How do I stop my dog from fixating on other dogs?

To help your dog stop fixating on other dogs, the first thing would be to find and start work with a dog behaviourist, like the kind of work that I do. The second things are to be managing and setting your dog up to succeed, this could look like: Keeping your dog on a well fitting harness and 5m long line. And holding onto the long line, not just dropping it and hoping for the best! Walking in less dog dense areas so that your dog has less opportunity to keep reinforcing the behaviours you don’t want to discourage. Being equipped with items that your dog likes, loves and wants – these can vary from treats to toys depending on what motivates your dog. Consider what your dog walker or dog day care is providing and if they are encouraging and allowing behaviour you actually don’t want. If they are, you may need to have a chat or find another person to work with, as it can have a huge impact. The most important thing to remember though, is that it is your responsibility to make sure your dog does not impact any other dog or their owner or the general public in a way that makes them feel threatened or that your dog is out of control.

Teach them a Watch Me, do this randomly throughout the day, start where there are no distractions, and your dog isn’t doing something else. Say their name enthusiastically and when they look at you reward them with a high value treat. Once they can do this reliably, practise this everywhere – always rewarding them. Avoid places with many dogs, start training your dog the Watch Me exercise in a quiet place indoors where it’s just the two of you. Once you can do this at home, you can progress to the garden where there are more distractions from sights, sounds, and smells. Distract them when meeting other dogs, start off a long distance from them – beyond the point where your dog would usually react, all you want your dog to do is look at you, and you will reward this. Always use high value treats to reward them for paying attention to you and not the other dog. Practice is key, remember that patience is very important when training any dog and you shouldn’t expect instant results. If your dog has been barking at other dogs or being reactive for a long time, it will take time, patience, and consistency to break the habit or change the behaviour. Give play opportunities, make sure your dog still gets a chance to play and interact with their chosen doggie friends, dogs are social and do enjoy having some ‘dog time’. Use a long leash and avoid pulling on it, while you are training, you can use a comfortable harness with a long leash, this will allow your dog to have more freedom and practise your distraction training safely at a longer distance.

If your dog can't break its attention from another dog to you there can be several reasons, your too close to the other dog, timing, your watch me isn't as strong as it needs to be, your treat/reward isn't high value enough. Distance is key, if you haven't already, you need to have some rough feel for how close a dog can be and your dog to stay calm. Then you need to do your best to keep that distance. Once your dog is reacting to its trigger it's too late to try and train your way out of that situation. Your dog isn't in a receptive emotional state to be trained. Watch me is also important, if you haven't worked on him focusing on you with no distractions, then adding low level distractions and increasing this until you can actually try this when a dog is involved, it won't work. Use other triggers that are not as intense, such as birds, cats, humans, to build on and instill the behavior you want to use when other dogs are around. Treats/rewards are going to need to be high value, which for most dogs means meat, smelly, tasty, special are all traits of a good treat. You are going to need to experiment a bit to see what works for your dog. When your dog goes into its react mode, just do your best to get distance from whatever it was that set your dog off. Trying to get him to look at you, sit etc at this stage under this situation won't work. So, keep trying to keep a safe distance between your dog and other dogs, try and keep yourself between your dog and other dogs even just walking around. Work on watch me or some other means to have him focus on you in no distraction areas, then build on that by trying it in low distraction areas and eventually when other dogs are around.