I need help with my 4 year old terrier being terrified of other dogs.

[missymoola]

Background: Got him as puppy when I had an older dog who died this January. Since older dog was pts he has been all over the place. Not eating, refusing to listen and respond. His main problems now are pulling on the lead and being terrified of other dogs.

We have recently got him a halti to help his pulling. It works well until he sees another dog. When he sees another dog, he cries, then he hets high pitched, utterly frightened barking. It makes the other dogs owner think hes aggressive which he isnt.

Now, we have gotten a puppy in the last week who he gets on amazingly with. However, we feel that this along with the halti has triggered his frightened behavior but dont understand how iyswim.

I have seen on Victoria Stilwells show that when dogs are scared of other dogs she teaches them that they are okay with treats. I'm interested in this but he isn't interested in treats or toys when out and especially not when he's in that state.

Has anybody else struggled with anything similar? I have been in tears after todays walk. I just want whats best for him and its horrible for me to see him in this distressed state.

[ditavonteesed]

I had to deal with fear aggression a while ago, but my dog was still very young so may have been different, this is what I did,
charged a clicker at home by spending a day just randomly clicking it and then treating dog staright away. progressed to when we were out, if we saw another dog coming and my dog looked at me I would click and treat, this developed into 'look dog' command which would make her look at me for the click treat. when she approached another dog I would click as long as she was doing it nicely and just ignore if she wasnt. it took about 3 weeks of on lead constant attention walks until she just suddenly got over it.
A book i was recommended was click to calm, never got round to getting it though.
I also used dap spray which was really good, sprayed it onto a bandana, added advatage of looking very very cute.
Disclaimer - I am very far from an expert