I could use some advice on timber. I posted in the new forum so you can go there for a brief message about us.

Timber was a sled racing dog. So he is very comfortable with dogs walking beside and behind him. What I am having trouble doing is getting him to be calm not so excitable when dogs walk towards him. He is great with people but pulls terribly with dogs walking towards him. Here it is spring and we need to get him more comfortable with it. He does not pull at all except for dogs coming at him.

Do any of you have suggestions? I have tried the block. I have done the sit and wait. I do not go further or let him check out the dogs until he calms down, but usually the dogs are further down the trail.

I am assuming he is accustomed to dogs behind and beside him due to the sled pulling. He doesn't bark, he doesn't raise a hair. Just tries to pull us towards them. The rest of the walks are very peaceful and awesome.

We have only had Timber for a month so there are going to be new things coming up all the time. This one I would love to fix as we do a lot of hiking this time of year and throughout the summer.

Thanks for the time and the suggestions.

So he's accustomed to having dogs near him, and he may be accustomed to actually living with, and playing with other dogs as well, yes?

Naturally, the solution will depend a lot upon the answer to that one question. However, assuming the answer is affirmative, it is said that "the one thing a dog wants most in life is the company of other dogs." So, based on this, I am guessing he very badly wants to meet and greet these other dogs. If I were in your position, I would holler out to the other party and ask if it would be possible/safe/feasible to let the dogs meet. You'll find that your sled boy will settle down and become calm, ready to proceed on your merry way, once he gets the obligatory "how-do-you-dos" and butt-sniff out of the way.

Also, it may be extremely helpful to get in touch with some other doggy people and schedule some playdates.

Otherwise, when you see another dog, and if they are ahead of you on the trail, turn your dog abruptly around (about-face) and start marching rapidly in the opposite direction. A neat thing about dogs: Out of sight, out of mind. They have about a 10 second memory for short-term stuff like a rabbit or squirrel, so if you can turn him around and shift his attention on to something/somewhere else, he will forget about the other dog.

Yes, he came from a sled team of 8. he have a chihuahua in the house that he gets along great with.

I was thinking of doing that same thing about turning the opposite direction and walk with the dogs in same direction but didn't know if that would enforce the pulling and / or the "bad behavior"

Now letting him approach the dogs when he gets excited like that , would that teach him to do this every time with him pulling and being kind of "naughty" even though I do understand that dogs like to sniff and play. I don't want to encourage impoliteness ( I guess that is what you would call it)

As far as the other dogs, it was in an on / off leash park. so most if not all let their dogs loose. which gives the owners no responsibility on cleaning up after them. I can not as he is a runner and never been trained except to run and pull sleds as a team. Vet said he will always have that in him and to always keep him on a leash when out in public. Which I prefer anyways.

I was thinking of asking my son to bring his beagle over and get him use to walking towards that dog while in a familiar turf and then going to the park and re enforcing it down there a few times or as much as needed.

He is just learning that when he sits it is sit. He was never taught to sit or wait. which by the way his waiting and staying are almost perfect now. he does not charge to get out the door.

we walk about 5 to 6 miles a day. half of that in the morning and the other half at night. plus training throughout the day on the sit. he is getting it. still doesn't hold focus on me unless we are walking outside. and then he gives me the " am I doing it right" look. I simply say good and we keep on going.

thank you for the response.