Normal social skills for 15 months?

Hello,

I have had my dog for just over a year now and as a first time dog owner, I wonder how normal my 15 month old Maltese's social behaviour is.

When meeting other dogs he is sometimes calm, either passing without reaction or approaching for a well-behaved sniff. But other times he goes mad and either jumps on them in what I guess is excited friendliness or he barks aggressively (?) at them from a distance. I'm not certain it's always aggression because it sometimes might be that he is on his lead and sees a dog far away and wishes he could go over. Other times he definitely seems to be having a go.

Recently, he has done the seemingly aggressive barking more. We've been on some outings with our children and maybe he is nervous about being somewhere new and crowded. It pains me that strangers get the impression that he is a noisy aggressive dog because he really isn't. Most of the time he is very quiet.

Dogs we meet on walks all seem calmer than him but they are mostly older too. Is he like this because of his age? Will he eventually be calm with all dogs instead of just some? Or is there something I need to do?

It may not be something that he grows out of, you might need to do some work with him. Is there a particular trigger? I know from a distance which dogs my do will walk straight past, and which ones will make him anxious, from their size, shape or body language (more on that later). My dog doesn't like broad fronted dogs like bulldogs - to a dog, face to face eyeballing is highly confrontational and just the shape of some dogs makes them appear more like that. It's nothing to do with the actual dog, who may be the most gentle soul ever, just its conformation.

So, behaviour like this often comes from anxiety and your job is to teach him two things. First, that he won't be forced to confront his fear (nobody gets cured of a fear of snakes by being thrown in a snake pit) and second, that you have his back.

He will have an invisible radius of space around him where he feels secure . Find out what that is and keep him far enough away from other dogs that he is relaxed. Reward his calm behaviour. Gradually, over weeks and months, not days, work on reducing the distance. This may mean you have to be selective where you walk - choose places with good visibility so you can give other dogs a wide berth, or where you can turn and walk away easily. But - be aware that if your dog has had a stressful episode the stress hormone can stay in the body for up to 48 hours so a distance he was comfortable with the day before might be too close that day. So the safe distance can change, watch his body language.

Trainers describe behaviour like this with reference to the three Ds. Distance, as above but also be aware of Duration (your dog might be tolerant for 10 seconds, but not 15) and Distraction - how distracting the stimulus is; a calm dog might not trigger any reaction at a given distance but a bouncy one might. Thats the body language I mentioned earlier.

Alongside that you could train a 'watch me'. As your dog looks at you, mark and reward the behaviour. Ask for longer periods of watching. Then if a dog approaches, after you have worked on the distance issue, you can get your dog to focus on you and not the other dog. BUT - some dogs find this scary as they cannot see the thing they are anxious about so you need to judge your dog.

The three D's and the watch me are great easy rules. We use watch me both for Murphys fear agression with BBD's (big black dogs) as it seems if he doesnt make eye contact he is ok and for Georges lack of manners, he learned that if he barked he got attention from people passing the garden he was kept in so we are teaching him to 'watch me' and if he dooesnt bark and its ok with the other dog he may then greet but only for a few seconds...Its so easy requires very little to set it up and is almost immediatly effective esp if you start by using it as a game to give treats while at home. The dog then knows the 'watch me' command is a sign he will get a treat and obeys with enthusiasm.

Thank you both, I will start doing that. I've not paid attention before now to which types of dog set Rupert off. Nothing obvious sticks out thinking now. I don't think it's to do with size by itself. It must be certain characteristics as you say. We have recently passed a few times, a very big Black Russian Terrier who he barked at each time. This giant was calm like most dogs the first couple of occasions but after that he's given Rupert an angry sounding bark in return.

Something else I hope he can stop doing is barking in response to the sound of a distant dog in our neighborhood. We can faintly hear a dog barking presumably in his garden many houses away and Rupert will enter a barking exchange with them. How does a distant dog make Rupert angry or anxious? Am I right in guessing he's bothered that there's a dog near our house?

He is a terrier and they do like to be heard ...
2 of mine will bark at the neighbouring dog barking ...i often wonder what they are saying to each other

Is he barking when he's outside in the garden? If so I would wait till you hear the first bark from the other dog and immediately give Rupert a treat. You want him to realise that 'other dog barks' = 'treat from you', and work towards him coming indoors to you for a treat, then shut him indoors.

Some dogs don't like black dogs in general - it's suggested that they can't see their eyes clearly. If the Black Russian has long hair covering his eyes, that would exacerbate the effect.

You can't help but imagine that they are having an argument, including lots of "What did you just say! How dare you! Come here and say that!"

The we've not heard the neighborhood dog when in our garden. It happens sometimes as we walk out the front. And sometimes we can hear it when indoors through an open window and Rupert goes off. I will try the treat distraction, thanks!

John Bechet said:

Thank you both, I will start doing that. I've not paid attention before now to which types of dog set Rupert off. Nothing obvious sticks out thinking now. I don't think it's to do with size by itself. It must be certain characteristics as you say. We have recently passed a few times, a very big Black Russian Terrier who he barked at each time. This giant was calm like most dogs the first couple of occasions but after that he's given Rupert an angry sounding bark in return.

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I'd suggest keeping a diary or a note of your walks and keep a note of the things like the dog breed/colour/size/owner, if the dog was on lead, if it starred at your dog/what the body language was, if the dog came into your dogs space, what sex it is. It may help you identify what the trigger is and then give you something to work on.