Leash Reactive/bad With Other Dogs

[Guest 7ct5]

So Phoebe is bad with other dogs. She tolerates my family's senior, unplayful Chow and apparently had a friend at the AC. I would love her to be able to play with another dog again and have positive interactions with them.

 

So far I'm reading four books on the subject and met with a behaviorist. After a dog fight (in which she was injured), she is now set-off by the sight of other dogs from a distance. On walks we usually run the other way... but I think it's just enforcing the fact that when she gets worked up- we leave- her main goal anyway? I want to bring her to a park, see a dog from a distance, and not walk away. I could even put a muzzle on her, she wouldn't have to meet it yet, but just get used to others. Does that sound okay? I don't want feed her treats when she's reacting like some books have said (literally drop a ton on the ground)- but I could bring them along for the moments she looks up at me.

 

One of the good things is that her reactivity is very visible. She has a ridge (or dorsal stripe) on her back that immediately raises when she's aroused....even if she sees a dog, keeps walking, it might stay up for a couple minutes so I know she is still at that heightened state.

 

 

Anyway- it's frustrating! She's my only dog and I want to be social. For Phoebe's sake I want her to be less anxious outside and of course I feel guilty walking a snarly beast when we see others.

[Houndtime]

You don't feed her treats for reacting. You treat her for not reacting. Treat her to get her to focus on you, not the other dog.

 

Walk her with a head collar, so that you can redirect her attention. She is now fear aggressive. This will take constant reinforcement, but she can be trained. You don't like everyone you meet, she doesn't either, but, you want to teach her to be, at least, tolerant.

 

We had a dog like this. She doesn't have to be a social dog, just not an antisocial dog. Good luck. She is still a little sweetie.

[Guest 7ct5]

Thanks for the advice Houndtime. It's hard to pick apart the times when she is reacting and listening to me. For instance, she'll grab a chunk of the treat (meat or liver) and then turn her head and stare at the other dog again. She doesn't really lunge (we are never that close) so usually she freezes, gets really worked up, and then tries to pull that direction barking.

 

I do think she needs a doggie friend. She tries to play with me like I am a dog, it's sad that she can't yet socialize with her own kind. I have a couple friends with puppies, we could try a super slow introduction ... but would that be taking it too far too fast?

[Guest Swifthounds]

The wrinkle you'll always have with using an environment where you happen to encounter other dogs, is that there's not guarantee that the other dogs aren't reactive as well (or more). You would think that people with reactive dogs would avoid dog parks or standard parks, but often the opposite is true - especially in areas where the dog wouldn't get enough exercise outside in a yard alone.

 

What would be helpful is if you could have another dog owner, whose dog is NOT reactive, meet you at a quiet public spot like a park without a ton of traffic. Arrange with the person to start at one end of a large rectangular (you can use square, but a rectangle where you're at opposite "short" ends is usually better) area and for you to start with Phoebe at the other end. Begin walking toward opposite ends as far away as possible. Each of you walking in opposite directions as far apart as possible. If you're picturing the field as a rectangle, you'll want to start on the "long sides." As you work on it, you make those parallel lines of travel closer, guided by her reaction.

 

I also agree that dropping treats on the ground when she reacts is a bad idea. I'm assuming they think this would be a distraction, but to me giving anything positive when it's reacting is a reward.

 

The long side of the rectangle gives you a good long time for her to see the other dog, see it approaching, and for you to gauge what's going on and work on things like "look at me," redirecting, and rewarding when she glances at the dog and then looks at you.

[Guest 7ct5]

Thanks Swifthounds...you actually gave me a good idea. I think I'll start with a stuffed dog (yes - she will react to that as long as she thinks its real). She perks up when she hears keys jingling on walks (they sound like dog tags) or even sees someone pulling luggage. She calms down when she realizes its not a dog though. It's funny that she has no problem with cats or even a high prey drive... loves people and kids too ... just the other dogs.

[OwnedBySummer]

How is she at a greyhound run? You didn't mention if she dislikes greys...

