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I have a five year old female jack russel that we got from the dogs trust. Shes a great little dog but the only problem is that she doesnt like other dogs. She barks and pulls on the lead and generally has a meltdown. We have slowly introduced her to my parents dog (yorkshire terrier) and shes slowly got used to him.
Just wondered if anyone had any tips on socialising her with other dogs
Gotto get her off the lead. When she meets others, it's flight or fight. On the lead there's no flight option. Our local dog trainer organises big groups to run around together, sure you'll have something similar in your area.
If you're local to MK then it's Tracey at Acorn you need to talk to.
That was my suggestion really. Trouble is my oh is veryvery very over protective of the dog which I think has made the problem worse
Let me guess big yim. Dog sleeps on the bed and you sleep in the spare room? 😀
get a tin of air duster for cleaning keyboards (compressed air) and when she wants to kick off give the duster a quick blast above her, it's a great distraction technique that works for most dogs and most traits
pembo are you spying on me?
big yim - MemberThat was my suggestion really. Trouble is my oh is veryvery very over protective of the dog which I think has made the problem worse
While this is happening - good luck.
If you can fix this huge problem, then you'll have a pretty good chance of getting the dog to socialise well - even if she never loves other dogs, she should be able to tolerate them and learn to ignore them. From my own experience:
My FIL didn't socialise his dog, a combination of not really knowing how important it was and not having much opportunity to meet other dogs where they live. Their dog hated other dogs as a result, and had so few social skills that he was attacked a couple of times - as you can imagine this didn't help the dog learn to get on with others. FIL respoinded by becomming over-protective, keeping dog on lead all the time, avoiding other dogs etc etc - reinforcing to the dog that all other dogs must be the ENEMY...
This situation was so bad that my wife and I put off getting a puppy for quite a while - because we couldn't have taken it to her parents house.
Eventually, my FIL decided that with his dog now getting on a bit (9 years old at the time) maybe another dog would be a good idea - so he adopted a failed guide-dog, which was utterly bombproof and completely relaxed around the original neurotic one. The result, after about a month, neurotic dog calmed down, learnt to greet other dogs OK. A year on and he is like a different animal, yes he still gets spooked sometimes and doesn't really like it when my puppy is too boistrous - but at least has developed enough social skills to be in the same room as other dogs and not react too badly.
I'd get her off the lead, with an appropriately calm dog, and let her gradually learn that it's OK. I'd also head to training classes where she can work with you in the presence of other dogs, and where there is help on hand to work on problems.
Sounds like training classes might be a good idea. We took our rescue gsd along to one, she had been assessed by rescue as good with dogs, (not cats), we thought it a good idea if we could learn a bit too, as it had been a while since either of us owned a dog. It's a controlled environment, all dogs on leads etc.
I remember a nervous aggressive dog coming to class, the difference within a couple of months was impressive.