New on the lead agression

[Hopethisendswell]

We've had a wonderful few weeks with our gorgeous 14month cocker boy (intact).
He started off very well with recall, greeting dogs while on his lead, and greeting dogs when they and him were off lead.
Because we were initially nervous about his recall we'd put him on the lead in areas where there were lots of dogs. This was fine, but he had a "friendly" off lead dog be too rough/ growling at him while on his lead. (I shouted at the owner to call his dog away, which he did eventually).
He's now so anxious of other dogs, to the point I don't like him off the lead at all as his recall is awful because he is really frightened and just runs away from the others. He also now barks at dogs when he's on lead which he never did before.
So far we're recall training at home and on a very quiet stretch of land, continuing his lead training to stop pulling, and walking in areas with less dogs. Also looking into a trainer locally. Feels like we need to start socialising all over again! He'll also be neutered in the next couple of months, I'm hoping that will help.
Any recommendations, or anything we're doing wrong?
Edited for spelling and asking for advice

Should also add he's had another dog (off lead) snap at him (on lead). DH thinks it's because he's intact? (Ddog, not DH 😂)

It can be very common for dogs to be reactive on the lead, think about it- they cant go anywhere.

My dog is very very nervous and doesnt want to say hello to ANY dog, let alone an off lead one.

I do what i can, i advocate for her. If i see an off lead dog, i shout out shes not friendly please can you recall your dog, and i use my foot or body to block the other dog getting to her because 9/10 times said other dog has no recall.

I have been very sharp with people but thats from getting fed up of it and irresponsible dog owners letting their dogs off when they know they cant get them back.

You can get yellow nervous leads/ harnesses or things that clip onto the lead.

I walk mine on an extendable and even if we cross paths with an on lead dog, ill unclip it so she can make her own distance to walk past.

Id do some practise with 'leave it' and getting him to walk past on lead dogs without reacting using high value food treats and do some research on lead reactivity.

With off lead dogs approaching, that ones down to you to step in. I hated it and i still do, but it needs to be done.

It annoys me even more that i KNOW if she wasnt a tiny dog, i wouldnt have half the problems with people letting their dogs approach her if she was a large dog instead.

Her breed was DH's choice, and im tempted to get her a very large breed big brother 🤣

I would be very wary of getting him neutered until this has been resolved, as reading your post his reactivity seems to be coming from a place of fear. Neutering could make it worse. My young dog started barking very nastily at other intact dogs when both were on lead, but I have trained it out of him in the last few months, giving him cheese cubes as we pass!

My dog did this on lead but at random, no way to tell when he would or wouldn’t as with the same dog he could be fine when the previous time he growled.
He had to be neutered for a medical reason and I was concerned it would make him worse, instead the opposite has happened and now he is fine with all dogs 🤷‍♀️

Don’t get him neutered.

Your dog isn’t aggressive - he’s terrified. And nervous dogs being neutered is a recipe for disaster. It rarely works and a good vet would never advocate for neutering a nervous dog - I am sure if you told your vet he runs from other dogs that your vet would immediately say ‘don’t neuter him.’

Unfortunately, I think you’ll struggle to fix this. First poster had some very good advice. But this is going to be about management rather than cure because too many people don’t train their dogs and all it will take is one badly behaved dog and your work will be undone.

Thank you for the replies. I'm just so angry that our confident boy has got so nervous from 2 incidents (quite rightly!). Both times we encouraged him to ignore the dogs, with treats and praise and kept walking. but once it was obvious that they weren't going to leave us I shouted at the owner and blocked the OL dog. When it happened to DH he picked up Ddog lots of hugs etc.
Interesting to hear about neutering a nervous dog, I had no idea. Thank you.
Will definitely work on 'leave' and his confidence. He has a laid back, older doggy friend who has no issue with other dogs, would it help if they walked together more? He'd been helping us with training to ignore other dogs and Ddog loves him to bits.

Just for reference 🥰 found a good spot to scratch on his back!

Its a personal opinion and im by no merits a dog trainer but i would discourage praise, hugs/pets when hes reacted at another dog, as its likely to reinforce the behaviour.

Hes gorgeous too x

I would tend to agree with this, you are praising the wrong behaviour when you're giving treats in that situation to a nervous reactive dog. You need to confidently lead them and ignore the other dog, literally just keep walking at a steady stride and each time your dog turns to react a little tug on the lead and a "leave" will do the trick, (this will enforce that your dog has nothing to worry about) they will mirror your confidence. Praise when the other dog has gone and your dog is calm, that's the behaviour you want to encourage.

