Exercising Reactive Dogs Thread

[dididog]

OMG how awesome are Didi and Thistle together. Absolutely fantastic to see. I am so rapt for you girls.

May I ask where you were walking? It looks like a great place.

It's a brand new park in Ascot Vale (opposite Riverside Golf centre) that still has a construction fence around it while they wait for the grass to take, the fence has been left open in a few spots so I thought it'd be a nice quiet (ie no other dogs) place to meet! Unfortunately in the less than an hour we were there, 3 people came in and let their dogs off lead, it's pretty big so we could avoid them but I'll be disappointed if it descends into offlead chaos once properly open, there's a huge offlead reserve literally 50 metres away there is no excuse to break leash laws.

But despite that the whole area around Maribyrnong River is a great place to take the dogs, two huge offlead areas (Fairbairn Reserve and Aberfeldie Park) and plenty of little on lead parks and an onlead path along the river, which is normally clean and calm enough for dogs to have a swim!

[Taliecat]

Dozer and I went on our first solo walk (without OH supervision) tonight since I hurt my back.

He was a good boy and remembered his manners with loose leash walking for the most part. The sporn head halter was mainly used as a bit of a failsafe, if something went wrong or he decided to try and take me for a walk, it was pretty much unused

We did come across one dog (on leash) that I couldn't avoid as I just swiftly turned around after I saw a dog offlead.

He took it very well and I was easily able to walk him around in a circle and keep moving!

Here's a picture of my little darling from our walk :)

[Two Best Dogs!]

Well done Talie! I think extra leads as fails safes are good ideas, especially when they give you better control! Look at how well you two navigated obstacles today!

[Taliecat]

It was great to get out and about with him again, he's a good walking buddy and I feel a bit safer being alone at night with him even though we're in a really nice neighbourhood, ignoring that one incident where a bunch of teenagers had tied rope across the pedestrian crossing at midnight and at car height, I know it was teenagers because they were all laughing their asses off when I had to get out of the car to let the rope down..

I'm hoping the weather holds out to let me go for another walk tonight, we've been getting hit by storms all week and they usually hit right when I want to get out! I left about 20 minutes before I had planned to last night and it was a good thing I had, the sky opened up about 10 minutes after we got home

[Taliecat]

Our chances of a walk tonight aren't looking great.. There's a big storm on the radar not too far away

I just did a sweep of the house looking for dozer after I sat outside talking to one of the housemates after dinner because he's usually set licking the kitchen floor for at least 20 minutes after I finish cooking just incase I dropped a crumb. The cheeky boy had made himself comfortable waiting for me!

He's been getting a bit stressed with the almost daily storms, so I might pull out my Kuta Beach singlet for him again tonight and see if that helps, bonus of it looks adorable!

Eta: Just heard the first rumbles now, lucky I forced him into the singlet

Edited November 5, 2015 by Taliecat

[Two Best Dogs!]

Don't suppose you're getting random tornado/bad storm warnings too? Can you please smoosh his little face for me, it looks so smooshable.

[Taliecat]

We're not really getting any severe storms, just loud thunder and rain for a couple of hours each night.

Usually the afternoon storms are much worse than the night time ones.

And his face has been smooshed!

That photo is now in queue to get printed onto a canvas in the new year, I can't wait to get it on the wall

[Two Best Dogs!]

I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, was worried this might be it but she seems to have recovered fine.

Doing our obedience classes, all dogs are dropped/sit/stood about 1.5 metres apart and one person heels their dog between all the other dogs. Dropped dogs are to keep focus on their owners. Thistle was a bit worried, doing great and getting more confidence with each dog we walked past. Then one of the GSDs whipped her head around and growled-nipped Thistle on those nose! Unsure if contact was made or an air snap.

Absolute disaster right? Scared dog hemmed in between a dog that just growled/nipped at her and a poodle (unknown dog) to her right? Thistle froze, didn't react back and continued the heel/returned to me with only a couple of worried looks back! All within a split second :D and no whining! her tail was back between the legs but her body language loose.

We weaved through the rest of the dogs no problems, including another loop around that GSD (but positioned so I am between Thistle and the GSD, so she is closer to the poodle).

At the end of the looping she barked at owner of other-GSD who we had already identified as dogs/people Thistle doesn't like (the GSD that almost play- jumped on her a couple of months back and she nipped, after both I and the trainer had told the person to stop letting their dog run up to all dogs). She has a long memory, but just bayed once than remained standing. And a follow up was GSD-1 and known-staffy doing the loop around us both at the same time and she was worried, but kept her focus and position. A+ Thistle!

She also had a good sniff greeting+ A WAG with the young kelpie I've been working her up to :) and polite greetings with 3 different labs (1 working and 2 customs-bred?). 3 very nice dogs, I'll keep customs-bred in mind for a potential friend later down the track in addition to rescue-foster-with-a-view test runs.

Oh and we had them all dropped in close quarters and she stayed in her drop AND had a slightly tense but polite greeting when the known-staffy dragged himself into her face (he's a pretty bouncy fella, but a good dog)

Sorry for the rambling, I'm so hyped up from how well she is doing. Even 1 month ago I could not imagine her politely greeting other dogs let alone not-reacting to another dog nipping at her.

Hopefully that other shoe or step back won't happen for awhile C:

Edited November 8, 2015 by Thistle the dog

[Two Best Dogs!]

