[warjie]

hi,whenever i walk my dog Coleen,most of the time she's either scared or easily get startled by moving vehicles, stray & barking dogs, & people in loud noise (playing,etc...)

She still walks though but afraid. I do not want her to be afraid of those things. What can I do?

We walk twice a day, one in the morning and in the afternoon before i go to work. After 4 days of walking my dogs, I got good results now to my other dog but she sill got no good result. I'm just thinking if walking consistently is the only key to success here.

thank you!

 

[Shell]

Walking is good since the more noises she hears and sights she sees, the more she will get used to it.
Make sure she has lots of good experiences outside- sit outside near a busy street and give her yummy treats. When you walk with her, give her treats sometimes as you walk.
You can train her to focus on you - say her name and when she looks at you, give her a treat. Repeat this several times every day. Then, we she gets scared outside, you can say her name and get her to look at you instead of whatever is scary to her.

make sure she has a secure collar or harness on so that if she gets scared and tries to run off, she won't slip out of her collar. A plain collar is too easy for the dog to back out of. try a "martingale collar" or just a plain walking harness.

 

[warjie]

Walking is good since the more noises she hears and sights she sees, the more she will get used to it.
Make sure she has lots of good experiences outside- sit outside near a busy street and give her yummy treats. When you walk with her, give her treats sometimes as you walk.
You can train her to focus on you - say her name and when she looks at you, give her a treat. Repeat this several times every day. Then, we she gets scared outside, you can say her name and get her to look at you instead of whatever is scary to her.

make sure she has a secure collar or harness on so that if she gets scared and tries to run off, she won't slip out of her collar. A plain collar is too easy for the dog to back out of. try a "martingale collar" or just a plain walking harness.

Guess I really need to walk Coleen more since she's a much larger dog. I'll try what you said. But what will I do with approaching stray dogs? Sometimes if I see the dog seems not to fight but wants to go near us, we just keep moving forward even my dogs keep on looking at them. When it seems that the dog wants a fight and my dog gets afraid, I scare off the dog away. Is that fine? Moving forward when my dog's not afraid and scaring the stray away when my dog's afraid?

 

[Shell]

I would say that sounds fine. You want to keep stray dogs away, even if they seem friendly, because 1) you don't know if they really are friendly or how your dog will react to them and 2) you don't want your dog to feel like she has to protect you from a strange dog.

My dog is very dog-friendly and he is fine either loose with other dogs OR leashed with other dogs on a leash. But if a larger loose dog approaches us, he becomes very defensive. He won't act unless the other dog does, but a more frightened or less secure dog might start something with the loose dog.

I generally just step up and put my dog behind me and scare away the other dog. We don't have many truly "stray" dogs here, most are just pet dogs that have jumped a fence and most behave okay and will run away if I shout at them and shoo them off. Then we walk on and I keep an eye on the loose dog. If needed, I will turn the other direction and walk away rather than shoo off a dog if I don't recognize the dog or think it might be aggressive.

 

[warjie]

I would say that sounds fine. You want to keep stray dogs away, even if they seem friendly, because 1) you don't know if they really are friendly or how your dog will react to them and 2) you don't want your dog to feel like she has to protect you from a strange dog.

My dog is very dog-friendly and he is fine either loose with other dogs OR leashed with other dogs on a leash. But if a larger loose dog approaches us, he becomes very defensive. He won't act unless the other dog does, but a more frightened or less secure dog might start something with the loose dog.

I generally just step up and put my dog behind me and scare away the other dog. We don't have many truly "stray" dogs here, most are just pet dogs that have jumped a fence and most behave okay and will run away if I shout at them and shoo them off. Then we walk on and I keep an eye on the loose dog. If needed, I will turn the other direction and walk away rather than shoo off a dog if I don't recognize the dog or think it might be aggressive.

So generally, I have to shoo the dog away. But I really want them to be dog-friendly but I guess it depends on the stray dog

There are 2 types of stray dogs we always encounter on our walk.

SMALL DOG
- Sugar looks at her with her tail stiff
- Coleen excitedly wants to bolt at it...cant say if excited...

MEDIUM AGGRESSIVE DOG
- when these 2 dogs see us, they run to us and seems ready to attack..i shoo them away
- Sugar & Coleen both get afraid of them

cant really say if I'm stating the right reaction from my dogs. Tomorrow on our walk, I will take note of their reaction and have it posted here.

Thanks!