Morning all. Can someone point me in the direction of a thread on the above subject please. Brodie is/can be a strong puller, we are getting better, some days are better than others, but slowly but surely he is getting the message on a more regular basis, and we can get really far on our on street walks to our off lead training/play areas. BUT recently he is becoming more reactive to other dogs whilst on the leash, lunging and barking to get closer to greet them (off leash he is the friendliest of dogs, and greets other dogs impeccably). This can be and is a bit embarrassing especially when he practically puuls my shoulder out of its joint to get to the other dog/s. I know i have read threads on this before, but today i am having a senior moment and am struggling to locate it. Thanks
Hi there, I think you'll have better luck if you do a search on "LAT" or "Look at That" training. @charlie may be able to better point you to a specific thread (maybe one of hers) as she has done a lot of training with her rescue boy with the reactivity issue. I can sympathise. My boy (now passed) was always wonderful off leash but went through a very troubling period of on-leash reactivity to other dogs. As I was training him to be a service dog, this was particularly worrisome. We both made it through, though, and he became very good on leash as well as off...so keep hope alive!
We have an rescue lab, he was already five and half, had been in a pound for about 6 weeks, prior to that absolutely no training whatsoever. He was lead reactive, boy was he lead reactive! Most of his problems on the lead stemmed from a combination of anxiety and frustration. Which is all very well, however Casper presented to a casual onlooker was a fearsome, lunging, barking black lab! Life on walks could be really miserable. So I really understand where you are coming from. The first thing I would advise is before you embark on any sort of training is pick your battles very carefully, think about your dogs arousal..not on the day you are walking, but on the previous day, and being able to maintain distance from whatever is causing the trigger for your dog. There is always a distance where he won't react. This strategy should go hand in hand with a behaviourist ( positive reinforcement clinical dog behaviourist ) to help guide you along the way. The approach we took was a multi modal approach, a behaviourist, other training classes where he could feel comfortable and get used to other dogs nearby on leads, and friends happy to help out with their dogs as stooges. We took the counter-conditioning approach, meaning helping Casper change his perception, then reaction to what previously caused anxiety. The trigger then becomes associated with a positive experience, in this case warm roast chicken, squeezy tubes of cheesy sardines..etc.. This behaviour modification technique is commonly referred to as LAT or "Look at that" . In a nutshell, Look at that...means Look at the trigger, look at me..wow! Its raining roast chicken! Here are few videos where you can get some idea of what LAT actually looks like in practice. Use the search engine here as well on the forum..
Hi Neil, I think a lot of us can sympathise with this issue, it makes for miserable stressful walks Our rescue boy Charlie has some lead reactivity towards some dogs so we have been training LAT with some success, although we live in a rural area so don't encounter that many dogs but we do sometimes take him into town to dog populated areas and it's worked. I tried training classes but he, in my opinion couldn't cope so I didn't want to push him and possibly make things worse so I stopped. As @Beanwood said it's the distance that is very important and giving Brodie the space he needs so that he doesn't go over threshold in which case nothing can be trained. Lots of great treats, we use hot dog sausages, chicken, primula cheese so any dog we meet at any distance Charlie gets something delicious I wish you luck. xx
This was also a HUGE help with my dog Brogan. Plus we learned a ton of things in classes that otherwise I may not have taken that actually ended up being very useful during service dog-specific training. Agility and canine freestyle (aka doggie dancing) were the best to squash the reactivity thing as week after week we had to show up and have active, close contact with other dogs on leash. It wouldn't have been a good first step, but as a masterclass to get us from 'pretty good most of the time' to 'bombproof' those classes were perfect.
Training classes and agility seemed to make Charlie worse or maybe I just didn't understand how to read his body language correctly, I don't know but I found these situations very stressful, which of course didn't help Charlie at all. I stuck them out for many months but he didn't improve. All dogs are different and cope differently. xx
Yes, I agree that classes may be too much for some dogs, especially agility where there are a lot of fast-moving dogs in a small area. Brogan was in the right place when we did the classes. He still reacted (sometimes badly at the beginning) but was at a point with the LAT work that while it was challenging to be so close to other dogs, it wasn't overwhelming. Also it probably helped that we'd done many puppy classes together BEFORE his reactivity started and he had those positive associations to build on.
I think, as @Beanwood and @charlie have said, the key is the distance. In a group class, it could be very hard to get the distance that is needed for a leash-reactive dog in the early stages of training, so you'll just end up flooding the dog. You just have to know your dog, understand his body language, and be brave enough to walk away from the situation if it's too much for him. If he is stressed, you get stressed and it's a vicious circle. If there is a class environment, preferably outside, where you can simply observe from as far away as necessary for your dog to not react, and every week (assuming he's not had any other trigger stacking occurring) move a little closer, that would be perfect. But, finding that sort of set-up might prove challenging.
When we rescued Charlie at 9 months he had obviously never had good associations or training as a puppy. I didn't have this forum, hadn't a clue what LAT was, absolutely nothing so that obviously didn't help but I knew what tipped him over the edge so took him away from those situations rightly or wrongly as not only was I concerned for Charlie but also the rest of the class . You live and learn xx
Absolutely rightly. You have to know your dog! Many people would have tried to "work" (or, rather, battle their dog) through it. That's no fun, or use, for anyone.
I though Coco was leash reactive - he would (and still can) lunge & pull when he sees another dog. But in his case, I have now worked out, he is leash frustrated. He is frustrated he can't get to the other dogs. He wants to get near them. In his case, group training has really helped him. He gets used to seeing many dogs on lead, in a controlled environment. He gets used to passing them and not saying "hello". Also LAT helps, though due to my avoidance of other dogs, we don't get to practice this as often as is helpful.
You know I think you are on to something there. Since we had a new dog walker for our pack, Casper is so much better all round. He gets to run around off lead with a couple of other dogs he knows. The area is completely secure, large with a lot of to'ing and fro'ing. Dogs walking past to go to another area. My dog walker is very gentle and calm too, and is constantly reassuring Casper. I am sure this has something to do with his lack of frustration on lead now.
^^^ 100%. This is it with Shadow. As much as, if it's a male dog, it might turn into something unpleasant, when he's on lead, it always starts off as him being frustrated he can't meet. We don't get a lot of practice because of where we live, but when we do have more opportunity to meet other dogs (that is, when we travel to the UK), he becomes a lot less frantic about it.
