Rescue Saluki lurcher suddenly reactive to dogs on walks, really struggling. Help!

[Changeychangeit]

Looking for a bit of advice! We adopted a Saluki lurcher from a rescue. Maybe 3-4 years. In the house she is fabulous.

However, on walks, she has started to go mental when she sees other dogs- barking, leaping, scarily hard to control. Started to happen after she saw a fox early this week and DH didn't catch it in time. I have had to take her on every walk since as DH won't now have anything to do with her- he apparently hates her (I realise this is his anxiety speaking) so I have had to try to fix the behaviour.

It's really getting me down, and DH is talking about sending her back to the rescue, which will break DC's heart. I am terrified something will happen as I struggled to control the last incidence. We can't avoid dogs as they seem to be everywhere where we live.

I have started to contact dog trainers to put a plan in place, but there isn't much availablity for a couple of weeks.

I need help, suggestions, success stories. Please. Anything to help.

Thank you all! It is feeling a bit more positive right now. I am totally up to be told what to do by the dog trainer next week.

We managed to leave her alone for a short time today with no issues, and she slept in her own bed downstairs without us (we are doing a gradual retreat- we slept in a different room downstairs) last night.

It seems that reducing the pressure and parking back walks (something the dog trainer suggested) has been helpful. DH took her out today and said that the barking was less intense the one time she did it today, and that she managed to pass a dog with no reaction...all of which is an improvement.

We have definitely come along a bit since my initial post, which is a good thing. I guess we'll just keep chipping away at things.

That sounds promising. Do bear in mind it won't be a straight, upward line of progress. There absolutely will be setbacks and plateaus. But stick with regular training and do what your trainer tells you - even if at times you think it's not getting better - because in the end, it WILL work.

Training classes rather than 1:1 training. Some trainers do both. Your dog can learn to socialise with other dogs under supervision. A minimum of 6 weeks is needed. My dog has done over 3 years at training club. He moved through various classes and is now moving on to other things. It eventually became a social evening for all the owners and dogs.
Research your trainer carefully - experience and qualifications, how long they have been in business, methods used. I personally prefer obedience training to clicker training.

Meanwhile, do you have dog fields to rent anywhere near you? You can rent a well fenced field all to yourself with no other dogs around.

Im pleased to read a positive update and glad reducing the pressure on everyone has helped. We did similar at one point with our reactive rescue and decided we just needed to take the stress of all of us for a while.
Totally agree not to expect an upward trend of progress. We find some days we marvel at how far shes come, whereas others can definitely feel like a step back. I’m realising too that staying calm is important and not feeding in to their anxiety. I think my DH panics a bit if we’re walking along and another dog appears and she picks up on that and reacts a bit more whereas we need to give her the message it’s nothing to worry about.
Love to hear an update after you’ve seen the trainer to see what they suggest.

I think salukis are particularly prone to being reactive. Their instincts are to be always vigilant and on the hunt. I've had 2 salukis and with both it's been hard work to keep the reactivity under control on walks. I'm not sure a rescue saluki will ever get to the stage where they'll be totally well socialised and want to say hello to unfamiliar dogs on walks, but with perseverance, you can teach them to be calmer. I'm glad to hear things are starting to go a little better and you're feeling more positive.

My current girl, I've had almost a year now and she's still prone to being very reactive. We tend to go out early in the morning as she's easily triggered by anything and everything, cars, dogs, birds, people. The trick is to keep as much distance as you can from people and dogs and reward/distract with treats when they don't bark. You'll start to get a feel for the critical distance your dog is comfortable with before they start to react. Over time, you should be able to reduce the distance.

You may need to be ready with a dozen or so small treats to successfully walk past someone on the opposite side of the road. (They also can't bark as easily if they're eating!) Speak calmly and reassuringly to them as soon as you clock another dog. I tend to offer the treat slightly to the side, so my dog has to look away from the other dog to get it. This encourages them not to lock on and stare at the other dog and reduces the likelihood of the other dog feeling threatened and barking back (which will set mine off).

I think it's generally considered 'bad' by trainers to hold a reactive dog on a short lead, but I'll always bring my dog in close to my side when we see another dog. If she gets too far away from me then I know she'll ignore me and fixate on barking at the other dog. I like the double leads where one end clips onto the harness and the other onto the collar as it gives a bit of extra control.

We have a rescue lurcher who started being reactive in walks a few weeks after we got him. He’d lunge around madly at certain dogs but was really hard to predict which ones and why. He’s much better now but has taken a while.
We walk him around a couple of big parks and I make an effort for him not to meet other dogs head on - on a narrow path. We avoid being too near other dogs. I encourage as much sniffing the ground as possible as it’s calming - so we walk around the edges and places where other dogs wee. The walks are generally predictable for him. We only do one a day and then play and training in the house and garden.
We did quite a lot of training work at home getting him used to accepting treats and focusing on us.
When we see another dog I use the marker word and offer a high value treat. It took months and months for him to accept treats on a walk - he was so wired he wasn’t even interested in chicken or sausages. We practiced walking and accepting treats in the garden and then on the footpath outside the house and he’s now getting to the stage where he’ll mostly look to me for a treat when he sees another dog rather than going ballistic.
We did use a trainer who recommended putting him on Fluoxetine for anxiety which he’s still on.
It’s been a slog and stressful and not the journey we imagined when we got him but he’s a lovely boy and things are now so much better than they were but we’re about 18 months in. It took us so much more time than I’d been expecting. Good luck - it’s a lot but very rewarding if you are able to stick with it.

