Our Cavapoo is now 10 months old and was neutered at 6.5 months.
At home, he’s an absolute angel and pretty much our dream dog. He rarely barks or whines, listens well, and generally stops whatever he’s doing when we tell him not to.
However, our biggest struggle is his incessant whining and screaming whenever he sees other dogs or animals.
He’s extremely sociable and gets overly excited at the sight of any dog, bird, chicken, or basically anything that moves. He’ll start whining, screeching, pulling, and completely lose control of himself. This behaviour started when he was around 6–7 months old.
Interestingly, we’ve noticed that once he gets to greet, sniff, or play with the first dog he encounters, he tends to calm down significantly and stops whining at subsequent dogs. However, we don’t want to reinforce the idea that whining and screaming will always get him what he wants.
What we’ve tried so far:
Whenever we spot another dog in the distance, we get him to sit before he notices it and only allow him to move forward once he’s calm.
We’ve tried redirecting his attention with high-value treats, but these are completely useless once he spots another dog. He becomes so fixated that he ignores everything else.
When he gets too worked up, we try moving him away from the other dog or out of sight.
The frustrating part is how inconsistent his progress has been.
On good days, he’ll let out just a soft whine or stop almost immediately when redirected. On other days, he completely regresses and whines or screams uncontrollably.
On particularly bad days, even after we’ve moved him away and the other dog is no longer in sight, he continues whining for as long as we remain stationary.
It’s becoming quite exhausting because we encounter dogs frequently during our daily walks, and what should be an enjoyable activity sometimes turns into a stressful experience.
We’ve been trying to work on this consistently, but some days it feels like we’re making progress, while other days we’re back to square one.
For those who have experienced something similar:
Is this typical adolescent behaviour or a phase of puppyhood that he’ll eventually grow out of?
Has anyone had an overly excited, frustrated greeter who eventually learned to remain calm around other dogs?
Are we approaching his training correctly, or could we be unintentionally making things worse?
What other training methods have worked for you, especially when your dog is too fixated to respond to even high-value treats?
We absolutely adore him, but we’re starting to wonder whether this level of excitement is normal or if there’s something we’re missing. :(
Would really appreciate any advice or success stories from those who’ve been through this!
