Yeti loves people!

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Yeti loves people. He sits at our fence and cries in excitement when the neighbors comes out. He wants to meet everyone and anyone. On our walks he gets so excited when we come across people he can hardly walk. Unfortunately, he has a very different response when he sees or hears other dogs. We saw a couple of dogs and he just kept walking by like the thing didn't even exist. We walked by a very vocal weinner dog and he stopped dead in his tracks and then ran in between my legs with his cute little tail tucked in between his legs.

Has anyone had a similar experience to this? He has meet his fair share of dogs but we haven't been enrolled in any classes as he just got vaccinated. He has similar responses to dogs that we hear in our own yard outside. Yesterday when we went to my parents house we saw our neighbor who had his golden retriever out with him and yeti sniffed Dora but really just wanted our neighbors attention. Is this normal? Possibly something he will grow out of?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I can tell you that at least half the people reading this are going to be green with envy that Yeti sees other dogs on walks and just keeps walking by like they "didn't even exist". Count your blessings and pray that he doesn't grow out of that!!!! There are lots of us here who have been struggling for years with dogs who are leash reactive to other dogs, and we would give anything in the world to have dogs who would just walk calmly by. Trust me, the worst encounters that ever happen between two dogs are those that take place on leash. Now you just need for him to be calmer and less excitable when he sees humans, lol. 

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

You don't mention how old Yeti is, but it is very important that every puppy be socialized with other puppies/dogs during that crucial period before 16 weeks old. This subject has come up a lot here on Doodle Kisses. The work around for puppies that haven't yet had all their shots is to find a doggie daycare that offers a weekly 'puppy romp' social for puppies that are of a similar age and have at least 2 sets of their shots (usually at least 10 weeks old). Both mine attended, and honestly, Lucy had little interest in other dogs until she was 13 or 14 weeks old. Oscar, OTOH, loved playing with other puppies from the start.

As far as Yeti ignoring dogs on the street, well, all I can say is I wish Oscar was the same! He loudly cries the most pitiful sounding whine when he sees another dog and will almost pull you off your feet when they get close enough to approach. Treat training has helped, but so far its not 100% effective.

[Lori, Winnie, Bob and Indie]

He sounds just like Winnie was at that age! She was (and still is) always waaaay more interested in meeting people than other dogs. Don't get me wrong- she likes other dogs, too. But, given a chance to meet either a new person or a new dog, she would take the person- hands down. When she really young, she was either indifferent or a little shy with other dogs. Around 1.5 years she suddenly decided that she needed to "protect" met from other dogs when she is on a leash. Hence the Leash Reactivity that Karen mentioned. But, with time and practice she has learned to "leave it" when passing by other dogs. She still is a maniac in wanting to meet, and jump on, any human that she sees.... that's her biggest flaw... :-)

[Kaitlin and Ludo]

I agree, ignoring is a BLESSING.  However, you mentioned the Weiner dog and it seemed to scare Yeti?  Has he ever shown fear from other dogs?  If that is the case, Ludo dealt with that when he was about 4 months old-- basically any dog his size or bigger was scary to him and he wasn't a big fan, really, of any other dog.  I worked with a private trainer (Ludo refused to go walking for a while because he was scared) and I also enrolled him in doggy daycare (the trainer was able to recommend the best one in our area) and it has transformed Ludo.  He will occasionally pull to try and see other dogs or people but for the most part, he's great. Definitely practice leash walking like crazy!  It can make a huge difference!

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Believe me, I am so thankful for his attitude towards dogs on our walks right now!! I just want to make sure I'm not doing anything wrong! I want to make sure he likes and isn't afraid of other dogs. My boyfriends parents dog (a Shih-poo) has the same kind of attitude. Doesn't really care about other animals, dogs included on walks but is VERY aggressive when it comes to meeting new dogs. He has nipped and even bitten yeti on multiple occasions, and I don't want yeti to act like that!!!

Yeti just turned 4 months last week and this is the first week we've been walking him. :)

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

The houses surrounding ours all have dogs much bigger then yeti. When they are out at the same time they are usually barking. Yeti definitely stops in his tracks and just freezes. I guess I don't know for sure if this is "scared" behavior. Possibly more "intruiged" behavior. We did not take him places before he was vaccinated however he did meet a couple of our friends dogs and did okay. When we encountered the weinner dog a couple days ago he did the same thing he does in our yard. He stopped and stared. I had to basically pull him away to get him going again haha. He never tries to go up to a dog but will always try to go up to people lol.

[Kaitlin and Ludo]

I think the stopping and staring could potentially be showing some sort of fear.  This was Ludo on our walks (right before he started refusing to go at all).  I took a picture to show the trainer.  He would just freeze and not want to keep moving. She said that he was definitely showing signs of fear and that it could grow into a much bigger problem if it's not corrected (not saying that to scare you or saying that's what is happening with Yeti... just my personal experience).

I think, since he didn't go out prior to being vaccinated, I'd get him into some group training classes and I would take him everywhere I could-- stores like Lowes allow dogs and that's a great place for them to practice being around people and to practice more nice leash walking.  I remember some people here said they would go and sit near a school or go to soccer fields and walk around (at a distance so he's not overwhelmed at first) and just start introducing him to as many new situations and environments as possible.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

You are quite lucky! Our newest guy, Charlie, gets extremely excited when he sees another dog on-leash. He wants to meet them, but when we try to pass by, he simply goes nuts and it turns into barking and growls.  This is not a fun situation as we scare everyone away.