Anxious and then becomes aggressive ......

[Colleen_Miss_Tom]

Would love to take tikka out with me more .....But she is just a nightmare when it comes to other dogs

. Now I know she is scared sh1tless when it comes to other dogs because as soon as one turns on her ....Shes away squealing with the tail between her legs .

.

My aim with her in life would be to take her to dog agility classes as she absolutely loves to jump .... She jumps over hedges, fences, walls and even sits up on our window sill

, Her other trick is to jump from pillar to pillar and then walk along quite a narrow wall . Now I know she would be fab at dog agility but her fear/aggression towards other dogs gets in the way

.

Where on earth do I start ?

Ps ...She is a rescue dog that we got almost 6 years now .

 

[woodstock1]

There was an aggressive GSD and a very nervous rescue lurcher at agility classes that we used to go to and both coped well. Only the dog actually doing the course is off lead, also during practice of individual obstacles we would be in small groups and only one off lead at a time. Lots of space and they didn't feel threatened.

You could visit a class and see if it is well organised etc. She might really enjoy it and forget about being nervous? Fingers crossed!

 

[Colleen_Miss_Tom]

Would really be worrying about her going for another dog

.....I know as soon as I get her attention and keep it , she will be fine .

Now wheres that hacking_hack at to find out where the nearest class is

 

[FinnishLapphund]

I like Woodstock1's suggestion.
If you go to a dog club, talk to the trainer and make sure he/she understands your situation, some dog clubs over here, on one day in the week, they have some hours of open training, anybody could come and train what they want or need, maybe that could be a possibility for you to go and train her, without feeling that you're interfering with a curriculum for f.ex. an agility class.
If you can go to one of those open trainings, keep her on the lead, don't allow her to run away and try to encourage her to do something with you. If she's so scared that you can't get contact with her, bring a chair, sit down on the outer edge of the training field and just sit there with her. Ignore her and just make sure that no other dogs comes up to her. If she tries to become aggressive, tell her to forget it/lie down/that you'll handle all that for her if you think it is needed.


You could also try to give her some natural calming remedy, like Valerian or ask your vet for something mild but calming, before going to a dog club, to help her feel a little less anxious. If she then enjoys it, as W1 said she might forget/learn to ignore that the other dogs are there.
I know some people might react and say "I wouldn't dope my dog to be able to take it to a dog club", though I don't have a habit of giving my dogs Valerian I see nothing wrong in using it as an temporary aid, to help a dog get a positive memory of something so that you can build on it from there.


Good luck.

 

[Colleen_Miss_Tom]

Thanks FL .....

The thing with tikka is shes excitable and whines constantly .... Which in my opinion is down to anxiety .

Dont get me wrong ....She will listen to me once I can get her attention and its keeping that attention that is going to be hard .
I am pretty sure she will love the training , She does recall very well , but when other dogs are about , Im not so sure lol .


I do think the best thing is to have a word with one of the clubs/class trainer and see what they can suggest .
Also a calmer may be an option also .

She is a fantastic wee dog and its a shame her behaviour ...I doubt through no fault of her own is holding her back from doing dog agility . I know she would be fab at it ...So hence why I would love to give her a chance .

Col x

 

[FinnishLapphund]

Now maybe it isn't this easy, since your dog also have problems with anxiety but I still thought I would mention the following.

About keeping her attention, if you have an easily excitable dog, I have a little advice that you maybe can try. You know how women voices often go up in tone, when we praise our dogs? It is something usually encouraged by dog trainers but I had a late Doberman cross many years ago, who worked much better if my voice didn't get to happy .
If my voice went all, or very, chirpy, she exploded in happiness and excitement and I lost her attention for x amount of time. If I instead used a calm, almost normal but very, very clearly happy voice, her tail wagged of happiness, her body language clearly showed she knew she was being praised but I didn't lose her attention.

I gave this advice to someone at a dog class I took with another one of my late dogs. The "class-mate" had a Weimaraner and one day after the training, she was talking about how after just a short time into the training, after some praising, she always lost her excitable dogs attention. The next time, when the training was almost finished, she walked past me and quickly, in a low voice, said something along "Thank you, it works, look I still have her attention."




It certainly sounds as if your dog has an agility talent, so I hope you get a chance to explore it.

 

[Colleen_Miss_Tom]

Well it comes without saying when with Tikka

Any high pitch tone at all and shes all over you like a wet fornight

.

Same with if you lower your tone too much ...She thinks shes done something wrong and cowers

bless her

.

Really would like a trainer to see her behaviour and let me know what their thoughts are, Its hard for me to explain how she is without anyone seeing her if you get my meaning

.


Thanks FL for taking the time to reply

Right now I have a 4 year old spraying at his daddies aftershave in the bathroom

Must go rescue the aftershave .

Col x

 

[CorvusCorax]

Well, with doofs, I obviously have to keep him on a lead but I have to say on Sunday he was very good on a long line, doing a down stay while other dogs were jumping a few feet away.
When he has a job to do or has to think about something, I find his aggression almost disappears.

Bella has similar issues with being reprimanded in any way, she just hits the deck and we have to be all 'bouncy bouncy' if I need her to do anything.

Try holding her attention for longer and longer periods and rewarding her as such, with a treat or play with ball.
Once you have her focused on you, take her somwhere where you know there will be dogs and repeat. If she breaks your gaze and looks at other dogs, just say 'no' and withdraw the treat until she returns her focus to you.
That is the basic tenet of any sort of training and has been working for us - if you look at me, you get a reward, if you look at other dogs, you get checked.

I would love it if you could come to our club but we are breed specific unfortunately!

 

[henrietta]

My dog was mauled and became very difficult with other dogs - anxious, aggressive in terms of wanting to go over and jump all around and bark and carry on, but not bite or attack. She is also very, very energetic and wonderfully agile, and I did take her to two agility group classes because I knew she'd be good at it. She was GREAT at the actual skills, but it was not a great experience - she exhausted herself with an hour of agitation, and I got leashburn on both hands. If I was to do it over, I'd take her in to a good trainer for a private, one-time session to talk about the anxious behavior and how to handle it, then maybe set up a private series of agility lessons so she could learn without the distraction of other dogs, and work on the anxiety/aggression issues elsewhere.