[Guest Swifthounds]

Oh, and I should add, I've dealt with a fear reactive hound of my own for a decade now. It helps that I know the source of it, though not much. I was very careful about raising and properly socializing her from the age of 11 weeks. She lived, romped, and played with other greyhounds. When she was almost a year old we went to Dewey and had the misfortune to attend the Fun Run where another greyhound, whose owner confessed after the fact that she taught her greyhound to jump at her and basically body slam into her chest (just in case anyone out there thought greyhound people were better dog people). The dogs' were happily running around and playing when the other greyhound zoomed in and deliberately body slammed my girl and rolled her several times - and kept after her.

 

The lady did nothing. She kept chatting with one of the field volunteers. My Mom grabbed the woman's dog and hauled it off by it's collar and dragged it over to the woman as I scooped up my terrified girl. I knew from what happened that it was much worse than someone foolishly bringing a "bumper" onto the field - I just didn't yet know how much of an idiot the woman was. At the same time, my SO at the time grabbed my male alpha who had seen the trouble and zoomed over to intervene.

 

Not only was that woman so clueless about the danger she created, and the damage she had done to her own dog (let alone mine), she had no appreciation for what my large male alpha (who had raised my girl from a pup) would have done to her dog after it did that kind of damage and then persisted. Oh, and the idiots running the field heard her say what she said about teaching her dog to chest bump and refused to tell her to leave. They told me to leave (I was leaving anyway). To this day I wonder how many other dog's were harmed by that dog that day.

[EnzaFerrari]

My girl recently developed a slight aversion to some dogs so I've been really working hard on the distracting, "watch me" training. How I did it was as soon as we saw a dog, I'd say in a sing-song voice, "watch me" and treat. It was always before she reacted (which is rare but I starting doing this to keep it from escalating). I'd treat her again as the dog got closer and treat her a final time when we got past the dog. The whole time she'd be focused on me and wagging her tail, etc.

 

In a week, she'd look at me as soon as she saw another dog. Now I can walk her and she just looks at me and focuses on me. Of course now that it's warming up and I won't be wearing a coat stuffed with treats....

[Guest 7ct5]

Thanks for the additional tips!

 

I tried to pinpoint which dogs are worst.... but it doesn't matter at this point. I don't know how she actually gets along with other new dogs since we never meet them ... but she will react to anything on a leash

 

One of the biggest problems for use is loose dogs... because they will approach and then I have lost all control! Another problem is people who come up to us to let the dogs meet, they probably think I'm antisocial when I immediately turn and head the other direction!

 

Enza- you're lucky it's working so fast! I was doing that for a long time ... but its going sooo slow and I have not seen a lot of progress from that kind of training. I was considering anxiety medication too ... still an option I guess if training doesn't work out alone. It's been a looong winter here- and only now just starting to warm up, so walks are getting a lot more enjoyable and I can once again hold training sessions outside.

 

A part of me just wants to bring her muzzled to a park everyday. Just to sit at a picnic table after a long romp, let dogs go by and not have anything scary happen...like to desensitize her. But that might be taking it too fast??

[Houndtime]

My girl recently developed a slight aversion to some dogs so I've been really working hard on the distracting, "watch me" training. How I did it was as soon as we saw a dog, I'd say in a sing-song voice, "watch me" and treat. It was always before she reacted (which is rare but I starting doing this to keep it from escalating). I'd treat her again as the dog got closer and treat her a final time when we got past the dog. The whole time she'd be focused on me and wagging her tail, etc.

 

In a week, she'd look at me as soon as she saw another dog. Now I can walk her and she just looks at me and focuses on me. Of course now that it's warming up and I won't be wearing a coat stuffed with treats....

 

Excellent! Wear a little fanny bag with your treats. My dog used to do the same thing. As soon as another dog approached, even from a block away, he would look for his treats.

 

As an aside, when we attended greyhound events, I kept him muzzled. Not so much that he would do anything to another dog, the visual of a muzzle, made other owners aware and kept their dogs out of his face. Some people are not always aware of what their dogs are doing. Very often others would rush up onto him. He was very insecure and did not like this. Worked for us.

