Exercising Reactive Dogs Thread

[hankdog]

And a yay for Jake, had a good walk yesterday confidently walked towards 2 on leash dogs. I decided to go to st Ives pens this morning. The pens were full, agility class and some big dogs playing but I must have had my big girl pants on and decided we would train on the little field next to the pens. We start walking up and down, Jake seems to slot into training mode well and I realise there's a retriever tied to the railings. Jake is so focused on the agility dogs I don't think he noticed on our first pass so next time past I walk straight towards it. I see him notice and get the BI in quick. Turn back, still no reaction. "You want to have a go Jake?" "Nope. Want to check out agility dogs."

"really we're within 3meters you sure you don't want a bark or perhaps a lunge".

"Nope just really want to go see agility".

So we trained amongst all the dog noise until we ran out of food and now I know the thing to distract Jake from dogs is a pen full of agility dogs. Not entirely sure how that's going to be useful knowledge.

Edited November 2, 2012 by hankdog

[BC Crazy]

Hankdog for Jake. He is certainly progressing well. Great work

Well I came home beaming with pride yesterday. Stella did me proud !! We were at our local beach , it was really quiet so we were having a great game of fetch & a lovely swim when onto the beach

within 20 feet of us came 4 pitbulls, on leads thank god, I called Stella to me & asked her to sit with her back to the passing pits who were straining their necks to get to us. She sat like an angel,

only looked over her shoulder once, small growl but nothing over the top, then continued to look at me as I occasionally feed her her absolute fav treats, small pieces of BBQ steak. I asked her to remain

seated till the 4 pits were well & truly out of sight which was quite a long time. Stel didn't move a muscle & remained totally focused on me I actually got a bit teary, ridiculous I know after

I released her to go play again & told her what a good girl she'd been but I was just so proud of her

Edited November 3, 2012 by BC Crazy

[hankdog]

Jake said hello to a dog today!!!! There's a lovely calm lab up the road, she never makes a sound just looks at us. Unfortunately her responsible owners normally keep her in the back yard and then there's the yappy terrier next door to deal with but she was out front yesterday. We walked in a square across the road from her, then crossed the road and walked in front of her. Jakes brain was short circuiting so he started doing his tricks and some how ended up on his back shunting himself towards her. I stopped him about a meter from her and then some other dogs came along so we left. Early this morning she was out front again so we started walking about and same thing, he drops onto his belly and crawls over, I just let him go over, ready to haul him in if necessary but he got to the gate, turned on his side and waved his paw at her. He was being a big drafty rolling around and talking. She looked a bit confused and backed away but he sat up and kept "talking". She got close again and he was so cute. big smile on his face and I crouched down next to him and was telling him how good he was. He had absolutely no tension in his body. He looked like a big goofy puppy. So sitting on the side of the road again, nice tears this time.

[hankdog]

I had a read over a while back, had to chuckle at how naive I was. It's a good record though and useful to follow each dog. Reckon between us all we must have tried most things. You're very brave to dog sit Snook, hopefully a month of dog on tap will make him super dog.

[Staffyluv]

I think a lot of stuff changed with me when I realised that Ziggy is reactive..

I just kept telling myself that he is just a super friendly guy who just wants to play..

But the truth is that a lot of dogs don't want to play with him and he has to learn that.. As much as I did.

He can be very overbearing for some dogs and if I see it, I take him out of the mix.

I used to think he needed to have free for all play time.. I no longer think that...

Don't get me wrong, he still gets off leash time with his mates but he has a threshold that I have slowly learned needs to be kept in check. He just gets so excited that he loses focus. If this happens I have to chase him down to leash him.

I can read him so much better now and I call him and leash him before he gets to this level..

We still have a lot of stuff to work on.

My next big goal is to get him walking on a loose leash. He is still very much a puller... I just ordered him a sporn halter with a mesh chest section. I like it better than the lupi harness we have.

While I was ordering that I noticed a bungee rope that ties to the deck with a ball on the end that he can play with...

In saying that, I have found that keeping most of his toys up and playing with him, he seems to focus more on me for that play time...

This was my goal earlier, to get him to focus on me more and it is working.. I supply the toys and the fun.. I make the game..

I have had a few occasions of late that when I have stopped playing, he stops playing and just watches me.. When I release him, he will go get a ball to bring it back and try to engage me again.. Once upon a time, he would have just gone off playing by himself..

This level of engagement has changed the dynamics in our relationship and we work so much better together now...

[Guest Panzer Attack!]

Everyone in this thread should absolutely read back and see how far they've come. You're all superstars in my eyes :)

Scooter has taken more steps back. It is so frustrating and rips my heart apart. All I want is for him to be happy, and he's so clearly not. I'd write more but every time I think about how hard we've tried for nothing it makes me start to cry lol.

[BC Crazy]

O Panzer Attack, Poor Scooter Hope things improve for you both really soon.

[Guest Panzer Attack!]

It's driving me slowly insane, he's on meds, confined to the house, only comes out when he's comfortable, is hand-fed all his meals, we keep the other two away from him and he will be ok for a bit and then revert. It's clearly handler error, but my other dogs have always been relatively normal so I don't know HOW I screwed him up so bad! His sister is really normal, as is his mum.

