Maya is reactive to dogs. Definitely not aggressive, but she puts on a fine show of barking and hackling. A certain distance and she is fine.

I live in a very dog friendly town where I would love to have her by my side. I'd also like to camp and hike without worrying about other dogs showing up. But more than having her companionship, I have a stronger motivator now to get my dog on track--agility. We've just started and she loves it. She watches all the other dogs work and trots right up, ready to do her thing when it is finally her turn. I've known that I need to find some kind of activity for this dog to work on, and this is it. But a reactive, barking dog just won't do with agility.

I have read so much about reactivity in this forum and books and articles. We've worked with trainers and done classes just to be around other dogs. Still, I don't feel like a huge amount of progress has been made. If I take a honest look at our reactive-training history, however, I would say I go through spurts of really working with her, then get discouraged or distracted, and put our work to the side for awhile.

I have a game plan (classical conditioning, u-turning if she gets too aroused or a dog is too close, cuing "where's the dog?" for her to look and get a treat) and plan on actively seeking out dogs on a daily basis. What I would love to hear from others are stories of success. These greatly encourage me, and I need that. Also, any little tips that were discovered through the process of getting your dog to be non-reactive, and maybe the general time line of how long it all took.

Thanks in advance, and hopefully I'll be reporting back my own story of success in the future!

good luck! i have an extremely reactive dog too, and always wanted a dog that i could take out and sit outside at the coffee shop with, take to the parks, do agility with, but it's just not possible. i've had her for a bit over a year now, and some days are better than others! we have been using the clicker with some progress.

is just mainly leash reactivity? or is it off leash too? how did she do in the group classes?

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/251684/page/0/fpart/2


http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/251710/page/0/fpart/3

Success stories ...

I've shared a lot on this forum about my reactive dog, but since his story has been quite successful I will happily share some more.

I noticed my dog starting to become leash reactive (to dogs) just after he turned a year old. I'm quite used to puppy antics, and at first thought it was just a youth-thing but noticed that the intensity was starting to increase significantly. By the time I realized that I had a problem, I had a PROBLEM. Shortly after this realization, our family moved into town from out in the boonies. Within two weeks of moving to town, my dog got jumped by an off-leash dog in a very public area. It never became an actual fight because I kicked the other dog away repeatedly until it's owner finally grabbed it. Still, I was angry to have been put in a position that necessitated that I hurt an animal. Stupid owner. It sure didn't help the situation.

At that point, my dog was so reactive he was barely controllable (he's 95 pounds) and looked extremely imposing to passersby. Any time we would encounter an off leash dog he would freak out and bite me. My dog isn't the least bit aggressive to people OR dogs, and has always been a delightful and attentive puppy, but you would never know it from his behavior at that time.

I felt so useless because I'm fairly experienced, yet here I was dealing with something I didn't know how to manage. I was so embarrassed I didn't even want to talk about it. I was getting bit by my own dog. I was getting very, very tense and that made things infinitely worse. After getting bit badly enough to bleed fairly noticeably and having to walk two miles home in that condition, I decided that I was going to use a basket muzzle.

The muzzle helped me relax, which helped my dog to relax a little too. Once I could relax enough to think a bit, I started working on desensitization. Day in, day out we worked hard on commands like 'look' and 'heel', gradually getting closer to other dogs (Mostly in the Petsmart parking lot;-). Like you said, there were times when I would get discouraged or it would feel like we weren't getting anywhere, but we kept at it. The very act of taking control and actively seeking other dogs to work around seemed to help ME the most. Instead of having an attitude of "oh no, there's a dog coming" it was "oh good, now we can practice..."

I used the basket muzzle and a weighted vest for walks for about a year and increased the distance of the walks. I made sure my dog had plenty of exercise, and it took a lot of the intensity out of it. Over time I noticed that gradually, dogs were becoming less and less of an issue for my dog, and then almost all of a sudden I noticed that we were walking by dogs with almost as little notice as walking past a person or a rock or a tree. It took almost two years of training and desensitization, but it DID work.

