Incident with my mini
I was walking by a dog that had met mine before and it was fine, (small maltipoo/cavapoo type breed) and my Aussie got excited and jumped a little so I pulled him to the side till he stopped jumping, and then I let him walk towards the dog to say hi, as my dog turned around the other small dog lunged on his back and bit his ear. The previous time before the dog was nice and just tried to hump a little.
And the lady with the small dog tried to say that it was my fault because my dog got excited. That "I don't have my dog under control." I only let the leash loose because they were greeting like they had before. And that was after I had stopped the jumping.
Mind you, this person was laughing when she heard my dog yelp from being bitten. And I had to tell her "it wasn't funny."
My boy is 9months and he's super assertive and playful so basically all the small dogs in the neighborhood bark at him. And I have a hard time finding other dogs to socialize because he's been barked and lunged at probably by 80% of all dogs he's ever met. He has had positive meetings with dogs who seemed to be older/better trained tho. It's just hard finding those dogs.
For training, I use tight leads near people, and loose lead for sniffing walks in the park. Heel will work in not so busy areas. He's super excited so I'm always luring him into a sit/down or crossing streets, going into alleyways to get away from people trying to pet/get him excited or their small dogs barking at him.
He does not bark back at dogs unless it's pitch dark out and he sees some kinda animal in the bushes.
***Any suggestions on some more training I should be doing in public. Should I just avoid every single dog I see on the street? (busy downtown core area).
I feel like, yes, he's excitable, but he does listen if I give him enough time to calm down and direct him away from exciting things on walks into sits.
He does jump and nip at me sometimes when excited, I stop everything and wait till he sits before moving on and he's never actually bit me or clamped down hard. It's all been mouthing or nips at clothing and shoes.
Is this all normal behavior? And anyone got any in public training tips. (He gets hours of walk/jogging, 5 bathroom breaks, frozen kongs, fetch, tug and lots of enrichment and love).
Thanks.