The Shar-Pei Forums-Health Behavior Diet & Rescue Info and Discussion Group

My wife and I rescued a wonderful (about one year old) Shar Pei last fall, and for the most part he's been great. He's gentle, doesn't chew, doesn't bark too much, cuddles with us, gets along with our cats, everything. However, he's having trouble with other dogs. This isn't something we expected, because he had lived with a foster family that had six other foster Shar Peis, and seemed to get along fine with them. When we take him to my mother's house (she has three dogs), he is fine with them too... he plays just a bit rough, but not too much, and always stops if the other dogs want him to.

The problem seems to be when we're out with other, unfamiliar dogs. We took him for training as soon as we got him, but as soon as he would see other dogs, he'd bark and yelp at them, pull on the leash, and not pay attention to us at all. When we're on a walk, he is fine until he sees another dog, then he's pulling on the leash, yelping and yodeling almost like he's in pain. If we walk up to the dog, he stops yelping and just sniffs, and then he seems to be fine; but other owners are understandably nervous about letting my barking, yelping, pulling dog near theirs.

In general he doesn't seem to be aggressive, but we had to stop going to training and stop going to the dog park because his yelping and his desire to get right up in other dogs' faces (but without attacking them, growling, or any overt aggressive signals) upsets other owners. When we walk him, I'm always looking for other dogs and weaving around the sidewalks to avoid them, and still being embarrassed when my dog yelps at theirs as long as he can see them.

We've tried bringing treats on the walk to reward him for not barking/pulling/etc, but he ignores treats any time he's out of doors. Has anyone else experienced this? Do you have any ideas for how we might get him to stop, or what the root cause might be? Thanks for any help you might be able to give us!

Welcome to my world...humming to the Elvis Presley song.
Sorry. My humor is a bit odd.
Hi.
Nice to meet you.
Do you have any idea if he has a history of being a tied out dog?
Makes a big difference on how to deal with the situation. Sounds like he may
have been.
Gotta start real small with tie out dogs.

Noodle is a specimen of many behaviors associated
with her young life tied to a tree.

We set up 'mock' leash greeting sessions with people's dogs whom we trust and know us but
have not ever met our dog. Then we slowly teach her an appropriate greet by timing it out.

Have the person who is helping walk their dog about a half a block ahead and allow our dog
to follow and approach from behind.

Sniffing the other dogs path and eventually getting closer to sniff from behind. Stay at a distance
so your dog learns a slow approach. You will get pulled along the first few times.

But keep your dog back until after a few attempts so your dog calms down and learns that
he/she gets the 'reward' of proximity by being calm.

If your dog lunges and wiggles.
Tell your friend/helper to keep moving forward and do not linger. Turn your dog
and move her/him in opposite direction, then turn around and start walking toward the helper/dog again.

Then when your dog lunges and pulls and whines turn your dog and walk the other way several yards and
wait for calm-- keep going other way then turn and follow your helper/dog again. Don't talk alot to your dog.
Use a one word command like settle or heel as you are turning the dog around in the opposite direction.
Then when the dogs settles. We use, lets go--in a happier tone and we turn toward the situation again.

You will be walking around in circles up and down your sidewalk. Do not worry what people think.

Do it over and over.
No more than a half hour at a time.
Few times a week.
Try to get different/helpers who have calm/balanced dogs who understand your teaching method.

Stay calm and do not get frustrated. If you do. Cut session short and take the dog home.
Tension feeds tension. So while you are teaching your dog. Envision the end result. See your dog
calmly walking near the new dog.

And remember. They have set backs. Do not ever be embarrassed. Just go back to the basics
and reinforce the new method.
Noodle pulled a howl/lung-a-lot fest this past saturday when going to meet a friend at a park.
she has been with us over a year.
I just moved her in opposite direction.
Gain some eye contact and wait. She settles and then we move forward to see the people/other dog.
I had to wait 15 minutes.
She has a stubborn streak too.

Food won't work. The dog is in a state of stress when they do that on leash.
Just try the method above and let me know how you make out.

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to be completly honest my koda does this aswell however like u said its not in a aggresive way.ive notice that koda jst really wants to go see and smell the other dogs and sometime the other dogs attack him because he does get up in there face which is fine he jst moves on and most dogs do run and play with him.i socialised him very early but ive noticed that a lot of owners dont and thats why there dog snap.i stoped worring about koda when i first saw him run up to a much older dog and he stoped about a meter away and lay down for the dog to smell him which was my first proud mama moment lol he was very respectful of the older dog.he also does the squealing bark but dogs make al sorts of comunication with each other i dont care what people fink when he does it id rather he done that than a aggresive bark like some i simply say to them he jst excited to say hello and if they dont like it then let them walk past.

