Tips for helping anxious rescue dogs stay calm around other dogs

[SummerCycling]

I'd be grateful for tips!

We rescued two dogs who had been abused. Absolute darlings and so loving and gentle. But they have anxiety when they meet other dogs. They initially get excited but within a short time they start barking and jumping up.

The other dogs always stand there so patiently, it's amazing. But their owners get scared thinking our dogs might be aggressive. I completely understand why a fellow human would think that with the barking, growling and jumping up, but they've been tested rigourously by the charity and behaviourist who both reported zero aggression - it's anxiety. Other dogs all seem to know, but we don't want to scare their owners.

Ideally, we would train ours to feel less anxious so they don't bark, growl or jump up.

This is when all the dogs are on leads, walking in the streets.

Thanks in advance!

In short….
Stop allowing other dogs to come up to yours. Your job is to advocate for your dogs who are quite clearly telling you that these interactions are too much for them.
The initial ‘excitement’ is quite often a tactic used by insecure dogs to convey an overly friendly ‘I mean no harm’ vibe when they are anxious
over time, if they learn you can be trusted to keep those unwanted dogs at bay, they will relax more and improve
conversely if you keep putting them in situations beyond that which they can cope with, they will get worse

you cannot ‘train’ this out of them. Your goal is to improve their confidence and make them more relaxed

I agree, take them away from the situation that makes them anxious. (I also want to point out that anxious dogs can indeed become aggressive through fear & anxiety ...)

Your cause of action should be to firstly walk them separately. Try and find somewhere quiet ... if you see another dog, don't react or stare towards the other dog, try and keep your dogs attention on you with some treats. The moment, your dog reacts to the other dogs presence, turn round and walk away from the dog. Once the dog is caln try and continue your walk. Rinse repeat.

It's a long process, there isn't a quick fix. Your dogs may never be totally happy and relaxed in the presence of other dogs.

If you have friends with dogs, you can try the above. Difference would be your friend walks their dog slowly along the path. You follow try and close the gap. Your dog reacts you turn round... and the whole thing starts again.

Do you have any friends with extremely chill dogs?
Perhaps you could stage "walking by" encounters to practice your response to other dogs.

There is some good advice above. I would just suggest keeping a distance of a few metres between you and other dogs while you are working on their reactions. It's not fair on other dogs if they are being lunged at.

@Leavesandthings @Dunnocantthinkofone and @Ylvamoon

Many thanks for your replies.

Actually, we have already been keeping our dogs away from other dogs, by crossing the road and / or walking the other way. We can't avoid them we live in London.

But it's sad! We'd like them to be able to make friends.

Great idea to walk them separately. We will do that for at least one of their daily walks now, so one then the other - rather than always together. That is easy to sort.

Also great idea about keeping their attention on us, and when they bark to distract. We will certainly try that.

@Ylvamoon If you have friends with dogs, you can try the above. Difference would be your friend walks their dog slowly along the path. You follow try and close the gap. Your dog reacts you turn round... and the whole thing starts again.

This is a brilliant idea, thanks! We do have a friend with the sweetest calmest dog.

@Leavesandthings Do you have any friends with extremely chill dogs?
Perhaps you could stage "walking by" encounters to practice your response to other dogs.

Thanks! This would certainly be possible with our friend and her dog. It sounds a bit like a variant of the advice above from @Ylvamoon

There is some good advice above. I would just suggest keeping a distance of a few metres between you and other dogs while you are working on their reactions. It's not fair on other dogs if they are being lunged at.

We do keep a distance because our dogs were getting stressed, the other dog owners sometimes seemed stressed and we were getting stressed. We never let our dogs get close enough to truly lunge or touch the other dogs, but I always thought it can't be pleasant to have two dogs barking and growling at you. Ours are quite small, but regardless, and I so wish they could somehow stay calmer and make friends. Amazing how all the other dogs remained so calm and didn't seem fazed. Dogs of course understand each other better than we understand them and they have incredible intuition.

We have actually let our dogs meet our friend's dog in a neutral garden, and that dog wasn't bothered at all, she just lay down. But I was upset that ours barked at her. One of our dogs seems less anxious than the other one and I suspect the less anxious one will manage to make friends at some point.

All tips welcome!

One other thing would be, to ensure you have extremely relaxed energy yourself. Don't become nervous seeing other dogs because you are anticipating how your dogs will react - they will be picking up on your energy and it will become a vicious circle!

Taking the dogs out separately while you are working on their issues is definitely the way to go. Good luck!

I would employ a trainer to help with this. FWIW I had a dog that was reactive towards people (not other dogs) and would jump around and bark. We found if we ignored this and just talked normally to the other person, the dog would stop and calm himself down.

@Leavesandthings

Thanks! Yes I do get anxious about it although my husband doesn't. I'll try to keep calm; I'm sure they do pick up on our emotions they're so intuitive.

@HairyCalifornia

Thanks, yes we have tried a specialist behaviourist but it was expensive and wasn't very helpful to be honest. I thought I might get better advice here from fellow dog owners / other trainers.

Actually ours also used to bark and growl at men too, but since we've had them that has gradually stopped - now it's only if a man is wearing a hoody or running, so that's ok it's not that often. They bark and growl if anyone lifts an arm up (they were abused before they were rescued by a charity).

It's the barking and growling at other dogs that we really hope improves so they can make friends. Also then we can host another dog / the other dog's owner can host ours - that would be ideal for potential holidays etc.