After Some Nilif Advice Please :-)

[GenY]

Our 1 year old GSD x Mal is a lovely boy.. I'm not even going to say 'but', because he really is. His only vice is that he is quite dog-reactive, which is why I'm going to start implementing some NILIF strategies.

So I'm wanting to find out how others have started this... for example, when we go for walks, currently he's outside, jumping around like a twit, whining and so on. I'm not a fan of this, but I'm curious as to how others have approached this. He has done training and does sit, down, stay, heel etc. - all of them *pretty* well, but I reckon the stay is going to be tricky when he knows he's going for a walk. So.. how would you approach this?

The other area where NILIF is going to be tricky, is feeding. Currently, both our dogs are fed at the same time and the same sort of thing applies. He mostly jumps around and whines (as above) until we come out with his food, then he sits and waits for us to give him his word. This works fine, but I'm of the impression that he should be in a calm stay until we feed him.

Any other NILIF tips you can think of would be really appreciated - especially in terms of how it relates to training a very dog-reactive boy.

Cheers,

GenY

[JulesP]

You haven't said why you think he is dog-reactive and neither example is of that. So I'll just respond to the 2 examples.

You sort of have the wrong dog if you want quiet and placid! My border collies do the same thing and it hasn't occurred to me to think it is bad behaviour!

BUT they have to sit to have their leads on. They aren't allowed to barge through the gate and they aren't allowed to pull on the lead during the walk. I find the pre-walk excitement entertaining!

Same with dinner. They like food so I don't mind if they are getting excited. BUT they have to sit and wait for the food until I say they can eat. It sounds like your dog is doing that well.

My younger border has been hassling me since about 7.00am to go out for her walk! Her hassling is mainly staring at me though! She currently has her nose squashed into the window :laugh:

Edited July 8, 2016 by JulesP

[Pjrt]

Like jules said you're fighting nature to expect a shepherd x mal not to whine and whinge! And it sounds like you have some control with sitting and waiting etx. As far as the vocals go I'd lean towards working with it rather than against it and teach the dog to 'ask' for its dinner. So it learns when it can speak, on command, rather than expecting silence!

[persephone]

LOL - you have two vocal breeds fighting in there !! And working dogs.

The dog - reactive behaviour ? What does he do exactly ? Until we know that , we can't really suggest anything .

NILIF is a 24/7 thing ..and needs to be done by ALL family members It's more a new way of life :) CLICK HERE

You might also want to have a read of /try THIS !! Designed by an expert in the type of dog you have :)

Edited July 8, 2016 by persephone

[GenY]

Thanks heaps for the responses :-)

By way of background, he is dog reactive in that he is aggressive towards other dogs when I am walking him. He walks beautifully on lead... until he sees another dog, at which point he lunges and behaves aggressively. I'm not 100% sure how it came about as he has never been attacked by another dog (we've had him since he was 9 weeks old, so I can confirm this). He was also, on the advice of a nutbag Bark Busters 'trainer', not socialised appropriately, in that we were told to do puppy preschool (10 - 14 weeks of age), and after that we had to wait until the youngest dog in puppy school was 6 months old before doing their next course, and to keep him at home until then. Against my better judgement, this is mostly what I did. We did take him to the dog park with friends' similar aged puppies during that time, which was always fine and we never had any problems - in fact, he was really good with the other dogs. Despite this, I now know better and only use dog parks when they are empty and we happen to be walking past (even so, not every time we walk past). The other thing that may have contributed, is the fact that he used to have access to our front fence, where he would bark at dogs walking past. So yeah, I'm not 100% sure where it came from. For what it's worth, we didn't continue with Bark Busters as I came to realise that we had been given some poor advice, so I started training with a local dog training club. There was a Pomeranian in one lesson, that went nuts at him and he went nuts at it back. I stayed where I was, when in hindsight I should have moved to the other end of the line.

In terms of expecting a mal x GSD to be calm and quiet, I'm not expecting that at all, and I don't want to silence him at all. It's just his jumping when waiting for food and walk time, involves scratching paint off the house, which I'd like to stop.

