We need help !!
We love our 2 Italian Greyhounds - both are rescues. The youngest is about 1 year old and loves to be outside and loves going to the dog park. He interacts well and is well socialized. He's fine until we put him on a leash.. When we try to take him on a walk in a public place he starts screaming and barking when he sees another dog. He is so excited and wants to go see that dog but he sounds like he's being murdered or beaten. We get so many weird looks that it's uncomfortable to take him out.
We are wondering what we can do to make him stop screaming!
What can we do? HELP

You need to teach him with high valued rewards that eye contact is the most rewarding behavior of all. That means starting in your home and building up the distractions as he gets better at it. Once you've taught him inside, outside and around other distractions you should add dogs at a distance, reducing the distance as you continue training. If you've taught him well, he'll maintain eye contact with you instead of the other dog. If he goes over threshold, you need to take a few steps back and add distance and additional trials. Then you can begin exchanging the eye contact for play with other dogs.

i would try putting him on the lead and walking around the house with him, so he doesn't just associate it with being outside,
I would also suggest that when he does start making a fuss on the lead you put your hand over his eyes till he calms down then take them off, he carrys on do it again, it make take some time but he will sonn get the idea, or other idea would be to carry a bottle of water and everytime he start squirt a sharp jet in his face to shock, keep doing it till he calms down,
Don't worry about what other people think not everybody understands.
you could also try distracting him by playing and giving him loads of fuss and moving in front of him so he can't see the other dogs until the dog is out of site. i hope this helps there is a few option for you to try.

[mightymite]

There is a great book out - it's written for agility handlers but its all about how to deal with dogs who are distracted beyond reason and how to get them to get themselves in control. It's available through dogwise. It's called "control unleashed" - I think it will help you. Here's the link:



Welcome to Dogwise.com

What I've always found to work is this. As soon as the concert starts, tell him to be quiet, and stick something edible in his mouth. Preferable something that's difficult to spit out, and that he likes really well. I use peanut butter or Cheese Whiz. Yes, it's messy, and it means carrying a jar around, but he has to shut up to eat it.

After a few times of immediately putting something tasty in his mouth, tell him to be quiet and wait. He'll probably look at you, expecting a treat. If he does, give him the treat and praise him. If he doesn't, just put the treat in his mouth a few more times, then try pausing between the command "Quiet" and the treat. Once he gets it, and stops fussing and looks for the treat, lengthen the amount of time, and start just praising instead of giving the treat every single time. Offer treats occasionally, but not every time, but do praise him when he controls himself.

Thank you for all of the great ideas! We are going to try them all to see if we can get the little hooligan under control. He does train very well with food, especially peanut butter, so that was a great suggestion. We'll let you know how it goes and if the screaming stops.
Thank you!!!