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How to improve meeting skills?
Does anyone have any tried & true advice on how to improve a dog's meeting
skills with other dogs? The dogs are all adults, all rescues and only react to strange dogs. I see this alot with the Boxers and outside of just telling people "this is how he/she is at first, just give the dog a few minutes" I'm not sure what else to do. My female Fancy has atrocious meeting skills. She presents an aggressive front to any strange dog she meets either on-leash or off. She is better off-leash but she still acts aggressively. The best way to describe it is that she's both inviting the other dog to scrap with her and saying she's ready at the same time. She means it to an extent as she will defend herself in a heartbeat but she doesn't really want to fight if that makes sense. Her actions produce the expected reaction from most other dogs though and who can blame them? A female I have here now is the same. She is 100% submissive with other dogs of both genders and all sizes. She allows them to mount her, get rough with her, eat her food, take her chewies and so on. The thing is, you'd never know that about her if you watched her encounter a strange dog. When she was brought to my house, Ely (a male foster pup) ran out the door to greet her and she pounded him into the ground, held him there and bared her teeth. He was non-threatening in every way as his body language (wiggling a mile a minute) left nothing to wonder about. However, here is a dog (albeit a smaller one) running up to you so why not pound first and question later? When introduced to the Min. Dachshund, Mary lunged and snapped. My foot, harshly side-swiping Pebbles out of the way, was all that saved her from a broken neck (good thing I didn't do damage with my reaction). Now imagine me having to introduce Fancy and Mary. I had no help so I waited a while and crated Mary to let her decompress some. Finally I got tired of playing musical crates and wondering so I crated Ely & Pebbles, let Fancy into the backyard then got Mary and took her out there...leashes hanging loose on both girls. I walked to the water hose, turned it on and waited thinking I'd need to hose them down to break up a fight but I wanted it done with and out of the way so we could move on (the dogs are generally tolerant of each other after the initial spat..sometimes it takes two or three spats). Alot of posturing, paw to the shoulder or side, hackles raised, growling and circling went on but after 5 minutes all was fine because neither girl took the other's bait. Mary also cannot be taken into a vet's office waiting room or Petsmart. This all happened over a month ago and Mary, Fancy, Ely & Pebbles are great friends (well Pebbles is a snob, she tolerates the big dogs) but it makes me wonder if there's a way to improve the meeting skills of dogs like this. Mary is being adopted by my sister in 2 weeks (she already adopted Hunter) and rather than being able to meet her halfway, I'm having to drive 6 hours because I know what will happen at a roadside meeting and I can't imagine being able to convince my sister that Mary will be fine on the way home. She'll be fine after she's allowed off-leash with Hunter in their backyard and I am there to supervise the introduction but its times like this where I wish there was a trick to getting dogs like her to be friendly towards strangers. These two girls are only examples of a good portion of the Boxers we get in rescue. They are *not* dog aggressive but act that way when meeting strange dogs for the first time. Its a fear reaction that I have no idea where it comes from. Some dogs are only like this on-leash while others are like this regardless. It doesn't bother me (actually I am surprised when two Boxers don't react this way to each other since its such a common sight to see) but it can put a damper on adoption meetings and can also make prospective adopters wary of adopting a dog like this because they want to be able to take the dog places. -- Tara |
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On Sat, 6 Sep 2003 15:17:10 -0400, "Tara O."
