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The doghouse

Please help me. How can I deal with my dog's newly reactive behaviour?

10 replies

pigsDOfly · 23/10/2014 14:00

For various reasons my dog walking times have had to change over the last few weeks so we've been meeting a lot of dogs we've never come across before and many of them seem to feel the need to bark, snarl and run at my dog and the owners do nothing about it. She's a small breed and in the main they have been big dogs.

She's always been a bit wary of large dogs after a large dog had a go at her when she was a puppy so this is just more of the same, and it seems every time we go out yet another dog acts aggressively towards her - it isn't play, which she tends to ignore as she likes to do her own thing - and results in her screaming in fear and cowering on the ground or trying to jump into my arms.

The result is that every time as we leave the house now she barks hysterically - she's always been a bit barky when leaving the house in an establishing her territory kind of way, but that was excitement, this is aggression - and when we pass another dog, especially large dogs, even if it's completely ignoring her she'll start growling and barking and will often lung towards it.

She's never behaved like this before. Normally she would ignore other dogs, walking quietly beside me or sniffing something interesting while passing them without even acknowledging them most of the time.

I feel so angry that other people's inability to socialise and control their dogs properly has resulted in my dog's training and behaviour being undermined. But most of all I feel so sad for her that every time she goes out she feels she needs to be on high alert in case something nasty might happen to her.

How do I get her back to her old happy self? Is it just a question of going back to basics and just offering her reassurance and treats for calm behaviour when we pass other dogs, or is there more I have to do?

I'm at a loss really as to how to start to deal with this and would be very grateful for some doghouse wisdom?

Sorry this is so long.

OP posts:
SpicyBear · 23/10/2014 14:44

Whereabout are you pigs? Reactivity can be addressed very successfully but if possible it is really helpful to have someone come and show you the handling and timings for BAT 2.0 or a similar program. This is desensitisation and counter-conditioning to help her increase her confidence around other dogs. It's much easier to have someone show you than try to implement from written advice as it is easy to get it wrong. Also, they will be able to do controlled set ups.

pigsDOfly · 23/10/2014 15:05

Thank you for your reply Spicy, I'm in the South East.

So I'm looking for someone with knowledge of BAT 2.0.

Can I ask you, what am I looking for as far as judging their qualifications in this particular field IYSWIM.

Don't want to just get someone who tells me they can help me with this if they really don't have the specialist knowledge.

I don't think she's a hardened case yet, but I want to nip it in the bud before it becomes a major problem.

I've always managed to deal with other fears she's had such as big scary lorries and such like, but I feel this is different and more fundamental somehow.

OP posts:
SpicyBear · 23/10/2014 15:37

A good first port of call would be the APBC.

As a start though make sure she is not being forced to walk directly towards any other dog. If you have to pass and there is space, walk in a big arc around them or take her off to one side far enough that she is comfortable and get her to find some treats on the ground while they pass. On a narrow path, about turn before she starts to react. Teach her something like "this way" or "let's go" to signal she should follow you off in the opposite direction. In the early stages you need to prevent her from getting to the point of reaction, as the more she successfully rehearses the behaviour, the harder it will be to countercondition.

mrslaughan · 23/10/2014 16:51

do you ever walk her with other dogs? Does she have some trusted "friends" you could walk with? Have you noticed if that helps?

pigsDOfly · 23/10/2014 20:25

I'll have a look into the APBC Spicy thank you.

Where possible she's always done the whole walking in a large circle thing herself if we come across a dog she's not sure of and I follow where she takes me as I know she's more comfortable with it. I think we've probably been in a couple of situations recently where that hasn't been possible and that is when a couple of dogs rushed at her. Although, at other times we've been out in fields when dogs have rushed her and been aggressive.

I will try going in the opposite direction and treating her if we come across another dog in a tight situation so she knows she has a way out.

I'm beginning to wonder if she's giving off some sort of 'attack me' signal at the moment as it's a very new thing that other dogs want to bully her.

Mrslaughan I don't often walk her with other dogs, but when I do they pretty much ignore one another. She does know quite a few dogs from the park and is generally fine around them but again she doesn't play with them much as she really prefers people to dogs.

When we went for walk this afternoon she was fairly noisy leaving the house but I managed to get her to quieten down quite quickly - there were no dogs around so that made it easier - and on what was quite a long walk we only met a couple of dogs. One of the dogs was very small and very growly and yappy but she did the wide circle thing and didn't otherwise react so lots of praise and treating and the other dog we met just barked but she pretty much ignored it and again was praised and treated.

I will watch how it goes and if the fearful behaviour does continue I will definitely get some professional help. It's only been going on for a couple of weeks or so so it could be just a blip.

Things have been very unsettled for me recently and as a consequence for her too and maybe she's coming across to other dogs as uncertain and vulnerable. Now things have settled down again maybe she'll feel better and she'll give off a more 'don't mess with me' vibe:)

What I was afraid of was trying to help her get over it by myself and ending up treating at the wrong time and reinforcing the fearful behaviour so many thanks for your replies and advice.

