[Curottofran]

Help
i need some advice, My puppy Murphy is nearly 4 months old now and although we have had a couple of growling incidents where with my daughter being a bit OTT he has been great. My prob;lem now is that he cannot stand other dogs!!! he is scared of big dogs and growls at small ones. He just does not want them to come near him and he seems scared. I'm gutted to be honest and not sure what to do.... any advice? he is so adorable in the house but he seems very nervous once we are outside

 

[Dylansmum]

Has he ever been attacked? Dylan was badly attacked at 4 months and it took him a long time to get over it. The thing that helped Dylan the most was seeking out other people with friendly dogs to walk with. First he went to friends houses who have dogs, and then we used to seek out other small dogs when we were out walking. The real breakthrough was one day when there were several owners together with a whole pack of dogs of every size. They invited us to walk around with them and Dylan soon got used to being surrounded by milling dogs, so when we met a new one he didn't even notice it! Since then he has been fine, although still cautious around big dogs. The other thing that might help is a training class where the trainers will help you to deal with his reaction to the other dogs. Good luck.

 

[wilfiboy]

Yeh what Helen suggests sounds great. Some places do puppy play sessions or socialisation classes. Wilf is scared of Boxers and if we see one would bark which didnt help the situation..I give him a ball to carry now, he does nt approach them and quietlt whimpers which I can hear but they dont notice ... Mable can then greet them and he is nt putting her off .. works for now x

 

[wilfiboy]

Where are you? is anyone on here near ? x

 

[kendal]

does he get to socolize with other dogs, do you have a training class near by or any regular dog walking groups you could join(even just a group of people you always see walking together as ask if you can join them)

 

[embee]

Like everyone else here has said socialise in every way possible as much as possible so he doesn't get any worse and you will need to get on with this quickly while he is still relatively young. Get him into training asap but make sure the trainer knows about your concerns and doesn't focus on punishing or telling Murphy off - he's scared and growling at other dogs as it's his way of asking them not to approach as he doesn't know what else to do.

I went training last week and we had a large but nervous mastiff and also a smaller dog that had been attacked a few days previously by a large dog. The trainer briefed all of us before hand on what she wanted to do before the dogs arrived. With the mastiff we had to make sure we protected him a bit and gave him space when he started to feel nervous. If one of our dogs approached and he began to draw his lips back, growl or he tucked his tail in we were asked to push the other dog away so the mastiff felt we were in charge and in control and he didn't need to try and handle the situation himself. After about 10 minutes of doing this he settled right down and began to approach other dogs and sniff them etc.. Also our dogs realised he needed space so weren't so up front in their approach. With the small dog we were asked to have our dogs on leads and let the smaller one approach but keep our dog under control so the smaller dog could make the approach as far as they felt comfortable. Again within 10 minutes we knew he felt comfortable and the dogs were all taken off lead.

You need to tackle this really quickly now given Murphy's age as if he doesn't learn how to feel confident around other dogs and learn how to speak 'dog' with them he'll always be nervy and unsure how to cope.

If it were me I would do at least 2 training sessions a week and start asking people with well behaved dogs to visit or join you for a walk.

Let us know where you are and someone might be happy to meet up to help with socialising.

 

[embee]

Oh the other thing I meant to say is if you get tense or feel stressed when another dog approaches Murphy will sense it and feel more anxious as he will think there's something to worry about. Similarly if you say stuff like 'don't worry' in a worried way it will make him worry more. Sound matter of fact and be in control so he doesn't feel he needs to take charge and warn off an approaching dog.

 

[Curottofran]

he was fine and we went out walking and i saw a neighbour who has a springer saniel and we started walking together to the valley at which point we let them off the leads. Murphy was loving the freedom but still staying close to me. just as he started building up his confidence, the springer ran into him and knocked him flying, he rolled over and yelped!!! he was terrified and ran away but eventually came back and jumped into my arms literally!!. since then i have noticed a big difference.

 

[Curottofran]

I don't feel nervous but i am aware that he is looking at me for reassurance. his tail is between his legs and he has a worried look about him. i feel really sorry for him. but we are seeing the trainer tomorrow so hopefully we can get things sorted x

 

[embee]

he was fine and we went out walking and i saw a neighbour who has a springer saniel and we started walking together to the valley at which point we let them off the leads. Murphy was loving the freedom but still staying close to me. just as he started building up his confidence, the springer ran into him and knocked him flying, he rolled over and yelped!!! he was terrified and ran away but eventually came back and jumped into my arms literally!!. since then i have noticed a big difference.