[MaryJane]

I'm going to suggest that you go someplace that is a very short distance from where you live and where there are limited things going on and "just stand there". Sometimes when you are walking, a dog can get excited because they are trying to take in all the changes around them. If you just stand in a spot and just watch your dog while they observe the surroundings, you might be able to see when your dog starts to get anxious and bring it down a notch before it escalates.

 

Once you can do this in one spot for 10 to 15 minutes and control the reactions - start moving to new spots and only stay there for 5 to 10 minutes. You could also slow down your walking speed so that you are barely moving.

 

I've done this for dogs that are shy, anxious, impossible to control on a leash, leash aggressive, to name just a few and it seems to work. I would take them out to my driveway or the front of the house and just stand there. They usually start by being just so excited but, just standing there for 5 minutes or so makes them calm down.

 

Another trick that helps my fosters focus on me is doing tight "figure 8's" (usually on a back street with no traffic) at a brisk pace. At the beginning you end up pulling the dog and then pushing them into the correct walking position almost constantly but, the dog will usually start to pay attention to your subtle cues that you are turning right or left and will become more adaptive so that you will be able to do a "figure-8" without bumping or pulling the dog. I used this very heavily with my first greyhound who turned out to be incredible at being able to do meet-n-greets at locations where I had to go through tight crowds - that dog (even for a greyhound) was glued to my leg while going through shoulder to shoulder crowds.

[Guest Swifthounds]

I'm going to suggest that you go someplace that is a very short distance from where you live and where there are limited things going on and "just stand there". Sometimes when you are walking, a dog can get excited because they are trying to take in all the changes around them. If you just stand in a spot and just watch your dog while they observe the surroundings, you might be able to see when your dog starts to get anxious and bring it down a notch before it escalates.

 

Once you can do this in one spot for 10 to 15 minutes and control the reactions - start moving to new spots and only stay there for 5 to 10 minutes. You could also slow down your walking speed so that you are barely moving.

 

I've done this for dogs that are shy, anxious, impossible to control on a leash, leash aggressive, to name just a few and it seems to work. I would take them out to my driveway or the front of the house and just stand there. They usually start by being just so excited but, just standing there for 5 minutes or so makes them calm down.

 

 

If you were going to try this with Phoebe, I would not just stand there with her. Instead I would use the time to train or do a quiet, but interactive activity. Otherwise, with a dog this reactive, you risk reinforcing that nothing positive is going on, and she needs to stay there (where she may not be comfortable at all) and stay vigilant for approaching stressors.

 

The most successful approaches to desensitizing always involve interaction with you (which is a source of confidence building) and where you two are doing your thing and any approaching stressors are incidental to the process - and thus also easier to distract away from.

[JenniferS]

Is Phoebe a greyhound (or the dog in your picture?). If you are in Mass., consider joining us for a walk Greyhound Adventures. A lot of times reactive greys do fine with other greys walking in a "pack". We have had dogs like Phoebe join our group (my own included) and we are good about asking others to leash their dogs, or not approach if their dogs are unruly or not on-leash.

[OwnedBySummer]

I just automatically assumed she was a greyhound...

[GeorgeofNE]

Is Phoebe a greyhound (or the dog in your picture?). If you are in Mass., consider joining us for a walk Greyhound Adventures. A lot of times reactive greys do fine with other greys walking in a "pack". We have had dogs like Phoebe join our group (my own included) and we are good about asking others to leash their dogs, or not approach if their dogs are unruly or not on-leash.

 

True!

 

George ONLY likes Greyhounds. He loves all of them, immediately, from seemingly miles away. All other dogs are a mystery to him. Small. Large. Doesn't matter. I'm actually not sure what his reaction is--aggression, excitement, playfulness--but he doesn't do it when he sees a greyhound. Luckily for him, a couple in my small condo complex adopted a young brindle male, so at least he has one dog pal!

[christinepi]

Maybe this was already covered in the thread, but if not: how about dog day care? My grey is (has been) leash reactive, but is flawless off leash at his day care. Even though my husband and I could take care of him every day, we send him to day care twice a week to get his social fill and to be able to run in an enclosed outdoor area. Everybody advises against dog parks, and I'm always worried about rude/aggressive dogs off leash in certain areas where people walk their dogs, so I give those a wide berth--so what area of socializing is left is day care. Maybe that's an option?

