Reactive Dog

[noideabutstilltrying]

I lost my beautiful Labrador in September and our remaining lab was so unhappy on her own.

as a family we made the decision to rehome a GSD via the RSPCA in November

she is such a reactive dog that my husband and young adult children refuse to walk her.

I have been bitten by her numerous times.

I’ve invested so much in the dog (time, emotion and financial)

I just am getting no where. Have been advised to buy a harness by one trainer. Spent £60 to see if it would her …….it didn’t. The training made no difference.

Ive met with an alternative trainer and they advised not to use the harness but I need to buy a specific muzzle(£75). I have been advised to book another session at a cost of £100.

i am feeling tearful, tired, broke and completely at the end of my tether.

its been the hardest 7/8 months.

am I wasting my time or does it get better?

Have you actually consistently used a trainer and behaviourist OP?

I ask because there isn’t just one way to cope with reactivity, there are many, and none of them are a one stop shop. It’s not something that can be cured in one session with a trainer or something that a piece of equipment alone can fix.

A harness doesn’t cure reactivity, it does however provide you with a bigger base with which to control the dog & means they aren’t always pulling on their neck. A muzzle doesn’t cure reactivity either, it just ensures that your dog cannot bite you or anyone else/any other dog while reacting.

You need a block of sessions with a good, reliable behaviourist & trainer who can help you figure out why she is reacting (for example could be fear reactive, could be excitement reactive, it could be sounds), what her triggers are and can help you come up with a plan long term for some desensitisation at her own pace & how to best keep control of the situation. A good trainer will provide this and then continue to check in regularly, make adjustments and give further advice where necessary. Any trainer who after 1 session has told you to just get a certain harness or muzzle and that will fix your problems has not been worth even £1 for their time.

No piece of equipment will have a ‘magic fix’ effect and it will take months of work to help your dog cope better regardless of what gadget she is wearing. Either the people you have been using have misadvised you or you have misunderstood them.
You need a qualified behaviour expert (NOT just a trainer) and an extended run of work. Most cases can be improved but I’ll be completely honest and say many reactivity cases will always require some management and the issue doesn’t always go away completely in many cases

Did you know the dog was reactive when you got her? What you have there is not a dog but a project. I would say a reactive GSD would be best as the only dog in a no child family with an experienced GSD owner who has plenty of free time. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and commitment to turn her around. You’ve given it a really good go, but there’s no shame in rehoming her if you don’t have the skills and time she needs. Good luck whatever you decide.

I have had consistent sessions and put in place the advice which has been given.

I was advised that she had an issue with cars passing her. I signed up to work with the behaviourist to find a way to help her with this.

I was also told that she’d been in kennels around a year with a couple of failed adoptions during this time. The first was a month, the second a week.

the behaviourist said I’d need to distract her when triggers happened. The dog gets so stressed that treats, my voice or any other distraction I have tried is not enough.

when stressed she doesn’t eat so treats don’t cut it.

Her triggers are pretty much anything you can come across outside the house. I wasn’t made aware of this when adopting her.

i walk her away from people dogs and cars. I drive her to a footpath so she has a good walk morning and evening. Her stress levels rise even more without them.

leaving the village and seeing people, dogs cats cars etc set her off. My car has been trashed as a result.

I was / am hopeful of finding something which would work to calm her so we could introduce her to daily sights, sounds and smells.

i wasn’t expecting the harness or muzzle to ‘fix’ her, just help manage her.

I think after 7 months that there would be the foundation of a bond and a small amount of trust that I have her safe.

It’s been a bad day, it’s a new one tomorrow and we will try again.

I know there’s a lovely dog in there, just have to find a way to get that out a bit more often.

Definitely have another look for a really good behaviourist. Ours took videos that identified some physical problems that he thought were causing pain and affecting behaviour. After consulting our vet our dog is now on pain medication. You could also consider whether she has anxiety and whether a medication trial for that might help. It’s really hard to train if she’s constantly in hyper alert mode.

have you seen a behavioural vet? People frown upon it but Prozac saved my dog from a miserable life

Ouch, with your additional information, that sounds very tough. The initial post didn’t read as you having already invested a lot of time in trying to fix things
No responsible person would attempt to help via internet without seeing her, so I’ll just add my hope that you have a better day tomorrow. It does sound that management is more likely to be the key than cure. Which long term is one hell if a big ask of anyone
You say she has bitten you multiple times though. In what circumstances? Redirected aggression within a reactive episode or something else? A muzzle would at least keep you safer personally….

