Reactive whippets/wiggy X3

[whippetsos]

Through no fault of my own (lol), 18 months ago we inherited 2 whippets and 1 wiggy. This was due to a family bereavement and me stupidly agreeing a few years prior. I should say, I do love them so much, but bloody hell they are hard work. They are 6, 4 and 3 years old. I do NOT want to rehome them, that is not an option. They deserve to get this sorted.

They are very cute and loving, but my god they are reactive, to dogs and to people. Not viscous, just scared and REALLY barky. Sometimes it feels like I have wild beasts at the end of the lead.

I have spent a fortune seeing dog trainers (including the Southend dog man - travelled 100s of miles). By the end of our session, all 3 could walk by the dogs there without barking, but I truly believe they just got used to THOSE dogs. Outside and back at home it's different story. I also spent money on a couple of local trainers who was lovely and said about rewarding the good behaviour and ignoring the bad on walks, but I can't do that because they never learn NOT to bark at dogs and people.

At home we have to literally lock them away in a bedroom with one of us when we have guests as they just bark like feral wolves! I did what the trainers suggest with giving them a safe space etc, bring them down on the lead and treating them for moments of calm - but there truly aren't any.

I honestly could cry whilst writing this. I've got SO many years of this left to go and want to sort it.
Interestingly one of the trainers said whippets do tend to be reactive as they are bred to react fast to things (running etc) and on fb groups I'm on, there do seem to be alot of reactive whippets.

Please help.

In their defence, they are very good when I go out to work for the morning or when we all go out - no separation anxiety.

Iggys especially are pretty neurotic tbh. Have you tried a calming supplement like skullcap and valerian or an adaptil collar?

Only suggestion I have is to walk them separately and adress the issues. Once you are confident you can try and walk 2 together... and so on.
Or try dog training classes for each individual dog on different days so they have quality 1:1 time with you and you can adress their issues and learn their personality.

Having multiple dogs is hard work and it's obviously causing some issues. I understand that re homing isn't an option but maybe they would be happier as only dogs ... is there another relative/ friend who is able to take on one of the dogs?

Remember, if you are stressed around them anticipating certain behaviour, they will be stressed and doing the behaviour.

No I haven't, will try, thank you!

They all absolutely adore each other , and when sleeping together it's so cute. It's just the reactivity that's a nightmare, they're pretty well behaved at home (apart from when we have guests). Also, there is no one else to take them, and I promised my Nana to love them forever before she died 😬

Very true about my stress, as I definitely am stressed snd probably tense. Walking them separately is a good idea but it would mean a shorter walk due to work and kids etc. I guess they could do training walks individually which is exhausting for them anyway
They all get a good run each day too

I always though they were just smaller greyhounds but no way! Far more neurotic and reactive

I’d walk them separately personally.
I’ve got two dogs and one is a bit reactive, by himself he’s fairly calm and manageable, and needs stacked triggers to set him off (obviously we try and avoid this) when I walk him with the other (very well behaved dog) he is so amped the whole time he’s at threshold the whole time so if he sees another dog within about 100ft he goes bezerk

They need separate walks - you're never going to make any progress walking three reactive dogs together.

Could you afford a solo dog walker so that one of the dogs is taken out by them everyday? It would reduce your workload a bit and give the dog some space from the others too.

It reads to me like what you're trying to do is say to a fearful dog - "don't be scared of this, and if you're not you get a treat" "if you are scared, I'll ignore you"
You need to change the feeling that the dog has so that it's not scared any more - rather than try and get the dogs to manage their emotions in order to get a treat. I read it somewhere like the difference between asking someone who is afraid of spiders to hold a spider in order to get chocolate afterwards. They're still going to be bloody terrified after that.

You need to work on the dogs individually and work at a distance from the scary thing - if they bark you're too close. You want them to see if but not react - that's when you give the treat and keep going, then move on. Then over time you get closer.

Scary thing paired with nice things, not holding back emotions at scary things for nice things. Distance will help with this,

I'm afraid the thing in the house is a problem, can you go right to the end of the garden? Or drive them to a completely empty field?