# Leash Aggression



## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

Bumping up


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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

On-leash greetings are problematic for lots of dogs because they don't have full control of the situation. Is there some reason why you're allowing your dog to meet-and-greet when on leash? I meet a lot of dogs when I'm out walking in our neighbourhood and I never allow greetings. If people ask if the dogs can meet, I say I would prefer not. If they insist, I tell them my dog is aggressive (he's not) and might hurt theirs. That usually gets rid of them. Your dog may be anxious because he's been forced to meet dogs that, even if they didn't attack, have made him feel insecure.



One thing you might try is to teach your dog a "focus" command (e.g. "look at me"). You need to teach this at home first, and proof it in different situations. Once your dog understands what it means and will produce the behaviour consistently, you could try it when you encounter other dogs during your walks. It will get him to focus on you instead of growling as the other dog goes past. Don't try it in this situation until you're sure he will comply.


Best of luck.


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## the_real_george_forman (Jan 3, 2020)

Hi! Did you find a solution for this? My 3 year old male has become this way as well. Great at day care, in our dog park (it's small and I supervise very closely at the entrance if a dog comes in I don't know), etc. When he was 2.5 he was mounted by a couple of large intact males while on walks, as they were meeting him, and he reacted...and those were the only isolated instances for a while. Since then we keep a close eye on his interactions with intact males (we had him neutered at 20 months just before Covid) and most of them he plays happily with. 
In the last couple of months though he has become extremely selective of who he will pass without barking. We live in downtown Chicago so avoiding other dogs is not an option whatsoever. There was a period where I had to keep him and myself away from people/dogs on the sidewalk (husband had a false positive for Covid before we were vaxxed) and ever since then it has gotten more common. I know that I am probably the problem, as I am anxious about it and obviously he can sense all of that.
I'm having a trainer come as soon as I can but we're about to leave town for the summer (we'll have a yard, wide open streets etc so hopefully it doesn't escalate further during this time) and in case we can't work the schedule out...any tips out there? I plan to up my treats to higher value so I can lock him into focus with me when we see a dog approaching, and get him to obey a command etc while they pass by. 
Thanks!


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## the_real_george_forman (Jan 3, 2020)

tkolby11 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I have a three year old golden retriever. He is an EXTREMELY friendly dog and is FULL of energy. Lately he has been acting strange while on a leash towards other dogs. Whenever he is off leash he is extremely playful with other dogs and gets along very well (besides being overly playful when other dogs clearly don't want to play with him haha). He behaves extremely well at off-leash dog parks. However, for the past few months he has been acting strange while on the leash. He becomes extremely aggressive with other dogs, and will growl at them as soon as he sees them. There have been a few instances where he has gotten snarly and I fear he would attack some of the dogs that come up to smell/greet him if I didn't pull him away. i have no idea why he is behaving this way, as prior to this there were no negative experiences with dogs attacking my dog on the leash to bring this reaction about in him. I do not know how to deal with this issue because I don't want him to end up hurting any other dogs, and I am scared to take him for walks where I will encounter other dog walkers. I don't know what to do to fix this issue, and was hoping there was someone who had any idea what i should do about this.
> 
> Thanks!


Did you have any luck with tactics on this? Still keeping an eye on this thread...


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