What a gorgeous photo of Dozer.

Poor Thistle getting nipped on the nose! It sounds like she handled the whole situation brilliantly. I'm not sure that a lot of dogs who don't have any issues would have reacted as mildly as Thistle did. You must be so proud of her. I'd probably suggest keeping things very low key for her for a couple of days to avoid any trigger stacking. It was likely to have been quite stressful for her and it may take a couple of days for the biological reaction to stress to leave her body and if she has another one or two stressful events before that happens, it may push her to a point where she reacts badly. You're really doing a wonderful job with her to have gotten her to this point. :)

Oh yes! It was a much bigger, more dog-interactive lesson than expected I think all the dogs were a bit more all over the place than usual because we didn't get lessons last week thanks to the horse races, so all eager to sniff everything. Forgetting their manners!

Next sunday I'll try to space things out more/ensure I am between her and the two GSDs if we do weaving. The labs, poodles and other assorted mutts were all lovely.

Nice, quiet and low key until Thursday's usual session. I didn't know that about the stress reactions in her body! Definitely do not want trigger pile up when she's handling everything so well. I hope that "good girl" cow leg I gave her helps relax her some lol.

[Taliecat]

I've done another couple of walks with Doze and I'm finding he's lost a lot of confidence, so I'm planning on doing some ground work to get him comfortable with our walking route.

I'm thinking a wooden spoon covered in cream cheese or peanut butter will be coming with us tonight.

Lucky there's no one else around when we go walking or I'd feel really strange

[Two Best Dogs!]

Go Dozer and go Justice! :) so great to see all the dogs progressing. They can do it!

[Taliecat]

We didn't make it out last night, I've been crippled by allergies and had to postpone trying out the treat spoon

Dozer's behaviour near home is actually quite similar to justice in his over stimulation, it's only recently I could even get his attention on walks he wasn't even interested in food, and for a staffy type dog I've always found that weird.

Eta: brain not working through the allergy fog, sorry if this doesn't make sense

Edited November 10, 2015 by Taliecat

[Two Best Dogs!]

Oh no poor Justice, those inconsiderate f***heads Selfish pricks not giving a shit about how their dogs are bothering others and now Justice is suffering for it. I really hope it doesn't throw him too far backwards Hopping mad for you as well, some owners are so shitty and inconsiderate.

[grumpette]

Oh crap Snook that just sucks big time. After all the work and progress you and Justice have made.

However, he did recover beautifully after the first approach, which is a major improvement. Hopefully, even though he shut down after the second approach, he remembers the first one and his previous counter conditioning, and even though he may be a bit wary, he has the most amazing positive time with Pax on Monday.

Huge hugs and lots of belly rubs for Justice.

[JulesP]

Hope Justice is ok next time you go out Snook.

Got rushed by a Shar Pie this morning, good way to get the blood pumping. Poppy didn't take offence to it which was interesting and the owner sprinted over to grab it and was very apologetic. As you should be when your dog is off lead illegally!

[Two Best Dogs!]

Seven hundred cheers for Didi and her person for continuing to be champs!

They had an (unintentional, the lead broke) offlead rhomp today. Glad Didi doesn't mind Thistle's play style (chasies followed by a rugby tackle)! And glad Didi has such a great recall! Thistle just followed her big black source of fun.

Am very pleased with Thistle, even though there was much excited lead pulling, including in the direction of a slightly barky but behaved SWF, but no playing up.

Hoping to hang out again soon, maybe even a kepala hangout because water puppies! No pics sorry, forgot my go pro :C

So glad we have at least one dog she can dog-out with.

Although she's been having friendly nose-boops with the customs-dogs at classes.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Thistle the dog

[Tassie]

That's a bummer, Snook .. but it does seem from reading your posts over the months, that Justice is able to get his mojo back a little more quickly each time you work through your protocols.

Just thought you and others might enjoy a dog training/walking friend's new strategy she's contemplating trying (or not :D ) next time an off leash dog is allowed to run up into her on-leash dogs' faces (older working BC and 2 little Paps). She plans to drop her own dogs' leads, and rush up into the offending owner's face, waving her arms around and saying "I'm friendly, I'm friendly". Might add, she's about 5' nothing, has a bit of a limp, and like me is no longer young. It's a lovely thought :laugh: .

[Two Best Dogs!]

Oh poor Justice I was hoping the whippets hadn't affected him so. He does seem to recuperate a little bit faster each time. He was doing so well up until this!

Is there a different angle you can come at this, instead of the dog park maybe find a random street not near home with front yard dogs and you can park across the road and do LAT there to build resilience back up to the park?

Tassie - I would love to hear how that goes!

Edited November 23, 2015 by Thistle the dog

[grumpette]

Oh crap Snook. That is really disheartening to deal with, but as the other girls have said he tends to gain his confidence quicker each time. And with the first encroachment by the whippets he hardly missed a beat. So there is learning happening and resilience being built.

Please don't loose heart. You and Justice will amble together again. I have every faith in the both of you.

[JulesP]

Very annoying for you Snook. I had whippet issues until I pointed out to the owners that their dogs were likely to get hurt. They don't let it run around my dogs barking anymore.

I had the 'my dog is friendly' routine today. I just said 'well mine might not be'. The owner was most surprised.