Tanoocas - Thanks for the welcome! To be honest, we don't know anything about his history... the poor guy was apparently abandoned or ran away and got picked up by animal control when some joggers reported that he would hang out by the paths every morning to say hi as they ran by. To be honest, I'm surprised he is so well-behaved in general.

In any case, thanks for the advice; it sounds like it should work. Everyone kept telling us to use treats, but he just won't take them when he's outside, and especially when he's so anxious. I'll give it a shot, and hopefully I'll report back with some success! We don't have many friends in our area with dogs, but even just following your advice of turning him around and stopping every time he pulls and howls is a good start. Thanks again!

Cheryl - That's exactly how it is for us too. He runs right up to another dog, just to sniff, and then some of them will growl or snap at him, at which point he starts to bark and growl back. This has only happened twice, and he's never initiated the 'aggression,' just responded to it when another dog told him to 'back off.' You're right that I shouldn't care what people think, I just get a little stressed when everyone else's dog is walking fine and they all think mine is a nuisance or something because of his yelping.

Welcome to the forum. I have one rescue, Oscar, who I gave up on walking in public. Now keep in mind he has a seizure condition that altered his brain. He had a cluster seizure years back that changed his personality. I can not walk him in public. We have adjusted to this. He will greet my neighbors now at the fence line, and as long as there is a something in between him and the other animal he is fine. When we go to the vets office he has to be muzzled and the vets office has to be cleared of all animals.

My point to my story is sometimes we want different things than what can really happen. Training may take awhile with your pei, but don't push too hard. Without knowing the past history you may only be able to get so far. I personally could care less what people think about Oscar. He is happy and loves life. He does well with my other pei's and loves them. As long as he is happy I can adjust to whatever needs to happen. Poor guy was on the streets for the longest time and he even bit the humane society officer. Despite all of this he is intelligent and everyday I am amazed at what he accomplishes.

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Peaches, Oscar, Pogo, and Luna
RIP Peaches 1-1998 - 3-2011

Welcome We love picture here !

My boy Puff, who is a rescue, is aggressive toward other dogs his size. He hates being sniffed. Just today, a stray lab came running over to us and started sniffing his various body parts. Puff went after him and grabbed him around the neck before we could stop him. We yanked them apart and no one was hurt. He loves people - maybe he's being protective of us around other dogs. We can warn off folks with dogs on leashes, but what do we do about unleashed dogs? Is a muzzle the only answer? To me, they seem to say "This dog is dangerous. Get away!!"to anyone who sees him. I don't want to give Shar Peis a bad rap, but what else can I do?

Get a small airhorn to take with you on walks. It will ward off any loose dogs or otherwise.

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Leia 12/29/02 to 11/01/11 Will be forever missed.
MeiLi Birthdate 02/28/06

I am a huge fan of the clicker. Icarus is dog aggressive and has been known to snap at dogs larger than he is. I clicker trained him just with the simple "click" then give a treat over and over until he responds to just the sound of the clicker method. It's great because it never changes tone, etc. As much as we would all love to be the perfect alpha sometimes its hard to keep the desperation out of your voice when you have an aggressive dog at the other end of the leash. The sound is just enough to snap him back to me when he starts getting too fixated on another dog.

Hows your dog doing baxbin?
I was just thinking about you.
Our Noodle has episodes where she will walk fine and then
a few weeks later she will lunge and bark at other dogs walking with their owners on leash across the street and
its peculiar because she calmly walked by the very same dogs a few days earlier.
Some dogs are just moody? Noodle is a rescue as well so I am always setting my expectations
at a realistic level for her. She just has bad days.

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I've been doing a lot of reading and research about dog aggression, and I've scheduled Puff for a thyroid panel next week. We've been working on walking past other dogs, while we keep Puff's attention focused on us. It' interesting - when he sits for a biscuit, he stays a foot away from us. He really needs his personal space! I'll let you know how it all works out.

Jill. When I first adopted Tea our vet did his panel/6. He came back borderline low.
And our vet sent his results to Dr. Dodds. They decided for him to go on Soloxine.
It really helped him.

I have a bigger challenge with Noodle. She has no thyroid issues. I think she has gotten
'as good as it gets' on her leash training. Primarily, because she was tied out so long so young, she will always have back
slide issues with reactive stimuli.
Example she has days where she can walk on the other side
of the street and see a neighbor and their dog and give a little yodle/snort and keep walking
calmly. Then two days
later she will react with lunging and squealing/barking. Luckily, all of our neighbors
understand.
I also noticed with Noodle, her episodes are escalated when I am not calm. I am stressed
some days and I have made the mistake of walking her and learned the hard way it affects her.

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