I can't stress enough to my reactive dog clients the importance of taking things slow and not allowing their dog to practice unacceptable behaviors and go over threshold. It seems that once we see progress in a dog, human nature wants to push and push that dog. Inevitably, the dog goes over threshold and the progress made was a total wash.
We have had such nice weather here in the East Bay. I see so many dogs walking each day in the neighborhood and at the park. All of the local dog parks re-opened April 1st. Everywhere I go is buzzing with dogs!
Last we left Lane, I was planning on working on Dr. Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol. We have surpassed mat work at home and are now focusing on mat work outside our home. I take Lane's fleece mat and all our training stuff outside with me and him to set up what we will be doing for 10 minutes. I cue him to go to his mat and he does so and lies down. I click and toss him a goldfish cracker (medium treat value for him). The first few minutes we are doing obedience and go through the motions. He isn't truly relaxed since we are outside. He stays while I walk around his mat, click and treat. He stays while I walk away and count to 30, click and treat. He stays while I run 20 feet away and run back, click and treat. Then I stand there and ignore him. He looks bored and gets up and I re-cue him to go to mat. I ignore him some more and he lays relaxed on his side. I click and treat and he sits back up. I ignore him some more until he lays on his side again. This time I don't click, I just toss the treat because the clicker seems to be making him excited. He eats the treat while on his side then just lays there. We end up working for about 15 mins instead of 10, and I am very happy with our progress. I am hoping we will be able to use the mat work in the park and other settings were he is usually hyper aroused.
Now that the park is jumping with dogs, I am a bit nervous to take Lane and work him there. We find that there are enough dogs in the neighborhood walking to do some exercises with. Two days after our mat work, I ready Lane with his Rescue Remedy, harness and Liverwurst and we set out for a walk at about 4pm. This is a good time since between 5-7pm is the busiest time for people walking their dogs and midday, we may not see any dogs.
We start walking and immediately see another dog exit his front door. I quickly asses the dog: it is an older black lab. Seeing as this dog is not likely to set Lane off, I have him sit, click and treat for looking at the dog and doing nothing, then we start walking again. As we turn on a busy street, I see two excited Beagles pulling their owner on the same side of the street as us. Lane sees them too. I immediately decide to cross the street and place my body in between Lane and the other dogs so he isn't as exited. Once we are across the street, we place ourselves in someones driveway and I body block Lane until he sits. Once he is seated, I move slightly to the side and have a pretty constant flow of treats while the Beagles pass. He doesn't bark, but he does get up multiple times and I have to re-sit him. I decide we need to perfect our sit/stays better and make a mental note of that. We see a few more dogs of various ages and excitability. The older dogs we pass and do looks in motion and the excited dogs we go up a driveway or behind a car. Our walk lasts about 20 mins and we go home.
The next day I do remedial stay work with Lane. Sit/stay means stay until I say release no matter what is exciting him. We work on our duration and distraction aspects of stay. Stay while I throw cookies on the floor, stay while I toss toys on the floor, while I play with the other dogs, while I say other words aside from release, stay next to me while I do dishes, fold clothes and do laundry. We do these exercises everyday for a few days until I see a change before I take him out walking again. I have to remember that every time I say "Stay" I must follow it up with our release word so I don't ruin our stays.
I don't recommend that a reactive dog be walked everyday. As seen in my Boredom Busters post, there are a lot of things you can do with a dog to keep his mind active without walking. The chances of a dog reacting when being walked 3x per day is much higher than if said dog is being walked 3x per week! There are so many other aspects to working with dog reactivity then walks in the neighborhood. You can work on obedience commands to help with walking issues, work on relaxation, building a better bond and trust through playing with your dog. Taking a dog to a new location and working the dog out of the back of your car etc.
Now those of you with reactive dogs have some more things to work on! Happy working and enjoy this weather.
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