3 trainers later!
Today we went over to meet Darcy, the Staffy x American Bulldog, to help her owners with dog reactivity. Darcy's owners have been working really hard with her and have already seen 3 trainers to help resolve the issue. Darcy is also a rescue and has had a couple of homes, so it was important that we got to the bottom of the behaviour and sort it out once and for all.
As can be seen in the video, Darcy is a frustrated greeter and would display this by barking and lunging. Something that we did also notice is that Darcy was a bit nervous and apprehensive in the presence of dogs. She would often lick her lips, yawn and act a bit skittish around other dogs, which shows that the emotions going on in her head are not as straight forward as just frustration/excitememt.
Ultimately, we needed to clear up communication between the dog and handler. We needed to implement clear boundaries but also communicate what the correct behaviour was - which I believe was missing.
Darcy is your typical excitable bull breed. Lots of energy to burn, which would spill out onto the environment through her reactive behaviours. Therefore we looked at channeling this into our training and using the bags of enthusiasm she has, in a positive way.
Via using the operant conditioning quadrants, we were able to get Darcy walking around dogs with no reaction, whilst maintaining a happy dog. Getting the correct balance is key!
Really happy with today's session and an amazing dog that will do great with her owners, that are putting in 100%!
One block at a time!
Today we went to see Ernie the Jack Russell to help with a couple of behavioural issues. The main areas were dog, car and bike reactivity which we see on a weekly basis!
When we first took Ernie outside he was pulling everywhere on the lead and essentially doing what he wanted to do. Ernie would not engage with the handler and was basically in a mindset of looking for anything to react at. With reactive dogs this is common to see and it is important that we change the dogs mindset before we start any counter conditioning work.
Baring in mind the lack of engagement from Ernie, we continously reinforced any form of focus and within an hour or so, we were getting Ernie to focus much more and enter that listening state - which allowed us to tackle loose lead walking and reactivity towards dogs. As can be seen in the video, he did great and we really drilled down on handling skills, taking into account timing of corrections, rewards and reading the dog.
After this we did some work around cars and bikes, which Ernie did awesome at. Counter conditioning work is well underway and out of probably 50+ cars, we only had a reaction to a couple - so big progress there!
Moving forward Ernie's owners are starting off with building relationship, structure and continuing the good counter conditioning work that we did today.
It goes without saying, this one will take a bit of time, as it does with any reactive behaviour, but Ernie showed he has it in his locker and I'm confident he will get there!
Good work!
Not what it seems!
Reactivity is a behaviour that we see on a weekly basis. The possible root causes of reactivity is wide and it certainly isn't a 'one size fits all' approach, due to the complex nature of reactive behaviour.
Regardless, whether the dog is small or large, the dog must understand consequence for behaviours. All too often we see people that have been advised to throw food at the dog when reacting, which will simply not resolve reactivity - there is so much more to it.
Take this little guy in the video - he's an awesome dog and has found himself in a bit of bother recently, but he's not aggressive... he is just nervous of people and has learnt that coming forward makes the trigger go away. So by introducing some basic foundations and introducing consequence to behaviour, we were able to make huge progress in only 1 - 2 hours.
If you have a human reactive dog, make sure that whichever trainer you see has a proven track record of being able to resolve these issues and that they understand how to best help the dog. We would all love to train positive only, but it most often than not will not resolve complex behaviours.
Looking forward to the next session with this guy... Good little dog!
Bo the Collie x Patterdale!
Today we had a great session with Bo. Bo is only a young dog and came from a rescue centre as a pup. Bo's main issue was reactivity towards other dogs, so we got to work!
Bo's owners already do a lot of good stuff with him such as flyball. Being a cross between a Collie and a Patterdale, he has inherited that high energy, intelligence and drive - so we had to look at ways to channel this and meet his needs.
On assessing Bo at the beginning, I believe his reactivity was coming from two places. Firstly, he is quite an excitable dog and barrier frustration is definitely a factor that plays into the reactivity. The other reason is a bit of nerve, which is likely genetic. So having that frustration and slight nervousness can easily get the better of Bo, resulting in reactivity.
