07/05/2024
*D.O.G.19 Meeting Another Dog
How many times do we hear a handler shouting “he’s friendly, loves everyone, just wants to say hello” as their dog rushes directly towards ours. Sometimes we will experience a dog that is reactive towards our dog, lunging and barking with hackles up, with the handler saying “sorry, she doesn’t like other dogs”.
But is it really that the dog “loves everyone” or “doesn’t like other dogs”?
Both reactivity towards other dogs and wanting to meet every dog are generally behaviours that are masking the dog’s own insecurities in that they lack the confidence and skills to show and understand body language to communicate effectively with another dog. These dogs need support to help them to think, to not meet every dog they see and to have the opportunity to learn and practise showing and understanding body language. As handlers, we need to be observant, and to know how to gently guide our dogs.
In all cases it is important to provide appropriate support in an appropriate environment. Having the dogs on lead allows us to provide this support while the dogs develop the skills required to be off lead. A dog that “loves everyone” should not meet every dog they see, being on lead enables us to apply a boundary at the right time.
With reactive dogs it is important for us to think about distance and direction of travel of other dogs, body language shown by our dog and the other dog and be ready to provide appropriate support dependent on the body language we see. We will say more about support for reactive dogs in our next D.O.G.
The video clip is from part of the first walk between Etsy, a young Cocker Spaniel, and Robbie, our more mature GSD, both dogs handled by pet owners who are near the start of their journey. At the moment Etsy’s solution to her lack of confidence and skills is to rush up to every dog that she sees. She does it in a quick, appeasing and submissive way, crawling along the ground, turning her head up with lots of blinking, lip licking and then rolling on her back.
Initially during the walk Etsy found it very hard not to rush straight up to Robbie. She wasn’t taking into consideration any body language that he was showing and wasn’t thinking. It was important for her handler to help her to pause and think by applying some boundaries, stopping her from getting too close to Robbie. When a gentle boundary was applied using the lead, Etsy was able to come away from Robbie and started sniffing. She would then turn back and try to approach Robbie again but each time an appropriate boundary was applied.
Robbie showed Etsy clearly with his body language that he found her initial approaches impolite; he turned his head and moved away from Etsy whenever she tried to rush towards him.
Etsy very quickly realised that she could walk with Robbie and enjoy her sniffs without an immediate ‘nose to nose’ meeting. The ‘nose to nose’ meeting, when it did happen, was natural and a non-event. Etsy was having a sniff and Robbie gently approached to share the sniff. The dogs had a brief sniff of each other and then carried on with the walk.
During the walk the dogs enjoyed their own space and sniffs as well as coming together to share those experiences.
In this clip, which was well into the walk, you can see that Etsy is enthusiastically exploring the environment. Robbie moves forward but stops behind Etsy’s handler, leaving the path clear for Etsy’s return. When Etsy rejoins the path she looks at Robbie who immediately looks away, Etsy then also turns away and everyone continues moving forward.
With the support of appropriate lead handling preventing a ‘nose to nose’ meeting before the dogs were ready for it and the experience of body language shown by a more skilled dog, Etsy was able to learn how to be with another dog; naturally, safely and politely.
Of course she will still need handler support next time she walks with another dog. However, with appropriate handling and the opportunity to continue learning from a more skilled dog she will be able to become a skilled dog herself, confident in showing and understanding body language. This will help her feel that she won't have to meet every dog that she sees.
Our thanks to Allison and Darren for allowing us to use this clip.
* D.O.G.s are our “Digestible Opportunities for Growth”. We'd love to see your comments on our D.O.G.s and pictures of your own dogs, and have some discussion and shared learning.