wrote: This does work for alot of dogs but not these particular types of dogs. There is no lull before the storm so to speak. If they are close enough to the other dog for even a second, they react with a lunge and/or snap. If another dog comes within say 10' then the are dead still and staring, waiting for the dog to get within striking distance. yep. hard eyes and stiff stance. it's as if they're waiting for the other dog to offer an offense so that they can put the smack-down on them for it. There's no opportunity to even try first and then back up. exactly, and it's frustrating. last time i had harriet at the vet, there was a Dobe bitch in the waiting room that, for whatever reason, *really* pissed harriet off. she was fine with the Pit Bull bitch who was barking her fool head off, but the Dobe just offended harriet. it was crowded and her owner was sitting next to me, so our dogs were stuck close together. harriet wasn't thrilled with that, but behaved herself until the Dobe leaned over to sniff her. as soon as she invaded harriet's comfort zone, harriet snarled at her. after that, every time the other dog moved, harriet growled. what sucks is that once she's focused like that on another dog, it's nearly impossible to get her to forget about it. even after the Dobe owner and i were able to move away from each other, and harriet was busy schmoozing with a couple other people sitting near me, she had one eye on the Dobe. Honestly, the only thing that I've found that works is to just let them off-leash together. you too? that's been the *only* way to get harriet to acclimate to other dogs. Actually I think I could probably say that neutrality is worse. Better to have the aggressive-acting dog on the other dog's turf where it knows its the stranger than to be neutral. Don't know if it'll make sense but its been an observation. Neutrality, or their own "turf", seems to give these dogs the upper hand. that's been my experience, as well. i've got no advice to offer. my experience has been very similar to yours, though. it seems like it's just a weird Boxer thing. -- shelly (perfectly foul wench) and elliott & harriet http://home.bluemarble.net/~scouvrette It's very important for folks to understand that when there's more trade, there's more commerce. -- George W. Bush, Quebec City 4/21/2001 |
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On Sat, 6 Sep 2003 15:17:10 -0400, "Tara O."
wrote: This does work for alot of dogs but not these particular types of dogs. There is no lull before the storm so to speak. If they are close enough to the other dog for even a second, they react with a lunge and/or snap. If another dog comes within say 10' then the are dead still and staring, waiting for the dog to get within striking distance. yep. hard eyes and stiff stance. it's as if they're waiting for the other dog to offer an offense so that they can put the smack-down on them for it. There's no opportunity to even try first and then back up. exactly, and it's frustrating. last time i had harriet at the vet, there was a Dobe bitch in the waiting room that, for whatever reason, *really* pissed harriet off. she was fine with the Pit Bull bitch who was barking her fool head off, but the Dobe just offended harriet. it was crowded and her owner was sitting next to me, so our dogs were stuck close together. harriet wasn't thrilled with that, but behaved herself until the Dobe leaned over to sniff her. as soon as she invaded harriet's comfort zone, harriet snarled at her. after that, every time the other dog moved, harriet growled. what sucks is that once she's focused like that on another dog, it's nearly impossible to get her to forget about it. even after the Dobe owner and i were able to move away from each other, and harriet was busy schmoozing with a couple other people sitting near me, she had one eye on the Dobe. Honestly, the only thing that I've found that works is to just let them off-leash together. you too? that's been the *only* way to get harriet to acclimate to other dogs. Actually I think I could probably say that neutrality is worse. Better to have the aggressive-acting dog on the other dog's turf where it knows its the stranger than to be neutral. Don't know if it'll make sense but its been an observation. Neutrality, or their own "turf", seems to give these dogs the upper hand. that's been my experience, as well. i've got no advice to offer. my experience has been very similar to yours, though. it seems like it's just a weird Boxer thing. -- shelly (perfectly foul wench) and elliott & harriet http://home.bluemarble.net/~scouvrette It's very important for folks to understand that when there's more trade, there's more commerce. -- George W. Bush, Quebec City 4/21/2001 |
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On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 16:01:36 -0400, sighthounds etc.