We first had Bo walking to heel on the lead, learning the position we wanted and also introducing lead skills to his handlers - this was a quick process and Bo did great.
When we did exposure work around dogs, Bo had a couple of bumps in the road at first, but once the penny dropped, he nailed it. Plenty of exposure time today and exposure to a variety of dogs has done Bo a world of good.
The key is knowing how to communicate with the dog in a timely, effective manner.
With any fear, nervousness or anxiety, it is going to take time for a more neutral association to be built. Bo did amazing today, but you could still tell by subtle signals that he was a bit stressed e.g. lip locking. So it is now our job to bring up that confidence and put in place that all important structure, so that he knows exactly what he can and cannot do - which he started to get today!
Positive end to the week!
Marley the GSD x Husky!
Today we met Marley and his owners to help with his reactivity towards dogs. Marley is around 5 years old and has been reactive for most of this time, so it is fair to say that the behaviour is quite ingrained - but hats off to his owners in seeking help!
Marley's reactivity was not actually that complex and was simply a case of barrier frustration. Being a German Shepherd x Husky, he has lots of energy to burn and when we don't give these type of dogs structure, they can go self deployed.
When we first began to train Marley to walk on a lead, it genuinely took around 2 minutes. He picked this up super quick and was a dream. Part of the reason we do lead walking first is to get the dog into a calm mindset, a listening state of mind and to develop the handlers handling skills.
As expected, when we brought out both of my dogs, Marley was flawless. No issues whatsoever, so we then began to test this in the real world applying operant conditioning principles, where Marley did great.
With many high drive breeds, and any dog for that matter, the better we are at our end of the lead, the best chance the dog has to succeed.
Good start to the weekend!
Keeping on track!
Today we had our second session with Kenzo the American Bulldog. Kenzo is only 5 months old and already is quite a unit! We first saw Kenzo when he was 3 months old, so we wanted to look at how he was developing.
In the first session, we covered the usual puppy foundations and you could see that his owners had put in a lot of good work with him. He had nice levels obedience, engagement and was already conditioned to markers - which is a giveaway that good work has been done behind the scenes!
As Kenzo is getting really strong, we decided to sort out the lead walking and he took to this nicely. As can be seen in the video, no pulling, nice and relaxed 👌
Moving forward, Kenzo and his owners are going to work at more environmental conditioning and start to look at more advanced behaviours.
Good end to the week and a cracking pup!
Fear based reactivity!
Fear based reactivity!
Today was an interesting one and certainly had me thinking! This is Buddy - Buddy is roughly 5 years old and was recently rescued by his new owners after finding out he had been chained to a post and left. So it is fair to say that Buddy has probably had a rough life!
You cannot really see the extent of his fear in the video, but just being outside, he was shivering, lowered body posture, tail between his legs and just so frightened of life. Buddy is scared of bins, stairs, dogs, various parts of the house and probably a range of other stimuli that we didn't see in the session.
When a dog is scared, they often go into fight or flight. Many dogs pick fight, which presents itself in barking and lunging. With Buddy, he would flick between the two, with him often picking avoidance.
Looking at it closely, the root cause of why Buddy would react is simply because he is scared and overwhelmed by the outside world. So if we can work at counter conditioning his response to external stimuli and essentially build his confidence, along with new handling techniques, we can tackle the reactivity.
So to begin with, we did lots of lead walking and handling exercises in a quiet street. We really took our time, giving plenty of encouragement to Buddy and taking a bit of a leadership role. After a while, Buddy began to relax more, although he was still visibly fearful. But nevertheless, he eased up and we brought out my two dogs - Buddy didn't react once.
We then headed to another location where Buddy was unsure and hyper-alert. In this location, he did well but did not have the same clearmind that he had on the street that we started the session on.
Whats interesting about this is that it shows... if we can get him more comfortable with his surroundings, he relaxes and can take in everything going on around him much better - Resulting is no to minimal reactivity.
This one is by no means going to be a quick process. It will take lots of counter conditio
Building confidence!
Today we met Kovu the German Shepherd to help with his reactivity towards dogs. Kovu is a typical young German Shepherd, lots of energy and personality!