[Remolacha]

Fletcher is very leash reactive, and I have found that he is much worse when he is in what he considers "his" territory. He is fine with other greyhounds (except for a couple of individuals he just didn't like) when we are in places outside his neighborhood, and he is much less reactive to non-greys, although he still doesn't like them. You might see if there is any difference in her behavior if you take her to a new place, away from home.

[krissy]

If you are a runner, try taking her for jogs with you. Dogs need a job, and when they are running they tend to just put their heads down and run. Summit will try to sniff all the time on walks, and he notices people and dogs and wants to meet them (he does have some dog issues as well that we have been working on, but it is only certain individuals he doesn't like), but when we go jogging he doesn't try to sniff things and he doesn't notice people or dogs across the street. He is in a zone. You could try taking her for short jogs and see if she is able to ignore stimuli at a distance.

 

If you don't jog, you could try a backpack. Having a backpack on similarly gives a dog a job to do and puts them into a similar, calmer mental state. And try to walk briskly. Not as if you are running away from something, but as if you're going somewhere with a purpose. I do this with Summit sometimes and once again with the added speed he makes fewer attempts to stop to sniff and is less reactive to the environment.

[cleptogrey]

Maybe this was already covered in the thread, but if not: how about dog day care? My grey is (has been) leash reactive, but is flawless off leash at his day care. Even though my husband and I could take care of him every day, we send him to day care twice a week to get his social fill and to be able to run in an enclosed outdoor area. Everybody advises against dog parks, and I'm always worried about rude/aggressive dogs off leash in certain areas where people walk their dogs, so I give those a wide berth--so what area of socializing is left is day care. Maybe that's an option?

doggy day care??? that could be a nightmare for her. it sounds as if she is freightened and using her defences and is reactive.

 

i delt w/ a leash reactive welsh terrier, who became agressive after a neighbor's pit bull came barreling into my driveway where i was working w/ willie. willie chased the dog back to it's yard, gave it a good nip, he might have been bitten but with the thick coat he constantly grew it was truely a coat of armor. after that willie freaked out at any dog we saw on our walks. so off to obedience again, this time he was 9 years old and i jokingly called it reform school. the trainer who i knew had him in an intermediate class, since he was basically really well trained just scared to death and showed it via agression. down stays next to big dogs, dogs circling around his on sit or down stays, walking past and thru any and everything and learning to trust the other end of the leash. when he was first being reconditioned he did a down stay when a dog approached. he focused on me and if i remember the treats, he was rewarded. 98% of the reward was verbal.

 

a good trainer has lots of tricks up their sleeve and a controlled environment w/ well behaved dogs can help with the reconditioning. willie lived to 14, the training worked for everything but goldens...go know but he returned back to himself and welcomed our first grey into the house at age 11.

[JJNg]

Phoebe's behavior is typical for a dog who is fear aggressive, and not unusual after a bad experience like a dog fight. Do you know how she would act around other dogs if she was off-leash? Not something you would necessarily want to test out, but just wondering if there have been any situations where you might have been able to see this. Some dogs only act this way when they are on-leash, possibly due to a feeling of restriction (being 'trapped'). She may also be sensing your tension if you tighten up on the leash whenever another dog is in sight (a lot of people do this unconsciously).

 

Not sure what books you're reading, but the most helpful author I've found for working with reactive dogs is the Norwegian trainer Turid Rugaas. Any and all of her books and DVD would be usedful. Here's a site with more info about her resources:

http://www.coherentdog.org/vek/stressdown.php

 

While it is best to reward with treats when she is calm, focused on you, and not reacting toward the other dog, I wouldn't worry too much about reinforcing her reactivity. Even if you were to give treats while she was reacting, it can still change the underlying emotional state. Here's a video with an interesting example:

 

Right now, Phoebe's reactivity toward other dogs is an emotional response that she can't control. IME, once you get the underlying emotion (fear) changed, it becomes much easier to retrain her response, even if you did teach her to do something you didn't want to do. For example, imagine a dog who barks at strangers out of fear. If you give the dog treats whenever a stranger is around, regardless of whether he's barking or not, you might (or might not) end up with a dog who barks at people to get treats. However, once the emotional response has changed, you'll often notice that the bark to get treats sounds different from the fear bark. At that point, it's usually not difficult to simply stop rewarding the barking and reward something else instead (like sit), and the dog will learn quickly with the emotional response out of the picture.

