Feeling hopeless - dog reactivity

[brokenrjp]

My partner & I are first time dog owners who brought home a Samoyed puppy this past spring. He was a terror of a puppy: nonstop biting, barking, chewing all the furniture, jumping on everyone, and most of all, LOSING his mind at every single dog.

Now he’s 7 months and while he’s grown out of most of those habits, the one that we can’t shake is the reactivity to dogs. Be absolutely flips out at the sight of every dog: lunging, screaming, jumping to the point that the whole neighborhood is staring at us. And when he doesn’t get to say hi, he turns his frustration on US. Chasing us around in circles growling and biting our legs and leash. We walk around with peanut butter on every walk just to try and break his focus on dogs or stop his melt downs, which’s works 50% of the time. All other food works 0% so we take what we can get.

It’s so sad and frustrating because Samoyeds are supposed to have wonderful temperaments and because no other dog we see on walks EVER acts like this.

Did we do something wrong? Did we severely mess something up when he was little? We’ve done so much training and classes but nothing seems to work. Or did we just make a bad pick of the litter…

 

[pazuzil]

@brokenrjp You didn’t do anything wrong, every dog has their own issues. I have a Keeshond and you could be describing my dog when he was that age. Leash reactivity was something I hadn’t prepared for because I’ve never had a dog with this issue. My boy has dealt with frustrated greeting since he was 4-5 months old. He’s never become aggressive or fearful, he just wants to be in everyone’s business. He’s 19 months old now and the difference is night and day. He still struggles to pass other dogs, but he can do it with a treat. You are probably also heading into adolescence. The only time I cried during puppyhood was during adolescence over leash reactivity. For us 7-13 months was the worst of it, but it wasn’t terrible everyday and during that time he did stop pulling and his drop it/leave it became solid.

Chances are you don’t see other dogs with reactivity because you aren’t walking your dog during times when reactive dogs are out. It wasn’t until my puppy was over a year old that we went for walks later than 6:30-7:00 am. It’s good you’ve found a high value treat. I’m not sure what training methods you’ve used, but we mainly did LAT and a few other things that looked at trigger stacking. It’s been hard work, really hard work, but he’s in such a good place most days now. He may never be the dog that does well in crowded environments and that’s ok. I also still carry treats. We usually use 6-12 on walks now, and mostly when we pass other dogs, and especially if it’s a dog that shows interest. If you had told me where we would be this time last year I wouldn’t have believed it. So I’m hoping time and age will help and this time next year he’ll be 2 1/2 and we will be even better. People will tell you it’s because you didn’t socialize well, you don’t let them greet other dogs enough, you don’t let him play with other dogs enough, that treats mess things up and you are training him wrong. Those people don’t know you, your dog, and those types of people aren’t giving good advice.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@brokenrjp You didn't do anything wrong! Lots of factors contribute to behavior and many of them are out of our control.

I would find a qualified trainer to work with if you haven't already and schedule a vet appointment to rule out an underlying medical condition. I found this guide to be so helpful and relatable while I figure all this out!