One step forward, two steps back

[RedwingS]

When we adopted Dog2, he had ishoos. We've done lots of work with him and now he is a happy, well-behaved, but still exciteable, dog.

We've had several setbacks in the last ten days: friendly-but-bad-mannered dogs running out of their gardens to say hi; an angry yappy dog that ran across the road to see us and nearly caused a motorcycle accident; a stray pony that trotted right up to us; a lady that inexplicably screamed at him; and a dog that came out of a side street, charged us and circled aggresively.

Now he is leash-reactive again. And he is afraid of the lady who screamed, and her husband.

Also DH has been growing a beard and it turns out Dog2 is afraid of beards.

I feel like we are back at square one. Does it take as long to get over these setbacks as it did to begin with? And, to make me feel better (since I am worried sick about our other dog today, awaiting results from vet), have you had any similar setbacks you'd like to share with me?

[RedwingS]

By the way the name change is because I didn't want to be thinking about winter in what is meant to be summer ;)

[sleepymum50]

I always found it was an ongoing thing with my dog, and the training never really stops.

I read once if you have a dog that is nervous about other dogs, to carry treats and everytime someone/thing approaches you give a treat so the dog associates every meeting with something nice. Could this help you in this situation?

[RedwingS]

Yes, you're right. That's basically what we've been doing with him - following Minimuu's advice to teach a 'look dog' command, and also keeping him well away from any dogs that were over-excited or aggressive. It worked well, but with all these dogs running up lately it seems to have set him back and now he won't even walk past a calm dog any more. Even one of the 'friendly' dogs launched into a full-on play session without even saying hello first.

I guess we just have to start again. I think you're right that it never stops, it just feels frustrating to have made so much progress and then be back at the beginning!