Kelie hates other dogs - 2010-01-18

Question

I have a 5 month old kelpie who is a responsive tolerant lovely dog. Except she hates other dogs and goes crazy barking leaping growling etc when she sees any dog. no amount of treats or roast chicken pieces is going to persuade her otherwise and I can no longer take her out because she is in danger of tipping my small child out of the buggy and causes a general and considerable disturbance to every one every time we meet another dog. please help soon.

Answer

Season greetings and there are no easy solutions for this. Did you do puppy class with your kelpie? That would have been a great opportunity for the dog to learnt to socialise with other dogs in a safe and friendly environment. If no classes were done, I would recommend that you pursue obedience classes in the new year as that may help. One of the first things, I would get for her would be a Gentle Leader head collar. Make sure you watch the video as it will teach you a lot of how to fit it and also how to use it. If you are not close to a pet store, you can order them online from our site. In the meantime, teach her to sit when other dogs are in vision, keep her in sit, when she does, reward her when other dogs are past. She gets so hyped and stressed and not taking a treat reconfirms that. So you need to use something that she is comfortable with and can deliver, stressed or not. By being in a controlled environment, her anxiety and aggression will lower. But this needs help, otherwise you will get an untenable and dangerous situation - especially with a pram.