hi - i apologise for the length

im just in need of some advice, you all know we have dylan from the pound, for the last few weeks, because i have been poorly, dylan and ruby have had limited access to walks, basically out with mark street walking as opposed to over the park. Anyway, im feeling much better so i took them over to chelsea park for a run.

dylan has always been a bit funny on the lead with other dogs, but yesterday he went potty, we walked into the park, and on the other side of the road was an older gentlemen, with his dog, dylan started barking wildly, but i walked him on and halfway down the field with ruby. I let ruby off the lead who happily took off down the field, you can already tell what happened next,

yep dylan took off up the field barking like a mad thing, so i had to holler for ruby, get her on the lead, grab baby, put her back in the pushchair and try and get up the field asap

anyway, i get up to the top of the field dylan has run across the road, and is running up and down the fence barking wildly at this dog, he then clocks a gap and straight in, so hes leaping at this dog, barking, dog tries to attack him, old man has complete breakdown as you can imagine, i would, finds a stick, starts beating crap out of dylan, who took 2 swipes and shot back to me, i apologised profusely, and dragged him off, cue end of walk. So this morning, i took him out to walk him to the school, this time thinking right seen this on tv, put some stones in a plastic bottle, to shake in his ear if he started again on another dog, worked on the first 2 dogs, the 3rd dog he completely ignored it, and was shreiking hysterically. Now i expect this sort of behaviour off ruby, shes a staffy, although in all fairness, she just gives a warning growl and thats that, shes only let off the lead, when i have a thrower and a ball, nothing can come between her and her precious tennis ball, but i can't be doing with this with dylan, it just makes walks miserable and he cant enjoy himself, because i'll end up not taking him anywhere except on a lead walk to school and back, which is all road and while it takes an hour so its a reasonable length of time, its hardly the point

any advice on what to do wth problematic behaviour would be appreciated - yes he does require neutering, but i did this with another dog we had a long time ago, it didn't make a difference - we will get him neutered but hes still quite young, hes only 8 mths and peak dont neuter until 9 mths, plus its xmas, i simply don't have the money right now. He is a pound dog, he did have issues with other dogs, whilst on the lead, but we initially put this down to puppy excitement and that with regular walking and socialising it would make a difference, which it did in the beginning, but of course, because hes not seen any other dogs, in 6 to 8wks, hes gone quite mad.

help!!

Sorry to hear of your traumatic experience, I'm by no means an expert but I do know quite a bit about dog behavior. The good thing is that he's still young so you still have time to sort this problem out...the bad news is that it sounds like a serious aggression problem towards other dogs. Agressive dogs are some of the more difficult to deal with as thier problems are often deep routed. The stones in a bottle technique is a good idea for unwanted behaviour as it "shocks" for want of a better word, the dog out of what it's doing however I don't think it will work with this kind of behaviour. I would have normally said maybe a good obedience class will help and will give him chance to socialise in a safe environment but his problem sounds pretty serious and you can't take him there if he will be a threat to the other dogs, you might have to get a good dog behaviourist to work one to one with hijm first.
I'm sure they will be a lot of people who can give you some great advice on here, in the meantime whatever you do don't let him off the lead in public (I don't know if you said you had or that he had just escaped), until this is sorted it's not worth the risk. I don't know what other people will think, and this will be no means solve the problem only mask it but if he was mine I would be tempted to get a muzzle while out walking for his safety and the safety of other dogs and owners.
Good luck your doing the right thing by seeking help right away and I'm sure you will sort this out!!!

i had let him off the lead before and off the lead before he had always been okay, but he has had such poor socialisation for weeks, that its really clealy caused him a problem, to be honest, i don't think anyone would let me in with dylan, as he would totally disrupt the lesson with all that wailing and carrying on, are 'proper' dog behaviourists really expensive? OH has mentioned to me that ruby has been pretty vociferous with other dogs too, while hes been out on the lead, so yes maybe a behaviourist would be a better idea as its possibly both dogs, he says dylans basically winding ruby up, making her think there is a reason to 'attack' when really there isn't, we used to let our freinds son take ruby over the park and let her off the lead, and she was always fine with other dogs, but that he wouldn't feel comfortable doing that at the moment, because he can't work out what is ruby, and what is dylan.

Yeah you will often find that one dog will set another one off and vice versa so it would possibly be a good idea to get somebody to look at them both. They can be pretty expensive, it depends where you go. There are a lot of people on here who run training classes maybe they are able to give one to one therapy too, if not they may be able to recommend somebody. I know of a few in Sheffield but none personally and as with all things it may be better to get a recommendation. Don't panic too much though these things need nipping in the bud but they can be sorted and by seeking help early your doing the best for him, yourself and Ruby.

Awww, as you said Dylan is 8 months and male, up and coming teenage brat!!! You need to teach him some manners, so get your O/H or someone to have the little one for an hour or so and take Dylan alone out for a walkies.
Serious re-training time! You are boss not the dog, each time you reach a curb, then SIT! and you don't move on till he does....when he does he gets a little treat.
Each time he obey's your demand...reward, until he gets the idea and will do ANYTHING you ask for the expected treat.
If you meet another dog, check him if he starts to get over the top in any way, he should be listening to you alone and if your the boss he won't argue. Just walk on by and ignore.
If Ruby is okay with walks and runs off the lead, then keep Dylan on the lead until he learns to behave or have him on a long linner, so your still in charge.
It's all about being head strong at this age, trying it on, a battle of wills, don't give up!
As he is a rescue, you have no idea what he's been through in the past but you can start by reassuring him that other dogs are not the enemy and are acceptable by you and if you accept and respect other dog's, then so he should learn.

