Any trainers about? Reactive dog

[MadSweeney]

Hi all, can any trainers give me some hints on how to work with this.

Dog is friendly and lovely with all in the house. Once he's in public he decides he 'dislikes' certain people. No common factor, nothing with men/women/hats/hi vis etc. Just fearful of certain people.

When he has this reaction he will bark, often try and lunge and continue to bark until he's away from them. To me it seems a fearful reaction. As he can growl as well he wears a caution harness and leash.
Distraction with food is not an option. He's wound so tightly on a walk he won't take any treat, no matter how high or smelly the reward.

How do I get him past this? I took him to a shopping village last week where he happily walked without issue and I thought he'd finally got there, but when I sat down for a coffee he spent ten minutes barking at everyone who passed to the extent I ended up leaving as I was getting 'the look' from people across the courtyard.

Any advice appreciated.

Something interesting has happened.

As I said at the weekend I took him out with the Daxie and he was brilliant until it came to sitting. I had a thought that maybe a buggy was the solution, as he loves his crate (the door is never closed) and seems to feel safe there. With that in mind I ordered a £35 buggy from Amazon.

It turned up about 5pm so I decided to see what he thought. He instantly curled up in it so I left him to it for a bit. Over the last couple of hours he's been in and out so eventually I got the courage to put on his harness, pop him in and walk to the end of our long drive. He seemed much much calmer. I tried to offer a treat and to my amazement he took it.
After a few trips down the drive we ventured out of the gate and to the end of the street. By there he'd normally be really unsettled but he didn't bark at the landing pigeons, just looked on and this was rewarded with a lump of cheese.....which he ate.

I realise I look utterly ridiculous, but it has given me some hope I might be able to get him out and about properly eventually.
Tomorrow I might try and take him a bit further and sit on the green to let him people watch. As he's happy to take treats in his buggy I'll treat whenever he sees a person.

Probably not the advised way of doing things, but it seems to work for him for now. Expecting trainer to bollock me for it haha

I hope you wouldn't get a bollocking for finding something that helps DDog feel more comfortable - sounds good to me!

The buggy idea seems really interesting, hope it works for you both! We have 2 dogs and our rescue dog, a lovely creature at home, is a total fruit bat outside. Even in the garden she's horrendous every time a car goes by ( thankfully that's not too often). It's at the stage where she doesn't go for walks anymore; she's so reactive, mainly to vehicles (including bikes, scooters and joggers), that she's done herself serious injuries whirling around so crazily. We all love her to bits, but honestly, I made a really bad decision homing her, and although I'd never send her back, but as she's only 4ish, it's a long road ahead.

@214

The buggy idea seems really interesting, hope it works for you both! We have 2 dogs and our rescue dog, a lovely creature at home, is a total fruit bat outside. Even in the garden she's horrendous every time a car goes by ( thankfully that's not too often). It's at the stage where she doesn't go for walks anymore; she's so reactive, mainly to vehicles (including bikes, scooters and joggers), that she's done herself serious injuries whirling around so crazily. We all love her to bits, but honestly, I made a really bad decision homing her, and although I'd never send her back, but as she's only 4ish, it's a long road ahead.

That's the stage I reached. Taking him out was so stressful that it became easier all round to let him have the run of the garden and not bother.

I wish I could pinpoint his exact fears. Before lockdown I walked him with dd and her dog around a local lake and he was brilliant. Even a jogger who made me jump never had him flinching, yet on familiar territory a leaf landing in the wrong place can be hhe end of the world.

I hope we can both find solutions. I love him dearly and in the home he's wonderful, obedient, loving etc. He just seems to turn into a monster as soon as he's out of the door.

@214

We also have a 4 year old reactive rescue who turns into a demon if she hears a motorbike or feels threatened by other dogs. I'd thought that was just the way she was and we'd have to manage it as best we could. However, a chance encounter with a dog behaviourist followed by a few sessions has worked absolute wonders. We're using the distract and reward approach, plus keeping distance between her and things that make her anxious.

The change in her has been quite remarkable in just a few weeks and she's becoming quite easy to distract. She also seems happier and more confident. I always thought I knew a lot about dogs but this behaviourist has really opened my eyes and helped me understand my dog's behaviours and anxieties.

@Medievalist I think it's something we'll have to consider, I've sort of ruled it out on the basis that she'd had a lot of help in the rescue centre, as initially they thought she would never be suitable for re-homing. We must all be crackers!!

Watching this as my nervous fear reactive dog got bitten so now of course is barking and growling at every dog she sees

The front fastening harness came this morning. That was a huge change. I'm not fighting him when he's walking now as he literally cant pull me. When he did start to bark it was easy to turn him away from this issue.

