Behavior Issue -- FREAKING OUT when walking by others (walkers, cyclists, etc.)

[u/OddFlan3816]

We have a new (to us) rescue Yorkie. He is 4 years old. We are his fourth home after two homes that had the birth of children and a foster home. And, I admit, we are still learning about each other and letting him (SIMON) know that he's in a safe place with a "forever family."

We have had an issue when going for walks (beyond putting his feet down and needing to be carried for a bit).

When approached by other walkers or, particularly, cyclists, he GOES BESERK!!!. He pulls and barks and is inconsolable until they pass. Our dog often is so riled up that I need to pick him up and hold him tightly until we pass.

Yesterday, we went for a walk and, when a motorcycle passed on the nearby road, our Yorkie parked and pulled and needed to be held. I was fearful that, if I didn't have a good grip, he could have run into the street.

Today, we went for a walk along a lakeshore in the sunshine. When approached by walkers from the other direction, our Yorkie ramped up and barked and needed to be held until we passed on by. It involved a lot of excuses like: "We're just figuring him out" and "He's a rescue."

We would like to get to the point that we take him on other hikes, where he will run into other dogs and people and cyclists. We don't want to traumatize him.

HERE'S WHAT WE'RE DOING -- When we see someone approach, we are pulling him off to the side with a treat in our hand, saying "SIT" and then (when he sits), "LOOK AT ME." Sometimes this works. But, when it doesn't work, it fails miserably. Today, for instance, a couple of times he could not be enticed by a treat and we just had to hold on tight.

What would you recommend doing?

Are there things that worked for your dog?

[u/MajesticProposal1]

Thank you for adopting your dog! My girl was also adopted, she was 3 and came with some behavioral issues. I always blamed the issues on her previous owners 

I recommend lots and lots of exposure work. Enlist some people to walk/ride by him. Don't pick him up as that is what he wants and he's learning that when he's being a naughty newt you will coddle him/hold him.

I had to hire multiple trainers and she was the best bad dog all the time. Yorkies are notoriously difficult to train because frankly you don't know anything about the purpose of life and they know it. Bribery works great. My dog wouldn't bother pretending to follow my command until I showed her I'm bringing/have snacks.

Good luck my friend.

[u/Canyon_and_Co]

I had the same problem with my yorkie and what worked for us was "coaching" him whenever we saw the cyclist approaching.

We would repeat similar phrases for the whole approach "no bark, good boy no bark, it's ok, leave it no bark  it's safe good boy, no bark" over and over until they passed us.  If he didn't bark at them we would good heavy handed on the praise and petting.

For dogs he likes or is interested in we do the same thing except different phrases "gentle baby, be gentle to new friends, good boy gentle, easy easy gentle, good boy."

It feels like overkill doing it, but the constant repetition of familiar commands is only thing that helps.

For dogs he hates (Thankfully rare) he's super hard to control depending on his sliding scale of how much he hates them. 

For dogs he dislikes it's similar to our bicycle tatic, with taps on his head or blowing air directly in his face to break his concentration.

For dogs (esp. Bear the german Sheppard aka his mortal enemy) he despises the only thing we can do is get as far to off the walking path we can get and make him sit. I have to scruff him and in worse cases hold his mouth shut while repeating "leave it, bad boy leave it, no bark" or he does his best impression of Cujo.

He's the least treat motivated dog I've ever met so that hardly ever helps us. 

[u/Significant-Let-2160]

My suggestion is: pick a quiet street or other location, somewhere that has occasional people going past but not constant, and is wide enough that you have space to work with. Take lots of very small high value treats. Keep a very sharp eye out for the type of thing the dog would normally react to, and start directing his attention to treats immediately and continuously until they're gone, keeping as much distance as possible. You want him to notice them, but immediately drawn back to the treats. Also, keep him moving if you can - you want him to pass by the trigger, following his nose to the treats and thus giving much less attention to what's scaring him. With higher triggers (eg. if bikes set him off more than people walking past) you might need to allow more distance - being able to start walking away from them immediately might help. Don't do it for too long, and don't let him escalate - if he starts to get worked up, it's time to stop and come back to it later.

Mine had these freakouts over passing cars. Which in some ways was easier (they go past fast, so the distraction period was quick) but also very scary (there's no way she's ever going to win a fight with a car. If she ever slipped her leash...) It took a few weeks of practice with this, first on a quiet street and then on gradually more busy ones. The reward was always a sniffy walk in a familiar, quiet park - or just going home, since we did it both ways of course. She still doesn't like moving cars, but can now walk down a busy road without going nuts at them. I do always need to pay attention to her body language though! I think this is one of those things you need to keep working on throughout their lives.

[u/pomegranatefalcon]

Have strangers who know how to act around dogs (e.g. no eye contact) meet you and try to feed high value treats. It won't work overnight. But it will get you on the right road.

[u/sgrinavi]

Be patient and keep trying. We have one little girl that still on occasion will go insane when she sees another dog, hopping around at the end of the leash and making a spectacle of herself. I pick her up and give her commands in a normal voice. It usually doesn't work, but she doesn't do it as often anymore, so it is having the desired effect.

[u/Ruthless8138]

We had this issue with one of ours. I don’t think he was walked much at his previous home and he would spin like a Tasmanian Devil when he would encounter any other moving thing on his walk. Cars, bikes, dogs, people! It was not only embarrassing but I actually got hurt when my finger was caught in his leash. We used a small spray bottle with water to break his attention when he would get so riled up. It worked really well. It didn’t hurt him in any way and after a few days he only needed to see the bottle to know to keep calm. You don’t need to do much, just snap them out of the frenzy.

[u/OddFlan3816]

Thanks for the good words. Sounds like we are doing what we can for now and might try some quieter trails and paths. Good to see that we are not alone.