most of the other dog parks near us are either too small or always too busy for us to try going there. I have thought about bringing her to a Sniffspot near my house that I know is large and has a shed in the back. My thought was to bring her in first and hide behind the shed until the other dog is in and the fence is closed then let them both off-leash for introductions. My only concern would be if I was uncertain of how the other dog would handle that type of greeting but if I knew and trusted the other owner I think it would be the best way for us at this point in training.

If you don't think any of these would be ideal though there's nothing wrong with not having your dog meet others dogs. If I could go back in time I would probably forego the classes we took (lots of on-leash greetings) and worked on my bond with my dog and brought in a 1-on-1 trainer. There's nothing wrong with just working on your bond in the beginning.

Hope some of this was helpful. Good luck!

 

[cblevs05]

@laneofjasper That’s a good idea, thank you! And way to go, hoping to get my pup’s threshold that good someday!

 

[laneofjasper]

@cblevs05 Our trainer suggested meds for ours since she would go 0-100 in no time and is terrified of delivery/trash trucks. We've noticed a huge improvement with both but boy is it a lot of work. I'm sure you'll get there, just remember to take it at their pace and take time for yourself.

 

[gmaijoe]

@stokinbusuk A lot of great information. Parallel walks are a great start...here is an example of how we introduced a shelter dog to our dogs. Although we started with on-leash in a yard introductions, you can certainly start with a parallel walk and work up to closer and closer contact.