[Dailydrool] Eyeballing

[Pamela McQuade]

This is pretty much what Horton does when he sees a strange dog. In his 
case I really think he wants to make friends, but he has few social 
skills due to his early and very bad upbringing. When a dog gets too 
near, he sounds as if he's going to murder them--bark, bark, bark. And 
of course the other dog returns the favor. I wouldn't risk getting too 
close to another dog, but we did once get surprised by the other dog, 
and Horton was perfectly friendly--almost knocked my socks off when it 
happened!


I had heard about a method of dealing with this where you have the dog 
focus on you and say, "Watch me!" At the same time, you hold up a 
treat--with Horton it could be just about any treat, but probably a 
really good one (say, chicken) is best.


It did not take long for Horton to figure out that this is a good way to 
get treats, and he's so busy watching me, the dog no longer matters--as 
long as Holly doesn't start barking at the other dog, that is, and as 
long as I have a treat to offer him.


We really haven't been out around other dogs enough for me to get him to 
the point where I can stop the treats, but this method has worked very 
well for us. No murder has been committed or even attempted. I'd be a 
lot more careful with a dog who was aggressive, but I believe it could 
be a big help in training even a dog with such issues.
Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets