Assistance with "Borrowed Ddog"

[Scoobydoobydoo]

Hello,
Fairly new to the doghouse and I was hoping some of the experienced dog owners could help me!
We have been looking after a borrowed dog few days a week. We have never had a dog before and would like one sometime in the future. We thought we would let ourselves get used to the idea of looking after one first.
Anyway..
He is a 7 year old Jack-Tzu (or Jack Shit :-))
Fairly well trained (I think!) and we are able to take him on 2 walks everyday and play with him during the day etc (prior to this he was left home alone when at work by the owner due to changed circumstances)
He is ok with other dogs and we even manage a quick meet and greet when out and about.
I obviously do not let him off-lead even in parks (more my nervousness too)
Today we were out in a park/wood popular with dog owners.
Several dogs were off-lead. I had him on an extended lead and he did seem happy.
I then seemed to lose my way around the woods and couldn't find my exit. I think he sensed this and started barking at me.
We eventually got out and back on the roads.
Another dog came by and the dog/owner seemed receptive and we did our usual sniffs/hellos.
The other dog then jumped at him. Nothing untoward thankfully happened and we quickly moved away.
We then saw a cat and the dog went berserk. He normally isn't this aggressive towards cats (only squirrels)
I noticed his anger/unhappiness from the way he was pulling his lead and really had to keep a very tight hold.
We eventually made it home with no incidents but today's walk seemed to throw me a bit.
He does seem territorial at home and isn't good with the postman/birds and squirrels in the garden.
My questions are

1. Should I always keep him away from other dogs as I am not his owner/very experienced
2. Is there any way I can train him to not bark at birds/squirrels in the garden?

Thanks very much
Xx

Tbh I would just chalk that up to bring a bad walk, if you were feeling stressed and anxious the dog probably picked up on it and that's why he was a bit more reactive.

If he's half jrt there's probably not much you can do about barking at squirrels or birds!! My jrt cross is exactly the same, we have made some progress on getting him to go into the garden calmly but if he saw a neighbours cat or a pigeon he'd still go mad barking!!

It would be incredibly difficult to stop a Jack Russell barking at birds / cats / squirrels and definitely not worth the bother if he’s not your dog . From what you’ve said I don’t see why you should keep him away from other dogs but I would be wary of him being on an extender lead ( I assume he has a harness ) around other dogs as he could get himself or the others entangled and those leads can really cut into you / a dog .

I suspect he just wanted to do what terriers do, which is to chase small furry things! Jack Russells have been bred for years to chase rats, rabbits and all kinds of small furries, and cats tend to fall into the same category.

It doesn't sound like a bad walk to me. I suspect you're a bit stressed because you got lost and you possibly passed that worry onto the dog. It doesn't like you have a reason to keep him away from other dogs, really. Just do quick introductions on lead (3 seconds is ideal) then move on, nothing extended.

I've never met a single Jack Russell who won't bark at birds/squirrels - I walk one that's 10yo who would bolt off given the chance! Luckily she's mostly too lazy these days

Shouldn’t you be asking the owner? Dogs need consistency in instructions and commands and you need to find out how they deal with other dogs and how they manage barking.

Have you heard of the spoon theory?
yourdogsfriend.org/spoon-theory-and-funny-dog-gifs/

Thanks for all the replies! They are helpful
I did read quite a bit about the JRT prey drive and your responses confirm that.

@rainbowshine the owner doesn't communicate much and does admit she has an issue with his barking.

@crocky
thanks for the link. the spoon theory was interesting to read!
I guess it is up to us to learn to read his body language and cues and suss his mood

He's not your dog so you trying to train him in any way probably isn't going to work as training needs to be reinforced consistently and if the owners aren't going to reinforce something you are doing it's going to be pointless and a waist of your effort.

I have worked very hard over the years with my dog and have got her to the point where I can tell her to stop barking and she will.

As for barking at and chasing small furry animals, again it's instinctive for dogs to do this, and for dogs like JRT it's trained into them.

My dog isn't a terrier and has a pretty low prey drive but strange cats have long been an issue.