 

I wouldn't look at avoiding and moving away from responses as reinforcing her behavior. I would see it as keeping her secure and safe (in her eyes) and building her trust that you will keep her safe. I would try to avoid any areas where they might be loose dogs as much as possible, and also avoid places where there are a lot of people who might want to approach you. She will learn faster if you can stay at a distance where she is able to remain calm. If she's not making much progress, you may actually still be working at too close of a distance. Muzzling her to place her in situations that are too much for her to handle will make her more stressed and possibly make her reactivity worse.

 

Rather than a goal of trying to get her used to a general concept of "other dogs" and training in uncontrolled public situations, it often works better to just have a few specific dogs that you try to introduce her to gradually so she can have a few friends. If you have friends or family with a dog who might be a good candidate for this, taking walks together is a good way to initially introduce them. Depending on her response, you may need to find an open field where you can keep a good distance between the two dogs at first. It also helps to have the humans stay between the two dogs to create an additional 'barrier'. As she gets more accustomed to the presence of the other dog, you can gradually decrease the distance between then. This is a process called parallel walking by Turid Rugaas.

 

I would second the opinion that doggie daycare may not be a good idea for a reactive dog. Dog day cares vary widely, and a poorly run one would be no better, probably even worse, than a public dog park. Off leash behavior also doesn't always translate to on-leash behavior, so the leash reactivity may still need to be addressed separately.

[krissy]

That was an interesting video. I've always thought of counter conditioning as asking the dog for something incompatible with the behaviour he is trying to display. The example that the behaviourist at school likes to use most is asking a dog who jumps up to sit. He can't jump up while he is sitting, so we teach a reliable sit and then when he goes to try to jump up, we ask for the sit and reward that. So, in many ways what people have suggested about doing "watch me" exercises, basically IS counter conditioning. This is what I've done with Summit. He cannot stare at the other dog and growl or become reactive if he is looking at me. So I have trained a "watch me" command, and ask for it when another dog appears. This video was very neat though. Good find.

[Guest Giselle]

That was an interesting video. I've always thought of counter conditioning as asking the dog for something incompatible with the behaviour he is trying to display. The example that the behaviourist at school likes to use most is asking a dog who jumps up to sit. He can't jump up while he is sitting, so we teach a reliable sit and then when he goes to try to jump up, we ask for the sit and reward that. So, in many ways what people have suggested about doing "watch me" exercises, basically IS counter conditioning. This is what I've done with Summit. He cannot stare at the other dog and growl or become reactive if he is looking at me. So I have trained a "watch me" command, and ask for it when another dog appears. This video was very neat though. Good find.

That lady is Dr. Sophia Yin, a prominent veterinary behaviorist. She is my mentor I am familiar with her techniques, and that video IS interesting because Dr. Yin believes that: EVEN IF the dog is displaying minor signs of the 'negative behavior', you can still counter condition him by shoveling food into his mouth PRIOR to a full blown reaction. Yes, read that again. If you read it again and you watch the video, you'll also notice that your timing needs to be incredibly accurate. If you're going to use this technique as the *primary* form of counterconditioning (inciting an initial reaction), you MUST have incredible timing and technique. For this reason, then, Dr. Yin usually doesn't recommend letting novice handlers try this technique, and I don't recommend relying on this style of counterconditioning as your primary method.

 

Krissy, what you described is a facet of counterconditioning, but it's not the academic definition of CC. What you described - a behavior that is incompatible with the 'negative behavior' - is what we deem an "Alternate Behavior". Jean Donaldson has a more scientific term for it, but I'll have to dig up my notes for that. Alternate behaviors work because, if the animal is calm enough to focus on you, he cannot, by definition, react to any trigger. It's DS/CC rolled into one Alternate Behavior. So, behavior modification of ANY negative behavior can essentially be stripped down to 3 components:

- Desensitization (DS)

- Counter-conditioning (CC)

- Alternate Behaviors (AB)

 

Leash reactivity works the SAME way, and it is not hard once you understand how the 3 components work together.

