Fear of other dogs

Question
Hi,  We have a 3 year old female Miniature Fox Terrier (Toy Fox Terrier) named "MININE". (very small,  3.8kg)

She's very well behaved and we have done plenty of obedience training with her, both at dog club and at home.

Our problem is that whenever she encounters another dog,  her personality completely changes.  If we're in the park,  she plays happily,  and comes back to us when called,  but as soon as another dog comes close,  the tail goes under between the legs,  ears go back,  and she scurries away,  ignoring us when we call her.

If we keep her on lead,  then when another dog approaches she snaps at them out of fear.  It doesn't matter what breed or size of the other dog,  even small puppies.

We can't work out how to reverse this behaviour.
When she was younger,  she would play with every dog,  and chase them,  regardless of size,  but now she's the opposite.  We can't think if an incident that sparked this change in behaviour,  but now that's it's here,  nothing we try seems to be making progress towards reversing it.

We went back to dog school to keep her socialized with other dogs,  but she's not improving.

Can you please suggest the correct steps we should be taking to reverse this behaviour,  and have her be comfortbale and happy around other dogs?

Thank-you kindly in advance.
Matt.


Answer
Matt -

You didn't ask an easy question did you ?  In all honesty, the only thing I would try in order to take this project on in tiny tiny steps is to find a friend with a similarly sized dog.  Actually anything from a bichon or mini poodle on down in size - Preferably of the opposite gender, but neutered (This decreases the odds of gender related competitiveness).

Then I would have this friend visit in your home with their dog.  Each of you maintain your dogs on leashes, but pretending to ignore them. Of course you are monitoring out of the corner of your eye, but if you pay attention to a problem, sometimes it gets worse - and sometimes if you are not paying attention to it, the problem will work itself out.

I would start with very short visits at first, with you each sitting at a distance from each other, dogs on the floor (you could also do this in the yard, but I think your dog may feel safer in her own home).  You could even have a couple of "mini" visits in the same day.

The point is to gradually build up exposure to this dog with no expectations for them to play or anything. In training they talk about duration and distance - and those are the factors you are going to adjust here as you have consistent success at the previous level. You need to work on the underlying confidence before she's likely to really be ready to make friends.

The other thing you need to consider is her breed.  They have been developed to be tiny and in turn they are very very vulnerable, and I am sure she knows it. They are prone to being very anxious as well.

These are just a couple of suggestions coming from my experiences in rehabilitating puppymill breeding dogs into house pets, many of whom have severe fear issues.

Best wishes.

-Beth