The new article on the Labradorsite Aggression and Reactivity Behaviour in Labradors by Sian Ryan I found very interesting. It could describe my dogs perfectly and describe perfectly those people who won't believe me when I tell them that my dogs will bark if they come nearer. The reply is always ' but they are Labradors, I'm good with dogs, they won't bark at me, perhaps I can stop them barking'. I'm looking forward to the next article about changing emotions ad behaviour. I will be interested to see if there are any suggestions I haven't tried.
Re: Labradorsite article I also found it really interesting as it is applicable to Penny too. Also looking forward to the next instalment
Re: Labradorsite article Can someone please point me in the right direction as I would love to read this. Thanks xx
Re: Labradorsite article Heidrun thanks very much. A very interesting article and just how we deal with Charlie's reaction to some dogs, as per Jen's great knowledge on BAT. There are still two dogs we just cannot get a good result with so I guess avoidance is probably better. I do believe Charlie's barking is habitual because if a dog only ever barks at him once he then barks whenever we meet that dog : I look forward to the next installment, thanks Pippa x
Re: Labradorsite article Hello all, I have just read the great aggressive and reactive dogs article by Sian Ryan and wondered if the follow-up article on changing the emotional response/behaviour is on the labrador site yet? I took Lily out yesterday and for the first time attempted to walk her 50 yards up a high street in Swindon to meet my son coming out of work. We live in the countryside so this was quite a big deal, though she has been out in the suburbs of the town before many times. It did not go well. She just barked at everyone and was almost uncontrollable; I had to sit her down and physically stop her from moving as other people and dogs were passing (there wasn't a lot of room to turn and walk in the opposite direction as some training articles suggest, without meeting another person/dog). She is, I think, maybe a reactive dog?? She is super-nervous (barking, straining on the harness/lead, jumping up and lunging, ears back) whenever we are, effectively, outside of the house/garden and especially when we go to the town (vets, etc.) Despite training classes and home training since she came to us at 10 weeks, she appears to be a teenage yob without manners at the moment, being 8 months old. Also, I read somewhere that there is a fear period around this time. But should I be worried? Will this behaviour settle down one day?? I am thinking all those hormones (possible heat cycle coming soon, stress hormones, etc.) might settle down all by themselves or does she need a behaviourist? Things just don't seem to get any better with her super-excitable behaviour. I thought the next article from Sian might help but couldn't find it. Any advice welcome. Many thanks.
Re: Labradorsite article The teenage years are the hardest. Here speaks a fellow sufferer as Molly is 10 months old. I can sympathise with Lily reacting to loads of people and dogs up close it was probably a bit much for her. The best thing about a dog's teenage years is that they don't last as long as human teenage years and they can't answer back
Re: Labradorsite article [quote author=editor link=topic=7003.msg101187#msg101187 date=1407851415] The next one comes out on Monday 18th Aug [/quote] Thats great. I was wondering when the follow up article would be posted as well. amandamumma you could try some counter conditioning with Lily if you come across situations where she might react. When something is coming like a dog or person that she might react to let her see it then use very tasty treats to get and hold her attention. The point of this is they start to associate the thing that scares them with something good. I use BAT with my dogs. It's working well. There is a thread on the behaviour board I started about it 'BAT tips' .
Re: Labradorsite article [quote author=Mollly link=topic=7003.msg101148#msg101148 date=1407841609] The teenage years are the hardest. Here speaks a fellow sufferer as Molly is 10 months old. I can sympathise with Lily reacting to loads of people and dogs up close it was probably a bit much for her. The best thing about a dog's teenage years is that they don't last as long as human teenage years and they can't answer back [/quote] Oh thank goodness for that... on both counts - yes I think stimulus overload there. I wonder do they just 'grow out of it' and react in a more laid-back way eventually? Or is there usually a long road ahead of training and desensitising? I suppose it depends on the dog. [quote author=editor link=topic=7003.msg101187#msg101187 date=1407851415] The next one comes out on Monday 18th Aug [/quote] That is brilliant, thanks for confirming; Monday it is then! I will look forward to it. [quote author=Jen link=topic=7003.msg101200#msg101200 date=1407855094] amandamumma you could try some counter conditioning with Lily if you come across situations where she might react. When something is coming like a dog or person that she might react to let her see it then use very tasty treats to get and hold her attention. The point of this is they start to associate the thing that scares them with something good. I use BAT with my dogs. It's working well. There is a thread on the behaviour board I started about it 'BAT tips' . [/quote] BAT? It's the acronyms again... <<blank>> and treat? But good suggestion, I get the picture. I am going to give this a go, provide something super-tasty and then take her somewhere with a few distractions, then build up to more activity going on around her. We had a lovely training session today walking to heel, though stop-start all the way but she's getting the hang of it. Sounds like activity is the key to getting through these teen months. A full programme of training should keep her out of trouble... Thanks all for the info, I will get onto BAT tips thread too.