This afternoon we've been down to the green in the buggy. Armed with cheese we sat for a short five minutes to begin with and fortunately there were some gardeners out. sat a good distance away and he was happy to eat the cheese rather than bark at the gardeners.

I still feel utterly lost in all this, but I do have some hope now he can be a nice little dog again.

MadSweeney sounds like you are making good choices and things are progressing, definitely light at the end of the tunnel.

Update

The trainer came out earlier and she is lovely. We spent an hour working with him slowly. I've mentioned before our drive is quite long, and because he can see things at the end of it he is reactive before he gets out of the front door.
Well, within an hour I had a dog that was calm walking out of the front door and to the end of the drive, whilst happily munching on salmon pate.

We're taking it slowly. He needs to enjoy being outside before we venture far, but he's shown he can do it and is enjoying foraging for the treats I throw down in the garden.
I've repeated the steps with him this evening, this time we got through the gate and a few feet up the pavement. All the while him happily eating treats and not overly phased by the woman across the road collecting her bin.

I'm hopeful with lots of work and me stinking of salmon pate we can do this!

Well done the pair of you! What a fab start. (quite like the smell of salmon pate tbh!)

She thought his reactions were a mix of fear and excitement, and the reason he barked at some people and not others was 'trigger stacking', so he's reaching a point where recant take it any more and barks at the next random person he sees regardless.
It was fascinating if I'm honest and I understand him much more for it.

That all sounds like amazing progress.

We have an 8 month old cockerpoo who gets over excited about everything. It did take a trainer to point out that if he won't take treats then he is over the threshold and we need to work keeping him under. We sometimes go out but don't go for walks now. Go somewhere, stop and settle and look around. Away from other dogs etc but it works for him. I also do this in the front garden now before a walk, so instead of being dragged to the gate, I make him sit for a couple of minutes to the point where I can get his attention again.

Ours starts with putting on the harness and the excitement builds from there so I started by putting on his harness and then playing ball in the garden so that a walk isn't a serious of overexciting things before we even start. We work a lot on de escalating, I need to take a step back and put his harness on sometimes without going out for a walk so that it isn't an expectation that raises excitement. It'sa lot of consistent training!

You will get there.

Well, it's going ok.
The salmon pate sausage seems to work a treat and I can get him right out of the front gate now. Yesterday we managed to almost reach the end of the street, an achievement especially as there was a work van parked and a man coming and going. The treats distracted him, but he was still tightly wound by it, and on seeing our neighbour on the way back he really did fall apart. He's eating the treats quickly so he can get back to being on alert, sometimes he's wolfed them down so fast he'll cough them back up.

I had a brief chat to my lovely vet this morning, explained whats been going on and how the training is helping but he is still stressed. He's due his booster in a fortnight so we're going to have a discussion about dog prozac through the training to see we can relax him more.

It's a slow process, but I can see changes in him already.

You are doing so well.

It is frustrating that you have a good day and then the next day things seem not to move on. However do not rush things, the pace may seem very slow to you but initially that is the pace your dog needs to go.

You will get there guicker by going slower!

I would be tempted to go back a stage if you dog is showing anxiety eg rushing the treats. Take a deep breath and not go so far for a few days.

Huge respect to you though it is hard work but he is a lucky dog

Thanks Viper.

I turned back as soon as he started to wolf down the treats. I'm getting better at spotting his stress signals now. Amazing I've learned more about him this last week than in 7 years.

He's also doing well with his window obsession. Blocking him from lying in the bay window isn't an option really. As soon as he sees the postman/window cleaner etc now I shout "OOOOH! Postman! Come on!" and lead him into the kitchen for a duck chew. When he sees someone now he gives one bark, hops down and heads to the kitchen for his reward.

You’re making great progress.
We have a great dog no issues until he had an accident and then became very upset when out walking .
We went back to training basics , short frequent walks. No tugging or yanking, sitting him down when we saw a trigger , treat or distract and then walking on.
Slow and steady, it took a year but he’s back to his perfect self.
I would say the best work you’re doing is stopping the behaviour in the house , well done.

Progress is very slow, his anxiety levels, now I can read them, I can see are through the roof. Had a discussion with the vet when we went for his boosters. In current COVID climate it meant we had to wait in the car park, so when she came out she could witness the anxiety he has about everything first hand.

She's put him on a low dose of clomipramine, 2 weeks to start with to see how he goes. We're only 3 days in so too early to say whether it's helping.

We continue to walk within the confines of the garden, there is a slow improvement. Window guarding continues to improve. He's now happy to alert and then hop down for his treat.