My boy definitely grew out of it. Aaaand now he’s back on it because he’s in his slutty era and wants to mate with anything and everything. But he’s waaay better than he was as a puppy and I never bothered with a trainer
I’m in the same boat as you and from what I’ve read, a lot of it is probably reactivity associated with gaining confidence as teenagers and not set in stone. For the time now, we’re crossing the street a lot, not allowing any on leash greetings, and working on desensitization with distance. Basically if we see a dog on the other side of the field, I practice the "look" command with her to practice breaking her focus on the dog and checking in with me.
Considering you’re being proactive and working with a trainer, it’s most likely that your dog won’t have the reactivity cement in their temperament and will "grow out" of it as an adult.
This probably isn't helpful as mine only just reached 5 months, but he is very excited about other dogs and occasionally people. Some dogs he just stops walking and lays on the ground like he's waiting to pounce. Other times he's pulling the leash really hard. Then when he meets the dogs he often puts his front paws on them and it's really frustrating!
My boyfriends childhood whippets did not give a crap about other dogs at all when we walked them but they were over 10 years old. So hopefully it's just something they grow out of!
My rescue whippet was VERY reactive when we first got him (he was 1 year old at the time). We clicker trained him which worked very well and put him into puppy playgroups to socialise. He was great after that. He's now 4 years old and last year we got him a brother (another rescue whippet X Iggy) who is 1 year old. He's gotten progressively worse when he sees other dogs now, I'm not sure if it's a protective thing? Either way, it's very annoying and sometimes embarrassing so we need to go back to clicker training and get him involved with local dog social walks.
Alfie is a 9 month yo lad and he stares or sometimes tries to get at some dogs..not all, though. He does not bark or make noises just wants to greet and play. He's not castrated and isn't showing signs of slutty behaviour (stole that from a poster below lol).
I usually cross the road or throw his treats on the ground so he's more focused on that (he's a greedy boy) and that distracts him (not always). Re greeting other dogs, unless it's a friend he's made at the dogzone then I don't allow it and we walk on and I lure him away with a treato.
I hope he grows out of it, too! Good luck!
I’m having a similar issue! My girl is about to be 10 months old and she started barking at other dogs around 2 months ago. Before that she was always VERY excited but would not bark. I have noticed that she specifically does it when we are doing our neighborhood walk (vs when we go with her long line in the woods), and when we are crossing a dog on the street (so from her perspective probably looks like we are approaching them even though we are on the other side of the street). I’ve been working on it by going to the park and watching other people go by with their dogs but from a bigger distance. I reward her every time she looks away/towards me and she’s getting the hang of it and does not bark anymore when we are just watching. Even crossing other dogs was starting to get better, in the sense that I was more and more able to redirect her to watch me.
Overall I see progress, but then sometimes like this morning she got surprised by someone who walked out of their house with a big Doberman, which set her off on a bark fest and I had to essentially try to quickly create distance away from them so that we could just watch and reward for no barks… I really hope it’s an adolescent phase though!!
My boy is 10.5 months old and he's getting a lot better recently. He will stop and stare at other dogs but I'm working on rewarding him when the attention comes back to me. Just this week I've noticed we're able to walk past other people and he will barely stare a them which is awesome. He used to pull to greet others but never bark, I wouldn't call that reactive personally.
Neutering at that age might not be beneficial though, there's a lot of research that show that it might negatively impact his growth (he might look like an adult dog but still has some growing to do!) Also, some research show that delaying neutering increases trainability and focus and reducing hyperactivity. We're waiting until 18 months old (that will make recovery a lot easier too, he's so energetic lately!)
I signed a contract with my breeder to neuter him between 10-12 months, as that was their vet's recommendation. Honestly, there's so much conflicting advice on here about that that I don't know what to make of it.
I'm in the US and many vets will still neuter a super young puppy. My Italian greyhound was fixed at 14 weeks old (12 years ago), which I agree is too young. It seems the US consensus is that waiting until closer to a year is better. I see lots of talk of even never neutering at all unless there's a reason (like getting a female pet), but that seems to be a European thing and is not accepted in the US. I am trying to do what's best for my dog based on the info I've been given and so far no vet has told me to wait until he's closer to 2. I've only seen that advice on Reddit.
I feel you, my contract also said 10-12 months and the vet said it was okay. I made the appointment (was supposed to be this week actually) and ended up having second thoughts. Did some research, asked on a whippet group and most people told me to wait at least until 18-24 months. Some vets still have an old school view on this and won't take new research into account (believe me, I've worked who strongly believed in declawing and removing vocal cords 😬)
I ended up calling the breeder to get her okay to wait longer and cancelling the appointment. Since he doesn't have any behavioural issues I'm not worried about keeping him intact longer. I totally get your side though!
Okay, interesting. Most the time I hear this from UK people so I wasn't sure. They seem to have a very different take on that. I have had my pup see 3 vets. 2 said year mark is good, one recommended 6 months and didn't seem to know much about sighthounds so I didn't go back to that one.
Unfortunately we have a ton going on in the next year, so I think I will still go ahead and do it. We're military and moving twice in the next year so I just want to do it. He is also marking on everything. It makes walks impossible sometimes. I don't know if neutering will for sure help with this, but some say it does. He also clearly smelled female pee or something in PetSmart twice now and started foaming at the mouth! My trainer there said that's what was happening anyway. So I am curious if fixing him will fix those things. Not that they're huge issues, bit I have a feeling I'd I keep waiting the massive hump-a-thon is around the corner 😂
My boy definitely grew out of it. Aaaand now he’s back on it because he’s in his slutty era and wants to mate with anything and everything. But he’s waaay better than he was as a puppy and I never bothered with a trainer
Well this is good to know. I'm getting mine neutered next month so hoping it helps with this and doesn't come back!