1) Desensitize: Begin at home. Don't even think of bringing your work out in public until your dog can focus on you at home. For starters, I recommend free shaping eye contact and loose leash. Free shaping is NOT luring!

Here's a video on free shaping "eye contact" with an extremely fear aggressive dog (notice how, once you start training him, he instantly relaxes? Yep! That's the power of behavioral modification!)

This is a video of Ivy demonstrating how one should be walking a reactivity-prone dog. With a reactive or aggressive dog, you have to keep her focus on you 100% of the time. If you give your reactive or aggressive dog the reign to get frustrated and react, she will:

(Apologies about the sluggish Ivy. It was raining that day, and she hates the rain)

Once you've got your behavior down at home, start in your front yard. Then, go to your front street. Then, try it for 50 feet or so. Then, keep going, etc, etc.

 

2) Countercondition: If you're feeding treats in the presence of the other dog, you're basically CC'ing. If you're doing the exercise above (giving treats for frequent eye contact + loose leash), you're basically doing CC.

3) Alternate Behavior: Oh, would you look at that? #1 and #2 took care of #3 already However, if the above behaviors are too difficult for you, you can try other things, too. "Look at That!" game is one of my personal favorites. Repeat sits backwards is one of Dr. Yin's favorites. If you want more info on these, just let me know!

 

It's very simple, really! It all boils down to: Can you keep your dog's focus? Can you keep her excited about performing for you? Can you reinforce for what you want and take away the rewards for what you don't want? You just have to set the criteria for the behavior that you want, understand how to achieve it, and practice practice practice. One of my students is currently working with his leash reactive dog right now, and I can easily grab a video or two for you. Good luck and let us know if you have further questions!

[Guest Giselle]

Also, 7ct5, what books are you reading and what has your trainer suggested? Which book suggested dropping the treats on the ground?

 

I also want to reiterate a point: It sounds like you want to deal with this problem head-on and start DS/CC'ing away with strange dogs. Most people with aggressive or reactive dogs want to do this because they think this will hit the root of the problem.

 

Please, don't jump ahead of what your dog is capable of doing. If your goal is to have a calm, focused dog even in the face of her triggers, you need to first create a calm, focused dog at home. This is why I suggest free shaping eye contact/loose leash at home and in your backyard before you take it out onto the streets. As with all effective training, you need to create a strong foundation before you can add in triggers, strange dogs, loose dogs, etc. Once you create a strong foundation, your girl couldn't care less if that dog walking towards her is friendly or reactive! She should, at that point, be totally calm no matter the frequency or severity of the trigger. A little investment into foundational training at this point will yield better, more long-lasting results later

 

Also, I found a video on how to incorporate Repeat Sits Backwards with loose leash/eye contact:

Notice the difference in handling and the differences in the dogs' demeanors, too.

Edited March 20, 2011 by Giselle

[NeylasMom]

I think I already recommended this in another one of your threads on this topic, but just in case - I see that you're in MA. If you are anywhere within driving distance at all, I really recommend you take a reactive dog class with Emma Parsons. She teaches near the MA/RI border. Or if you're not near there, see if you can find a qualified trainer who teaches one in your area. I really think with a dog that is very reactive, the class setting is invaluable because you have safe, controlled exposures to multiple dogs at the level at which they are comfortable and can work.

 

Also, if there are only 2 things you remember, they should be these:

 

1) Don't let Pheobe get reactive. Avoid it at all costs. That means when you see a dog in the distance, turn and go the other way. Who cares what people think about you? You are your dog's advocate and no one else can do that job for you. I can't stress this enough - each episode of reactivity is reinforcing so you need to avoid them as much as possible. Sometimes things happen, we don't always know when someone is going to pop around the corner with a dog attached, but when that happens, turn and go the other way. Don't worry about "reinforcing" her reactivity, it's more important that you don't let the behavior continue to happen. I also think that if she does explode, that may be a good time to just head back home. Once those chemicals are released, it takes a while for the dog to fully calm down again, which means that she'll be more likely to explode again, but with a "smaller" trigger. Does that make sense?