Re: Labradorsite article [quote author=amandamumma link=topic=7003.msg101130#msg101130 date=1407836223] I took Lily out yesterday and for the first time attempted to walk her 50 yards up a high street in Swindon to meet my son coming out of work. We live in the countryside so this was quite a big deal, though she has been out in the suburbs of the town before many times. It did not go well. She just barked at everyone and was almost uncontrollable; I had to sit her down and physically stop her from moving as other people and dogs were passing (there wasn't a lot of room to turn and walk in the opposite direction as some training articles suggest, without meeting another person/dog). She is, I think, maybe a reactive dog?? She is super-nervous (barking, straining on the harness/lead, jumping up and lunging, ears back) whenever we are, effectively, outside of the house/garden and especially when we go to the town (vets, etc.) [/quote] I have - actually, I might soon be able to start saying had - a super excitable dog. Complicated by injury and crate rest. But there was a time when two of us couldn't walk him across an empty park and hold him on a back fastening harness (we had to take it in turns it was so tiring). I don't know whether your dog is nervous or excitable or both. But I know with my dog I had to plan things very carefully. I don't think that walking down a high street with lots of people and lots of other dogs will help - I don't mean to state the obvious, I appreciate you know that now, but my point is that there might not be a good reason for you to feel bad that it didn't go well. It might have gone about as well as you could have expected it to. One key thing for me was to remember that: I had to be able to walk down a street before I tried to walk across a park; be able to deal with one dog on lead before I tried several; train around one calm dog off lead, before I tried training around more than one. And so on. My progress with my dog has all been down to creating or obtaining "set ups". Going to some lengths to find the next small step he could cope with. It's been an intense process for us, and I've pretty much done nothing else all summer, for about 7 weeks now, but I think we've made terrific progress.
Re: Labradorsite article Sorry Amanda. ??? BAT = Behaviour Adjustment Training The web site is www.empoweredanimals.com
Re: Labradorsite article [quote author=Jen link=topic=7003.msg101267#msg101267 date=1407874564] Sorry Amanda. ??? BAT = Behaviour Adjustment Training The web site is www.empoweredanimals.com [/quote] Sometimes I think we all begin to think that there are too many TLAs
Re: Labradorsite article [quote author=drjs@5 link=topic=7003.msg101309#msg101309 date=1407880174] OK I give in : TLA? [/quote] Three Letter Acronyms, of course
Re: Labradorsite article [quote author=Jen link=topic=7003.msg101267#msg101267 date=1407874564] Sorry Amanda. ??? BAT = Behaviour Adjustment Training The web site is www.empoweredanimals.com [/quote] Aha - thanks Jen, I'll check it out
Re: Labradorsite article Sian Ryan's second article on 'Training your reactive dog' is very interesting explaining the different methods. Unfortunately she doesn't have a method I haven't already read about or tried. To be fair though I've read a lot on the subject so it wasn't likely. I use a combination of counter conditioning and BAT, which when comparing what my dogs reactivity is like now and what it was, has worked very well so far. I'm afraid I do have to disagree with her description of BAT. In the article she explains the reactive dog feels empowered or relieved by the other dog moving away. It's my understanding that it is the reactive dog that moves away as reward for remaining calm and offering a replacement behaviour. However she is the expert I could have misunderstood.
Re: Labradorsite article Just read this article. I must admit to being a little confused - in relation to the BAT and, in fact, the other method descriptions. I looked at the BAT tips on the empowered animals site and this was easier to understand. I am working on the basis that the nearer we are to the trigger, and me recognising this, then we can work on associating keeping calm in spite of the trigger with a 'supertreat' of some sort. Then hopefully she looks to me for the treat when we see the dog/person/tractor/horse again/going forward. We are working on heel walking and this low-level BAT for now. I don't think we can concentrate on much more at one time; though having said that, we are working on keeping things really low-key indoors, ignoring Lily for a couple of minutes when coming in the house/the room. She is learning! I think 'little steps' for this one. It's too important to complicate matters further and I take note of Sian Ryan's comment about consulting an expert if in doubt - that we will do if things do not improve.
