Enough is enough

[livebyfaith777]

@jackih I'm done with all dog social media. Even the good stuff. I've got one trusted positive source now. It's too much all the time. Im even sick of the good ones that argue with trolls in the comments. Those 1min reels as well, hey is your dog reactive, just scatter some treats on the ground...or just give them a yank on this slip lead...come on man.

Honestly my dogs reactivity doesnt manifest in aggression, he has some mild RGing now (you can forget is there it is so infrequently shown now) and almost goofyness to an annoying level when he sees a dog (which is still reactivity i want to work on). He's more likely to annoy another dog than do anything bad. Although I'm the only one at the park who seems to give a toss about my dog running to every dog he sees in the UK. So I dunno why I bother at times.

Most people haven't even trained their dog really, they just got lucky their dog doesnt do something that bad so they just let it off and see what happens and its usually just fine. Hes sniffed every dogs butt and tried to engage in chase with each one, maybe even gave them a cheeky growl and snap, but then they did sort of follow you so crack on.

Other people's judgement though is the absolute worst. There is still a prevalent attitude that bad behaviours must always equals bad owners, they just don't know anything about dogs. As you say it's not the dog it's the owner, I can't stand that.

 

[joshcorn]

@jackih I'm a baby trainer (training at a PetSmart for 1.5 years, and by no means know everything), and am doing the Victoria Stillwell online academy (she purely positive reinforcement and has a few free online classes about getting your dog to be more confident that I would highly recommend to anyone with a nervous/reactive dog), and i completely agree with you! The little of working with reactive dogs that I have, I love it and it's what I ultimately want to specialize in! I really look at training with reactive dogs more like therapy. we're trying to help the dog to know the world won't hurt them, and that we can be brave together! And just like therapy, that takes a very good while

Personally, little tricks are fun and can be super useful. But what's the point if your dog isn't comfortable in their own skin? We can't expect our dogs to be perfect all the time, just like we can't expect ourselves to be.

I grew up in the "you've got ADHD and so we're putting you in this class instead classes" with all the kids who didn't learn the same way as others, that's how I view reactive dogs. They're already at a disadvantage, so, lets start learning what their needs are and figuring out how to meet them!

 

[mclovindaboss11]

@jackih In general people need to accept and respect that different animals and even people should have different expectations. What one person wants from their dog is may not be what someone else wants. The dog also may never be able to behave that way.

Same neighbor who tried to tell me how I should be handling my reactive dog and said I was training them wrong is now complimenting me on how my puppy behaves. My reactive dog doesn't like people and if they make eye contact he will bark and growl to tell them he doesn't like them, if they approach while looking at him he gets worse. My puppy thinks the best thing in the world is praise even better than a piece of chicken or cheese, seeing new people he puts on his best behavior because he likes them to come over and say he's a good boy and pet him. Neighbor also doesn't like my other dog because basically she loves my husband but anyone else isn't as good as sniffing a new spot on the ground.

 

[hugues]

@jackih After realising that my pup is reactive (I swear, I didn't know before it exists), I started searching for information thar would help us. After I saw two YouTube videos about the same issues (dog-to-dog reactivity), where were given two absolutely opposite advices, I made an assumption that both were valid. Just must be applied for different dogs.

And no, I don't expect my 8 month old pup behaving ideally. I'm proud of the progress we made. Hope that with time, it will become better, not worths. If he is the first noticing a trigger, yes, he can bounce on the leash and (rarely) bark. Not the end of the world. I apologise.

With bite history and aggression, it's a very different story. I don't dare give any advice, I can only support an owner considering BE. What makes me freak out is when, for an aggressive dog, it went for his owner, I read here advice about training possible. REALLY? Don't you think that it will be a shared responsibility when such a dog will bite next time?