[huski]

Have you had him assessed by a behaviourist PA?

[ness]

PA - don't beat yourself up over Scooter at the moment. I can't remember how many weeks its been since he had surgery but I know Kenz got knocked around quite a bit and a few times I got a bit frustrated with her regression in behavior. She is 6 months post surgery and even now I know she isn't all the dog she was before.

The first time we went back out to training she was nearly 16 weeks post-op and even though she had been out and about again from about week 7 I certainly didn't have the same dog I had worked so hard to achieve pre-surgery.

Edited November 10, 2012 by ness

[Guest Panzer Attack!]

Have you had him assessed by a behaviourist PA?

Yes. 2 vet behaviourists and currently seeing a highly regarded small dog specialist. I've made a lot of mistakes due to bad advice and am terrified to screw up even more

Ness, he's had his leg checked and manipulated and its healing really nicely (thank god) - bloods are clear, he's super healthy. This is really all my fault...

[ness]

No PA I don't mean the physical side, the change in routine seems to mess quite badly with their mental side as well or so I found. Kenz is/was a timid/nervy dog and I worked hard with the input of K9Pro to get her to the point where I could take her out and trial her and nobody could really pick how bad she use to be. It was this side that again became more apparent after she had been out of commission.

It may not be what has caused Scooter's regression entirely but I wouldn't discount it as being a part of what may have caused the regression either from my own experience.

Edited November 10, 2012 by ness

[megan_]

Squeeee! Big little brag for Lucy. Today we had a little club tracking competition judged by Uta bindel (world champ, here for seminars). I entered fergus and then decided to enter Lucy too as it would be good practice. SHE WON THE NOVICE DIVISION! She didn't even flinch when a dog started barking. We normally track alone but she did it with a crowd watching and a judge nearby. She never beats fergs at anything but now she has a trophy showing she is #1!

[megan_]

PA - sorry to hear about scooter.

Staffyluv - great insight! I think most people with over excited dogs are still stuck on "let them play more" and the dog never improves!

[JulesP]

Squeeee! Big little brag for Lucy. Today we had a little club tracking competition judged by Uta bindel (world champ, here for seminars). I entered fergus and then decided to enter Lucy too as it would be good practice. SHE WON THE NOVICE DIVISION! She didn't even flinch when a dog started barking. We normally track alone but she did it with a crowd watching and a judge nearby. She never beats fergs at anything but now she has a trophy showing she is #1!

Woohoo! Go Lucy and go you!

[hankdog]

No it's not your "fault". Clearly you've managed to raise fine dogs before, you just weren't equipped to deal with the curve ball that is Scooter. Think how many people's kids go bad, not the parents fault. You're trying and that's important.

[BC Crazy]

No it's not your "fault". Clearly you've managed to raise fine dogs before, you just weren't equipped to deal with the curve ball that is Scooter. Think how many people's kids go bad, not the parents fault. You're trying and that's important.

[/quote

Totally agree with you hankdog. Very well said :) PA you give 110 % that's what counts.

Edited November 10, 2012 by BC Crazy

[BC Crazy]

Squeeee! Big little brag for Lucy. Today we had a little club tracking competition judged by Uta bindel (world champ, here for seminars). I entered fergus and then decided to enter Lucy too as it would be good practice. SHE WON THE NOVICE DIVISION! She didn't even flinch when a dog started barking. We normally track alone but she did it with a crowd watching and a judge nearby. She never beats fergs at anything but now she has a trophy showing she is #1!

Way to go Lucy !! You must be rapt megan & so you should be. Huge congrats to you :)

[Staffyluv]

PA - sorry to hear about scooter.

Staffyluv - great insight! I think most people with over excited dogs are still stuck on "let them play more" and the dog never improves!

Our trainer was the one who noticed it in him.. She has a BC with the same issue. She said she can run him 10km and he will get back to the house and still run amok..

Zig is the same, it's like he just gets to a certain level of excitement and he stops listening to me, he won't come when called.. The only way, I can get hi. When he gets like that is to say, let's go, like I am leaving him.. But that is not a good way to end a good time. It's better if he leaves after playing on a high, but not to high...

We don't get out of the car until he chills out, then he gets wound up again when he sees other dogs, so we don't enter until I see him calm a bit.. He doesn't get off lead until he is happy to just run and play either.. We have been to the park and he has spent the whole time in lead because his level of excitement is to high for my liking.

Don't get me wrong, he still runs and plays once there but I watch him to make sure he doesn't bother the other dogs. He tries to lick under their chins and some dogs don't care but others don't like it. If he does it, he gets the leash and that is the end of play.

Thankfully, he hasn't done this in quite a while now..

[Wobbly]

It's amazing how much training zonks a dog, Saturday afternoon after our obedience lesson I was kind of tempted to check for a pulse... Zoomies and walks works as a great energy release, but an hour of trying to behave is utterly exhausting.

I found a really great youtube clip on the internets the other day you guys might be interested in seeing. Brief synopsis - Very, very fear aggressive dog at the start, very polite, nicely social dog by the end. Particularly interesting to me was in the pack socialisation parts of it, the dogs were never actually playing. All those dogs, all interacting nicely, but obviously all taught not to take off lead time with a bunch of other dogs as an opportunity for rough & tumble.