1 year 7 month old update

[l123]

So Pepper is a 1 year and 7 months old. We got her at 10 weeks and she has always been reactive. We tried everything to manage her reactivity. Her threshold was pretty bad, would just lose it if she saw someone or another dog at 50 feet. She would constantly bark at EVERY car, even parked cars when we would go on a trip. We hired a trainer for private training, and even though it helped, we thought the severity of her reactivity was just something we would have to live with.

The first breakthrough was when we were taking a trip to the mountains to see the snow in Nov 2019. It was a long 2 hour drive in heavy traffic. BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK for 2 hours nonstop. I got so frustrated that I started barking at cars too. LO AND BEHOLD!!! She looked at me with a puzzled look and ACTUALLY STOPPED BARKING!!! From that point, her barking at cars went from 100% to about 5%. The following couple of weeks, her barking in the car went to zero!!! To this day, she is completely relaxed in the car and you wouldnt even know she was in the back seat! Note, prior to this, we tried rewarding calm behavior and even put sheets on the windows so she wouldnt see any cars. Neither worked for us.

Second breakthrough. As I said before, her threshold was pretty bad. We then decided to keep her pre occupied by playing a fun game of finding treats spread out on the grass in a park that had moderate foot traffic. IT WORKED! She was busy sniffing out the treats, kids on bikes, people running within 15 of us... ignored!

Other breakthroughs. She now willingly go up to strangers and give them a sniff, and will even offer a sit in exchange for pets and head scratches. We can go on walks and she completely ignores other people - she can manage distances as close as 8 feet. Anything closer and she will stop and keep a close eye on them, but not always bark....lol

She has never picked a fight with other dogs, and when a dog is a bit too pesky to play, she will just kinda give them a quick snark and go on her way. She doesnt bark at other dogs while on a leash. But if the other dog initiates the barking, she will reply in kind. lol..

Now her reactivity went from complete meltdown, to more of warning barks which we can manage by giving her a quick "FO!" (my gf is russian and she said FO means quiet, or stop...or something like that), or a HEY! Anything quick, loud and abrupt to snap her out of it.

Dont lose hope guys, someday hopefully things get better. One thing that REALLY sticks out that our trainer had said was DONT GIVE UP ON PEPPER!

EDIT: Id like to add that Pepper is by far not "cured" of her reactivity. She will still have her days where it seems nothing has changed from when her reactivity was at its worse. However, those days have been drastically reduced!

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@l123 You don’t know how this gives me hope. I’ve been trying my best with my 1.5 year old dog. Unfortunately we weren’t lucky enough to get her into puppy classes (NYC lockdown happened right before her classes began in March), and the trainers in our area never reopened even for private training. This gives me hope that things will get better.

 

[l123]

@imagebeastmarkbeast I forgot to mention that our technique in helping her cope with strangers was to have strangers engage Pepper with fun activities. We would ask people if they would kindly throw a few balls of fetch and they would oblige. BOOM! New friend made. Also, asked others to call Pepper by name. She would stop, look at them, then trot over as if to say "yes? You called, may I help you by allowing you to give me a scratch?"

However, we only did these when we knew that she would not react aggressively.

Theres a ton of advise on the internet to cope with reactive dogs. We tried alot of them but had to find our own tricks and techniques. Every dog is different, and hope you find the best techniques for your pup. I wish you success, and remember, DONT GIVE UP ON YOUR DOG!

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@l123 Thank you for these tips! We’ve been researching, and talking to a few owners who have experienced the same issues. It’s very hard, and stressful at times, and people can be so judgmental, but I refuse to give up on her!

Wish you and your pup well! Hope she continues to make progress!

 

[jacksbratt]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Keep up the hard work! My dog is in a behavioral class and while not his issue, our trainer had people reactive pups engage in an exercise where a person walks up to a leashed dog (roughly 6 ft away but more if needed) and COMPLETELY ignore the dog, no eye contact, while tossing treats in the general direction of the pup and talking to owner. After a few treats, they would walk away and a new person would do the same. After a few rounds, most pups seemed to settle down and just expect no interaction, only searching for the (badly thrown usually haha) treats. Once they were ready, the humans got closer and eventually gave treats by hand if the dog was ready.

like op said, there are so many tricks. If your pup gets overstimulated quickly, then this might be another of those techniques that could work. This worked really well for a classmate's dog that was abused by a previous owner. It at least showed that not every human is going to invade her personal space.

