QA 25 Ticket #21722

Hi, my 3 yr old RR is (after years of training) still reactive to most dogs on lead, she wants to say hi. From 8 wks old she has been like this & despite every type of training (I have trained many dogs out of this habit with no problem) she has continued to be a challenge. She walks very well on the lead, unless we encounter a dog. As a puppy I briefly used a prong on her to calm her down and it worked wonders, that in itself taught her to walk well on the lead. I only used it for 1 month (basically illegal in the UK) so used haltis, front clip harnesses and slip leads instead - she is fine on a flat collar now. Asked other dog trainers, but no different advice. Have taught her 'watch me', walked 180, leave it, lead jerks, bribery with food. She is incredibly well behaved with everything else. She will leave a dog if I tell her and if I stay 100% focused, but no one else can do it and after 1 year of this method she still has not learned to not react. I can manage it but not stop it.

Thank you for your reply Cindy. It is interesting to hear that this may be a life-time thing as it really seems that way - I have never come across a dog (who is incredibly smart with everything else) just not to get something with years of working on it. She just doesn't seem to care about any correction and redirecting is fine, but it seems that both work out well for her - she either gets redirected and rewarded or she gets a kick out of lunging and trying to get to the dog. I will note that I have NEVER let her get to another dog through this behaviour so it has never been reinforced even as a puppy, making it yet even more confusing. I always made it a point to avoid dog-dog lead interactions as I never wanted her to get the expectation of meeting a dog on lead to begin with - only ever off lead.