When you love a reactive dog, you expend an enormous amount of effort “managing” situations. It becomes second nature. I don’t even think twice about sitting in the car in the parking lot of doggy daycare waiting for everyone else to drop off ahead of us, then dashing out the moment the lot clears so I can get Lucas in without encountering a dog in the lobby. (Of course, once inside – and off leash – he’s happy and playful. Which is so frustrating.)
When it starts to rain, my first thought isn’t, “Ugh. Walking dogs in the rain.” My first thought is, “Great! I can walk Lucas without encountering anyone else!”
And the zig-zagging, circuitous routes we take so that we don’t cross paths with anyone else? Totally normal! Right?
Right….
But the reality is, we have come so far with Lucas since the early days when he would hit the floor when we turned on the television or rustled a plastic bag or – horror! – a bike whizzed past us.
He navigates life pretty well these days with two big exceptions: His leash reactivity and his massive barking-fit-meltdowns-throw-himself-into-the-window when a dog dares to walk past our house. And, really, the two are the same thing.
Until recently, until he tried to bite someone, my goal was simply management. Walk at weird times of day or in bad weather. Stick to the loop around the park so I could see in all directions around us and change course as needed. Keep the blinds closed in the front of the house. Restrict his access to the front room when I’m not home. And so on.
But, as he demonstrated, that’s not enough.
We need to actively work on this reactivity for his safety.
So! I signed us up for a Reactive Dog training course. I’ll fill you in on our progress as we work through the course, but here’s what’s happened so far:
Week 1 was people only, no dogs allowed. We talked about reactivity and how important it is to understand that most reactivity is rooted in fear – something we’ve known about Lucas since day one.
We also talked about the behaviors that are critical to master with a reactive dog – specifically, a good “heel” and a super solid “watch me.” The idea is that when you encounter your dog’s trigger (in his case, other dogs), you get your dog right next to you and looking up at your face. That prevents your dog from focusing on the trigger and – ideally – keeps him from reacting.
Sounds simple, right? 🙂
Both of these behaviors are fairly good with Lucas, but after week one I realized they’re nowhere near good enough. I’ve been practicing with him in the backyard a little bit every day. In a couple weeks I hope to move that training to the park. I don’t want to risk pushing him too far too fast, but I do feel we’re making progress.
Since this post is getting a little long, I’ll stop here for now. More on our progress to come. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s starting to rain. I better get Lucas walking!
Let me know if you learn any great tips for “watch me”. We took a reactive dog class with Kenai and she did ok, but out in the real world we are just not interesting enough to get her attention. We could probably throw steak at her and she wouldn’t look our way when she gets in the zone.
I’m a little worried about how this is going to translate into the real world, too. And Lucas clearly knows when we’re “training” versus when we’re out and about for real, and I’m nervous about getting the training to translate. I’ll pass along any good tips!
The look or watch me command was so helpful with Delilah. She reacts only to certain dogs (mostly the really high energy, bouncy, rude dogs.) I use LOOK and can get her to turn away from her trigger dog in a training class. Which I think is great progress, but I will still always have to manage things as I find most people don’t pay much attention. 🙁
Agreed!! Wouldn’t it be so much easier if other people would be responsible for their dog?
Anxious to read about your progress. I love the watch me command – it works so well in any number of situations.
Thanks! I’m hoping once he has really, truly mastered the command, it’ll get us through sticky real-world situations. More to come!
Lucas sounds like the dog version of my youngest child. At 15, we’ve just discovered that he’s hypomanic, or bipolar lite. When he was little, we found that we always had to make sure he looks up in the eyes when we talk to hi, as well as repeat back what’s been said. There’s a disconnect otherwise. My boy hasn’t bitten anyone yet, for which I’m grateful, but I’m wondering if maybe I should take a class to better learn how to interact with him.
I never knew much about reactive dogs, at first didn’t even know what it meant, but I have been learning more since I started blogging and reading more of other blogs. Then when walking our younger beagle one day not long ago we had an episode when encountering some other dogs who were off leash and I realized that she might be reactive! We had never had an issue before, but since where we live is so rural we didn’t often meet other dogs, or the other dogs were always on leash, and she was OK with that. It sounds like maybe she is like Lucas, since he is OK once inside and off leash? Do they tend to react more when they are on leash, and especially if other dogs aren’t?
Jan, A trainer explained it to me once like this… When an animal (humans included!) is scared, there are two possible responses: fight or flight. By clipping a leash to your dog’s collar, you eliminate flight. Thus, scared leashed dogs are given no choice but to go into that “fight” mode. It’s been my experience with Lucas that when the other dog is off leash, his “fight” reaction becomes WAY more intense because he can see the other dog is un-tethered. Not sure if that helps, but that’s been my experience!
That does help, Maggie, thank you! That’s pretty much what I thought was going on, but just wasn’t sure. It helps to know exactly why she is acting that way. Last time I walked her on a busier trail, and we saw any other dogs off leash, I tried to walk her the other way. At least if I know what I’m dealing with, I can try to work with her more.
You must get your dogs attention prior to the stimulus. Once they see and react to another dog they are gone. They do not hear you not see you. They are over threshold. You have to always work under threshold and it depends of the level of reactivity your dog has. My shepherd beau cannot focus on me if the other dog is right in front of me. Not even 6 ft away. You have to determine your dogs level of comfort and at what distance. Beau will react 20 ft away depending on the dog. It is a lifetime commitment and does get easier as they get older. Fully wear your dog out before a walk or class with some form of exercise. This will make your training much easier. I also highly suggest a head harness and a front buckle harness. I use both with two leashes. Beau has gotten out of the head harness so I use the other as a back up. He is not aggressive at all just reactive
I’m reading some older reactive dog posts and I came across this one.
Ruby goes absolutely berzerk about dogs she sees out the window, too, and yet plays nicely with nearly every dog she’s met at others’ homes. At the window, her mouth is puckered and her bark and growl are deep – it’s hard not to think “aggressive dog” and I’m sure my neighborhood dog owners have her labelled as such. It’s so confusing and I wish I knew what was going through her head!
Have the window-meltdowns gotten any better with Lucas since April?
I’m lucky in that we only have one window that Ruby can see out, behind the sofa, and I can close the curtain if she gets too wild.
Well… I wouldn’t say they’ve gotten any better, but they haven’t gotten any worse either. Since I wrote this post, we moved to Louisiana, and our house is totally different here. He has far less opportunity to watch out the window and bark. So it seems as if it’s better. However, there are SO many loose dogs around here that when he happens to hear something, he goes even crazier. So, in short: Fewer freak outs but the ones he has are more intense.