Thanks all. First session with the dog trainer/behaviourist today, and it was amazing how much the dog seemed to relax even after a few minutes with her, walking up and down the street.

We have been given some exercises to do with her (including some around lead control). She thinks anxiety is at the root cause of the issue, as the dog is on high alert as soon as she leaves the house, so we need to address it.

It's going to be about putting the fundamentals in place and putting in the work to help this issue gets resolved, and the trainer was honest and realistic about this. She also told us to take the pressure off by doing the exercises along the street rather than long walks.

Next session will be controlled exposure to dogs with the trainer.

Great update @Changeychangeit

You may find Dani's Facebook sighthound support group page helpful.

https://www.sighthoundpreytraining.com/

There can be all sorts of reasons for reactivity that's not aggression from fear to frustration at not being able to greet. I would start training to wear a Sighthound muzzle as it takes time and they come in handy for various occasions but mainly if your still learning to read body language it removes the worry of them biting the small fluffy that charges over to help you stay relaxed and not tense up. We tend to slow our pace, tighten up the lead in preparation for the kick off with reactive dogs which can mean when we see the dog in the distance we end up inadvertently signalling to them there's something to be concerned about.

The spring weather can send them loopy! One of mine has started like this last week. I forget she gets like this every spring then settles. Good luck.

How are you getting on OP? Reading with interest as we have very recently adopted an 8 year old lurcher. We've avoided walking him in high footfall areas and at less busy times, and luckily we live semirurally so can do this. He was great for first few days, but then totally threw me by barking and lunging at a Springer being walked across the road on our way home. The Springer did not respond at all.

It's something I want to nip in the bud as we live in a small village with lots of dogs and it would be awful if I was only able to walk him in out of way places.

Rescue said he was fine with other dogs, but obviously not small furries, but living in rescue is very different to living in a home. In fact I doubt he's ever lived in a home! I am thinking of seeing a behaviourist sooner rather than later, and wonder if you've seen consistent improvement?

He's a lovely lad and doesn't seem phased by tractors, bikes etc and loves people.

It's actually much better; if you haven't heard of 3/3/3 for rescue dogs, it's worth looking up as a guide. We have passed the 3 months
, and she has definitely relaxed and come into her own in that time.

What mix do you have? We found r/lurchers, r/saluki, r/sighthounds and r/reactivedogs on Reddit very very helpful with understanding what might be possible, understanding which behaviours are breed related and getting tips (it is obvious she has Saluki in her, still not sure about the rest!)

It hasn't been easy, but there is a big improvement. We have even managed some walks without kicking off, and, when she does, it has been more manageable. Biggest victory this week was walking past a cat and a squirrel with no reaction, as well as managing to walk past our nemesis (a dog that barks and growls through a fence) with minimal fuss. She never would have done that before. We also have a dog walker once a week to help socialisation, and she has really been helpful with advice, and seen an improvement.

Some of it has been a shift of mindset on our part, adding a sleeve to her lead to indicate she is a nervous rescue has helped, but just management and going on walks where she has felt more comfortable (ie keeping to similar routes). We also now walk with a halti lead (in addition to a harness) and it seemed to make us both more comfortable (you could see her start relaxing into walks when we introduced it).

That's not to underestimate the work on her part to start to try to ignore things! Small, furry dogs are still a challenge, but some of that is prey drive. Unfortunately we live in a place where there are a lot of small, furry dogs!

We did work with a trainer for a while- probably a little early, looking back, as it was all a fear reaction. We are also about to start working with a behaviourist to help the anxiety. If there are are neutral walks in your area (basically a cross of a weak and training, with other dogs. There is a reactive dog one near us that is really helpful) these could be worthwhile looking at.

She is beautifully behaved apart from this, though, and become a real part of the family.

Time, and getting advice at the right stages, seems to be a great tool. Keep things consistent, work out which treats are high value (call our for Trumbles duck sausage here!), try to work out what is causing the behaviour, and expect to sometimes go backwards before going forwards again.

Apologies for the essay above! Have you worked out what the issue might be? The longer we had her, the more it bclecame clear our issue was fear/anxiety - the leaping was behind us, the barking was deep, and the body language screamed it.

I have read about 333 and it was in the info pack the rescue gave me. Thanks so much for replying and appreciate your long post and advice. Our dog looks to me like a whippet/greyhound cross. Previous rescue dog was a bull lurcher and a dream, but I mustn't compare. I should give it a bit longer before behaviorist, which could be another stress for him.

He seems like a confident enough lad, not reactive to noise etc, so I don't think it's fear. He'd been in rescue for a long time though, so I must be patient. I thought he might be more laid back at 8!

