I found this article by accident on Victoria Stilwell's web site. I thought those of you whose dogs may be reactive might find it interesting and be able to relate to it, I know I certainly did, and maybe those of you who don't have reactive dogs might find it interesting to read a bit about what it's like for those of us who have. https://positively.com/contributors/7-things-reactive-dog-owners-want-you-to-know/ While I'm on the subject of reactive dogs I would like to say thank you to you all for the help, advice and support you've given me with Scott and Scout. They've come a long way since I joined the forum. They are still work in progress and always will be but that work has been made a lot easier thanks to all of you. xx
Very interesting article and I can relate to all of it. My heart sinks when someone yells out in a friendly way "It's OK my dog is friendly!" When I can see Casper is really not in a good place, sometimes he is OK, sometimes not, it is all about judging his threshold. Every not so good experience takes days, even weeks to sort out. Anyhow we are making massive inroads. Casper loves the huge private enclosed dog park our fantastic dog walker takes him to, he has made a few new doggie friends there. Casper gets so excited that when he sees her white van he just leaps into the back of it! A far cry from the miserable, unhappy dog curled on the sofa when our our last dog walker came round, when I saw that it was the last time he was taken out by them.
How lovely to see you back Jen Thanks for posting the article, very interesting from the owner's perspective and hugely sensible too. I couldn't agree more, Charlie has a few dogs he reacts to, one of them the owner will not put her dog on lead because "he is friendly" no matter how many times we say "can you put 'H' on lead please" she has owned dogs for over 40 years and still says to us "I just can't understand why they don't like each other" as 'H' comes running up to Charlie, very annoying. Well stop putting my dog and us in this stressful situation PLEASE So happy to hear Casper has made some doggie friends and good ridence to the last dog walker, sounds awful x
Hi Jen, that is a great little article which I very much enjoyed, thank you for sharing. It's so helpful and I don't even have a reactive dog, but it does give food for thought. It's good to hear that Scott and Scout are making progress, overcoming reactivity can be so incredibly difficult, so very well done you (and S&S of course)
You've done all the hard work with SandS, with great results. I know that lots of people have benefited from everything you've written about the methods you've used as they've progressed
"I stick to leash-only areas because leashing my dog—regardless of temperament—when I’m supposed to do so is the easiest way to responsibly keep these incidents from happening." From the linked article. I wish the woman I met for about the fifth time yesterday would do this. Her rescue Cocker is very reactive against dogs bigger than him running up to him, or simply being near him. So why does she continue to leash walk the poor little terrified and terrifying dog down the rail trail where we are allowed to be off leash and most dogs are bigger than hers? Because of vegetation, trail curves, hidden trail access points four times I met her at the last minute. All at the same access point. Once they were way ahead of me down the trail so no meeting. My dog comes to me when I call him but lots don't. By walking her dog on this trail she practically ensures the poor thing is scared or angry or whatever his problem is. She won't let him off the leash, she's afraid he will bite not just another dog but maybe a person too. Poor dog.
Hi Jen, great article to read, thank you for sharing. I'm making my way gradually through your posts over the past years before I joined the forum as I want to understand where you'd come from with Scott & Scout before I had the pleasure of following yours and their progress. Well done to you for all your hard work that you have done and still do, to help both your boys. Also well done to Scott & Scout for the great progress they continue to make
