Looking for a little advice on how to overcome leash reactivity in our 22 month lab. It did not start until around month 15 or 16. When she is walking on lead and sees another dog she starts barking and wanting to get to that dog. We have her on a "gentle leader" so she is unable to pull to get to the dog but looks and acts a bit crazy. I usually just make sure we cross on the other side of the road, but I am now looking for ways to alleviate the problem so that we can have peaceful walks once again. Has anyone dealt with this and have any good advice on fixing the issue?
I also forgot to add that Scout, our lab, goes to the dog park multiple times a week so it is not a socialization issue. It is only when she is on lead.
Hi, @im4usc06 a lot of dogs are leash reactive so the best thing to do is not to let Scout meet/greet any on leash dogs as this is where tensions can arise. You could train a LAT (Look at That) or LAM (Look at Me) so evertime you see a dog coming get her so sit she LAM then feed her good treats. What this does is tell your dog that only great things happen when she sees an on leash dog approaching. You can use this in a variety of different situations, oncoming children, joggers etc. LAT is if she looks at the trigger i.e. the dog you tell her "good" or if you clicker train a click, she looks to you, give her a good treat. Again only positive assocations. It does take quite a lot of time but it is such a good thing to train all puppies and dogs. I do it with my much older dogs, 10 years and 7 years. Works a treat. Give it a go but make sure you use high value treats to train this. e.g. roast chicken, sausage, ham etc. and just deduct this from her meals x Also I would get rid of the gentle leader and put her on a back fastening harness. GLs are miserable for dogs to wear and as you say she acts a bit crazy, this is because she doesn't like to wear it.
My Sophie does this as well. Has done since we got her about a year ago. At first we could not even get out of our driveway without the leaping and bounding and barking, then introduce another dog into the mix.......and well it was horendous at best and worrying, how could we fix this. We were unable to get her attention and could almost force treats into her mouth and still not get her to look at us. It's got easier as she learns to trust us more and cocktail sausages or roast chicken work best. She has no problem meeting any dog when off the lead but she also has an issue with other dogs leads, almost like she thinks it is harming them somehow. We've tried her on a harness, choker lead, long lead and after a thread and excellent advice on here, we now use her ordinary collar from Rescue Centre and a 3 - 4 ft clip on lead. I've been training in out driveway with no collar or lead, gradually introducing the equipment and gradually getting out on the pavement and going further by a few steps at a time. Things are improving.