 

2) Teach the "auto check-in": This is different than a "watch me" or "look" command and ideal because the dog is thinking for herself, not waiting for a cue from you (also means that if she sees a dog before you do, she won't react, she'll know that she should just look at you). To do this, go to a place where you have control over the distance between her and the dogs taht are coming and going. A pet store is easiest or maybe a dog park. You park far away - people are lazy and all park as close to the door as possible so parking far away will allow you to control how close Pheobe is. Your car is also an easy way to move her out of sight if she starts to get aroused. You need to be at a distance where she is not going to be reactive, but where she is alert and aware of the other dogs. This is really important so you'll need to watch for subtle signs in her body language. Too far away, no learning will occur. Too close, you'll get reactivity, which we don't want. Once you're in taht spot, with your huge bag of human food treats that are INCREDIBLY yummy, you wait for her to see the dog, then look back at you on her own. Try not to do anything to get her attention. The instant she looks at you, click and feed. Also, one of the most practical tips I learned - don't feed just one treat the first few times. Her breaking her gaze and redirecting to you is HUGE so feed appropriately. Don't jackpot, but feed her a series of treats one at a time from your hand - not super fast, but do keep them coming so she continues to focus on you. As you're doing this, you are praising her with various different phrases and a happy voice. Do this for about 10 seconds before you stop. If you don't have a handy treat bag, make sure you have enough treats in your hand before you start this exercise so you're not fumbling when the time comes.

 

Repeated ad nauseum. As she gets it, you can start VERY gradually increasing criteria, ONE criteria at a time. So perhaps initially she just turned her head back toward you, now you want to work on her giving you actual eye contact (I would get this first). Then later, you might ask her to hold your gaze a bit longer. Then at some point, you will move a tiny bit closer to the dogs. Each time you increase the criteria and she responds successfully (and she will, because you've set her up to succeed, never increasing the criteria too much ) go back to feeding the long string of treats rather than just a single one. Harder task, higher reward. None of these things are likely to happen in the first session. These are things you will do over time, with many sessions like this. But in the end, you will have a dog who instead of reacting at the sight of another dog, just looks at you.

 

There are a lot of other tools that you can teach to help with a reactive dog, but I think these are the 2 crucial ones to get started. Lots of other good stuff outlined in Emma Parson's book, which I'm pretty sure you said you have as well as a few others, but I think these are your basics. The one other thing I would suggest is the "let's go". It's something you can work on at home and then use when you are suddenly surprised by a dog coming around the corner like I mentioned above. It's simply walk along beside each other, you say let's go and turn the other way and trot off and she learns to come with you. You can reward with food, but often I think rewarding with play or a load of silliness as you run together is more fun for the dog. Practice at home, then outside without distraction, then outside with non-dog distraction until you have it really solid.

 

I hope that helps.

[Guest 7ct5]

Thank you for all the advice.

 

Giselle- those videos are great and very helpful, if you have others of your client that would be awesome! I could videotape Phoebe too ... though I can't guarantee it won't be shaky if I'm doing the walking, treating, and taping

 

I haven't pushed Phoebe since that first post. .. I was definitely frustrated at the lack of progress, but do not ever let that translate in my training. So we have continued to avoid other dogs on sidewalks.

 

I have found a dog park thats a 15 minute walk away. It's actually a great location because she can get all her sniffing out on the way. There are lots of dogs (maybe 10 at the busiest), but they are contained to one side of the park. It's in an old exhibition/farm field which works out really well. I can see from all directions, so I know when a dog is close. There are barriers (buildings) nearby if a dog is coming closer and I need a visual barrier. But I can place myself and Phoebe within enough distance for her to look at a dog, then look back at me for a treat without reacting.

 

Neylas- thanks again for the suggestions.. I do own Click to Calm and have found it very useful. But I love all this personal advice too, because sometimes I read these books and wish I could talk to the trainers to clarify certain points or ask about specific scenarios. I will get the names/titles of the other books when I'm at home tonight and try to get the quote about the treat dropping thing.

 

Thanks again to everyone who responded... I appreciate it very much!!!