Dear Sue, I adopted a very nice little dog who is gradually becoming the king of everything I own.  I am having one problem, however.  When I take Pudd for a walk around the neighborhood, he has a fit when he sees another dog walking on lead.  I tell him to hush, and I try to calm him, but he acts like its an invasion.  It's very embarrassing.  Is there anything I can do to make meeting strange dogs on lead a pleasant experience for my boy?  Or, at least make it a quiet event?
Embarrassed in the neighborhood.
 

Dear Embarrassed,

There are two key points in the letter you sent me that when put together magnify the main problem you're having.

Point 1:  "becoming the king of everything I own."  This tells me that Pudd needs some obedience training, he's basically pushing you out and making himself the top dog so to speak.  It would be best if you could enroll him in class with other dogs; but if you can't, you should really start to work on commands such as sit/down/and stay.  You need to instill in him that "YOU are the boss."

Point 2:  "try to calm him."  Think about how you do this.  A lot of people (in an effort to quiet the dog as well as save face in front of the neighbors) will tell the dog "hush," stoop down, and pat the dog.  If you're doing this, it's only rewarding the behavior.  So stop.  Until you get Pudd under control with obedience training, you're best bet when you encounter a situation is to FIRMLY say "quiet!" then walk quickly AWAY from the distraction and back to the house (no more walk today).  This will tell the dog, "I will NOT tolerate this behavior from you, and we will go home," and you will have said nothing except for the word "quiet."

Once you get underway with obedience training you should start to put Pudd in a sit/stay, at a distance (from other dogs) and work on this slowly until he can quietly maintain a stay until the dog has walked by.  Each time he breaks the command, it's directly back to the house, end of walk.

I hope this helps!

Sue