I am trying to focus more on getting Caleb used to other dogs. Whilst we may never get to the stage that Caleb will greet and play nicely with other dogs, I am hoping at least to get him to the point where he will not get himself all worked up when he spots another dog. We have already gotten him to the point where his hackles no longer go up when he sees another dog, but he still jumps around and whines and if a dog gets too close he has been known to snap. Therefore, I am working on taking more of an active role when walking Caleb rather than just holding onto the end of lead and trying not to get pulled along. Also I want to try to walk the dogs twice a day (once in the morning and once in the evening) to see if I can’t wear them out and get them to sleep better during the night.
Today was day one and I am already so proud of my boy. I tried walking him on a short lead and not letting him wander around and piss on everything. He did so remarkably well, especially on his walk this evening. Partway through the walk he stopped even trying to pull me over to a nice looking tree or lamp post. He actually trotted along beside me, unlike Rory who fought the ‘short lead, Mum gets to decide where we walk’ thing until she wore herself out.
We had three close encounters of the canine kind – one was two dogs being walked past us where Caleb jumped around but soon settled down, the second was a Golden Retriever about 5 meters away who Caleb failed to notice as he was so focus on sitting beautifully for me whilst I put the poop bag in the bin and the third was a dog walking past about a metre away and again we had one jump, but straight into a sit when I told him. I was so very, very proud of him.
I think I broke Rory though. As soon as we came home she threw herself onto the couch and promptly passed out. She woke up for dinner and is now asleep at my feet. She looks absolutely exhausted. Caleb also has less energy, but somehow they both seem to find that little bit of extra energy if anything exciting occurs at the front door.
Dancing About Architecture 
giving caleb treats while he sitting watching other dogs might help too (that’s what a trainer told us to do with our boof head that doesn’t do well with other dogs– we’ve got her from the point of going completely nuts at a dog on the other side of the road to sit and wimper and maybe even look at us instead of focusing on the other dog). then they make a positive association with other dogs
Treats worked for us too.
Sounds like you’re on the winning track there, treats might just help enforce the good behaviour a bit quicker for you 🙂
Shawna and Jayne – I am a big believer in using food treats to train dogs. Unfortunately when Caleb is stressed he doesn’t want anything to do with food. He completely ignores the food no matter how tasty it is. However, it might be a good thing to try when I can get him to a bit calmer frame of mind. At the moment, the poor boy is scared out of his mind and just focuses on what he can do to make the other dogs go away. I have found speaking to him calmly does help him calm down a bit.