Leash Reactive Dogs- Finding Them a New Companion or Friend

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

Just wanted to share this tidbit. I have a very leash reactive dog. He is inbred and we have trained him and retrained him without any lasting impact. He will lunge and try to attack any dog he does not know. So when the last of his dog pack died off I needed to find him a companion. Since he lived with his dog pack family he knows how to get along with dogs. But introducing him to a new dog seemed impossible. So this is what we did and I hope it helps someone else.

When it was time to get a new dog companion for him we chose to adopt a dog who gets along with other dogs. We knew our dog would sabotage the meeting. We put a muzzle on our dog. This greatly upset him and it is something I don't like to do but seemed necessary. We met the new dog on neutral territory. I had my husband walk the new dog about 20 feet in front of us and we walked to keep up. When we got close my leash reactive dog lunged and went nuts. We kept walking. We walked until the dogs were tired and they were walking together. Then we took turns turning each dog's butt for the other to sniff. Walked a bit more. Put them together in a fenced area with my leash aggressive dog still on a leash. When he was calm we dropped his leash. Then after a bit we took the muzzle off. They are now bonded companions.

So fast forward 2 years later. My friend who died left a little dog behind who is grieving. He still has his human mommy but she works all day and is grieving too. So I thought we could bring him over a few days a week so dog is happy and mommy doesn't feel sad that dog misses his daddy and is lonely. I used the exact same method as above. My chill dog (alpha female) lunged at the new do for about 10 seconds then calmed down. She did not need a muzzle. They made friends shortly after their walk.

Leash reactive dog was next. As expected he went nuts on the leash until both dogs were walked far enough to be calm. Made them sniff butts. Brought them back to the fenced area. Let them walk around together. Took the muzzle off and tried to not to act anxious but ready to jump in if a fight broke out. They made friends! Then put all three dogs together and they figured it out.

So not Cesar Millan but it seems to work.

 

[Queenie60]

Great advise for us dog lovers! Thank you for sharing, may come in handy one day.

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

Great advise for us dog lovers! Thank you for sharing, may come in handy one day.

Thank you @Queenie60 . Two minutes into the walk with my dog acting crazy my DH said "This isn't going to work" and I replied "It's going to work". Once you walk the dogs to the point of being tired it becomes a workable situation. For anyone in this situation, walking the dogs until they are tired and calm is the game changer.

 

[Musia]

We are going to Utah in August. One of our goals is to meet our GSD's dear brother. Doggies are going to be 7y.o. this Friday (July 16th) and ours has a laryngeal paralysis that will for sure contribute to shortening his life. Keeping in touch with the other dog's family since both boys were 7 weeks old babies. We got our King at the age of 6 weeks and Tank found his forever home at the age of 8.5 weeks. I am nervous because our boy is extremely leash reactive. Very tough dog from police line of champions of West German origin. They are smart and trainable of course but we didn't have any luck. Usually we avoid other dogs on our regular walks, hide behind parked cars or change direction. But we really want both brothers to tolerate each other (the distance should be no less than 100 yards). Hope we will walk them in the same direction for long enough so they get really tired. Thank you for starting a thread! @Queenie60 Dr. Reed who used to work with police K9 units refused to see our boy. The younger lady, Dr. Eberle from the same hospital sees him.

I started reading many of Cesar Millan's books when our doggie was very young but soon learned that the real German Shepherd is not a pet. Ours is a sweet pet at home, but not outside.

 

[Cerulean]

Honestly Cesar Milan has been really discredited. My trainer has discussed this with me (so it's not just my opinion). Positive reinforcement training is more effective (I can cite intel but won't deviate from the thread...)

So it is GREAT that you didn't use his methods, LOL!

Well done on integrating. Such a scary moment for everything, takes a real leap of faith. I went through introducing my mom's leash reactive dog to my pup very recently. First intro went very poorly. We made the mistake of introducing them on leash, in the leash reactive dog's front yard. We tried walking them after to calm him, but he was too agitated. He tried to attack my dog. It wasn't looking good.

We tried again 3 months later. Met in a neutral place, and actually let the leash reactive dog off leash (so scary!) Grumbles and hair raised, but we tried to stay calm and ignore it. Within about 3 minutes, they were playing.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Crazy cat lady here wants to know what leash reactive means ?

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

Crazy cat lady here wants to know what leash reactive means ?

Hi Daisy. A leash reactive dog is a dog who when on a leash lunges, barks, growls and many times try to attack any dog that comes close to them.

 

[OboeGal]

Just wanted to share this tidbit. I have a very leash reactive dog. He is inbred and we have trained him and retrained him without any lasting impact. He will lunge and try to attack any dog he does not know. So when the last of his dog pack died off I needed to find him a companion. Since he lived with his dog pack family he knows how to get along with dogs. But introducing him to a new dog seemed impossible. So this is what we did and I hope it helps someone else.

When it was time to get a new dog companion for him we chose to adopt a dog who gets along with other dogs. We knew our dog would sabotage the meeting. We put a muzzle on our dog. This greatly upset him and it is something I don't like to do but seemed necessary. We met the new dog on neutral territory. I had my husband walk the new dog about 20 feet in front of us and we walked to keep up. When we got close my leash reactive dog lunged and went nuts. We kept walking. We walked until the dogs were tired and they were walking together. Then we took turns turning each dog's butt for the other to sniff. Walked a bit more. Put them together in a fenced area with my leash aggressive dog still on a leash. When he was calm we dropped his leash. Then after a bit we took the muzzle off. They are now bonded companions.

So fast forward 2 years later. My friend who died left a little dog behind who is grieving. He still has his human mommy but she works all day and is grieving too. So I thought we could bring him over a few days a week so dog is happy and mommy doesn't feel sad that dog misses his daddy and is lonely. I used the exact same method as above. My chill dog (alpha female) lunged at the new do for about 10 seconds then calmed down. She did not need a muzzle. They made friends shortly after their walk.

Leash reactive dog was next. As expected he went nuts on the leash until both dogs were walked far enough to be calm. Made them sniff butts. Brought them back to the fenced area. Let them walk around together. Took the muzzle off and tried to not to act anxious but ready to jump in if a fight broke out. They made friends! Then put all three dogs together and they figured it out.

So not Cesar Millan but it seems to work.

It's not exactly Cesar, but definitely uses the basic principles he employed in these situations: maintaining calmness yourselves; making it clear that your reactive dog wasn't going to be allowed to control the situation through his reactions - that you and your husband were the ones making the decisions and determining what was going to happen; and tiring them out with walking immediately, which obviously reduced their energy for reactivity but which also had the critical psychological impact of having them moving forward in space together, with the both of you, the way that a pack does. It imprinted in them that they weren't just meeting each other, but that it had been decided by the both of YOU that this was the forming of a new, cohesive pack. Well-done, and I'm really glad you posted this, as we are hoping to bring another dog into our home soon, and our current collie is a very high-strung, nervous, reactive dog, despite all our efforts to rehabilitate those traits.