On meeting Kovu, you could see straight away that his reactivity was coming out of nerve. He lacked confidence and just didn't know what to do or how to react infront of his triggers. Often when a dog feels like this, the presented behaviour is reactivity, but we need to look underneath that to establish 'why' they are doing it.
After addressing some basic handling skills, we had Kovu walking to heel and switched onto the handler. One of the great things about Kovu is that he already had a good level of engagement with his owners, so this stage was really straight forward.
Then as usual, we did some exercises around my own dogs, implementing operant conditioning quadrants and Kovu was a dream! We put a lot of emphasis on reinforcing good choices at this stage!
We essentially were giving Kovu guidance and structure that he needed to keep and maintain a clearer headspace, to take on information.
With any nerve based behaviours, it is important to address the root cause... so we discussed a plan on getting plenty of controlled exposure in to help build Kovu's confidence and ensure we do not simply mask the behaviour.
Really pleased with today's session and good to see another awesome Shepherd!
Maya the Chow Chow!
Maya the Chow Chow!
Today we had Maya come see us after her owners wanted some help with her reactivity towards dogs. Maya is only 7 months old and has a lot of maturing to do yet, but it was good to see her owners being proactive and nipping behavioural issues in the bud early on. The sooner we can address the issues, the sooner the behaviour will be resolved!
Before we started to begin the behaviour modification process, we discussed in depth what the issues were and how they have potentially come about. Maya had been to puppy parks/classes previously, whereby a group of puppies essentially get together and play. The issue with this is that the puppies do not learn how to interact with other dogs properly and I see so many behavioural issues surface that are due to puppy parties - it is almost certain that the reactivity has surfaced because of this.
Once we started to look at the underlying reasons for the reactivity, it was clear straight away that it was down to barrier frustration. Maya just wanted to meet/play with every dog, so we had to change this - it is great that Mia is super friendly, but we had to put in some boundaries and help Mia make better decisions.
Through basic operant conditioning principles, we were able to help Maya make good decisions and be in a much calmer state. As can be seen from the video, Maya was walking around my dogs with no issues at all!
To finish the session, I brought out my working dog where I began to introduce new distractions. I would get my dog to bark, run around and basically be a large distraction for Maya… and Maya nailed it! Towards the end of the session, you would have never thought that Maya was reactive at all.
Credit to her owners in seeing a trainer early on, I have no doubts that this behaviour will be fully rehabilitated in no time at all. The longer we leave problem behaviours to exist, the more ingrained they come and the harder/longer it takes to change them.
Good work!
Jasper the Malinois!
Jasper the Malinois!
Today we were over to see another client that had been having a few issues with their dog’s reactivity. Jasper was a 10-month-old Belgian Malinois that has only been in his new home a few months, so his owners wanted to get to the bottom of the issue early on and see how they could help him and improve as handlers.
To be totally honest, this session was not overly difficult, with Jasper taking everything we put in front of him in his stride. I do however believe this is down to one major variable in dog training… the handler. Jasper’s owner had a natural feel for dog handling and her timing was spot on! As a dog trainer, the main aspect of my job is training people, showing them why we do something, how we do it and so on. All I had to do in this session was explain the principles of why and what we were going to do, and Jasper’s owners ran with it!
Within no time at all, we had Jasper walking around perfectly at heel and then when we brought out my stooge dog, he very quickly started to understand the game. Jasper had an element of nerve that would manifest itself via reacting at stimuli (other dogs) and I would also say that there was another element of frustration. So we also covered the importance of engagement, environmental conditioning and controlling emotions.
With reactive dogs, it is very common for the handler to be a nervous as they are always pre-empting their dog reacting – pretty much becomes a routine… “dog sees dog, handler tenses up on the lead, handler tries to move away, dog reacts”. So having the dog walk on a loose lead in a calm manner puts the dog and handler in a much better head space to succeed. We really have to develop a mindset whereby if we don’t win, we just go again.
By sharpening up on effective communication with the dog, improving the timing of correction and reward, Jasper is and will be well on his way. Really happy with how today went and always great to see clients take to train
