Dog Training Community

I'm new here and sure hope someone can give me some ideas to try with my dogs at the park. I've been taking them there since the park opened last Dec.07, they were 6 months old then). They are very obedient and stay close to me on our walks there. It is 55 acres so we can go for long walks with lots of play. In the beginning they were pretty good with the other dogs in the park, although they liked rough chase and play games. I worked with them on that and they now immediately stop playing or showing attention to another dog when i tell them "off". The park is so big that most people don't stay at the front to just let the dogs play together they walk the perimeter of the park and expect to just pass and say "hi" and keep going. (A large part of the entrance and the perimeter of the park is the only part of the park that is mowed, the center of the park has grasses that are about 3 to 4 feet high.)

Here is my problem: When my dogs see others in the distance all of their obedience training goes out the window. They are off like rockets to greet them. Once they sniff and say hi then we can move on and they don't even look back. (This can be as long as five minutes or more depending on how far they've left me behind) Some people don't seem to mind and some seem annoyed. So, today I tried putting them on the leash as soon as I spotted another person with a dog coming towards us. They became very anxious and were pulling me. I managed to keep them under control till the other dog was about 30 feet away and I let one of them loose to go greet, which turned out fine but when I let the other one go she dived on the other dog and attacked it. Although she sounded ferocious after I got her to let go of the other dog we checked it out and she hadn't even left a scratch. But the experience was pretty unnerving...especially for the other owner who stood and screamed and cried till I separted them. One interesting thing is I experienced almost exactly the same situation not 3 minutes before this one with two small dogs and I handled it in the same way and not one issue. Both of my dogs were very friendly and then we continued on our way and this happened.

I guess my question is should I no longer take my dogs to park? Should I work with them more on their leashes away from the park? I don't have any issues with them on leash away from there, I just tell them "leave it" if they are overly interested in another animal and we walk right by.

It would be a dream situation for me if I could get them all under control at the park. I have one gsd (8 yrs) and 3 gsd/dane mix (all three one yr.) Currently I take them 2 at a time so as to not scare people when they run up to greet, which means a couple of trips there a day. I would love to be able to take them all together twice a day. Would this ever be possible with the right training? I'm willing to put in the time with them and they are with me 24/7 so I have the time as well. I just hope I'm not doing them a disservice by trying to keep so many of them but could not find homes for two of the puppies and ended up with three. I still call them puppies but they are all hovering around one hundred pounds or more a piece now. Most of the people in our area keep their dogs outside and/or with little or no exercise. Just couldn't do that to them. Anyway if anyone has any tips or suggestions for me to try would love to hear them. Thanks, Dee

Hi Dee,

Welcome to the community!

See my answers below, and let me know if you have more questions.

Since their behavior escalates to the point of the situation getting out of control, you should work on overall off-leash control away from the park using other distractions first. If you use dogs that your dogs are more comfortable with in a smaller area, you can start more slowly and identify trouble spots that elicit an inappropriate response in your dogs or loss of control such as when dogs move more quickly, play with each other other bark. 

Make sure also that their overall reactivity is lowered throughout the day, and they are not building barrier frustration when at your home. This can cause more reactivity at the dog park. 

My favorite counter strategy to reactive off-leash dogs is to teach them a rock solid Stop cue. If you don't know how to teach this, you can learn from my Stop video which shows how to teach off leash control. You can see a sample here. Emergency STOP! Sample

Here are some other posts that might be helpful.

Dog Park Body Language

Dog-Dog Aggression at the Dog Park Forum Question

Dog Park Training Tips (Episode From My Radio Show) 

Good luck, and keep the community posted on the progress.  

Hi, and thank you so much for your reply. I bought the Emergency Stop video and watched it. I can't wait to to start working with them on it. We'll have a small head start because I've been using "stop" at corners when we go for walks so they know what it means. I'm so excited to have learned how to build on that to keep them under control off-leash. I checked out all of the other links you provided last night after I posted and found tons of useful information. I tried the "time outs" with Rocky who barks and guards our fence when he is outside....it worked nearly instantly. I could actually talk to the neighbors over the fence tonight while he sat quietly beside me. Thanks again, Dee

You are very welcome. I am glad you are noticing such fast results. Be patient and continue to notice the moment that your dog's react and work on those triggers one by one until you are able to have the control that you need. 

Keep in touch, and don't forget to email pix of your dogs to photos@watchandtrain.com to share with the rest of the community. 

Have a great day, and keep in touch. 

Jeff 

Will do and I have to tell you that my dogs are responding faster to your techniques than anything else I have tried. So far we've practiced the eye contact and stops. They did very well but haven't tried it with much distraction yet. I'll let you know how they're progressing after a week or two.

Excellent! Thanks for the update.

Jeff 

Good news =) We've worked and worked on Stops and we're getting pretty good at it. Sadie is still a little stubborn but I've been putting in some extra time with her alone and she's responding pretty well.  They stop and come back to me at the park much better than they used too, (not 100% yet), but I think we'll get there. I train with them each separately a few times a day and quite alot as a "pack". They will sit around me in a semi-circle and each one will sit and wait until their name is called to practice "down" or "shake". Pretty basic obedience but it's been a real challenge to finally get to the point I can get everyones attention at the same time. It's taken a long time to get them to work together (over a year). They now know that whoever gets their name called when I have a leash in my hand is the one who is going out the door and the rest "go lay down" till the front door is shut then they can come to window. (that's a heartbreaker=) but everybody gets to go at some point. Two or three come to work with us in the morning and the others stay home then we trade them out after lunch.

Your website has really been invaluable to me!!! I've read and reread your blogs and posts. I just recently enrolled Rocky in an obedience class, it's quite funny, he's about four feet tall and he looks like the biggest kid in the second grade, but he LOVES the little dogs and we can take home what we've learned and share it with the others. Thanks for all your advice and taking the time to help us dog owners in need!!  Dee