My new rescue dog, from a bulgarian street, does not know how to play with other dogs. These dogs are seen by my dog as either competitors for food or if not then they are completely ignored. If another dog comes towards her in play fighting mode then she sees this as an attack and responds accordingly. Any thoughts?
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Socialising street dogs
- Thread starter john1345
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Do you have any idea how old your dog is?
Depending on age and how much this distresses her I'd consider not socialising her at all and not making her go through the process of meeting other dogs. If she is prepared to completely ignore other dogs then that's an alternative that you can encourage and work towards for all dogs she may walk past.
I have a rescue GSD who was completely unsocialised when we got her, and she made a choice really quite early on that she didn't actually want to meet these other dogs and that she was frightened of them. We decided that if she didn't want to be pushed into meeting them then we wouldn't force her to face them all and instead focused her training on how to ignore them properly. It then falls to us to take her out places where she's not expected to interact with other dogs.
Once we'd done that she visibly calmed down in all other aspects of her life. Dogs aren't all the same and as far as Molly is concerned her pack consists of us and the cats and she doesn't need other dogs socially at all. If you have to train your dog to be around other dogs then that's one thing, but if she really doesn't want to then it may just be easier to facilitate her being an only dog
Depending on age and how much this distresses her I'd consider not socialising her at all and not making her go through the process of meeting other dogs. If she is prepared to completely ignore other dogs then that's an alternative that you can encourage and work towards for all dogs she may walk past.
I have a rescue GSD who was completely unsocialised when we got her, and she made a choice really quite early on that she didn't actually want to meet these other dogs and that she was frightened of them. We decided that if she didn't want to be pushed into meeting them then we wouldn't force her to face them all and instead focused her training on how to ignore them properly. It then falls to us to take her out places where she's not expected to interact with other dogs.
Once we'd done that she visibly calmed down in all other aspects of her life. Dogs aren't all the same and as far as Molly is concerned her pack consists of us and the cats and she doesn't need other dogs socially at all. If you have to train your dog to be around other dogs then that's one thing, but if she really doesn't want to then it may just be easier to facilitate her being an only dog
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