My bitch had a big anti other dog thing going off, used this technique and it worked, she will now walk next to the pram off lead...each time she see's a cat or other dog, one word of "leave it!" firm and stern, she forget's about the chase and attack thing and carries on, ignoring the distraction.

don't forget recently he was taken away by people who maybe didn't treat him well. I hope you get it sorted soon hun
Try pming Lottie she is good and knows her stuff.

Hi, I don't have any answers I wish I did! I can get my dog to ignore cats/ birds by command but dogs are a nightmare. I'm working on it still 8 months down the line and not seeing any improvement really, in fact I'd say it's getting worse, though we did have a brief period when he did get better, though I can't work out what we doing at that point in time that made him better :lol:

We are taking more advice and yes it does cost a fortune. We are down to lead walking and muzzle at all times or muzzle + lead and a run next to the bike otherwise he would be off to try and attack the first dog he saw and I can't be doing with the stress even if you think no dogs are around one always appears. To be honest it's an embarrassment as he jumps up, lunges and snarls and is basically a pain, a totally different dog to how he is when no dogs are around.

He was a rescue dog too...really makes me wonder what the hell they did to them to make them this way. It's so sad really and suckers like us end up trying to deal with the problem getting dirty looks of people as they walk by :lol: if I don't laugh I would cry :(

Good luck, I'd get it seen to sooner rather than later and it becomes established like it is with mine.

I think your dogs biggest problem is his age,he's young but with training,socializing and time he will be fine.

well i found the number of a behaviourist called phil jackson in crystal peaks, hes coming down in a week or 2 to look at dylan, my friend is having ruby for me for a bit, to give us a bit of space to concentrate on him and his training, my friend adores ruby so she will be spoilt absolutely rotten no doubt, and it will be nice to indulge dylan, w/o them competing, this guy is hopeful because of dylans age but said his breeding with a fox terrier, makes him a nightmare dog and pretty much an unknown quantity as he is from the pound, he is hopeful but said i may have to face facts that he may not ever re-train to be the dog i would like him to be. If i have to lead walk him forever thats fine, i would just like to do it w/o it resulting in a frenzy of bad behaviour with every dog we meet.

Had the same problem with my boxer,we got him from a rescue centre too.Problem was we have no previous history prior to him ending up in rescue,we only knew what the rescue centre told us about him.We got him home and he was fine with our other boxer(they got on great,could be because it was a she.)but take him out and he would go frantic to get at other dogs.Anyway i tried in vain to get him out of this habit useing all the tricks i,d seen on T.V. etc,but this made no difference,finally i was recomended to try a dog trainer in Barnsley.This i,m glad to say is making the world of difference,after eight weeks of training he is now taking no notice of other dogs and responds to commands like lightning.The guys name is Keith Dickinson and infomation can be found at www.keithdickinson.co.uk.I do understand there is at this time of year an issue with cost but believe me in my honest opinion this fella IS good.His prices arn,t out of the way and he does give a whole heap of free advice,also he does a dog walk on Saturday afternoons where dogs can socialise and run free together under supervision.I go to his classes on a Saturday morning but he also does them on Tuesday evenings too.Hope this info can be usefull to you.

Having had a similar experience with a rescue dog, all I can suggest you do is to make sure that he isn't allowed to do this and get away with it.

If you see another dog he's back on a lead before he's got a chance to run at them (harnesses make really good ways of catching your dog and keeping hold of them when they don't want to be caught btw ;) ) and you find a positive way to keep him entertained and rewarded until that other dog isn't there.

Whilst he's on the lead talk to him and work on getting him to walk to a good heel, sit at kerbs and generally be a good boy. Find lots of things to praise him for and replace bad behaviour with positive things that he can be rewarded for.

This is all you can do in the short term until his issues are addressed. Molly came to us with issues about other dogs and we now don't trust her not to run at other dogs barking if she's allowed off the lead with them, so apart from the dogs she is confident around she is being taught to ignore other dogs and to sit politely just off the path if we meet another dog.

As she is sitting politely we can praise her for that and give her a treat for being calm and controlled, and then she can come off the lead and play with her ball when she's been a good girl too.

It's taken a little over a year to go from 10 minutes of hellhound barking, baying, rearing up on her hind legs pulling on the lead at every new dog (plus running at them and their owner if off the lead) to being able to be 30 yards from another dog off the lead without batting an eyelid, coming back to be put on the lead on first request and generally being praised for being a good dog.

Put it this way, dog training is always going to be bribery or blackmail- I choose bribery by finding things she can understand that are positive and then praising her for them.

Hopefully a behaviourist or trainer can provide an insight to why he is doing this, and together with training, neutering and him generally growing up a bit you will have a different dog in a few months.