At the RSPCA, where I help as a volunteer dog trainer with the dogs that need support before they are adoptable, we frequently come across dogs that are unhappy about having their rear end touched. While this can have any number of reasons, I couldn't help but wonder what impact training methods had on this problem, after I witnessed a training session at a well frequented dog school recently. Advertised as offering "gentle, fast and effective" training methods, and showing dogs in head halters on their web page, I was ill prepared for what I ended up seeing. The training ground was fenced and packed with at least three different classes in close proximity to each other, one of them a puppy class. Many of the dogs were quite aroused in this situation. With mounting dismay, I watched as dogs were "corrected" by jerks on the headhalters as if they were choke chains. One of them, a small boxer pup, was dragged over a small obstacle which promptly fell over after him and scared the living daylights out of him. No food rewards were in sight, only praise by voice was allowed. 

Recently while driving home from shopping, I saw what appeared to be a dog on the loose. As usual in these instances (and with dog treats always at the ready), I parked the car to see whether I could either find the owner or bring the dog to the RSPCA. The dog in question was a medium sized poodle mix. As I approached on the footpath, it made an impressive display of trying to scare me off: barking and growling non-stop. I stopped and turned sideways to see whether it would calm down. When I took another step it backed off, still growling and barking. It seemed to head into a driveway. While I was considering whether to ring the door bell of that house, asking the owner to control their dog, an old lady across the road yelled out: "Are you scared of that dog?!" Obviously for her, hesitating in the face of a barking and growling poodle cross was somewhat laughable. I wonder what she would have said had the dog in question been a German Shepherd? While in this instance, the old lady probably simply knew this dog to be "harmless", I am forever baffled by the limited knowledge people generally have of dogs and their behaviour. 
This dog was clearly in a stressed state, and displaying territorial aggression. As Pat Miller said, any dog will bite if you push it hard enough, and when it will bite simply depends on the particular dog's bite threshold and how stressed it is at that time. In my experience, dogs on the loose (particularly those who got out accidentally, and hardly ever see the other side of the fence) tend to be in an extremely stressed state. When I see a loose dogs with my own dogs in tow, I try to get away as quickly as possible. I was bitten myself once by a stray GSP cross as I picked up my bichon puppy to protect it, and again by a Border Collie on the loose, when I went to the door to alert the owners that it had escaped.

If you add to that little socialisation by ignorant owners, a dog breed more likely to be aggressive, and a squealing child, and you get the disaster that happened in Melbourne recently, when a 4-year-old was killed by a roaming pit-bull cross. Most media reports seemed to imply that the dog simply waltzed into the living room and proceeded to viciously attack all people present. There was only one report I found that clarified that the child came running into the house with the dog in hot pursuit. It's easy to imagine what happened: the dog escaped what was probably constant confinement in the backyard, hyped up he spots a child, heads towards it, the child understandably starts squealing at the sight of the approaching dog. This revs the dog up even more, he now starts charging at the child, the child starts running, the dog's prey drive kicks in and complete disaster follows. 
They may be able to ban the breed, but as long as people with no idea of how to properly treat a dog keep having dogs, it's just a matter of time before the next incident, with a different breed. 
And whilst a poodle cross might not end up inflicting this kind of damage, they sure can bite. And even they get revved up when faced with a squealing child.
So if there's anything that can be done about reducing the incidents of dog bites, it is by education. Education of dog owners about humane training and treatment of their dog, and education of the general public about dogs' behaviour, and how to interact with them safely. I find that there is a near complete lack of understanding nowadays - paired with increasing intolerance of dogs' natural drives - of how to approach an unfamiliar dog, and how to discourage a dog from approaching. Councils and schools could provide at least some basic information.
Yes, I am "scared" of stray dogs - so I can help them if need be, while keeping myself, my dogs and my kids safe.

I probably only imagine this is what people think. But now that more and more people at the local (large) primary school know I help people train their dogs, I have become more conscious of what image I and my dogs project. Yes, my dogs do pull on the leash - when they are on their "management" halters. You will never see them pull when on their flat collars, but of course that's hard to explain to passers-by. 
It's tricky to walk two dogs - who are still in loose leash training to varying degrees - on a loose leash when on our way to an off leash run. So, I have one or the other on a management halter, and train the other one. On the way home, they walk in beautiful unison right next to me, with hardly a treat necessary by now - that's when people should look :-)
When teaching loose leash walking, using a management halter (either a body halter of some kind, or a head halter) is indispensable. Why? Because it's impossible to train a complicated behaviour such as walking on a loose leash in all circumstances properly for the extended time we usually take our dogs for walks. Most of us don't have our own acreage to exercise our dogs, and have to walk our dogs for that purpose. When you are first starting on loose leash training, you don't get very far before both you and your dog have had enough. If you always make a careful distinction of what rules apply when, your dog will pick it up in no time.
Giro for example nearly always pulls in his head halter, and completely ignores me. Even if I say his name, he reacts slowly, almost suprised to hear me talk to him. This is because from the beginning, the rules were that if his headhalter is on, there are no treats, he can pull and we just have to get there. Switch to the collar, and he's a different dog instantly: Attentive to his name, and instantly coming back to my side should he feel pressure on his collar. 
To be continued!

