When taking your dog on a walk, it is important to know how to train your dog to ignore other dogs, especially if your dog is not familiar with other dogs. Every pet dog owner wants their dog to act politely around other people, especially when there are other dogs on the road. However, a puppy distracted on walks is a common issue that makes the owner feel embarrassed and can sometimes even harm the pet or other people or dogs on the road.
With your love and some basic instructions, this problem is readily resolvable. Let us see a few points and techniques that will help you understand how to train your dog to ignore other dogs.
How to train your dog to ignore other dogs? (Tips & Tricks to Focus on You)
Many of you will have experienced a situation where your pet dog aggressively reacts, barking and lunging, on seeing other dogs on the road. Such annoying behavior by your pet may be an expression of its fear of the other dogs. Sometimes, on seeing other dogs, it may want to go and meet them, but as it is tied with a leash, it is deprived. So, even due to the disappointment, your pet may react badly.
What is needed is to train your dog to ignore other dogs and avoid distractions. Without the training, it would be difficult to take your pet under control, and in turn, would affect the physical and mental health of your loved pet.
1. Encourage your pet with treats
One of the simplest ways to train your dog what you want it to do is to train it with treats. Treats are like incentives given to an employee. One might have one’s dream job and the world’s best boss, yet it is much more motivating only when gets his incentives.
Similarly, in the case of our canine companions, treats motivate them to do whatever we ask them to do. You need to train your dog to look at you whenever it hears its name called so that you can gain control of the canine companion. Or else you can try some commands with a gentle tone like “leave it,” “No” and so on, whenever your dog encounters some distractions.
Get your pet’s attention with a piece of chicken or dog food, or anything else the pet enjoys. First, find out the best thing that would be an irresistible treat for your pet. Place it near its nose to let it know that you are about to reward it if it obeys the command. Once it obeys your command, encourage it with the treat. This method is called luring the pet, where the temptation is kindled, and the pet eventually learns what the owner wants it to learn. Practice this several times so that the dog understands thoroughly that whenever it obeys the cue, it will be fed with that treat.
This practice should begin inside the premises, in your garden, or in private places where the pet is fully focused on what you are teaching it. You can try with some dog food placed in a container or a chew toy the pet prefers more, or any other distraction placed right in front of your dog.
Try to train dog to ignore other dogs by keeping it close to you with a handy-sized leash and make it obey your command by the cue and reward it every time it looks at you after hearing the cue. If the dog does not respond to the cue, repeat it with a pulse on the leash and with praising words and reward when there is a response from the dog.
By practicing this, the dog would gain the habit and it would be easy to get the dog’s attention when it gets distracted. By successfully repeating the training several times, with confidence, you can take your dog out. But first, take the dog to places of less distraction. Train it to have a calm walk along with you.
A regular walk of 15 to 20 minutes, 3 to 4 times a day is worth training your dog. One of the best ways training dog to ignore other dogs is by controlling the distance from them. At a distance, when your dog notices another dog, you say the cue to distract it and reward it when it responds to your cue.
Continue this by slowly reducing the distance from other dogs and keep practicing to train your dog to walk past other dogs. so that you can very well take your pet to a street or a park where more dogs and other distractions will not bother your furry pet. When you are training your dog at the park, you should follow dog park etiquette.
Once your pet is highly accustomed to training to ignore other dogs, it can be taken to areas where there are many varieties of distractions like birds, small animals like squirrels, and even strangers who are all capable of grabbing your dog’s attention easily and you would reach a state where you feel that you no longer need to train your dog to ignore strangers”.
If you feel you are feeding more calories to your pet, try to reduce the number of rewards after some good training. Slowly the dog will get to the habit of obeying your command and it is also necessary to maintain your dog’s food diet.
Train a dog without treats is difficult but reducing the treats and stopping them is much needed. Train your pet by giving some big surprise treats, when it obeys and sometimes with little or no reward. Over time, the pet would understand that at any time it may have a good treat. This way weaning treats can be effective. Giving a hug or rubbing over the head could be an alternative for a food treat that the dog would enjoy.
