Amy Cook, PhD is a dog behavior consultant extraordinaire and she sat down to chat with Sarah about the importance of planned, trained, and rehearsed management strategies for navigating the world with reactive dogs.
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So proud of my dog today. We've been working on her reactivity to other dogs and people for months now and today we went to one of the less crowded and more open-spaced walking trails. We were meeting up with my sister-in-law who got a puppy a couple months ago and has been wanting them to meet for a while.
She didn't react to a single human other than a firmer tail wag and happy ears, including the children! (She absolutely hates kids, even more than she hates men, which is saying something.)
When it came to my sister-in-law's dog, they both lunged at each other after a brief sniff, but she only had hackles raised for a moment and calmed down when the other dog moved away. They even were able to play for a bit by the lake and she did gentle corrections of the other dog instead of snapping and snarling when she got jumped on for the 100th time.
I know it's a journey and she'll likely have some bad days here and there, particularly if we visit her apartment and are in an enclosed space, but I'm so proud of her.
Hi! I really enjoy reading about the work you're doing with Rory and preventing reactivity with her.
Do you have any suggestions or thoughts on working on reactivity in older dogs? I have a 10 yr old that a farm dog for most of her life and has always been anxious and reactive around other dogs and some people. She's been around other dogs on trails and we live in an apartment complex with other dogs, but she seems to be getting more reactive as she gets older. I've debating looking for a trainer to work with but I also worry that it won't do much since she's been like this for so long.
Hi! I'm not a trainer so I would highly recommend talking with someone qualified who can look at your situation and make recommendations based on your specific dog.
Here are some thoughts based on my experience - this is not a substitution for talking to a trainer.
1. Farm dog to apartment dog is a huuuuuuuge transition (I say this without judgement as someone in an apartment). If this was a recent change, give it time.
2. At 10 years old she might not be feeling her best (pain, arthritis, maybe anxiety if her vision or hearing are dulling). Consider bringing it up at your next vet visit, there may be medication to help with pain or anxiety!
3. Anxious dogs tend to do best when they know what's coming next. If you can implement a daily or weekly routine, it might help her know what to expect and increase her threshold for reactivity.
4. Apartment dogs deal with a lot of social stress so try to avoid putting her in situations she can't (or doesn't want to) handle. Cross the street, move off the trail, or do another lap of the block to avoid tight squeezes with people or dogs on sidewalks or hallways.
5. Make sure she's getting enough rest. Apartments are noisy and a farm dog is probably pretty alert to those noises. Make sure she has a quiet area to get quality sleep - might have to create this with a crate or pen with a noise machine. I think they make diffusers for anti-anxiety pheromones too, this would be a good place to put one.
6. Give her Time To Be A Dog where you don't have to stress about others. Fields with big visibility and a long line, private or empty dog parks, or SniffSpots are great options for this. Dogs really benefit from being allowed to make independent choices and you both need decompression time if you run into dogs on the reg.
7. Be the calm, steady handler she knows she can trust to advocate for her. Don't freak out, but don't let dogs approach her (body block when needed) and don't force interactions with people. This takes soooo much practice but do your best to handle yourself and her with a confident, calm demeanor while you're out.
8. Depending on her level of reactivity, consider doing a chill dog training class or something similar that gets her out using her thinking brain around other dogs. Nosework class is a great one for this because there are no dog-dog interactions and it can really help build confidence.
A trainer will be able to give you specific games and strategies to practice based on how you and your dog act in real life. You are allowed to do one private session to ask questions and gather advice, it doesn't need to be a big commitment if you don't want it to be!
@brighthounds or any other dog trainers on here, anything to add?
In a culture addicted to reaction, calm can look like disengagement. What are we actually uncomfortable with? https://dualisticunity.com/why-calm-is-only-respected-when-its-convenient/
thinking about reactive dogs as aversive stimuli, that is: when a person takes their dog for a walk, and their dog reliably screams bloody murder when they see other dogs, a previously neutral stimulus (other dogs) is now associated with something viscerally unpleasant (my dog screaming!!!)
and so the learner (the person) is now predisposed to all kinds of weird behavior: lashing out at either their own dog OR the other dog (the predictor of the aversive stimuli); avoiding certain locations or times; carrying massive amounts of shame and resentment about their dog; avoiding walking the dog entirely; applying their own series of aversives to the dog to try to suppress the screaming (...never mind that they are themselves under a P+ learning paradigm and it's clearly not making anyone feel better...)
no conclusion here just the thing turning over in my brain today
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Anya is LIVE right now
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