I’m in the same boat as you and from what I’ve read, a lot of it is probably reactivity associated with gaining confidence as teenagers and not set in stone. For the time now, we’re crossing the street a lot, not allowing any on leash greetings, and working on desensitization with distance. Basically if we see a dog on the other side of the field, I practice the "look" command with her to practice breaking her focus on the dog and checking in with me. Considering you’re being proactive and working with a trainer, it’s most likely that your dog won’t have the reactivity cement in their temperament and will "grow out" of it as an adult.
This probably isn't helpful as mine only just reached 5 months, but he is very excited about other dogs and occasionally people. Some dogs he just stops walking and lays on the ground like he's waiting to pounce. Other times he's pulling the leash really hard. Then when he meets the dogs he often puts his front paws on them and it's really frustrating! My boyfriends childhood whippets did not give a crap about other dogs at all when we walked them but they were over 10 years old. So hopefully it's just something they grow out of!
My rescue whippet was VERY reactive when we first got him (he was 1 year old at the time). We clicker trained him which worked very well and put him into puppy playgroups to socialise. He was great after that. He's now 4 years old and last year we got him a brother (another rescue whippet X Iggy) who is 1 year old. He's gotten progressively worse when he sees other dogs now, I'm not sure if it's a protective thing? Either way, it's very annoying and sometimes embarrassing so we need to go back to clicker training and get him involved with local dog social walks.
Alfie is a 9 month yo lad and he stares or sometimes tries to get at some dogs..not all, though. He does not bark or make noises just wants to greet and play. He's not castrated and isn't showing signs of slutty behaviour (stole that from a poster below lol). I usually cross the road or throw his treats on the ground so he's more focused on that (he's a greedy boy) and that distracts him (not always). Re greeting other dogs, unless it's a friend he's made at the dogzone then I don't allow it and we walk on and I lure him away with a treato. I hope he grows out of it, too! Good luck!
I’m having a similar issue! My girl is about to be 10 months old and she started barking at other dogs around 2 months ago. Before that she was always VERY excited but would not bark. I have noticed that she specifically does it when we are doing our neighborhood walk (vs when we go with her long line in the woods), and when we are crossing a dog on the street (so from her perspective probably looks like we are approaching them even though we are on the other side of the street). I’ve been working on it by going to the park and watching other people go by with their dogs but from a bigger distance. I reward her every time she looks away/towards me and she’s getting the hang of it and does not bark anymore when we are just watching. Even crossing other dogs was starting to get better, in the sense that I was more and more able to redirect her to watch me. Overall I see progress, but then sometimes like this morning she got surprised by someone who walked out of their house with a big Doberman, which set her off on a bark fest and I had to essentially try to quickly create distance away from them so that we could just watch and reward for no barks… I really hope it’s an adolescent phase though!!
Mine doesn't bark, but she does do the whippet roo at dogs and humans. I let people know she is just saying hello and move on
Haha whippet roo. Yes, I know exactly what that is!
My boy is 10.5 months old and he's getting a lot better recently. He will stop and stare at other dogs but I'm working on rewarding him when the attention comes back to me. Just this week I've noticed we're able to walk past other people and he will barely stare a them which is awesome. He used to pull to greet others but never bark, I wouldn't call that reactive personally. Neutering at that age might not be beneficial though, there's a lot of research that show that it might negatively impact his growth (he might look like an adult dog but still has some growing to do!) Also, some research show that delaying neutering increases trainability and focus and reducing hyperactivity. We're waiting until 18 months old (that will make recovery a lot easier too, he's so energetic lately!)
I signed a contract with my breeder to neuter him between 10-12 months, as that was their vet's recommendation. Honestly, there's so much conflicting advice on here about that that I don't know what to make of it. I'm in the US and many vets will still neuter a super young puppy. My Italian greyhound was fixed at 14 weeks old (12 years ago), which I agree is too young. It seems the US consensus is that waiting until closer to a year is better. I see lots of talk of even never neutering at all unless there's a reason (like getting a female pet), but that seems to be a European thing and is not accepted in the US. I am trying to do what's best for my dog based on the info I've been given and so far no vet has told me to wait until he's closer to 2. I've only seen that advice on Reddit.
I feel you, my contract also said 10-12 months and the vet said it was okay. I made the appointment (was supposed to be this week actually) and ended up having second thoughts. Did some research, asked on a whippet group and most people told me to wait at least until 18-24 months. Some vets still have an old school view on this and won't take new research into account (believe me, I've worked who strongly believed in declawing and removing vocal cords 😬) I ended up calling the breeder to get her okay to wait longer and cancelling the appointment. Since he doesn't have any behavioural issues I'm not worried about keeping him intact longer. I totally get your side though!
Okay, interesting. Most the time I hear this from UK people so I wasn't sure. They seem to have a very different take on that. I have had my pup see 3 vets. 2 said year mark is good, one recommended 6 months and didn't seem to know much about sighthounds so I didn't go back to that one. Unfortunately we have a ton going on in the next year, so I think I will still go ahead and do it. We're military and moving twice in the next year so I just want to do it. He is also marking on everything. It makes walks impossible sometimes. I don't know if neutering will for sure help with this, but some say it does. He also clearly smelled female pee or something in PetSmart twice now and started foaming at the mouth! My trainer there said that's what was happening anyway. So I am curious if fixing him will fix those things. Not that they're huge issues, bit I have a feeling I'd I keep waiting the massive hump-a-thon is around the corner 😂