We went to Mira's first training class last week. I don't know if "reactive" is the correct term, but Mira has started to become overly excited when she sees another dog. This is part of the reason I'm taking her to training classes. Anyway, the trainer gave her (I believe) an herbal relaxation chew at the beginning of class. It, naturally, had no discernible effect. Anyway, she told me to give Mira two of these chews before her next class. I don't want to. My suspicion is they're bunk and I don't want to give Mira what is technically an overdose (according to the label's weight/dose chart) of the active ingredients. Here's a link to what I think she gave me. My questions are would you give your dog the chews, do they have any effect, and is there any potential danger?
@R Lewis I don't know anything about the supplement. Can't help you there. Consider initially increasing the distance of you and your dog from the other dogs. Reward her when she shows any calming signal towards the other dog. Gradually over the course of the set of classes reduce the distance between you and the other dogs. Have high value treats to get her attention on you. Pick a spot at the end of the horse shoe comprising handlers and dogs so that you do not have dogs. on either side of you.
Oh, they all sit as far away as they can already! I'm already working on something like that already when we're on walks (sitting calmly when she sees dogs go by and backing up if she's getting excited until she can sit down again), but the size of the training pen is too small for Mira right now. Would you give her the chews?
Sounds like normal lab behaviour to me and I would spend my efforts training not dosing with something not proven to be beneficial. Meg was like that and I did a year of obedience classes which resolved all her developmental challenges x
Well, we went back today and the trainer was really great, very understanding about my not wanting to give Mira the chews. I think her excitement is beyond normal behavior (she really can't settle, to the point where I worry about her stress and she disrupts the class) so she's offered to take Mira out of the class for a while and do a few short one-on-one sessions before restarting with a group.
Well that sounds a lot better. I know you're working on LAT protocol. It does help with over-excitement too.
I didn't think I was using LAT, but I just googled it. I didn't realize they're supposed to be looking at the trigger, so I guess we are kind of doing that. I hope it helps. It's hard to do when they just spring up around the corner, though. I was so happy she was good around dogs when she was younger and assumed her excitement at that time was just puppy stuff. It's starting to really feel like a problem, though.
@R Lewis No need to google it. It's here on this site https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/look-at-that.22184/ including an excellent video on training the skill. Mira should look at the dogs but then look at you. "Yes" and treat. The looking at you is important. She is learning to relax--she can turn her head away from the potential threat. But first she has to point out that threat to you. It will not be an "overnight" exercise but it generally does work (unlike those pills--I read on the Amazon reviews (yes I know, hardly a scientific approach) that someone had given her dog 5 of those tablets and it had no impact! You've already done another class--no time for homework?
I don't think the chews will help much but they won't do much harm and I don't think they're a reason not to go back to the class, assuming you find it useful in other ways. Michael is right that the way forwards is Look At That. However, you need other dogs to do Look At That with. If the reason Mira is reactive, is frustration rather than fear, once she knows how to do Look At That, you should be able to rejoin the class. How to know if it is frustration or fear? By what happens when she reaches another dog - if she attacks or barks or continues to behave with reactivity, it is likely fear. If she is fine when she actually reaches another dog off leash to interact, then the behaviour is likely frustration. LAT will work with both fear and frustration generated reactivity. But if the behaviour is fear-based, it is best to find a class which specialises in fear and a trainer who understands how to work with that with the priority being to reduce her fear - rather than train 'normal' obedience type behaviours. If the behaviour is frustration, then she should be able to rejoin a regular class soon and use LAT to cope with frustration - and spend the time learning more regular obedience behaviours...
