Question
Sherlock is a lovingly 5-yr old beagle mix, which came with us from Brazil to US a couple months ago.
We take him out at least 3x a day, for 10-15 min walkings mainly for peeing/pooping/stretching.
We know he is not very social dog with others in the beginning (it takes some time for him to make new friends), but he is actually barking at (and sometimes attempting to jump into) other dogs and even short people.
He has lived with 5 other dogs back in Brazil, and he used to get along really well with them.
Today we took him to the dog park for the first time, and at first he was shy/scared, then he only wanted to lay down close to us.
He let other dogs to sniff him, but he wasn't interested on playing with them. Some dogs came to provoke him (as a invite to play) and at first he ignored, when the dog insisted he growled and then barked.
After the same thing happened with a second dog we decided we should no longer insist and we went out.
My question is: should I just accept that is how he is and not take him to dog parks anymore (and live with him overreacting to other dogs/people) or is there something I can try to remedy this behavior?
Answer
Secluding your dog will only make matters worse. You need to take it out more to socialize it. Also, consider verbal and leash feedback when he barks while walking. The key to this (according to Cesar Milan, at least) is to break your dog's concentration before he winds himself up. Scooting his butt with your foot, tugging on the leash if it's a design where that won't choke him, and making a distracting noise can do that.
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