I like the look of this TOT business (which I will definotely do) and thanks also for the link to that article - that's very helpful!

Cheers,

GenY

[persephone]

Thanks for the extra info. It does seem the misinformation you were given was not helpful

Did you know ( 'cos DOL is wonderful) ;) There is a HUGE thread on REACTIVE DOGS !!

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

The other thing that may have contributed, is the fact that he used to have access to our front fence, where he would bark at dogs walking past.

This would be "rehearsals of undesirable behaviour". He's a mix of naturally protective breeds, defending his territory by seeing off all strangers (anything that walked past the front fence). And fence running and barking - is self rewarding behaviour - the more he gets to do it, joy from doing it - the more he will do it so if he's been left to do that for a week or a month or months, it will have gotten really bad and easily transferred to every critter on the footpaths.

So now you have to train more desirable behaviours to replace the ones you don't want.

The reactive dog thread - I found a bit depressing because it advised keeping your dog away from any triggers all the time - which is impossible. I find if we can't get an appropriate distance from a trigger (more practice of unwanted behaviour), I just put more "money in the bank" - rewards for desirable behaviour - when I can maintain a threshold distance from the trigger.

Threshold distance - is how far you are from the trigger (eg other dog or cat or scary looking man) when your dog can still pay attention to you, respond to cues and accept rewards. For my dog - I use praise only for rewards because otherwise she joins behaviours - being naughty then being good to get the food (called "back chaining").

Some basic things I do with my dog that help - especially close to home (much more "protective" here)... has to hold a calm sit at the front door before I open it. If she stands up before I give permission to move - I close the door. If she hackles up or barks - I close the door or pull her back inside and start over. Must hold a calm sit with the door open to get permission to go out the door. Any behaviour I don't want and we go back inside or through the back gate and away from the triggers and start over.

I also practice a three second greeting with dogs I think are suitable and I avoid letting her greet dogs that are pulling on lead unless I know them and know it will go well. Stranger dogs pulling on lead tend to get "scolded" by my dog and much as I think they deserve it - scolding is not a good way to train, and not something I want my dog doing.

But any dog we greet - same rules as the door, she has to be able to hold a nice calm sit. Tho at the beach we cheat a bit and she does a nice calm friendly crawl and roll over.

And no pulling on lead allowed. Mostly I just stop and wait for her to notice. But if she's being reactive, I actually drag her back to the "threshold distance" which is usually further than normal if she's already gone over the threshold of no self control or response to me. The threshold distance is not a set distance - it's behaviour and trigger dependent. Ie closer to home - the distance is greater when she starts getting upset, and little fluffy dogs - she can be quite close before they upset her (tho she will upset them at a greater distance - and I like to respect other dogs' thresholds as well - ie if they've gone over the top - we're avoiding them).

[Papillon Kisses]

I'd look into Behavioural Adjustment Training (BAT) and the Look At That game (LAT). There may also be a good reactive dog class near you but as you've found with Bark Busters, you need to choose trainers and methods wisely!

I have a dog-reactive dog and BAT has been great. I like how it empowers dogs to make choices and teaches them that they can increase their distance to scary things without engaging in agressive behaviours. I've also needed to teach my dog to accept being body blocked in emergency. You can read about survival skills HERE.

Sometimes you do need to keep reactive dogs away from other dogs because it is to risky for them or for other dogs. I'm not just talking about avoiding dog attacks but considering their mental health. The more negative experiences they have and the more they practice undesirable behaviours the worse the problem gets, whereas if you can control the situations they are in you can set them up for success and improve how they perceive and react to other dogs.

Most of us in the reactive dog thread are rehabilitating our dogs so they are ok with seeing other dogs and don't lose it. My dog used to bark furiously and jump at our fenceline or walls like a spring bok whenever he saw or heard a dog passing. He hasn't done that in months, in fact be now rests in his bed! He saw two dogs at the vet recently and did LAT by himself, looking at them then back at me instead of staring and swearing. And the last time we were ambushed by a loose, over the top dog on a walk he stood behind me and let me take care of it instead of launching into a fit of rage. With the right approach things can get so much better and walks can become enjoyable again. :)