Fear aggression

[Beherenow32]

Hello.

Has anyone helped their dog cope with fear aggression? We have a 10 month old Maltese, who is currently experiencing this, and will bark at or try to nip strangers who get close to him.

We have had one to one training, and this helped a lot. He can now pass people and dogs while on walks. As long as these people don’t talk to him.

Unfortunately, we were unable to find a class when he was younger, as they were full, or put off by his behaviour.

We attended a class last night, and while it was fine when everyone was at a distance, he did get anxious/ aggressive etc at points.

We are hoping to introduce him to friends dogs (not push him to do anything he is uncomfortable with tho).

And was just looking for any positive stories. Are we doing the right thing, or have we left it too late?

Thank you

Reactive dogs my speciality

No its not too late BUT if this is the first time you have experienced a reactive dog do get some professional advice.It may initially cost money but it will save you heartache and be worth it in the long run.

You basically want your dog to be underthreshold at all times.So a training class right now would probably not be the right environment for your dog.

Strategies that are fantastic and you need to work on are:-

LAT =look at that, ask the dog to look at the scary thing under threshold and reward when they look at you. Aim being when scary thing comes look to you and gets a reward. You will need to be shown this is real life to get it right.

Lets go - a quick emergency turn around with reward.This can be used to get out of tricky situations or when your dog shows stress fun and easy to do

Magic hands -teach your dog to catch food when you drop it from you hand when he is walking - this is a fantastic distraction if anything scary comes along and also rewards the dog for being in the heel position

BAT =this can work for some dogs but does need some setup and can plateau but worth googling

There are so many things you can do if you want to let me know your area I can send you some local qualified professional people who can help.

But yes you can help improve things a lot for your dog with care and time.

I would hang back on introducing to friends dog unless you are happy with how to approach it. Only parallel walk to start with no interaction between dogs at all for a few sessionsetc.

Do not encourage people to approach your dog it will make things worse to start with. You could if the dog is happy, get them to THROW treats to the dog but they should not be looking at the dog and should not ask the dog to approach them

@Vallahalagonebutnotforgotten

Your advice is amazing. Thank you so much. We are currently in contact with a behaviourist, who has helped a lot, and mirrored your advice about the classes not being best just now.

Unfortunately, we have had other people telling us that we are not socialising him properly and this worried me.

I may message you soon! But you have really reassured me.

Thank you.

@Vallahalagonebutnotforgotten we have been using the LAT method that you described

I've got a reactive dog (motorbike fear aggression and he has a history of being a frustrated greeter that occasionally still comes to the fore). You have my sympathies; the public judgement and the "interesting" advice doled out by every Tom, Dick and Harry about what you should be doing with your dog - argh!

He's certainly become far better with a great deal of work - the frustrated greeter element of him is largely gone, and the motorbike fear reactivity can usually be managed by using the 'lets' go' technique mentioned by @Vallahala. Sitting outside a cafe on a busy road is, however, a distant dream - but the progress is that we can usually walk down that same road without incident so long as he's closely managed, and we could sit inside the cafe without incident.

However, I'm not qualified to give advice on these things, and I'm not going to directly. That said, I would recommend joining the facebook group Reactive Dogs (UK). I've never managed to implement the CARE protocol that they recommend for practical reasons, but I find the group useful for support and also for keeping a sense of perspective about just how bad my dog actually isn't.

It sounds like you've made good progress with the 121 training. Are you still working with them? If you're looking for someone new, look for a CCAB or APBC accredited trainer; the world of training and behaviour is totally unregulated and can be something of a wild west, hence the need to look for someone accredited.

“Unfortunately, we have had other people telling us that we are not socialising him properly and this worried me.”

You can’t socialise a dog by just putting them near near other dogs when they’re still stressed and scared, because they’ll only remember being stressed and scared.

So you work on the actual issue first.

Honestly I wish most people would just forget they ever heard the word socialisation, they use it to mean something completely different, socialising a dog is about building up positive experiences of the world so they’re relaxed and happy in day to day life, it does not mean - must meet all dogs

Thank you for your experiences. I totally agree. People keep saying we need to socialise him and don’t understand avoiding the triggers at all. He has came on so much and we do still work with the behaviourist.

I may look into reactive classes, instead of obedience classes.

Hi

We are looking for dogs that are fearful of strangers (it doesn't matter whether they bark, growl, lunge, snap at them, or cower, run away/avoid people!)

If you search for 'Dog Anxiety Study' on Facebook you'll find information about our clinical research trial.

You are required to bring your dog to Bristol Vet school for two half-day appointments, but all treatment (behavioural and nutraceutical) is free of charge.

For more info see Facebook or email: [email protected]

Sorry for jumping into your thread but we'd love to help as many dogs as possible!