Beautiful grey and pink, they were busy looking for food at our local off leash park. Kiara was mesmerised. Then she flew into action. The flock of Galahs took off, gliding low, just out of reach. I have a habit of calling Kiara off any chasing shortly into it, and then let her get back to it sometimes, to keep her recall response strong, but this time I stood mesmerised. I had never been able to let Kiara race: the whippet fun races had moved from Healesville to Melton after she was old enough to race, and Melton is simply too far for us to go. Now she was in full flight, hard on the heels of the Galahs, shadowing their every turn. She was beautiful. I just couldn't get myself to stop her.  When finally I tried, the response was as I expected: for once, she didn't even acknowledge she had heard me. Of course now I have to retrain the recall when she next lays eyes on a Galah, but it was worth being able to watch her do what a whippet is meant to do. When a little later she started chasing a magpie, she turned on a dime as usual on my recall signal, and I made sure to reward her with a feast of slowly fed roast chicken. Now for those Galahs!

Not so long ago, before the atrocities of the live cattle export industry were brought to light, the RSPCA ran a campaign to raise awareness of the terrible conditions dogs have to endure on many puppy farms. Although the most important part of the RSPCA's campaign was a push for legislative change, so as to better be able to regulate the puppy farms and improve the living conditions of the dogs there, the aspect that was highlighted most by the media was that people should not buy a puppy from a pet shop, and rescue a dog from the RSPCA instead. On the face of it, that seems logical: reduced demand for pet shop dogs should result in fewer puppies "produced" on puppy farms.

After nearly two weeks, Kiara emerged out of her enforced hibernation due to her surgery after a dog bite today. The vet had give the all clear for her to resume all normal exercise. We left Giro behind, so the play would not get too rough and open up the newly healed wound, and headed to our local off leash park. Although I had expected her to be different due to the lack of exercise, I was still shocked. Kiara roamed far and fast, much further than she would have normally gone, without as much as looking around. I didn't even try to recall her. When she did come back, she ignored all food, even the fishy version, just as she had ignored most clicks on the way here. 
This is (or was) a dog who was always responsive, who would spin on a dime to return to me even while chasing a bird, or heading to play with a new dog.
So here was my first hand experience with a well trained, but under-exercised dog. Unless they can run off their excess energy, it is very nearly pointless to attempt any training outside of the house.
Because Kiara is already trained, it's relatively easy - a few days of full on running with Giro at our safe local off leash park should get her back to her normal self.
For many other dogs, a lack of exercise often starts early in life. Owners who aren't confident about their ability to get their puppy back, don't let them off leash. The recall is never trained, somehow the dogs is meant to know how to return to his owner when he gets older. When the dog does get off leash at some stage, it runs wild and of course doesn't return, no matter how many times the owner shouts at him to come. The vicious cycle continues, the dog gets let off even less, or never at all. The lack of exercise makes him near impossible to train, and may make him more aggressive, withdrawn or fearful, depending on the dog. 
So unless you own a chihuahua, which may get sufficient exercise from just walking with you (although even a Chihuahua enjoys his freedom), you need to find a way of giving your dog sufficient off leash exercise, before you can even begin to think of training him (and recalling him) anywhere but in the house. 
This seems to be a contradiction - you can't recall your dog, so you need to let him off leash, so you can train the recall. But you can break the vicious cycle. Here are some tips for how to exercise the dog that doesn't come back.

It never ceases to amaze me. At a new off leash park today, Giro picks up a ball a Golden Retriever didn't bother picking up. Wanting to return it to the owner, I ask Giro to drop the ball off with me, which he promptly does. I slip him a treat to make up for the fact I won't be throwing this ball again despite the perfect delivery. "Oh, your dog does that much better than mine!" observes the owner. I don't think she saw the treat I gave him. Then, as her Golden hopefully nuzzles my hand, she spies the treat. "Mine is absolutely terrible with food! Can't stop him!" "Aren't they all?" I reply, but clearly, in her mind her dog is a hopeless case of a food addict. He'll never learn to be a proper dog, who only cares about pleasing his owner, and brings the ball back properly without being trained to do so. And yet, this dog, and so many like him, would be a snap to train by positive reinforcement. In the process, he would learn to really adore his owner, because he will experience so many good things through them. So although the dog will initially work for the food (and will continue to do so), he will also start to enjoy the game of training. Later, being asked to do some tricks he knows and loves becomes a treat in its own right. Maybe if people had a better understanding of this aspect of using food in training, they might look upon it more favourably.

How can a recall be dangerous? I never thought so either, until Kiara, my whippet, got bitten today. She was mingling with a crowd of dogs that didn't have friendly body language (neither did their owner). But she is usually very astute in handling these situations, using all the right body language to defuse tension and then to get away at the right time, so I wasn't concerned. At some point I thought it better to call her off. She responded, as she does, instantly and at speed. That's when she got bitten in her flank by one of the dogs. My guess is that I interrupted her at a point where she was still appeasing the other aggressive dog, but because she responds to the recall so well, she would have moved before it was safe to do so. So I've sure learned a lesson - don't interfere when dogs are working out what's what! I'm not sure what this experience has done to her beautiful recall. I'll only know once her wounds are drained and stitched, some $1000 of vet fees later ...

Without breakfast, Kiara was very keen to train today. After one warm up try in the house, we took the newspaper outside for the first time. And Kiara brought it back beautifully, whether I threw it, or placed it in the garden with her inside. From a shredder to a retriever in around 8 training sessions of maybe 5 minutes each. Next step: Hide the paper.