Like the barking, it look a great deal of patience on my part and a lot of treats to get her to the stage where we can now walk past most cats without a reaction.

These things are definitely things you could work on with your own dog when you get it but I'd forget about any sort of meaningful training for a dog that you don't live with all the time, unless of course the owner is willing to do the training too.

As far as saying hello to other dogs goes, you have to weigh up each meeting and watch the body language of both dogs but I wouldn't stop him saying hello to other dogs.

Sometimes the odd walk can go a bit awry, it doesn't mean all walks are going to be like that.

Dogs will pick up on your mood. Next time you walk him walk tall appear confident in what you're doing and he'll accept that you're in charge.

It sounds like he got a bit overloaded, that's all. Every minor stressful experience releases adrenaline, and makes it harder to deal with the next one. Eventually it gets to the point where they don't know how to cope because they're mentally exhausted - often referred to as trigger stacking.

(You know those days where you spill your coffee, then there's traffic and you're late to work, then the printer won't work, one of your colleagues keeps sniffling, the internet keeps cutting out etc. and then you get home and find out your partner forgot to sort dinner like they said they would and instead of saying 'we'll order in' you burst into tears and consider leaving them? That.)

1. Personally I really dislike letting dogs greet each other on lead. Being on lead can make them feel restricted or trapped - where they might want to move away or approach from a different angle they don't have that choice. If they do start playing then the lead can get in the way and might scare them. I don't stop and chat with every stranger I see and my dog doesn't need to either.

1. Most dogs bark when they get excited, and squirrels are super exciting! Especially for a dog with a high prey drive (ie most terriers). It will take a lot of work on impulse control and then retraining him to react differently - clicker training works well for this; if you google 'click the trigger' that's a great game to play for prey drive, but you do need the foundations down first.

I suspect that the dog knew the way home out of the park/wood if he'd been there a lot before. They have an amazing way of finding their way back. If I ever get lost in the forest or it is dark and I've lost the path, I have my dog on a lead and say "Let's go home, take me home" and just follow her. My previous dog did the same thing. I didn't train them to.

Some brilliant advice on this thread!
Thanks everyone!
Its so true that a dog needs routine and consistency and I cannot train some one else's dog.
Love the part about the dog knowing it's way and barking to let me know the correct path. Put a smile on me :-)

DDog is also a JRT cross, and he was initially a 'borrowed' dog, and eventually became mine permanently. I have to say that everything seemed a lot more stressful when he was borrowed, and I had someone else to answer to rather than being able to use my own best justment! Nowadays he's occasionally lent to DF, who doesn't listen to a word I say, so DDog comes back fat and disobedient That's not to say you can't train someone else's dog - you definitely can when you're talking about a few days a week - it's just that it helps if you can have some consistency between the two households (e.g. in terms of words used)

Should I always keep him away from other dogs as I am not his owner/very experienced
What does the owner do when they walk the dog? Is he off lead and with other dogs? If so, I'd be aiming to do the same, once you're confident the dog will come back when called. If possible, it would be great to go out walking with the owner and do some recall training (e.g. a game of 'ping pong' where the dog runs between the two of you on command, and gets a treat each time).

DDog had no recall whatsoever when I first met him, but laissez-faire then-owner pretty much gave me carte blanche to do anything sensible with him. After about 6 weeks of on lead walks (by which time we'd definitely bonded), I cracked it in a day - a walk with lots of recall practice on an extending lead, before taking him to a semi-enclosed area, letting him off and doing some off lead practice. He must have eaten his own bodyweight in treats that day .

Dog interactions tend to be much more relaxed when off lead, for two reasons
a) the flight vs fight response - dogs on leads know they don't have the flight option, so will more readily resort to fighting (the flight may be no more than a couple of metres, but it's important!)
b) being on lead restricts the full range of body language that dogs will use to communicate, leading to misunderstandings

It would be useful for you to watch some YouTube videos on canine body language - there's just so much that we don't pick up on if we don't know what we're looking for!

With regards to squirrels and birds, I have to say I regard them as fair game for chasing. DDog has never caught one, and I have to say that dogs don't tend to bark at prey when they're running at full speed after it...