Barking on lead problem......

Over the last few months Harvey has started to bark at every dog we come into contact with or even see across the road when out on a walk on his lead. I have tired taking him to meet the other dogs but he continues to bark like mad - i have tried walking in the opposit direction when he starts to bark at another dog but i have to drag him kicking and barking all the way till the other dog is out of site. He does not do this when he comes across a dog when off his lead running free and it does not seem to matter if our other dog is out on the walk with us or not. I am running out of ideas how to get him to stop - its very embarressing and i feel i have to explain each time that he is not an aggressive dog but simpley wants to say hello......

Any ideas, any help would be grately received!

He is becoming reactive so the way to approach this is (of course! :lol thru training. As you've found dragging him away doesn't help. Ypu want him to focus on something else rather than the other dog.

You should start working with him on a 'look' command. Once you have that down, you can keep asking him to look at you when another dog comes into view and also treat him as he focuses on you. 'Look' is extremely useful for all sorts of distracting situations.

You will need to gradually work on this -- not walk him right past another dog but when you see one, say on the other side of the street, ask him to look, or to sit and look, and start giving him treats and praising. The idea is to shift his negative reactiveness to dogs to being one of anticipation of good things happening when he sees other dogs.

Has he done an obedience class? Usually this alone will help as he will learn to be comfortable with large groups of dogs and will learn self control. Look for a rewards based class, not one that uses choke chains and leash 'corrections' (jerks on the lead).

A lot of dogs are reactive on leads and aren't off lead. Probably as they feel protective of their territory and more anxious on a lead. Usually we walk dogs in their home territories and off lead in places like parks, so they are more defensive in their home base (where they also happen to be on a lead).

Hi, yes he has been to classes when he was a puppy and did very well - but i guess that was a long time ago now and the only dog he has contact with is our other dog Guinness who is also a Cavalier but only 8 months old. He is quite dominating over Guinness and tries to hump him alot - harvey is booked in to have his bits chopped off this monday coming.

My Sam is the same as this, cant give him treats cos of his heart. Also as we really just can go around our block of houses now, we dont tend to run into many dogs now. The ones we do,he knows .

i have the same problem with Belle, she constantly barks at other dogs when we are out - it's a bit embarassing! But recently she has started to bark whenever people she doesn't know come up to stroke her kids or adults??? It's such a shame because shes so friendly, I really don't know whats causing this?? I would love for her to play with other dogs and enjoy getting attention from people. :-(

Theresa xx

My cav does this too. It's a really high-pitched 'yap' and dead embarrassing!!!

I laughed so hard last night. I took Barkley to a Howl-O-Ween photo event at the local PetsMart and he looked and looked and looked at all of the dogs but didn't make a peep. They were all bigger than him and he just looked at them (he hasn't had his final shots yet, so there was no sniffing, he was in my arms).

Then, in came the tiniest chihuahua...cute little guy...and Barkley started barking at him! So funny! I told the chi's mom that Barkley didn't have the guts to bark at the big guys and he had to find someone smaller to pick on. :rotfl::rotfl:

I am glad to hear that we are not the only cav family to have this problem when out and about - i would be so pleased to find a way of stopping this behavior, so to make our walks much more enjoyable rather than sending my 9 year old to walk on ahead to warn me of on coming dogs.

I spoke to a dog trainer yesterday and she had suggested i wait until 6 weeks after Harvey has had his bits done then she will join me on a walk to try and tell me why she thinks he does it - whether its to warn the other dogs away or to get over to see them - she thinks once we have worked out why he does it, we can then work towards stopping this behavior.

Fingers crossed

Opposite here. My pup barks at *large* full grown dogs and is afraid of other pups! I am in the process of sending him to a doggy k-school. I've met his teacher and she is a very good with Cavaliers. A recommendation through another couple who had a Blen and tri boy and girl.