About two weeks ago I took my now 'rehabilitated' dog to a big event with hundreds of dogs around. He was calm and well-mannered; I couldn't have asked for better behavior. As bad as things were at one point, I never thought we'd get to a place where we could participate in anything like that, but we did and it was awesome. I've been training for competition obedience and am considering trying agility next summer just for fun because now I can.

I think learning to relax was the trickiest part for me, but probably one of the most important.

Sorry about the book...but I just wanted to illustrate how very bad it can be and still work out okay. Good luck and keep working at it

I just wanted to add to Kristel's excellent post that it had been about one and a half to two years of work when my own most recent reactive adopted dog reached the point of marching right past another dog -- even another dog barking wildly and racing back and forth behind a fence.

For us, there also seemed to be an extra shift when my dog perceived that he had no role in the protection or leadership of his new pack.

There was a wild little nut-dog around the block (still is) who shot out of his yard, streaking straight for my dogs. One of mine had long ago learned the "behind me" command and complied with it. My reactive dog wasn't good with that yet. Anyway, I stepped quickly in front of my dog, and the small attack dog bounced off my shins. At that point, his idiot owner finally caught up with him.

I'm not taking one ounce of credit away from the many many hours we spent on desensitizing (described in the posts I linked above), but I saw additional de-escalation steps with that kind of clear assumption by me of leadership and protection.

I think that all such steps, including small ones like I described, and including not allowing strangers to pet a dog who is uncomfortable with that, etc., etc., help to trigger a cumulative wind-down of anxiety, excitement, aggression, etc. The more the reactive dog perceives a permanent and dependable leader between him and the rest of the world, the easier it is to desensitize him.

Connie, I had your post bookmarked! Those are exactly the things that are helpful: here's how we did it, here's where we are today. It's also important to hear that it took about two years to reach a place of calm. And Kristel, thank you for telling your story (again). These really do inspire me.

I've considered the weighted vest, but saw on Leerburg to wait until she's two. I rarely have seen this dog truly worn out, so I'm looking forward to the day when we can use something like that vest.

Maya has never been a big fan of strange dogs. In her puppy obedience class, she was the only dog who didn't want to run around and play with others during the little breaks. She barks both on and off leash, and goes crazy at the fence when the neighbors have a visiting dog. The first two agility classes I was amazed at how well things went. I attributed it to the fact that we go to this facility regularly and she knows she is safe there. Our last class had some bumps with barking and staring hard at other dogs---it was also the first time she got to run really fast and do jumps, so I think she was in a more excited state.

Thanks again for taking the time to share. I hope others will add their stories to this thread as well.

I just want to be clear that there was plenty of (slow) progress during the two years,
too.

I also hope to see others' encouraging stories about reactive dogs. Nothing like a thread about training successes and how they were achieved!

***post deleted ***

Hi, Gabriele,

I'm going to give you your post in a PM so you can copy it into a new thread.

This thread is for success stories about previously dog-reactive dogs.

You'll want to read this thread, in fact, but also post a new thread about your dog.

Thanks!

I agree that my relaxation and humour have made a huge difference in Jethro's reactivity.

I have been working for a year with my dog-reactive dog (now 21 months old), practicing a combination of desensitization, OB, and management (including corrections). We were making some progress, with improving voice response, less reactivity, and better self-control. But I was still having dangerous incidents which led to injuries to me (sprained finger, and getting pulled over backward). So I decided to put on an extra leash around my torso and clip Jethro's leash onto that, so I never have to worry about him getting away from me with an unexpected lunge.

Knowing that Jethro could not get away from me to harm others during our walks helped me relax and focus on the important things, like watching his body language for signs of arousal and taking preventative steps to help him calm down and cope with distractions. Since I attached him to me we haven't had a single instance of him getting the better of me, or even having an all out red zone reaction. I think it is due to two factors, he knows he can't get away from me so his efforts are half-hearted, and I am so much calmer, he is less on an edge, looking for threats.

edit
One other thing, Leslie McDevitt's approach to "Control Unleashed" uses clickers and treats to build conditioned responses to highly arousing situations. Her work has been a god send for me, working with Jethro.

Jenny, did you realize this thread was two years old?

No problem, of course ..... just pointing it out.