One of the biggest things I see in the world of dogs is dogs who blow up at other dogs when they are on leash. They aren’t necessarily aggressive with dogs in all situations, but their lunging, barking and pulling towards other dogs is certainly unacceptable behavior that needs to be addressed.

Leash aggression (or leash reactivity as it is often called) is an incredibly frustrating thing for you and your dog to live with. It makes enjoying your dog a very difficult task and the responsibility is on you to solve it. You don’t have to live this way and it is important as a pack leader and a dog owner to take this unnecessary stress away from your dog.
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While quick fixes aren’t always an option for your leash aggressive dog, here are some tips to start solving the problem:

Often times my clients’ houses are pure chaos - dogs dashing around the house, jumping on people, bouncing off the furniture, barking at windows. An awesome first question is “when everything is wrong, where do I start?”  
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While there is no one-size-fits-all approach – generally speaking, I like people to start with two things: 1) Learn how to walk the dog appropriately, and 2) tether the dog to a person in the house. 

We're coming to the end of our latest board & train client's time with AWDT and reflecting on how far she has come! Shandy is a sweet girl with great foundational training; however, like with so many dogs I see, she can become very reactive on-leash. As a HUGE proponent of off-leash training, we spent a lot of time e-collar training with a long lead and giving her plenty of exposure to other dogs while on-leash. After her two week stay with us, she can now walk on and off leash and can interact with other dogs stress-free!

Check out these videos of her progress! 

Meet Elmer, a lovable French Bulldog and our latest board and train client. He's a swell guy most of the time - he's even pretty enjoyable to be around. So why is he at AWDT right now? Check out Elmer getting dropped of on Day 1:

Breakfast checked in as our new resident board & train last weekend, and he is already making incredible strides.

Breakfast suffers from the relatively common behavior problem of “leash reactivity” or “leash aggression” – which for the most part means that when he is on a leash and he sees something like a dog or a person, he goes crazy for it – pulling, lunging, etc.

He is also high energy pit bull that hasn’t had a bunch of opportunity to be around other dogs, because he isn’t quite sure how to act around other dogs.

He was adopted a few months ago from the Mega adoption event, and before that he was tied to a house and abandoned there by a family who moved away.

In spite of all that he is in a loving home now and he is here learning how to be around other dogs and how to be a little more manageable for his new, loving owner.

The first few days of a board and train, especially one that hasn’t been socializing with dogs, is to learn how to fit in with the fun personalities that live at AWDT. Check out the super excited Breakfast meeting the pack:

This weekend AWDT spent some time helping older dogs set a new course in their lives. 
 

So many of the dogs I work with are wonderful, well-mannered dogs -- until you put a leash on them, which promptly turns them into monsters that want to destroy other dogs. This is something that trainers call "leash reactivity." It comes about because we put a leash on our dogs when they are puppies and it's primary function is to keep them from everything they want in the world - other dogs, fire hydrants, new people, new smells, etc. 

To these dogs, everything they love in the world just signals frustration which makes them go ballistic