monsieurhauddennifels
New member
We adopted a rescue dog in October, so we've only had her for around 6 months at this stage. She's a very loving creature, adores us and is very chill in the house. We've worked through her housetraining, her fear of getting in the car, her fear of her crate and her fear of the vacuum cleaner, so we've made massive progress. However, she can be variably reactive whilst on walks, especially if she sees one of her stressors (e.g. big lorries, people with walking sticks/umbrellas).
When I'm on a walk, I try to expose her to her stressors in a controlled manner - sit/stay and huge rewards for not reacting to other dogs/lorries etc. However, my partner (who has never had rescue dogs before, only ever "angel" labrador retrievers) is very much the opposite. He puts his headphones on, marches round the predetermined route and barely interacts with the poor dog unless it's to drag her along for taking too long sniffing at something.
How do I convince him that he needs to change? Fundamentally, she's a rescue dog and needs extra work compared with a new puppy, and clearly has some learned fears (we don't know her history, but it appears like she might have been beaten at some point). Every time I've tried to broach the subject with him, he just brushes me off, or promises to change but doesn't do anything.
I'm at my wit's end, especially as she snapped at somebody this morning due to the presence of multiple stressors and my partner just thinks she's a bad dog. Please help!
When I'm on a walk, I try to expose her to her stressors in a controlled manner - sit/stay and huge rewards for not reacting to other dogs/lorries etc. However, my partner (who has never had rescue dogs before, only ever "angel" labrador retrievers) is very much the opposite. He puts his headphones on, marches round the predetermined route and barely interacts with the poor dog unless it's to drag her along for taking too long sniffing at something.
How do I convince him that he needs to change? Fundamentally, she's a rescue dog and needs extra work compared with a new puppy, and clearly has some learned fears (we don't know her history, but it appears like she might have been beaten at some point). Every time I've tried to broach the subject with him, he just brushes me off, or promises to change but doesn't do anything.
I'm at my wit's end, especially as she snapped at somebody this morning due to the presence of multiple stressors and my partner just thinks she's a bad dog. Please help!