23/08/2021
🐕As a dog owner, you and your dog are going to encounter many other dogs on your walks. The question is, how do you prevent and protect your dog from another dog's reactivity?
🤔Most people think that their dog is ok and friendly, maybe a little over-eager at times, but still a social dog. However, they don’t know or often observe or understand their dog's body language.
🐾Dog's mainly communicate using facial expressions and body posturing. If you can understand body language, or at least the basics of it, you most likely can prevent a situation that can be potentially harmful to your dog.
👃Sniffing is a huge part of the dog's greeting process. The other dog's a**l glands, pheromones, and other scents give the dog all the information they want to know about their potentially new canine friend.
👍If the greeting is going well for both dogs you will notice that they will both appear to be relaxed. However, if the greeting is not going well you will notice that one, or both show tension in their body.
The tail may be held high, wagging in stiff short movements, or it may be low, tuck between the dog's legs. It is also not a good sign if the dogs stand rigid and intensely stare at one another (this can happen very briefly before breaking out into a scrap).
The reason why leash greetings may go wrong is that:
* On-leash greetings can be clumsy
* The leash causes restrictions of movement
* The lead restricts the dog's ability to escape
* The dog can go through conflicting emotions – He wants to greet the other dog, but he is not sure or comfortable.
* You have a higher chance of greetings going well if the dogs do not feel trapped.
💡Tips to avoid reactive leash greetings:
* Do not allow your dog to make a ‘bee line’ to another dog or let your dog rush towards another dog. That kind of behaviour may be incredibly overwhelming and frightening to the other dog which may cause fear reactivity.
*Be proactive about the situation. If another dog approaches your dog in that manner, then gently call your dog in a happy voice and say, ‘come on, let’s go this way’. This is taking your dog out of a situation that could potentially put your dog in harm BEFORE it may happen.
*If your dog does meet another dog, try using the 2-3 second rule. This is the amount of time the initial greeting should last. At any point, if you see either one of the dogs are not comfortable or one of them starts to growl or bark, immediately walk away calling your dog happily.
*Moving may help reduce the intensity of the greeting. Once you get to 3, call your dog away from the other dog, praise your dog, and give it another couple of seconds which helps your dog disengage. Then reintroduce them again applying the same tip from above.
* Do not put your dog in a position where he/ she has no way out by forcing your dog to turn in a position for the other dog to greet.
* DO NOT have a tight leash.
You ideally are aiming for a relaxed posture from both dogs Their body language will be ‘loose’, their jaws will be relaxed and not closed tight. Their tails will be gently wagging in circular motions.
It is good to practice the three-second rule with all dogs. Even with the dogs your dog already knows.
🧐Now, this would obviously be a different situation if your dog is approached by another dog who is off the lead. My advice would be to try and manage the areas you walk in as much as possible. This means avoid places where you think this situation may happen, and if it does, then try and take your dog away from the dog off lead as quickly as possible in a calm manner.
If you are struggling it is always best to seek out help from a qualified force-free professional.
