u/anon1839

I stopped at a service station on the motorway, and saw a working Belgian Malinois getting some exercise.

There were two handlers present, unsure if there were two dogs, as I couldn’t quite see clearly. However, the Belgian Malinois in question was reactive to either the other handler, or another dog, and was spinning and spinning and spinning in their crate in the car when they were taken out.

The dog was corrected for her reactivity using a leash pop on the slip lead, and a smack on the nose with the end of the lead. This stopped her barking temporarily, but then she got right back to it when the handler wasn’t looking.

It just caught me by surprise, as I imagined that police dogs would be similarly trained to service dogs to be neutral to people and dogs UNLESS required otherwise. I wouldn’t accept this behaviour from my gundog, and have worked incredibly hard to prevent reactivity in him.

Was this poor handling? Or are standards for police dog training just a bit different? Unsure if they were part of a drug unit or something else, couldn’t tell.

since theyve been used as guarding dogs in the passed, how barky do you think your Dalmatian is?

Just wanted peoples takes on this?

I know that dalmatians can be a bit selective of people. My pup is very friendly, but only if people ignore him completely first, and don’t try to pet him or lean down towards him. He can have people walking near him and not mind at all, so he’s not scared of people in general.

But I’ve had maybe three encounters in his life when strangers have reached down to pet him, without talking to me. He then goes into a play bow to appease them, and when they don’t back off, he’ll bark at them. When this happens I just leave, because imo it’s rude to pet someone else’s dog without permission, but also he’s clearly uncomfortable and it’s not a behaviour I want to encourage, as I really dislike barky dogs lol.

My question is actually then more what do I do at the vets? He’s been a couple times as a younger puppy, but obviously he’ll have to go as he’s older, and the vet will have to get close. I have a feeling that it’s specifically people leaning over him that he dislikes, so potentially on an examination table he’d be okay, but just wanted other dal owners thoughts on this?

He’s my first dal, and I’m really learning to see all his little quirks and funny behaviours. Truly remarkable doggos!

Lab x Dalmatian 7mo

It’s driving me mental. If I try to get him to settle outside by just letting him be, he just gets more and more tired and less and less well behaved.

He has a very solid place command, and can stay on his bed for like 30+ minutes lying down. But it’s not the same as a true settle. I try rewarding calmness, but he just clocks onto the treat like it’s a training game and will lie down… but he’s not truly chill.

I’m super proud of him though in some ways. We just travelled to a new place for a holiday, and he’s done really great. He‘s been sleeping in his crate just fine, and hasn’t whined or cried at all. He’s also happily pottying outside and generally really good given that we’re in a new place.

But he just won’t settle. All I want is a dog that can chill out on the sofa, and it just feels impossible :( he gets walks, he gets training, I play with the flirt pole, we play tug, we play fetch, I scatter feed, he has chew toys, so I know he’s got plenty on. Maybe he’s got too much?

Been feedings all my dogs Chudleys - classic for working dogs all their lives. Never had an issue but wondering.

My dog and I are taking our first gundog exam in a couple weeks! He’ll be expected to have a solid heel, sit, and a couple of retrieves to hand. All in all, it’s very simple really, and the whole thing takes like 15 minutes.

My dog is great at the above, but he seems to fall down when in new environments with lots of nice sniffs. The place the test is taking place will have had other dogs present in the preceding hours.

Before the test, I have 15 mins to do whatever with him. Does anyone have any tips? I’m not going to do any retrieves I don’t think, as I don’t want to bore him, and same with heel work. I might do some sit stays? But was wondering if playing tug might be advantageous as well to build drive before… but I don’t want to tire him out either. Alternatively I could just let him chill… but worried then he‘d lose engagement with me.

Anyway I’m probably overthinking it lol, but any tips welcome.

My dog and I are taking our first gundog exam in a couple weeks! He’ll be expected to have a solid heel, sit, and a couple of retrieves to hand. All in all, it’s very simple really, and the whole thing takes like 15 minutes!

