07/11/2025
Meet Rocco !
Rocco is a Great Dane who came in to work on his Reactive Behaviour towards dogs. Rocco is only 1 year old but his size & strength were making him difficult and pretty unenjoyable to walk, which is completely understandable - he would lunge forwards, bark & growl and was particularly worse with smaller dogs who would react toward him first. He's huge for his age & this alone can make a reactive dog 10× more tricky for owners ! We got to work -
We began by working on his leash skills. Alot of my giant breeds owners default to headcollars because they give the illusion of more control, unfortunately they are one of the worst aversives you could ever use with a dog of any size. They don't make dogs stop pulling through sheer magic or in a kind or gentle way as they're commonly marketed, they work by making pulling really negative for the dog by pressing directly on the "stop" part of the muzzle. Instead we swapped him onto a slip - unlike a head collar this isn't a restrictive tool it's a communication tool, when used correctly.
Roccos owners had previously had him on the slip so We had a look at how this had been used prior to our first session, we adjusted a few things to help both Rocco & his family understand how to communicate via the slip and to how to mainatian a nice slack leash. We spoke about how constant tension will build more frustration - from there we worked on building engagement. Rocco has a brilliant food drive and was really eager to earn some tasty, high value rewards for maintained engagement in the heel position & We had him in a heel walking beautifully in no time at all during reps !
Alot of my giant breed clients end up habitualising a lot of unnecessary pressure on equipment but this makes pulling so much worse - his family are super driven & keen to learn - they all picked this up quickly during reps and I can't wait to see how they progress with more practice. We then began working Rocco around passing dogs politely & calmly whilst maintaining the heel position as we gradually increased distractions & triggers at his pace. Rocco did so well with this and passed all but one dog in two hours without a problem. The one dog he struggled with was particularly reactive towards Rocco, but the over all immediate improvement was clear - he did such a good job ! even if he did cover me in slobber 😂👏 Roccos owners now have some homework to practice until we see him next time, I'm looking forward to seeing his progress - well done big lad 🐕
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