OP posts:
mrslaughan · 23/10/2014 20:40

I asked about walking with other dogs, because I wondered if she was more relaxed with them?

She may be picking up on your uncertainty?

pigsDOfly · 24/10/2014 00:52

I don't think she does like walking with other dogs tbh Mrslaughan. She's fine if it's with one or two other dogs, but on the occasions when we've had walks with several other dogs she seems to find it all a bit much and wants to stick close by me.

She's quite happy saying hello to other dogs and having a sniff but then likes to get back to going about her business.

When she spends time with my daughter's dogs she likes to play with one of them and can be quite bossy, but she has known that dog all her life; they are in fact from separate litters of the same parents - mother only had the two litters and my daughter's dog is older.

I think you're probably right, I suspect she has been picking up on my mood and the fact that I've been busy and preoccupied over the last several weeks. I've noticed in the past that if I'm feeling a bit under the weather with a cold or something similar her behaviour changes and she can be a bit difficult if I'm not as patient or seemingly as in charge as I normally am.

She's generally a very happy dog, full of fun and pretty confident but when things aren't going as smoothly as they normally do I think she can get rather thrown by the changes; and maybe her uncertainty was sending out a negative message to other dogs.

OP posts:
SpicyBear · 24/10/2014 10:37

It does sound as if she is unsettled and that will considerably lower her trigger threshold generally. So dogs that she found a bit rude and annoying but didn't react to, she now will react. The only issue is that this behaviour works in sending other dogs away and can become established as a habit quite quickly.

I would really concentrate on avoiding situations that she will react in while things are unsettled.

How old is she? It's also not unusual for dogs that prefer not to socialise with other dogs (which is absolutely fine - it's a myth that all dogs need doggy company to be happy) to get increasingly fed up with being charged etc as they get older and become more reactive, so it is good to be alert to this possibility.

pigsDOfly · 24/10/2014 15:39

She's not all that old Spicy just 3.5 years.

It's a bit of an odd one really with this as she didn't start reacting with aggression until dog started to be aggressive towards her. She's always been fine with friendly dogs running at her - she would often roll over onto her back with a big dog but never be nasty as she's pretty passive by nature - it has just been recently that several times other dogs have run at her in an aggressive manner and that's when she started getting defensive.

Hopefully if, as you say, we can avoid situations where she's likely to meet overwhelming dogs for a while, she'll gradually get her confidence back and be her happy self again.

I definitely think she's been unsettled by a lot of changes in our routine of late. There's just the two of us and we have our regular walking times but recently - due to trying to sell my house - I've had to walk her at different times and often more frequently, which I know she hasn't liked. For other reasons I've also had to leave her on her own more than she's used to or both of us like.

I'm as certain as I can be that she doesn't suffer from separation anxiety. I distract her with a treat ball when I go out and she'll stand waiting by the door for that clearly looking forward to it. When I get back she's always upstairs asleep and often won't come downstairs until I've been back for 15 minutes or so, and her greeting is always calm. But at the same time I know that having to leave her on her own more often has also contributed to making her unsettled.

Now things have settled down I'm hoping she'll be more relaxed; certainly our walk yesterday was less eventful.

I had to leave her for just over an hour this morning so I hope she's not feeling too neglected but I'm waiting to see how she'll be today when we go out - just waiting for the weather to improve a bit before heading off.

Will let you know how it goes.

OP posts:
pigsDOfly · 24/10/2014 20:24

Well we went for our walk and met several dogs. None of whom was being aggressive, so that helped enormously.

The first one on a narrowish path was a bit barky but nothing too awful. We had nowhere we could go to avoid it as we were in a tunnel, so just kept walking forward and my dog just tucked up behind me on the other side - both dogs on the lead - and we walked on and met 3 small dog she's met before - all dogs off the lead at this point. This was quite fun as it prompted her to do her whole showing off with her ball thing - she likes to jump and catch her ball in mid air and will make a point of doing it in front of other dogs - I rather think she thinks she's the only dog in the history of dogs to do this brilliant trick and will trot it out at every opportunity:)

Another one she made a wide circle to avoid - don't really know why as it didn't even really look at her - and with yet another one she walked by with her nose in the air completely ignoring the lunge the dog made at her, - all dogs on the lead. The wonderful thing was that at no point did she bark or lunge towards any of them.

These are all her usual reactions to other dogs - the nose in the air coupled with a jaunty little trot, being a particular favourite I think, when she wants to appear sanguine in the face of another dog's less than perfect behaviour:)

I definitely think she's feeling better about things and being back to our usual routine is really helping; also I suspect it helped that I was being upbeat and jolly in a frankly over the top kind of way; always guaranteed to make her more playful - that and a pocket full of treats.

So all in all I think she is getting back to her usual happy self, thank goodness. I even managed to get her to be completely quiet as we left the house, which is a first.

Thank you so much for your input and replies and taking the time to help.

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