Trust me I had a dog very similar and we worked so hard
he attacked my daughter who needed emergency surgery. It was horrific and he went back
please don’t risk it
im an experienced dog owner too

some have been redirected biting due to cars passing some bites have been as she’s been told no.

I have the muzzle on order as it’s made from her measurements, that was a task 🫣

She’s in the last chance saloon, if she goes back it’s behavioural euthanasia. If that’s the best thing for her once we’ve put in place the recommendations for the current trainer I’d rather take her as this has been her first proper home.

she’s been on medication (gabapentin and fluoxetine) they didn’t touch.

@noideabutstilltrying do you not think behavioural euthanasia might be best?

Shes not just got a few bites, but multiple under her belt and your family clearly aren’t happy with her in their lives.

It’s great you want to help, but some dogs are just unfixable, no matter how much time and effort goes into them.

Whatever you do, you should be taking this up the chain with the RSPCA - rehoming a dog with serious issues, including a probable bite history (given how she’s acted with toy), is so bloody dangerous. And it’s happening far too often with these big rescues.

is it a Bumas muzzle? our reactive GSD has one of these and it’s great, he can pant properly and drink through it so ideal for the hot weather. just knowing that you can’t be bitten will give you a lot more confidence when out walking, which in turn translates to your dog as they can feel the tension otherwise.

having a reactive dog can be so wearing, ours is a joy inside the house and so soft/cuddly but he has been attacked several times by off the lead dogs so that’s a real trigger for him outside and not something we can control.

i see it as something i’ll always have to manage, we take the necessary precautions to keep ourselves and him safe and that’s just how it has to be. he has a lovely life, plays for hours in the garden, adores our other dog, has long off lead walks in a secure dog field and plenty of lead walks with his muzzle which he doesn’t mind at all.

i wouldn’t view the problem as unfixable at all, there are lots of ways to manage a reactive dog and the love they give back is so worth it.

“I think after 7 months that there would be the foundation of a bond and a small amount of trust that I have her safe”

That’s not how it works I’m afraid. I’m on my second reactive dog in a row (cause I’m amazing at picking dogs 😐 😂) totally different causes and situations, but the last one it didn’t develop until later on, current one it was apparent the day he came home from the rescue but we’re 4 years down the line now… their bond with me was/is fine bit that doesn’t magically make the reactivity and better, unfortunately.

I’m assuming your own vet prescribed the gabapentin and fluoxetine? Because I’ve seen a behavioural vet and while fluoxetine was the first medication he prescribed it was alongside a training plan and there were other things to try if that didn’t work, can’t remember what as the fluoxetine did make a big difference for mine. So I wouldn’t rule out being referred to a specialist as an option.

“the behaviourist said I’d need to distract her when triggers happened. The dog gets so stressed that treats, my voice or any other distraction I have tried is not enough.”

That makes me wonder about the quality of help you’ve been getting tbh, because that’s pretty rubbish advise and behaviourist and trainer aren’t protected terms, I could just decide to be one tomorrow and there’s no come back.

It sounds to me like your dog is beyond the level of a trainer, you should be looking at registered qualified behaviourists or a vet with a behavioural specialty.

Also, if you are getting close to not being able to cope with her, behavioural euthanasia is not the worst thing that can happen to a dog, a dog that’s that stressed all the time is not a healthy dog and reactive dogs are very hard to live with and it’s perfectly ok to be considering that as an option.

I applaud you for wanting to help but with each post your situation sounds worse. This is an extremely troubled dog with a very long bite history! She’s been returned to rescue multiple times (quite frankly the rescue people want locking up for rehoming a clearly unsuitable dog yet again) and not only does she bite when over aroused around certain triggers (cars),she appears to have work out she can use her mouth to get her own way if told off. This makes her very dangerous imo

i agree with @LandSharksAnonymous . As sad as it is, behavioural euthanasia may well be the appropriate course of action. I do not say this lightly, I am a dog trainer of many years experience and would not be prepared to live with a dog like this when months of work and medication have all failed to make it a safe,workable experience
Im so sorry that the rescue have put you in this awful position

We have a GSD, and have the same issue. We have done everything, but we have to ‘manage’ the behaviour as we haven’t been able to fix it. The next step would be Prozac for calming, but we have avoided that so far.