I have a weird question. My 5 month old pup, Chewie, walks reasonably well on lead, but seems to have developed a fear of approaching street corners. We have no idea why- nothing scary has happened that has registered for us. It seems to be variable, depending on the corner. And he is fine with actually crossing the street. We are currently rewarding with treats when he eventually approaches the corner. Is there anything else we can do?
Hi @Chewies_mum, one can never be certain what stimuli are worrisome to your pup. You indicate it only happens at certain corners. But presumably it's not clear what is the specific issue. It could be a scent or you being aware of the specific corner are inadvertently reinforcing the behaviour. Without the benefit of being able to observe, it's hard to say what is causing the behaviour. I would be inclined to just ignore the specific corners until your dog develops bit more confidence. But if that is not possible, then work out the threshold distance from the corner when the dog starts to display anxiety. Move back from the threshold and treat when the dog displays calm signals. Gradually work towards the corner making sure the dog is calm at each and every attempt. The threshold distance will change over the training. It may be closer to the corner and other days you may have to move farther away. Let the dog's body language tell you about the level of anxiety as you approach the changing threshold distance. In short, don't venture to the corner itself until the dog is calm for all the steps up to the corner itself.
One problem is that one of the corners is the one that our house is on the corner of, so it's impossible to avoid it 100%. It is also the corner between us and the dog park. I might try crossing further down the road to get to the park and see if that helps. Thanks for your thoughts.
Hi @Chewies_mum , since it is hard to avoid the corner on which he lives, I'd keep up your counter-conditioning, possibily complemented with my suggested desensitation. See which approach offers the quicker improvement. If I interpret your account properly the anxiety occurs when you have to cross the intersection to get to your corner. Is he wary of cars and motor bikes as their drivers accelerate away from the intersection? If one can work out the source, then remedial work would be easier. I'm sure you appreciate that point. I'm brainstorming aloud hoping that something might throw some light on the dog's puzzling behaviour. It is entirely possible we'll never know the source.
Yes, that's the course of action I was going to follow, while taking some higher value treats. He is cautious in both directions, basically stands still and moves towards the corner with frequent pauses, but doesnt show any more intense signs of anxiety. I wonder if a loud car or bike has startled him as people do race around that corner sometimes. He looks, alert but not alarmed, when loud vehicles pass by. He is a very laid back dog so it's unusual for him to be bothered by anything. Will let the forum know how we get on.
I think there are many owners of reactive dogs who would love to have your 'problem' - in that they have to spend a long time teaching their dog to wait and allow them to check out what's around the corner first. It's probably best practice for you also to do this, as there will come a time otherwise when you go round a corner right into the face of another dog - or a little kid who is scared of dogs - or someone who just walks right into your dog and scares him more... Handler going first around corners is a good one for urban dog owners. So if you have a long enough leash, when he slows down, I'd walk out in front of him with the leash slack and let him hang back. Check out what's around the corner to be sure nothing is coming, then say "ok" and release him to you for a tasty treat. Once he knows you have checked it out, it will build his trust in you to keep him safe
An update: I took some special treats (soft venison treats and a piece of banana) on our walk and he did a lot better. There were fewer and shorter pauses. I'll continue with this and hopefully he will be feeling his usual confident self again. I must look like such a weirdo fumbling with a banana on the side of the road, but they are his absolute favourite thing.
Guess what? Chewie is pretty much over his fear of street corners. We now get there with the briefest hesitation and a treat. He then waits to cross the street and only goes when prompted and looks for his treat on the other side. Our trainer commented on his excellent road safety. So, one upside of his caution is that it has translated into really good road sense. Yay!
Hi @Chewies_mum I would continue with continuous reinforcement until he is no longer hesitating and then move to intermittent reinforcement. Did you hire a trainer to deal with the street corner problem? If so what did he/she recommend?
No, we just reinforced with loads of treats and praise. He never looked particularly fearful, but just wouldn't move. So we literally reinforced him step by step every time he moved forward and his fluency increased to the point we are at now. We are still reinforcing him with treats and praise.
Brilliant! You have done really well This is just a musing, based on my own experience, and input from more the more qualified guys would be interesting. I found training based in an area which caused hesitancy or a bit of anxiety, success was not necessarily linear. Whilst heavy reinforcement worked well, occasionally it didn't. In those scenarios, I would just walk the other way with a bright cheery voice, say it's OK, let's do something different! I would relax my body language and leave that particular challenge for another day. I guess my logic was in these instances to avoid bribing/luring, where there was a genuine anxiety, plus a reluctance to take the food. In the above example, eventually, we did overcome the problem, and we are talking about a much older dog.
Thanks guys! I figure that walks are for him, so if we spend 5 mins working on corners (or sniffing a bush or staring at a turkey), then that's what we do. It does feel like it's a balance between encouragement and pushing too much, and I'm sure I've gotten it wrong a couple of times.
