Anxiety problems?

agb13

I have a three year old female bull terrier who is very good with other dogs and is currently learning obedience.  We recently adopted her.  However, when on walks, in the yard or wherever, when she sees another dog and/or animal, she begins to yelp, pull and scream and becomes completely fixated upon the dog. (No issues with people).  When we let her near the other dog she will begin to play.  We have never witnessed any aggression by her towards other dogs at this time.

However, when it is time to leave, she begins the cycle all over.  Very hysterical barking, yelping and spinning/pulling. She is very loud and at times embarrassing.  On a few occasions we have had to pick her up and carry her away from the other dog.

In addition, our neighbor has horses beyond our backyard which are completely fenced in and enclosed.  However, once she spots them, she becomes fixated and begins acting as described above.  During these times of hysterical fixation she will not listen to us.  We are working with her on training but would love any feedback.   

Is this anxiety? is this aggression? 

philsergeant

The way I see it she is just totally excited and doesn't want the exposure to end either... If she is showing no signs of aggression (or even if she is) you should push her into as much social exposure as possible.... If you don't have friends with dogs that you can regularly mix her with then try a (dog) park or walk where she can experience many other dogs.... You'll probably find that, once she has had a good dose of other dogs she'll calm right down.

agb13

Thanks Phil,

My brother has a American bully who she loves to play with and after 30 minutes or so of roughing around she does calm down a bit.  However, she is obsessed with his girlfriend's french bulldog.  No aggression but just whines until she is close enough to be on top of him and just constantly follows and pulls to be near him. 

I am assuming we need to keep practicing and training her to be more focused on me rather than dogs passing by.  Her yelping is so loud that people approaching with other dogs are definitely nervous/concerned.

Just curious in your experience if you have any training tips?  We have been moving along with clicker training and reading "When Pigs Fly."  This site is very helpful.

Thanks again!

Stoeger

This exactly what our 2.5 y/o male does.

He gets this excited when he sees other dogs and oddly enough... horses.

Unfortunately, it makes his female human so nervous she won't let him interact.

Over the summer I convinced her to let him play with my buddy's 9 y/o female Boxer.

This girl had shown dog aggression to other female dogs in the past but I had all the confidence that I could handle my dog and my buddy could handle his girl if they decided not to play.

The Boxer submitted to Stoeger and they played until exhaustion. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to convince StogesMom since to allow him to play with other dogs. But that won't keep me from asking and trying, haha!