2. Nudges and Rewards will help your training
An important aspect of how to teach your dog to ignore other dogs is that you must stay calm and train the dog to stay calm. Pets are much influenced by the emotions of their owners. On seeing a dog on the way, if your dog starts to behave out of control, without responding to your cue, do not drag the leash. It may hurt the dog. But nudging your pet with your knee can grab its attention towards you.
With praising words like “good boy” and so on, treat the pet with its favorite one, so that it understands the proper dog behavior you want it to have. While you train dogs not to react to other dogs, much patience is required. Even if the pet does not respond to your training, keep trying. With proper regular training and time, your pet will get into the habit, and it is the only way to success.
3. Start socializing with other dog lovers
Although you have been given good training to your dog to ignore other dogs inside a controlled environment, it is no guarantee how the pet dog would react when it encounters strangers and other dogs in a public place. So, it is worth giving better training for socializing. By asking your friends who own dogs to bring them to a wider place, you can very well teach your dog to ignore other dogs.
Fix a particular time, and with a leash, have your pup near you, and allow your friends to walk with their pet dogs leashed at a nearby distance (a safe distance of around 25 to 30 feet). Whenever your dog gets hyper, stop your dog from pulling towards other dogs, and make it calm with cue words and treats.
Practice this for many days, until the pet gets familiar with such situations and when it seems cool to strangers and dogs, you can try it and take a walk in a public place. But it will not happen in a day or two. Training for a few weeks would be needed.
By socializing your dog with other dogs, the pet would practice behaving properly with other dogs. But if in any situation it has any problem in socializing with other dogs, observe the behavior pattern. Find the time, place, and types of dogs, their breed, and even their owners with whom your dog has a problem. If you were able to conclude some of the reasons or persons to whom your dog behaves rudely, better to avoid such a situation.
FAQs:
1. Why is my dog aggressive to other dogs on walks?
There can be many reasons for dogs to behave aggressively to other dogs while on a walk. But in most cases, it is the defensive mentality of the dogs to protect their owner from other dogs that makes them behave in that way. A few dogs might not be so good at communication skills. This might also make them behave aggressively while trying to interact with their fellow canines. Fear and anxiety toward other dogs can be another reason when the dog is not accustomed to socializing with other dogs.
2. Why should I train a dog to ignore other dogs?
Training your dog to ignore other dogs is so important because it is a key factor in obedience and control. A dog should always be concentrated on its owner and the commands given to it by the owner. If it fails to ignore other dogs, it might be distracted and could at times cause chaos during important occasions. At times it may even hurt your pet or other animals or people.
3. Is it too late to socialize dogs?
Although the ideal age for dogs to start socializing is between 8 weeks to 4 months, it is never too late for dogs to step out and socialize with the world. Even a well-grown adult dog that lacks experience in the outside world can easily adapt within days and start socializing very well.
4. Can you cure a reactive dog?
Reactivity is an inborn nature in dogs, intense in puppies that are 6 to 12 months old. This type of behavior should fade away as the dog grows up. But in a few cases, the dog retains its reactive nature. This reactive behavior can be cured at any age through rehabilitation, with specific training on reactivity.
5. Should I pick my dog up if another dog approaches?
Although owners of small puppies tend to pick their canine kid up when another dog approaches, this is not a healthy practice because it might trigger the approaching dog to jump up and initiate an attack. Rather than this, trying to form a physical barrier like using an umbrella or shooing the approaching dog away would help.
Final Thought
Dogs are man’s best friends, and they give us endless amounts of love. Dog training requires a great deal of patience as well as love and compassion for the pet. Happy petting comes from teaching your dog to follow your instructions.
However, taking your dog for a stroll with your pet will provide you with unparalleled joy once you have figured out how to train your dog to ignore other dogs. Treats, kind gestures, and appreciation can all be used to train your dog and make it your all-time favorite companion.
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