I wouldn't necessarily rule out fear so quickly. Our dog also doesnt seem to fear anything other than other dogs!

@Changeychangeit I think you're right about the fear after reading up about it. I will see a behaviourist but as he's so new, for now I will be avoiding dogs whenever possible. We set off early this morning and missed dogs but unfortunately came across cat 🙄. I'm not walking again today to keep stress levels down (mine and his) plus it's hot. Thanks for your advice.

PS We were also told by our rescue that he got on well with other dogs.

I hear you about cats @Freysimo!
Are you confident you can hold him?
I have a not dissimilar dog and walk her on a harness and longline with good grip. I find leads can often be too short and with the longline you've got a good amount to hold onto. Keep her very short on the road of course. I also wear gloves to protect my hands. Just thin, cheap gloves.
You could try a walking belt.
Also, how about trying some calming supplements? When I feel it might help, I use Zylkene which was recommended by my vet and also magnesium.
A behaviourist is a good idea too.

Ah cats. Cats and squirrels are our nemeses! You need to try to make sure that your fear about walking him doesn't come through to him, or that it doesn't rule you. That's a hard won insight - I was very, very depressed, anxious and fearful about it all and it really didn't help.

Things have improved again here - I think getting more confident in understanding quirks, the sleeve over the lead saying she is a nervous rescue, working on 'look at me' and focusing attention, and working out the current super high value treats to help change the course of things (duck sausages from a small local company!) have all been helpful. We also changed the way we use the lead to communicate, which has begun to help.

We actually managed 3 walks with no incident, which was unheard of, though the most recent one went off piste due to an owner who seemed to think that politely asking him to out his off lead dog on lead (on a busy road) was offensive...which then stacked every time we saw anything that was remotely furry.

The advice we had on leads was to use a dual end lead (clip on harness, and also clip on to collar) to enable better control. We have also used 2 leads (one back, one on a martingale collar; or one back, one halti). If you dont already use dual leads, I would highly recommend it- you have a safety in place if anything happens.

We don't muzzle her, but we sometimes use a halti lead for training/if we can't avoid dogs/on planned neutral walks with other dog owners. It worked quite well for us, and helped both us- and her- feel more confident that we have got this. It's also (another) visual clue to other owners that you need space.

We are waiting to see the behviourist as we wanted to see how she finally settled before we did. We'll see what we can do, though. A steep learning curve for us as first time dog owners!

I'm going to order a harness today. I think I'd feel more in control if he lunges. I had one for old lurcher girl but that was just for car and not proper lurcher one. Any recommendations? Preferably one that's easy to put on!

I'm not normally an anxious person, but his reactivity has taken me aback. I was imagining nice strolls round our village chatting to other dogs and owners like I did with old lurcher, especially as rescue said he was good with other dogs. Also, I wasn't expecting so much energy from an 8 year old! Early days I know.

We have a dry dogs one as they are made to fit sighthound chests (also what we were given by the specialist sighthound rescue we got her from).

If you have a classic deep chested dog, these are great! Use the measurements on the page to choose a size.

https://drydogs.co.uk/collections/collars-leads/products/sighthound-escape-proof-harness

We also found this type of collar doesnt slip over narrow heads: drydogs.co.uk/collections/collars-leads/products/martingale-collars-soft-with-brass-fittings

We had a saluki lurcher - they are by nature two very sensitive dogs mixed together.
Also most saluki crosses in rescue are going to be abandoned ex-hare coursers and had a very bad start in life with not a lot of love and probably no socialization. Ours had never been inside a house and had to be tempted in with sausage. She also didn't like men other than my DF at all.
We have a rescue lurcher who I suspect was a failed hare courser ( although he does have a prey drive so not entirely sure why he was put into a rescue at 10 months completely unsocialised and terrified) and behaved exactly the same. Obviously it's illegal so the people who put him into the rescue didn't tell them his actual background. He was ( and still is a bit) reactive to other dogs but the one thing that helped with us was us making a fuss ( with the owners permission) of other dogs. I think he then realised eventually they weren't a threat to him or us. Also my husband was the same- overly anxious, and I think then he felt more threatened as he thought he was protecting us from danger ( the other dogs). He'd only do it when we all went out together as a pack too.

Definitely agree with drydogs harness for greyhounds. My rescue saluki came with one and a double lead which clips to the front and the back. I wish I'd known about them with my first greyhound who was also reactive and once slipped his harness trying to get away from a couple of dogs who were barking at him.

Looks like the medium Dry Dogs is sold out (he's between whippet and greyhound) and I really don't want to wait any time for one. Any other suggestions? I've had a look at some on Snootiful Hound but I don't want to make wrong choice.

Might be worth looking on r/lurcher, r/whippet, r/sighthound or r/saluki on reddit for suggestions. Maybe also 'For the love of whippets' on Facebook. You could also get a decent response by posting your own thread on The Doghouse here.

It essentially needs to be escape proof and the right proportions for a ighthound.

Our 20kg girl is a medium too.