I have "that dog". :(

Louis is a 7 month old Bouvier. I spend a lot of time training him each day, and just reinforcing behaviors that I want to see around the house. He learns quickly, and is extremely bonded to me.

Given that Bouvs can have a propensity to dog aggression, I have taken care to socialize him around dogs. He's gone to puppy class. We continually go to other training classes (he can't play with dogs there, but he does have to focus on me with other dogs in the room). He has gone to daycare for 4 hours each week for months. HE LOVES DOGS. He doesn't have any aggression at at, and is a big goofy pup.

So. I've taken him to the dog park a few times, and he loves it. Too much. He is that dog that comes running up to you and your dog, ignoring his owners calls (me). He used to eventually come back to me after I called, but the last two times he has completely blown me off. So, no more dog park for him until his recall is more reliable in highly exciting circumstances.

My question is, how do I teach him to be polite around other dogs? Not all these dogs want to play with him. None have told him off so far, though I wish one would. At 7 months Louis is already huge, and bigger than most dogs we meet. I want to eventually be able to let him play with dogs again, but he needs to learn some manners!

Suggestions? I do realize that he is a very young puppy and will settle as he ages, but given his huge size I feel that he needs to learn some manners pronto. And no, I don't know anyone with a large calm adult who could "teach" him - AKA put him in his place if necessary.

I remedy this and I do NOT let my dogs or puppies off leash in an uncontrolled or unfenced area until they can prove to me that they are ready for it, if they ever dont listen to me, on the leash goes and privileges are lost.

I have a 4 month old puppy now, and if he ignores me, I ignore him right back, the other dogs know how awesome I am, and soon, he will come bounding up to me, wondering what he has missed, then I take that opportunity to reward him.

I am no expert but I hope this helps, in short it sounds like your boy is just an eager, friendly, social teenager

Agh, this is almost EXACTLY where I was 5 months ago, except I have a smaller dog. We have worked tirelessly for 5 months and now I have a dog that can go to do dog park, have a blast, and still be safe and not annoying to other dogs/handlers. Here's a little of what worked for us:

- I put him on a long line at the dog park at all times. I don't know how big yours is but ours like 80 acres. He was never allowed to approach a dog without my permission. He, like your guy, listened off-leash eventually at first but escalated to blowing me off because he was being allowed to self reward by running up and engaging other dogs.

- I worked through the book "control unleashed" (it's really affordable and you can get an online version so you don't have even have to wait for it to ship). It's primarily written for agility dogs, but so much of it is applicable for dogs that need to learn to focus around other dogs off-leash. A lot of the exercises are things like It's yer choice, doggie zen, and Look at That!- stuff you'll use often and it explains them well.

- Carry HIGH value treats. For my guy this means canned food and a spoon. It's annoying, but he listens much better for these than anything else.

- As far as appropriate play, I would step in when Hugo wasn't picking up on more subtle signals that a dog didn't want to play. He would always leave a dog alone that growled or air snapped at him, but didn't always "get it" when a dog was giving avoidance behavior. In those situations I interrupted his play and redirected him, hoping he would start to think through his interactions instead of leaping around like he was on drugs. He's so good now that he picks up on body language that I don't and leaves/ignores dogs that don't want to play- but I'm sure some of that can be attributed to age (he's almost a year now).

Good luck, I know it's frustrating but for Hugo it was totally worth all the work. At daycare they say he's a great pack dog and he's a total gentleman (although still super goofy) at the dog park. Keep us updated! : )

If you lived near me my male zoi would deliver a really scary come to Jesus moment. He's giant and excellent at instilling good manners in puppies, yet would never dream of hurting one. It usually only takes one time. lol.

Really though, dog manners is something they can only learn from other dogs. All you can do is manage them so they're not put in situations where they're going to hurt another dog or start a fight in the meantime.

Thanks guys. I was thinking maybe a long line at the park .... just concerned it would get caught up on bramble or something. But I will definitely give this a try. And yes, he's a super sociable teenager. Perfect description.

I think I need higher value treats also - I mean, I do carry roast beef etc some times, but he'd do back flips for canned food. However, given that I live on the Canadian Prairie and it's winter (which means it's been -40C with windchill for the past 2 weeks) I don't think a can and spoon is going to happen any time soon. LOL!

There was a large calm GSD at the park this morning that Louis kept bouncing around. The GSD did not want to play, and kept avoiding him (I was on my way over to grab Louis). I was wishing he would just snarl at him. LOL!

I am going to look into that book right now. Thank you!!

OMG!!!! Control Unleashed is $74 on Amazon.ca!!! GAH!

I'm off to Amazon.com to see if it will ship to Canada, or at least offer me an e version.

WHOA. I bet I have a link to where I bought it- let me look real quick. I'll find a way to send you my e-book before you pay that much, lol.

Found it! Here's the e-book, $22, lol.

http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=3151

She has a lot of little stories mixed in with the exercises, so I end up kind of rolling my eyes at the cheesy-ness, but the actual exercises really did work for us.

I just ordered it on Cleanrun. Thanks!

Hahahahah Juno was 100% "that dog" when she was younger. It came to recall work for us because I didn't think I was going to change her obnoxious behavior.

One thing is that at the dog park, rewarding her with play was way more effective than using food. She wanted to play and my piece of steak wasn't going to change that. Rough housing with her and using her leash to play tug was soooo much more exciting to her. But that's totally dependent on what your dog likes of course.

But age and maturity goes a long way, unfortunately it wasn't until she was 18-24mos that she stopped being such a pest to other dogs. She completely ignores them now though!

You know, I haven't even considered that a toy and play might be more rewarding, but I am definitely going to take his favorite tug the next time we go. I took roast beef this morning, and he couldn't have cared less about it. He wanted to play play play!! I had him dragging a long line though, so I made him check in from time to time.

Watson is still "that dog". It's a work in progress. Maturity has helped us more than anything.

Update: I tried taking a tug to the park as a reinforcer, but he had no interest in the presence of other dogs.

However, what has worked extremely well is having him drag a 20 ft line. Thankfully it never gets tangled on anything or anyone, and I can just grab it when I need to make sure he listens to me.

I have "that" dogs in the fact that I have a puppy ... who doesnt like other people ... what? Puppies are supposed to like everyone! He warms up eventually, but he doesnt like when people hover over him or approach him with their hand outstretched, but he liked this one lady, who also had an aussie, and the instructor at my agility class, so maybe he is a picky doggy??? LOL

Hugo is the same way in that he want/wanted nothing to do with toys when other dogs are around. We worked hard on recall with dog distractions from a distance (sounds like you're doing that) and building focus with distractions. Now he'll play with me every once and awhile when dogs are around and we're working hard to build drive and focus so that he wants to play with me no matter what. That controlled unleashed book is helping us : )

ETA: Glad the long line is helping : )

What about a toy with a squeaker?

I don't do it anymore, but I used to always have a squeaker toy with me as an emergency recall. It helped when Leo was super focused in on wanting to visit with another dog. The high pitched squeak was a lot more effective in getting him to snap out of it than just my voice. Leo never wanted to tug around other dogs either, and actually once he came running to me, he rarely got super into the squeaker toy...but he did recall for it because it was a fun sound meaning Play!