Living With A Dog-reactive Dog... Another Great Article!!!

[bekah1001]

Im bad at the leash thing at the park. They are usually good and come when called and sometimes hey see another dog/person and run of (I feel terrible everytime they do). So I started letting them run off leash in a baseball diamond where you can close and lock the doors.

 

[SD&B]

First Jackie, I can really feel for you with the Chi, that's a frightening thing to have to deal with.

I am learning so much from this thread. With Ra Kismet I am taking, at present, the 'middle road'. I walk him past houses which I know have dogs behind fences but either barely visible or totally unsighted, but not unheard. With very rowdy dogs which are clearly visible racing along their fence lines or jumping at their gates, we walk the other side of the street , just to be sure he won't go into a total meltdown. He's now passing the Mr. Rowdies without batting an eyelid, in fact he rather seems to enjoy passing them, as he get's his treats. And will actually give me eye contact, tail wagging, completely calm just wanting his treat. We are though still going to continue passing these dogs on the other side of the street. I do not want to push him at all.

So far not too many dogs head one and when one was unavoidable the other day, he reacted a little but VERY quickly settled back to trotting along, tail wagging and investigating all the lovely smells.

The way he's improving is really grand and I am sure by keeping to the 'middle road' way, allowing him to hear/see barking dogs but, as far as possible, not pushing him to head on confrontation, he will in the not too distant feature recover totally from his trauma and walk past dogs without any problem.

That is training the problem. You are keeping him under threshold. As you do this more and more, hopefully his threshold will not be as great. Nothing wrong with pushing him an inch or centimeter at a time. Also, by doing it this way, you are changing how he feels about the situation. Great job.

 

[MaryK]

Thank you SD&B. I'm really proud and thrilled with the way he's now responding. Will keep on keeping on. There's no rush as I am looking long term, permanent 'fix' not a short temporary one. The big thing is of course, he's now very happy on walks and even when there are dogs around, (except head to head) the tail is still wagging, he's calm and relaxed and that also means one very happy human too

 

[curls139]

That is amazing!!! I think from your success we need to remember the long term too - slowly, slowly does it! Russ is only 1 so he has at least 10 years (hopefully) of walks and learning to go... 7300 walks (I think - with 2 walks a day). What's the rush?

 

[MaryK]

Absolutely Curls! Great way to make the point of slowly, slowly.

 

[Dlilly]

I'm soooo glad I have dog people from everywhere on my FB!!! I get some pretty awesome articles that way

http://bullinthecity.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/how-to-live-with-a-dog-reactive-dog-and-not-lose-your-shit-an-impractical-guide/

This was a great article, but not for me. I live in the country, not the city.

People here think dogs should roam free even though there is a leash law here! When I do see a dog, there is NEVER a person with it.

I've had an awful experience while walking a dog that didn't like hyper dogs and we had a NUTTY dog follow us. We couldn't just walk away because he was circling me and my friend, driving the dog we were walking insane. We couldn't just walk home because I didn't want the dog to see our chickens. The dog we were walking was a BIG STRONG dog and was also going crazy, it was getting pretty intense. I ended up using my friend's belt as a leash for the dog. It took forever to catch him, and once I did, I didn't know what to do! I called my brother and he rode his bike down the street. I took the dog I was walking home while he stayed with my friend and the loony dog. When I got back to them, we went door to door trying to find out who owned the dog. We found a girl who knew where the dog lived, so we went to the house, but no one was home. We let the dog off leash and tried to walk home, but he kept following us. FINALLY, he threw a stick and ran home. That's not the last time I've seen this dog….


I can never walk alone now, and I always bring along and extra leash and treats. If a dog ever got close to us, my brother would toss treats to the dog so I could walk away, or if the dog was friendly and came up to him, put the leash on him. Or he would grab a stick and scare the dog, even hit the dog if he our other plans failed. On walks, I'm a ninja! I'm always watching the forest, and Rory's ears. I'm also watching my back and having my brother scout ahead. Everyone thinks I'm paranoid, but just 1 bad experience could make Rory a lot worse, so I'd rather be super careful.

 

[SD&B]

On walks, I'm a ninja! I'm always watching the forest, and Rory's ears. I'm also watching my back and having my brother scout ahead. Everyone thinks I'm paranoid, but just 1 bad experience could make Rory a lot worse, so I'd rather be super careful.

Isn't that the truth! It only takes one bad experience to undo all the hard work you've done or to even make things worse. That's one of the hardest things about trying to resolve behavior issues, especially when there are certain things that are out of your control.

 

[MaryK]

I agree. I live in the city but people STILL ignore the leash law. It would only take one incident I feel to undo all the good work and progress Ra Kismet has made, since he was attacked by a dog with insufficient fencing. That's as bad as the dogs wandering around without leashes.

And the person who lived there didn't give a hoot, even though she could plainly see her dog was attacking my dog and myself.

 

[A.J.]

Thank you so much Sara!. Here I was just browsing various forums looking for similar people going through what I'm going through with my very reactive Border Collie and I come across this site, and this article made me laugh and cry all at the same time!.