I recently purchased and downloaded your book, “Secrets of a
Professional Dog Trainer” and have found it very helpful.
My wife and I adopted an abused 5-month old Hungarian Visla cross,
and found that she was very friendly with humans but vicious with
other dogs, (Probably from being abused as a puppy by bigger dogs).
We’ve applied your techniques and tips and have seen tremendous
progress already in just a few weeks with the basic sit, stay and heel
commands. Still, though our biggest problem is trying to get her to be
“social” with other dogs, and trying to get her to not pull our arm off
every time she sees another dog. That said here is my question, Is
there any trick, tip or special way to get her to be social with other
dogs and not jump over the fenced yard every time another dog walks
by. Your advice is appreciated.
Cheers,
Rob
Dear Rob:
Thank you for the kind words.
Unfortunately, you cannot “make” a dog be social with other dogs. You
can use the techniques to teach your dog to IGNORE other dogs by
correcting him if he shows aggression& but I would not recommend putting
the dog in an off leash setting around other dogs that are off leash.
Ignoring vs. socializing with are two completely different things.
It’s like with humans. Some are poorly socialized. You can teach a person
to be respectful around others, but you can’t always MAKE them LIKE other
people.
As for “pulling your arm off” when you’re walking your dog on-leash, I would
recommend you use the “loose leash/attention getter” technique I describe
on page 175 (the section titled, “How Do I Get My Dog To Stop Pulling On
The Leash”) and for the fence jumping, look at page 168 (the section titled,
“How Do I Get My Dog To Stop Jumping On The Fence.”)