Awww, so he's just had his confidence knocked a bit poor thing. What a pity if he was enjoying himself off lead. So just keep up with as much socialisation as poss and try not to feel or sound anxious yourself when he comes across other dogs so he doesn't think there's something to worry about. If you have put a lot of work into socialising him up to now he'll have a good foundation and hopefully the incident with the springer won't affect him in the long run. Flo often gets bowled over by bigger dogs as we always seems to meet labs, gsds, great danes etc and usually ends up get trundled over or yelps when they tread on her but it hasn't put her other dogs in the long run.

 

[kendal]

he was fine and we went out walking and i saw a neighbour who has a springer saniel and we started walking together to the valley at which point we let them off the leads. Murphy was loving the freedom but still staying close to me. just as he started building up his confidence, the springer ran into him and knocked him flying, he rolled over and yelped!!! he was terrified and ran away but eventually came back and jumped into my arms literally!!. since then i have noticed a big difference.

what happend after the collision, did you carry on walking with the dog (best thing to do) if you could get out with the same spanial that would be good for him.

 

[wilfiboy]

what happend after the collision, did you carry on walking with the dog (best thing to do) if you could get out with the same spanial that would be good for him.

Yeh build up a relationship with that dog and it will help show him how to behave when you meet other dogs. If your meeting otherdogs with the trainer arrange to meet up with them or ask the trainer if she knows of anyone who would like to meet up with you .. good luck let us know how you get on with the trainer x

 

[Fifi's mum]

Hi one of the things I did with FIFI was to get her to associate other dogs with nice things. FIFI wasn't scared but would growl, cry and jump at other dogs, so to distract her I would wave a treat in front of her nose and say "nice dog" and give her the treat as long as she was looking at me. She then associated other dogs with nice things. I walk with my friend and her German Spitz every day and initially he wanted to kill FIFI but again by treating them when they stood together nicely he has grown to love FIFI. They are now buddies and love walking together.

 

[Curottofran]

Hi all. Thanks so much for the advice. It went well with the trainer today. Murphy did so well. He was nervous at first with other dogs but after a while was happy to go over and have a sniff. We took it really slow and are seeing the trainer next week. She has told me to take it slow with him this week and keep his walks short and really positive.
Not sure where everyone is from. I live in Bramhall in Cheshire. If anyone is close by it would be really nice to meet up xx

 

[kendal]

clad it went well, sorry i cant help way to far away.

 

[romeo]

francine why havent you come back to me and asked my advise i told you to call me with any problem or my daughter sarah she has great experience with dog training janice

 

[Dawny]

hi it sounds like your doing all the right things, when and where you can have him off lead and encourage him to go play with other dogs, take some treats for the other dogs so they are all sharing food and play. wispa loves to play with a staffy that likes to sit on her and hold her down and then wispa jumps all over its head, they keep this up for ages, usually the staffy gets worn out before wispa! lol

 

[weez74]

francine why havent you come back to me and asked my advise i told you to call me with any problem or my daughter sarah she has great experience with dog training janice

Speaking from my own experience, our breeder said something similar to us, but to be honest, I just thought he was being polite! I've never had a puppy form a breeder before and I kind of assumed that we were on our own once we'd got Rosie home. I don't think I would have even thought about phoning him if there were training issues!

Do most breeders take an interest in the puppies once they've gone?

 

[Curottofran]

francine why havent you come back to me and asked my advise i told you to call me with any problem or my daughter sarah she has great experience with dog training janice

Hi Janice,
I thought you meant problems with Murphy as in health etc, ( which there aren't any ) we got a dog trainer after 2 weeks of having him and have just phoned her with any issues we've had. Thanks so much for the offer though and it's good to know you're still there fir us. I will nd some more pics of Murphy soon. Can we have our own page ha ha xx

 

[Curottofran]

Speaking from my own experience, our breeder said something similar to us, but to be honest, I just thought he was being polite! I've never had a puppy form a breeder before and I kind of assumed that we were on our own once we'd got Rosie home. I don't think I would have even thought about phoning him if there were training issues!

Do most breeders take an interest in the puppies once they've gone?

To be honest janice (Romeo)was lovely and it is me that's not acted on the offer. She phoned us after we got Murphy to see how we were getting on and has e mailed too. She is a cockapoo fanatic!!!! I thought that the offer was about Murphys health etc not about training things and normal stuff. not sure if it's a normal thing that breeds do though.