So when I got Luna she had a terrible pulling problem and after a month of consistent training with positive reinforcement (treats when she was walking along side me and no treats / stopping the walk when she pulled) I taught her to heel or at least loose leash walk. Than it snowed and the pulling got terrible again, so I had to retrain her to walk loose leash when snow was on the ground which took another month. I think through all of that training she also learned not to pull or chase small animals that we happen upon. However, even with all this loose leash walking training we have NEVER met a dog she didn't pull to, and get incredibly excited jumping / whining / leash biting when I don't let her get closer / meet the other dog. I have no idea how to train her to be less excited around other dogs. I don't think I can use treats to train her, simply because she ignores me and all treats I have offered her when other dogs are around, even when dogs are barely within sight distance of her. I would love any tips anyone has.

I've had dogs like that and find that it takes practice and more practice (around other dogs). I enroll mine in obedience classes to get the practice around other dogs in a controlled environment and teach "watch me" (pay attention to me and only me while we're "working" on a leash).

Don't let her meet other dogs on walks till she can handle walking by them without acting up, it will only make her want to go over to them more.

Have her walk right next to you, and start with "leave it" or "on by" commands, and treat her when she walks past calmly.

OR

Have her sit looking at you with a treat when you see a dog approaching, treat her while she keeps her eyes on you, if she starts to get excited, tell her to sit, give a "leave it" command, and treat when she makes eye contact.

I think trying to get her to walk past a dog calmly is way out of our reach at the moment. The having her sit thing might work, but she completely ignores me around other dogs, I don't currently let her meet other dogs when she gets that crazy excited (which is every time any dog is near us) and only did let her meet the other dog the first week I had her before I knew better. I guess what I need to know is how to slowly work up to being calm around an approaching dog outside. I think I could teach her to sit calmly and wait for a dog 60-70 feet away, but as the dog gets closer Luna will get more excited, I'm not sure in a real world environment how to slowly build the calm behavior as the distance gets closer. For example: Lets say Luna breaks her sit and starts jumping / pulling towards the other dog, do I just pull Luna away from the dog, because that seems to not be working and only exacerbates her behavior. Thanks as always for any advice.

An exercise I used on Duke (a 28 at the shoulder St Bernard puppy) when he tried to drag me toward people or dogs I would turn around and walk AWAY from that thing he was over excited about. Once he relaxed and walked the direction I wanted, I'd circle back and try again.

Another thing that helps your dog to stay calm on the leash is to praise it for looking at your or for just giving the leash slack or waking closer to you. When I take a walk with my dogs that are still learning, I tell them "good dog!" if they look back at me, and give a pet here and there to show them that being close and "checking in" with me is good!

That way when you walk toward a dog and she starts getting excited you can get her attention easier because she knows that you like her to look at you and stay close.

It just takes a lot of practice, she doesn't rush toward those dogs to be a pain, she's just really excited and doesn't know that its bad. The great thing about huskies is they do want you to be happy, you just have to get good at showing them how to do that. =)

Have you tried desensitizing your dog to other dogs?

Kennedy was a shelter rescue, so she was used to being able to rush up to any dog and for it to be okay. So I had a lot of work cut out for me. First we also corrected her pulling. Next I went on to desensitizing her on walks. I have a neighbor who leaves his Golden outside on an invisible fence while he is at work, so I used her for training .

What we did was I would treat her as soon as we started to walk down the street, as long as she was calm! The closer we got to Bell (the golden), the more I treated for good behavior. The minute Kennedy started to loose focus on me and focus more on Bell, I corrected her and we turned around and started over. The main goal is to be able to walk past a dog with Kennedy staying completely focused on me. It took awhile and we are still working on it, but I swear by desensitization!

I will try the desensitizing thing. Going to be a challenge finding a dog left outside for any period of time in the winter here. However, I'll bet I can find something. Thank you for the tip.

Do you know anybody with an older calmer dog that would help you?

CrazySmurf wrote:

I will try the desensitizing thing. Going to be a challenge finding a dog left outside for any period of time in the winter here. However, I'll bet I can find something. Thank you for the tip.

Try outside of a dog park? Hopefully you have one with enough space around it that you can start far enough away that she won't be over aroused so slowly work your way closer.