working w/ my 8 m/o on passing other dogs

[elberson]

I'm working with my 8 month old GSD to pass other dogs in the street. He's doing oke, however his hair will stand up 70% of the time. Which I indicate as him being unsure/insecure about the dog. In the past he used to bark at passing dogs as well. But this has stopped by not letting him build up to that point of barking. Now everytime he sees a dog and focuses on it ill use the clicker and reward for looking at me which is going good. Is this alone good enough to make him comfortable around other dogs? I live in the city and don't let him meet dogs on walks as many of them are either reactive or too pushy for him. I also don't know people that have a dog that is able to calmly greet him.

My goal is to have a neutral dog that will pass others without problems.

My question: by using the clicker to distract him from other dogs and making him focus on me, do I make him less fearful overtime? Or am I avoiding the underlying problem? Are there other ways to get him to be more confident around other dogs?

 

[onisha]

@elberson When and how does he meet other dogs? He absolutely has to meet other dogs, although I agree definitely not on the street and not on leash.

 

[elberson]

@onisha At the moment he does not meet them. Meaning he doesn't have close interactions where another dog gets to smell him and vice versa. He's 8 months, I've had him for 8 weeks now. I do train with him next to other dogs when those dogs are just calmly looking from a distance( 10 meters or so) I definitely don't want to put him in a dog park with a bunch of random dogs. But yeah I would like for him to not be afraid and have a calm interaction where another dog can smell him.

 

[onisha]

@elberson To which extent has he been socialised before you got him? I cannot stress enough how important it is for a young dog to get to know other dogs. At 8 months his socialisation window is just about closed. Dog parks are useless, I totally agree. But you can find dogs for him to get to know. Maybe there's a local dog group, just approach someone out in the open, anything depending on what works where you live.

 

[elberson]

@onisha So we got him from a shelter so all we know is that he grew up amongst his siblings, they were abondoned in some remote area, he had parvo and spend some time in the hospital as well. There's still a time gap where he must have been in a situation with or without dogs but we don't know. I took him to the beach today and asked a lady with an older and calmer dog if it was oke to let them meet. They were both off leash and the dog was really great, even when mine was a bit intrusive and testing boundaries also by play barking. I'll try to look for more of such opportunities, but they are hard to come by.

 

[elberson]

The thought behind it is to shift the attention to you when the dog sees another dog.
Therefore you start of by clicking when the dog looks at another dog to get his attention then clicking again when he makes eye contact with you. Atleast I think that was how it was explained. Eventually you would fade away the first click and just click for the dog making eye contact.

The food lure comes in handy as well, I mostly use that one when I feel a bad scenario coming up to get his complete attention on me and sometimes therefore not seeing the dog at all.
However I think it might be good to let the dog look first then turn to me for attention versus constant lures. In the end I want him to be able to look at dogs, aknowledge and ignore.