I have a nearly 3-year-old Akita/Malinois mix who started showing severe fear aggression at about 8 months old. Over the last year, we’ve made fantastic progress. He’s much more confident now, and the aggression and biting are things of the past, though I still work with him on this every day.
Despite the progress, he’s still very anxious and nervous. He’s extremely suspicious of other people and, to a lesser extent, other dogs (well-trained dogs are no problem). Just making eye contact with him can make him fall apart. This is something I’d really like to work on, but I haven’t found an effective method. I can get him comfortable with one person over time, but if any stranger makes eye contact, he reacts. It’s a bit of a nightmare. I can get him back under control and keep him calm in the presence of the person, but if they make eye contact again, he starts up. I accept that he’ll never be friendly with strangers, but I’d like him to be more collected around people since there are so many of them.
The main issue I’m having is off-leash dogs charging at my dog, often to challenge him or even attack. This has not helped his anxiety and fear problems. It’s hard to convince him the world isn’t out to get him when every other dog seems to want to fight. This has also made us rather unpopular at the park. Sadly, my dog has gotten quite good at defending himself from these “attacks,” and I’m very proud of the restraint he shows, despite sometimes getting serious injuries. He nearly lost an eye and got a large gash on his leg in one attack from a spaniel. He’s been “attacked” by every breed and size of dog, all off-leash with no recall. He’s now pretty uncomfortable around off-leash dogs or dogs on retractable leashes. Any obviously out-of-control dog bothers him. For context, the dogs in my area are so bad that on one occasion, I was the target of an attack. A golden retriever charged at us, and I felt its teeth on my hand as my dog tackled it away from me. He got a nice steak for protecting me that day.
So, any ideas? No pepper spraying people’s dogs, as I’ve seen suggested on the internet elsewhere. I’m from the UK, and all “weapons” are illegal.
significant part of managing this will be through management rather than training. You can’t train other people’s dogs not to run at yours. So, this means walking in isolated places or areas with great visibility so you can turn and go the other way if you see an off-lead dog in the distance. Walking at unsociable hours might also be necessary. Yes, it’s a pain and no, you shouldn’t have to do it, but keeping your dog away from triggers is crucial.
I’d also recommend getting a lightweight, high-visibility jacket with “Do Not Approach” printed on it.
Don’t be shy about shouting to other people to keep their dogs away. Or about telling strangers that he finds eye contact intimidating and to please not look at him.
I purchased him one of those jackets, but it appeared to only attract individuals who wanted to prove they were the new dog whisperer and shoved their hands in his face. I haven’t used it much since. I tell people about him, and some of them do fairly well.
I get what you’re saying about avoiding other dogs, but I’m concerned that would exacerbate his dog reactivity. I tried it when he was around a year old. He acquired dog reactivity, which, while much improved, I know I’ll always have to work with him on.
Ours was very’stranger’ reactive, and we’d been working with her for about a year. She now warms up to other people, including friends of ours, whom she enjoys seeing and seeks attention from. Strangers she is still apprehensive of; she will ultimately warm up, but it will take time. I, like you, thought we’d never get there, and while we still have a long way to go, we’ve made great progress so far. I continue to work with her, and I am confident that we will eventually get there; it is simply a long process that cannot be hastened. It’s a lot of work, but it’s definitely worthwhile.
There are, I’m sure, a number of us that have had to deal with a reactive dog. Madre and I have both been doing that, and though success is sometimes maddeningly slow, it does happen in little tiny increments. Hang in there, it will happen for you too. Also its so worth it, when you actually see some progress, and your dog starts becoming easier and easier to live with.
Adding to what Brandy said: I wasn’t seeing progress after a year of training my reactive dog, and at times I felt really discouraged. Then one day, out of the blue, he looked at me instead of lunging and growling at another dog passing by, even though that dog was closer than the distance we’d been working on. It was an epiphany for me, I realized that progress had been happening all along, just under the surface, inside my dog, even though I hadn’t seen it on the outside.
(It reminds me of a kid I once knew who never spoke a single word. His parents were worried, but doctors said nothing was wrong. One day, at the age of four, he suddenly started talking in complete, grammatically correct sentences. He had been processing everything internally. Sometimes our dogs are the same way.)
From that experience with my young dog, I learned never to be discouraged as long as I knew I was consistently applying the right training techniques. No matter how long it takes, eventually, there will be good results.