Tell me how to stop this please

[hiredandsqueak]

Bella is eleven a tiny rescue lhasa apso. She is a sweet gentle dog, yappy if anyone comes to the door but goes to her bed when told and sweet and welcoming when they come in and quickly settles down to lie on my or their feet.
Her past is a bit of an unknown, we know she was repeatedly bred from because the vet told me when he spayed her and I know she hadn't been fed properly, groomed or walked when we got her but she's happy at the groomers, eats well twice a day and would eat any food left out even after her feed so nothing is ever left out. She's walked twice a day, has doggy friends, some she ignores and she barks at the JR over the road (all dogs bark at the JR over the road for some reason)
She doesn't like men in general out of the house but has no problems with workmen etc who come in the house. She really dislikes young men in hoodies and we've had another incident this morning where I was locking up to leave and she rushed the length of the lead snapping and snarling at the fella going into the house on the other side of the cul de sac. She sounds really vicious and not for the first time, (she has done this to many youths) the young bloke ran up the path. He wasn't at risk because I had the lead but he was embarrassed because she's about nine inches tall and looks like a teddy bear and I was embarrassed and apologised again.
I don't know how to stop it because I can't pre empt it because I can't see well enough to see who is approaching until long after Bella has seen them and to be quite honest she doesn't bother until she is quite close up. If she's off lead she doesn't bother at all with anybody just walks happily by.
I would like to stop it, most people laugh because of the size and sight of her and because she's on a lead whilst she's snarling but I'm not unaware that one day somebody might not find it funny. Any ideas please?

Positive association is the main way to deal with leash reactivity like this, but it will take a LONG time (months, if not years) to make any kind of difference, I'm afraid. There's no quick fix.

You need to try and find out the distance she can be away from a man without reacting. Once you've done that, treat her every time she sees a man, so she associates their presence with food.

Slowly, you'll be able to reduce the distance she is away from men before reacting, but this could take ages unfortunately.

The other way to try it is to rope in a bunch of men (not easy during COVID) and get them to chuck her treats while they say her name and walk past her. They shouldn't look at her or give her eye contact. Eventually, she should see men as a source of good things (food) and the reactions should stop.

There's an episode of "It's me or the Dog" called "Toby, the man hating terrier" which is available on YouTube, that deals with this problem as well :)

Victoria uses the method of "men throwing chicken" to try and stop him reacting.

Good luck!

Reading your OP sounds like she does not react until they get quite close? This is good as it gives you plenty of time to react before the men are too close for comfort.

It's too hard without seeing the dog if this is an emotional fear response or a learned behaviour. So, if this were me/mine I think I'd be training a sharp, prompt turnabout behaviour. Something like "let's go" which indicates we're going to go off in a different direction to the one we were walking in. Practice lots at home and when on 'safe' walks, before trying it "for real".

Then, when you spot you are going to come too close to a man then use the 'let's go' to change direction so that you maintain enough distance. This might mean going back the way you came from, corssing the road, darting down a nearby lane or passageway etc.

Repeat this so that you try and always maintain good distance between you and men that might trigger her.

Over time this helps in a couple of ways:

1. She doesn't need to bark and lunge to get the men to move away, because she's never going to be too close to them. So doesn't need to worry so much. Hopefully she'll realise that and worry about men less.

1. It helps you relax a bit because you take positive action to avoid her barking and luunging so get less worried about being embrassed etc. You being relaxed, helps her relax.

If you absolutely have to walk her past a men then do so quickly, with praise. Use cars and other street obstacles to help create barriers - it's amazing how useful a well placed car can be for preventing a dog seeing the target over the road

You might find this is enough for you both to live a happy and peaceful life. But if it isn't then it puts you in a good starting point to work with a trainer to see exactly what the dog is doing, what you are doing and helping you both progress further once lockdowns etc are done with.