My dog is great at the above, but he seems to fall down when in new environments with lots of nice sniffs. The place the test is taking place will have had other dogs present in the preceding hours.

Before the test, I have 15 mins to do whatever with him. Does anyone have any tips? I’m not going to do any retrieves I don’t think, as I don’t want to bore him, and same with heel work. I might do some sit stays? But was wondering if playing tug might be advantageous as well to build drive before… but I don’t want to tire him out either! Alternatively I could just let him chill… but worried then he‘d lose engagement with me.

Anyway I’m probably overthinking it lol, but any tips welcome!

I want to teach my dog a very strong leave it command because we live in an area where we encounter rabbits and pheasants and all sort of wild animals on walks.

He has a decent leave it command for food and garbage. I’ve always been taught that a leave it command is best taught when the dog NEVER gets the food in question.

However, I’d like to teach him using a flirt pole, so he can engage and play with it, and then learn to disengage as well. So unlike with food, he will actually get to play with the flirt pole.

Am I overcomplicating it? Should I use a different command? Slightly confused about if leave it should always be for something he should never have!

Pup is 6mo Labrador x Dalmatian.

I’ve been around the houses on training methods with him, and have landed on pretty much entirely positive for most obedience things. Loose leash walking is great, his heel is making leaps and bounds. His recall is fabulous.

His only issue is other dogs. I’ve prevented on leash greetings, tried to encourage neutrality using BAT 2.0 setups, rewarded for looking and then disengaging with dogs but… I’m not seeing progress. Things are actually getting worse.

Today I had a session with a force free trainer and four other dogs, where play off leash was encouraged, and then I was expected to call my dog back. He ignored my recalls, stopped taking treats, lunged, pulled on the lead, everything. He was on his harness as the trainer suggested and I felt powerless and like I had no control. The trainer suggested using tricks like ‘touch’ the ‘123’ method and throwing treats to get his attention. But treats had no value to him anymore. The training session was setup as a group walk, but to keep up, I had to allow the pup to pull. The trainer put it down to his just having an overexcited day, and being overwhelmed. But I can see this behaviour escalating.

He’s turning into a very big, very strong dog. I cannot have him behaving like this.

I’m here to seek the opinions of balanced trainers on what I can do encourage him to be calm around other dogs, in an age appropriate way considering he is still a puppy. I use a slip lead for gundog training, but don’t tend to use it for corrections, however I’m open to suggestions.

Critique welcomed and encouraged.

My last dog was very fear reactive. He was neutered at 6mo and developed fear reactivity not long after. He lived until 7 years old and I never solved it, to be honest we live in such a rural area, it wasnt as much of a priority, and I was a teenager.

Now with my second puppy, I’m determined to prevent reactivity and have a dog that is neutral towards other dogs. He’s 6mo. It’s going terribly.

He’s not reactive. He’s very friendly. He’s too friendly. Wants to quickly run up to every dog and play. I’ve tried working on neutrality using the click and reward method when he looks at dogs (BAT 1.0) and also through letting him explore the environment with dogs at a distance (BAT 2.0) and letting him choose to disengage.

The problem is - I don’t have a helper dog. So I’m using dogs in a local park while he’s on a long line. And every single dog is also ‘over friendly’ and not dog neutral. So when my pup gets to about 10m away, he wants to play and stares, the other dog stares back, and it just feels impossible to sort. I also have no control over the distance of these random dogs.

At this point… do I even try? I have a dog trainer who I meet up with, but what is the point in trying to train him myself when I think I’m just making things worse? For example when he pulls to go to say hi to the other dog, I’ll hold back… but then he gets tension in the leash and I’m worried that will cause frustration reactivity.

Honestly if he’s not reactive now, I feel like trying to do neutrality training with him will make it worse if my method isn’t quite right - which it’s not.

The thing is, he does actually need to be neutral to other dogs. My partner lives in a busy town, and he’ll need to get used to walking there around distractions.