Advice on foster dog please

[mind77]

Hi, I have been fostering a dog for a rescue for 5 weeks now and things are going really well with him exept that he is a little reactive towards people/dogs on walks. He is a lovely,friendly chap for about 90% of the time,but for the other 10% of it he is reactive. When he is reactive,he will approach these dogs/people quite exitedly,then suddenly stop, raise up on his hind legs and start growling quite nastily. I have obviously spoken to the rescue for advice but I am very unhappy with the advice they have given me. I have been told to ignore him,remove treats etc everytime he does it. Squirt him with water and smack him on the nose
(I have not followed this advice and am actually quite disgusted with them for thinking this is acceptable and fully intend to stop fostering for them as soon as I have found this dog his forever home so please don't flame me for being involved with a rescue that encourages this, as I realize I have chose a poor rescue to begin fostering with)
I am assuming that it is fear that is encouraging him to behave like this so I am trying to manage it by rewarding him with a treat everytime we pass a dog/person and he behaves nicely. If he growls,then I take his lead firmly and walk away, treat goes back in my pocket. Do you think this is adaquate to deal with his reactivity? My own dog is reactive,but it comes from fear so I am basically following the same advice for my foster dog that I do my own.
My concern is that I can't get a proffessional opinion to assess what is motivating him though so I could be making things worse? Should I be telling him off when he growls at people?
Thankyou for any replies as this is concerning me and I really need to get a grasp on it and not allow it to become a worse problem.

I'm sure someone will be along with advice ,but if I recall correctly this is not the first bit of dubious advice that this 'rescue' has given you , perhaps they need a little more investigation . Hope you can get some help soon as you're obviously trying very hard with this dog .

Well, I can't speak from experience as I don't have a dog (will do in 48 hours though!) but from reading stuff on Mumsnet I believe it might be worth looking into BAT as it can be helpful.

Try this site.

Mind, I'm glad you are not following the rescue's advice and I am quite shocked that they suggest you smack the dog on the nose! It sounds like you are doing the right thing with him. Make sure that he sees the other person before getting the treat, and if you have a sense of what kind of person he finds especially scary, give extra treats, and try not to take him so close to that person that he growls. Keep a distance away where he is comfortable, if at all possible.

I'm assuming, like you, that it is motivated by fear. I would like to say perhaps the rescue has a behaviourist who works with them who they could refer you to, but it doesn't sound like it given the advice they gave you.

Thank you for replies, hopefully what I am doing will help improve things then. Redwing the woman who gave me this advice is their 'supposed' behaviourist. She's the woman that runs the rescue. Its just one more thing that this rescue have lied about to be honest. I specifically asked at the home visit if they had a behaviourist involved with the rescue as I have only a years experience myself owning a dog so wanted alot of back up when issues like this arose. They claimed to have a very knowledgable behaviourist Yet here I am on a bloody public forum trying to get advice as to how to help one of their dogs. It beggers belief

TBH it's a bit worrying about where this dog could eventually be rehomed if that's the sort of thing they are telling people ,who could potentially be inexperienced owners .