wrote: What is usually going on during the 5 minutes of 'getting to know you' time? Has there ever been any damage done? I have absolutely no experience with of Boxers or bully breeds. John Richardson might be able to give you some pointers though - - he's very experienced with bully breeds and has a fairly large pack of his own, so he must have done the introduction thing many, many times. I saw a post of his the other day. Ping him in .rescue and maybe he can help. it starts out much like a common Pit Bull reaction (hard eyes and stiff stance, ususally with nub up and moving slowly). it's different, though, in that it normally happens on-lead. it's also not of the same intensity or duration as typical Pit Bull aggression. my interpretation is that the Boxer isn't interested in fighting so much as establishing boundaries. they're just seem to be lacking the proper canine communication skills to do this as smoothly as most dogs do. -- shelly (perfectly foul wench) and elliott & harriet http://home.bluemarble.net/~scouvrette I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe--I believe what I believe is right. -- George W. Bush, Rome 7/22/2001 |
#5
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On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 16:01:36 -0400, sighthounds etc.
wrote: What is usually going on during the 5 minutes of 'getting to know you' time? Has there ever been any damage done? I have absolutely no experience with of Boxers or bully breeds. John Richardson might be able to give you some pointers though - - he's very experienced with bully breeds and has a fairly large pack of his own, so he must have done the introduction thing many, many times. I saw a post of his the other day. Ping him in .rescue and maybe he can help. it starts out much like a common Pit Bull reaction (hard eyes and stiff stance, ususally with nub up and moving slowly). it's different, though, in that it normally happens on-lead. it's also not of the same intensity or duration as typical Pit Bull aggression. my interpretation is that the Boxer isn't interested in fighting so much as establishing boundaries. they're just seem to be lacking the proper canine communication skills to do this as smoothly as most dogs do. -- shelly (perfectly foul wench) and elliott & harriet http://home.bluemarble.net/~scouvrette I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe--I believe what I believe is right. -- George W. Bush, Rome 7/22/2001 |
#6
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On 01 Sep 2003, Tara O. opined:
Does anyone have any tried & true advice on how to improve a dog's meeting skills with other dogs? Tara, did you ever get any replies with this. I often get asked this question on my walks by people with newly adopted dogs.... Thanks, Chad -- Looking for a pet? Adopt one! ** http://www.petfinder.com Info for a healthy, happy dog? * http://www.dog-play.com Asking if computers can think is like asking if submarines can swim. |
#7
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On 01 Sep 2003, Tara O. opined:
Does anyone have any tried & true advice on how to improve a dog's meeting skills with other dogs? Tara, did you ever get any replies with this. I often get asked this question on my walks by people with newly adopted dogs.... Thanks, Chad -- Looking for a pet? Adopt one! ** http://www.petfinder.com Info for a healthy, happy dog? * http://www.dog-play.com Asking if computers can think is like asking if submarines can swim. |
#8
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Subject: How to improve meeting skills?
From: Dimpled Chad Date: Sat, Sep 6, 2003 10:29 AM Message-id: On 01 Sep 2003, Tara O. opined: Does anyone have any tried & true advice on how to improve a dog's meeting skills with other dogs? Tara, did you ever get any replies with this. I often get asked this question on my walks by people with newly adopted dogs.... Thanks, Chad Loose lead Non territorial property And acting like you are interested in EVERYTHING but the dogs meeting each other. Paulette~ |
#9
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Subject: How to improve meeting skills?
From: Dimpled Chad Date: Sat, Sep 6, 2003 10:29 AM Message-id: On 01 Sep 2003, Tara O. opined: Does anyone have any tried & true advice on how to improve a dog's meeting skills with other dogs? Tara, did you ever get any replies with this. I often get asked this question on my walks by people with newly adopted dogs.... Thanks, Chad Loose lead Non territorial property And acting like you are interested in EVERYTHING but the dogs meeting each other. Paulette~ |
#10
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"Dimpled Chad" wrote in message
... On 01 Sep 2003, Tara O. opined: Does anyone have any tried & true advice on how to improve a dog's meeting skills with other dogs? Tara, did you ever get any replies with this. I often get asked this question on my walks by people with newly adopted dogs.... Thanks, Chad Nope, not until Paulette but her suggestion won't work for the dogs I'm talking about. Even with loose leads and the handlers talking to each other rather than specifically focusing on the dogs, it doesn't help. -- Tara |
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