How to deal with dog reacting to cyclists/runners since fright

[ForeverAintEnough12]

My dog got a fright a few weeks ago. He got in the way of a runner who skidded to a halt in front of him kind of towering over him. Runner started running again and dog thought he was chasing him and ran off too. Since this incident he has started being reactive around cyclists and runners by barking at them. He never did this before. It seems to be any cyclist or runner who is dressed in black (the runner who gave him the fright was in all black).

What should we be doing to try alleviate his worries and stop him being reactive to them?

I can't think of anything to help but I have had my rescue dog 4 years now and she still sometimes jumps and cowers if a cyclist comes up behind her and brakes on loose earth (making a slight skidding noise) due to unpleasant experiences whilst a stray in inner London. I just tell it is OK, nothing to worry about and she recovers very quickly with the reassurance and resumes her usual cheerful demeanour.

Gradual positive exposure to desensitise him - try to walk by cyclists & runners in the distance, lots of treats & praise. Gradually reduce the distance over a period of weeks. Perhaps get a stooge runner - a friend to dress in black & run by, so you can practice.

When our dog had a frightening experience with a child screaming in his face our behaviourist told us to firstly give him a chance to forget the incident so at least a week of not seeing the child. Can you find walks where you're not likely to come across a jogger? Then as PP said, exposure at a distance and treat the second they've seen the jogger and before they've had chance to react.

Thanks all, I was saying we could get someone to run past him in black but might try desensitise him first with treats and pets when we see any cyclists

treats and praise

Be vigilant and get him on a lead when you see a runner or cyclist coming, get him to sit and feed him the tastiest treats you can (liver cake or roast chicken works well). keep his attention on the food and praise until they have run or cycled past.

I do this with my three dogs, even though they do not react to runners or cyclists - one of them potentially could decide to run with them, so he goes on a lead, the well-trained one just comes and sits. (One of the dogs is reactive so always on lead anyway). All three sit and look at me while I treat them, they are very happy to do so as they love the treats I use.

It's just a good routine to get into TBH, it makes the cyclists and runners feel more secure too, as they see the dogs are under control and no danger to them, it reinforces your recall and the dog becomes more steady. Don't think in terms of desensitizing, but in terms of reinforcing good habits. I also do it sometimes if there's big group of walkers without dogs, especially if they've got toddlers with them as one of mine adores kids (original owner had grandchildren so he assumes all children love dogs)

It's not the sane as our dog never had a fright like yours did but was always intimidated by cyclists especially.
When ever we saw them I would get him to sit and look at me. Gave him a treat for not reacting. I positioned myself in front of him so between him and the bike.
It's taken time and he is still cautious but not nearly as afraid of them as he was.

Yes we do exactly the same, just add rowers into the mix (stupid dog ) when we see them we sit to the side and play ‘go find’ so I’ll scatter feed. Runners we’ve almost completely mastered, rowers have been in lockdown for a year so it’ll be interesting to see if that’s still a problem, cyclists we have improved, but still not bullet proof especially the less experienced ones for some reason.

The other thing I’d suggest is when you’ve had a break for a few days, take him somewhere where he can view them from a distance to start with, we use our local green which has lots of cycle/jog traffic and we can be gradually reduce the distance, whereas our main problem area is a canal path with tight passing options so I generally avoid that at weekends and school holidays.

I got our dog to sit and wait on the edge of path until cyclists / runners have passed. I’d be calm and then a treat and praise afterwards. He now does this without being asked. Hope he gets over his fright.

Ours always tried to chase joggers and bikes! When we saw one approaching, we started to make him sit and wait. If he did, he got a treat and now we don't even need to make him sit, he's not fussed by them

I have a squeaky toy in my pocket. One of my dogs is the same. I'm fed up of having to jump out of the way of joggers and cyclists. Some of them won't slow down. One of my dogs is protective and sees a person running and riding at me at speed and does not like people getting to close. I distract him with a squeaky ball

Yes to distracting with treats. I was always sceptical about it as I thought it was just masking the symptoms rather than solving the problem, iykwim. I was wrong - it made a big difference, surprisingly quickly!