It's an awful thing when your dog's behaviour is so negatively affected by someone else's dog, but unfortunately this is part of being a dog owner. We spent hours and hours socialising our boy, went to dog training weekly for 6 years (was great socialisation and he absolutely loved going), walked him everywhere, trained him so well off the lead. Then one day a greyhound, off the lead, wearing a flipping muzzle (I still don't understand why it was off the lead) made a beeline for my boy on the beach and full on attacked him, took chunks of fur out of him, the same dog a week later did the same thing. Now he absolutely hates dogs coming up to him, used to react badly and growl/lundge, but I followed the advice I just gave and I can now keep him off the lead on walks, when I see another dog he's straight on the lead and he now ignores them, even when they come up to him and sniff him, I just keep on moving and don't give him a chance to register what the other dog is doing (while I tell the other owners "be careful your dog doesn't end up as breakfast" in a very calm tone so DDog doesn't feel any worry from me).

Ah of course 🤦‍♀️ hadn't thought about that. So obvious.@HeadsAlwaysSpinnig

The first time a dog went for him on the lead he cowered and tried to get away, so I kept walking and praising as he was shaking...is that ok? Just asked DH about the 2nd time and he said he didn't react until the other dog started growling and snapping, then he growled back and shrunk into DH who picked him up (dangerous, I know!).

When Ddog has barked at other dogs we've carried on walking and said 'leave' and only rewarded when he's calmed down and focused on us, is there anything else we can do? I'm reassured that he reacts well to training.
Found a good trainer near us, I'll ring Monday.

Cross posted with you @GSDmom
Your poor Ddog. Glad to hear how well they're doing now.
We're taking all the advice on board, thank you everyone 💓

This is incorrect information.

Counter conditioning is introducing something great when the frightening thing appears.

Over time the dog will associate the "frightening thing" as great because things happen when they see it.

See scary dog treat appears. Dog will soon be turning to you when dogs appear

You can not reinforce fear.

it is ok to reasure and pet your dog when they are worried.

Personally I would not say leave when passing a dog if your dog is reacting.

I would make sure that I did not allow my dog to get so close to a dog that it needed to react. (off lead "he is only friendly dogs" can be an issue here)

Over time your dog will relax and become less hyper vigilant and will not need to react if all encounters with dogs are neutral from now on.

Walking your dog with an older more confident dog might help yes. It certainly changed my dog's behaviour as he took his lead from the other dog and wasn't reactive on those walks whatsoever (this was in off-lead scenarios.)

It may also mean that he develops more confident responses on his own walks without the other dog.

I meant say "leave" when a dog comes up to her dog when her dog is on the lead, not each time she passes another dog.

Sent too early. @KeenOtter

I think OP's issue is the same as mine, lots of owners don't see my dog on a lead as an issue and keep theirs away, they just ignore that and allow their dog to come up to him. So actually having the "leave" command that your dog understands as don't react to that dog can be really useful with those types of dogs.

GSDmom are you saying Leave to the approaching dog?

Your dog is not doing anything to leave. You are asking your dog to do nothing when an uninvited dog comes to your dog. I would teach a lets go and leg it in the opposite direction and not put the pressure on my dog

In all honesty, this is something I taught my dog because he would get quite worked up and frankly beginning to act aggressively to other dogs, I wasn't entirely sure how to approach the situation as he was always perfectly calm when meeting other dogs. Until all of a sudden he absolutely wasn't, and him being a german shepherd made it all the more likely that he would be seen as the "bad" dog in a scenario where he reacted badly to a dog coming up to him.
So yeah I told him to "leave" and not react, when a dog approached him and he reacted. While also just keeping my pace strong and steady, and making him walk with me. He actually responded very well to this, and seemed to understand what he was meant to do in this situation, instead of completely freaking out, this method actually took us from a dog that could've escalated into a dangerous animal, to a dog that can now ignore dogs that approach him. Again, he's never had an issue with dogs that walk past him or ignore him, just ones that come directly up to his face.

Bash my dog handling/training all you want, but I'm so proud of my boy for being able to do this.

It's not happening because he's entire, and I agree with pp about not neutering at this point.

Thank you for the advice everyone.
He responds well to 'leave' and he recognises not to chase next door's cat when we say it.
Today we met a gorgeous, well behaved labradoodle (on lead) and we were able to stand some distance away while they went past, told him to 'leave' once when he barked as they came toward us (no treat) and gave lots of treats when he ignored them and solely focused on us as they went past. He even ignored them on the other side of the road on the way back, just looked at them and then to me/us which we praised and rewarded for. Probably just a lucky one off, but still fairly chuffed about it!
Dogs getting in his face (him on lead, them off) seem to be the problem, like you had experience of @GSDmom . Walking off worked well before, so I'll stick with that too.
The trainers were lovely, they have a four week waiting list for group and six weeks, so signing up.