 

[l123]

@jacksbratt Thanksgiving 2019 we took our pup to Az and we used that same method of tossing treats to my pup for her to warm up to my brother.

 

[haregeweyn]

@imagebeastmarkbeast If you’re still in nyc lots of trainers have opened up and puppy classes have resumed!

 

[evan4713]

@l123 Thanks! My puppy is 11 weeks old but we got him at 10 weeks and it seems he’s showing a lot of signs to reactivity of dogs. He does bark at random things but it’s not as bad as when he sees a dog and wants to bark. I’m looking to hire a private trainer to see if we can stop this before it becomes a lifelong issue. We think it’s because we didn’t properly introduce him to my husbands family cocker spaniel. She doesn’t have the greatest social skills and she’s like 5x his weight so she would pounce on him which I think terrified him so now he seems scared of other dogs. Yesterday we would put him in another room for “time out” just for a minute or less each time he barked at her or tried to bite her and after what seemed like constantly putting him away he finally stopped barking for the most part. I’ve been learning to read body language with dogs and when I notice him reaching the threshold for barking I say quiet and reward with praise or treats. He then walks away and minds his business. He would sometimes go up to her and seem like he wanted to play but he wouldn’t bite her or bark at her if he got up close which was a major win since anytime he got within a foot of her he would go crazy barking and trying to bite her. Not sure if puppy play or what but body language seemed tense

 

[l123]

@evan4713 11 weeks is still really young. He will be scared of alot of things, even his own shadow..lol

We put Pepper in puppy playtime and she was scared of all the other puppies also. She just kept going up to the trainer overseeing the playtime session and not want to play with other dogs. But now shes confident and playful (with most, not all).

Make sure you socialize him!!!!!! That doesnt mean have him meet everyone you come across. Rather, take him out to different environments as much as you can. You can just carry him and just walk around. The different sights smells and sounds he will grow accustomed to and realize theres nothing to be afraid of.

If I had to do it over again, at that age, I would spend all my free time, day and night, doing the above. I believe they say 16 weeks is the make it or break it time for socializing a puppy. Putting in that effort in a short period of time is worth it!

 

[evan4713]

@l123 Yes we live on a somewhat busy street corner so he’s used to all the different sounds and cars. We took him downtown not far from our house which was crowded with people, noises and so much stuff but he didn’t bark once. It was nice I gave him lots of rewards when people talked to him and he didn’t bark. He experienced a lot but did well which was nice. I’m trying to get him to be more confident around other dogs. He just barks at them and seems fearful but we plan to enroll him in a daycare to help him with other dogs soon once he reaches 12 weeks. Walking is hard because it’s very cold where I live and temperatures don’t get higher than 35 degrees so it’s cold for both of us but I try to bring him places with us as much as possible and I keep him inside his carrier when we go to pet stores.

 

[l123]

@evan4713 Alot of young puppies are fearful of other dogs. It will just take time for them to go to play mode. Just make sure that the interactions with other dogs are not bad interactions (fights!).

It sounds to me youre doing a great job though! Keep it up!

 

[evan4713]

@l123 Thank you! I really hope so!

 

[markerparker]

@l123 I'm sorry but the image of someone barking at cars and their dog looking at them like "wtf man?!" made me laugh. I'm glad this worked for you, constant barking on a road trip would drive me crazy!

 

[l123]

@markerparker Lol.. ikr! I can honestly say though that this is the one aspect of her reactivity where it seems that a switch was really turned off. Her barking stopped so fast and she was and still is really calm in the car!
There are times when she is riding up front, and we are at a stop light. If a car on the right lane of us speeds by, it will catch Pepper by surprise and she will sort of jerk forward as if to lunge, but I see her catching herself and immediately stops and relaxes!

 

[mich83]

@l123 Thank you so much, I feel like I can finally go back to the grind tomorrow with new hope

 

[l123]

@mich83 Good luck! As I mentioned before, find the techniques that work for you and your pup! Dont give up! Our pups bring us alot of joy and laughter, we owe it to them to give them our best!

 

[gravelines]

@l123 Story of you stopping her from barking at cars cracks me up!

My dog was very reactive to other dogs, and after about 2 years of me managing him, he suddenly discovered that he LOVES balls. Now I let him carry the ball around on walks, and magic! As long as he carries something, he is 80% calmer. Calmly meets other dogs, passes them without freaking out, walks with a reasonable speed.

I laugh at him that he's just like the baby with a pacifier. But hey! What works, works.