Animal Reactive Dog Training

[Nanoosh]

Hi guys! New to this forum! I have some questions hopefully I can get some answers!

I have a 12 month old Bull Arab X female (desexed) she has 2 fur brothers at home. She sits, drops, stays, and walks like a dream! Until she sees another animal. originally I thought it was other dogs that set her off, but today she saw a cat and it set her off but not as much as a dog. She will pull on her leash (check chain as she got out of her Halti once), and bark.

I attempted to take her to dog obedience (group) sessions in hopes she would maybe calm down by being socialised a little. However 1. I'm 100% sure she was way over her threshold and 2. The trainer spoke down to me, treated me like an idiot and didn't address her over excitement or recommend any way to fix it. So I stopped going after 2 sessions.

I've been doing daily training sessions with her Instead now - however they have had to be away from the others or she gets distracted.

I've been told to go to a dog park but be outside and at a distance and slowly bring her closet and closer by one person, then another (a trainer) has told me she needs to be introduced to a stable dog and have dog obedience training (not sure if they were just trying to get money out of me)

Looking for any help or advice!! Thanks!

[Papillon Kisses]

Welcome to DOL!

Many of us with reactive dogs have had success using the Look At That game (LAT) and/or Behavioural Adjustment Training (BAT).

I have thoughts about the suggestions you received, but don't know if my responses will be accurate enough or properly explained. Basically those scenarios can help but only if you use them as opportunities to teach your dog alternate behaviours to the ones she's chosen (pulling and barking) and you change her feelings around these behaviours (fear, confusion, frustration, arousal, whatever it is) so the end result is that your dog behaves appropriately because she feels OK about seeing another dog.

Oh and the Exercising Reactive Dogs thread has become more of a support group for those of us with anxious / reactive dogs so do pop in and say hi! :)

[corvus]

It might make more sense to think in terms of goals rather than specific approaches. In general, the goal with treating over-reactive behaviour is one of two parts. Part 1) Get the dog's arousal DOWN. When arousal is lower, dogs can assess their situation better, they give more signals, and they can make decisions. This puts them in a place where they can learn new behaviours in spite of triggers being nearby. Lower arousal with more distance, massages, a Thundershirt or anxiety wrap, visual barriers, quiet behaviours that take some concentration. Part 2) The dog needs to be exposed to triggers at a level where they won't react overtly. This is so they can learn a calm, more neutral emotional response is a more relevant response to the trigger than high arousal and frustration or avoidance. We want them to know there are other animals nearby, but not close or intense enough to require action from the dog. In that way, you can slowly decrease the distance and the dog learns progressively that calmness and attending to you is an appropriate response to animals being nearby. There are lots of ways you can facilitate the dog being exposed to triggers without reacting, and they include things like LAT, BAT, and using targeting or redirection or u-turn cues to keep the dog in the right zone. The longer they stare at something, the more likely they are to suddenly explode at it, so interrupt staring quickly, which is why LAT is so useful and effective.

[Tor]

My dog (8 month old Boxer) is reactive to other animals, for him it stems from excitement/wanting to play rather than anxiety or fear. Still, I think many of the techniques are the same and we are having some good results with the LAT game. As long as he is far enough away to be under threshold - for him that's basically an across the street distance - he is learning to look and then look at me for a treat and then we quickly move away.

When we can't be that distance away, for example, at obedience training, working very hard to keep him active and engaged with me works best. So still doing LAT, but also lots of LAM and games of tug. I also keep his brain working by doing tricks he likes, like Touch targeting, high five and catching a treat.

Clicker training is turning out to be great for us as it seems to really engage his brain and get his attention. My thread in this section has tons of good advice and links, it's here - http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/266699-training-tips-for-a-7-month-old-boxer/

[Nanoosh]

She spotted a cat across the road yesterday. She was on high alert! However we had just practiced a new distraction recall I found on YouTube where I turn to the left or right of her (depending where the distraction is) and say lets go. It seemed to get her focus off the cat which is great for me.

However she definitely needs something much more stab

I will look into the above and maybe also something that can calm her when we go walking so that she can become more accustomed to everything and other dogs! She seems to be on edge all the time!