How much training is undone by practicing bad behaviors?

[confundido]

I don't understand why my training isn't working. So many guides and trainers say "follow this training consistently and you'll see results in 2-3 weeks for most dogs, but some dogs may take months". Well it's been at least 6 months of consistent training with no results, he's possibly even gotten worse.

The only thing I can think of is either he's unlearning his good behaviours at daycare (once a week) or he's being allowed to bark too much when he's home with my girlfriend (2 days a week).

Could this be undoing all my training?

Other info:

German Spitz, 1 year 9 months old, Male (nuetered)

We've done about 8 sessions with 2 different behaviourists who have suggested similar things but haven't seen the progress they were hoping for. To be honest, dog behavourists seem to be terrible at coming up with a training plan, they just throw vague advice that I mostly know already. I just started the Kikopup leash walking connected course as that is partly focused on reactivity/anxiety and has a really nice 6 week structured course with daily activities.

Behaviours:

Barking at cars, people, sounds, dogs he hears outside (when he's inside)

Barking at guests that enter the house

Barking at dogs, some people, bikes, and motorbikes on walks

Training:

Sound desensitisation once or twice a day for 5-10 minutes, followed by 2 minute massage and then play.

Treat whenever he hears a scary noise (counter-conditioning)

"Go to crate" if really triggered / not taking treat

Treating whenever he's relaxing around the house

Lots of games and enrichment to build confidence and raise serotonin

Management:

Blinds closed most of the time

Music or white noise playing when home (girlfriend doesn't want noise on all the time e.g. when we're out because he wont learn to ignore sounds - is this a valid concern?)

Guests are instructed to avoid eye contact and drop treats when entering the house, dog redirected to toy or snuffle mat if possible

Decompression walks only in quiet places - no other dogs or people

Medication:

He's been on fluoxetine for 8 weeks which has made little to no difference except he's lost his appetite - making training more difficult as he doesn't like treats as much. Upping the dose so hopefully this has some impact

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@confundido I would be revisiting meds, ineffective meds could be making it harder for your dog to think and learn.

 

[confundido]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Yeah if increasing the dose doesn’t work we’ll have to look at alternatives

 

[kingdomkey]

@imagebeastmarkbeast My dog has a breakthrough when he was started on gabapentin in addition to the fluoxetine he’d been on for years.

I talked to my psychiatrist about this, and he mentioned that in people gabapentin seems to slow down thinking, almost like people physically can’t get those anxious, racing thoughts. (He also said that a few times he’s weaned down people from too much gabapentin and they get noticeably more intelligent lol)

 

[prophetictimes]

@confundido For barking at things outside, you might try the "thank you" method - when the dog alerts, go with them to see whatever is setting them off, then say "thank you" and feed treats and call.them away for more treats.

It feels like that might reinforce the barking, but what it actually does is help to shift.the barking behavior from an instinctive, uncontrolled reaction, to one where the dog is making a conscious choice to alert. Then you can also train "quiet" and ask for that, or in our case I trained "they're allowed" as a keyword for the dog to stop freaking out about strangers. Dog barks; I go to the window, say "theyre allowed, thank you" then take the dog to the kitchen for cheese. It's really the quiet retreat that's being reinforced, though I started with showers of cheese while at the window.

This has hugely reduced alert barking for us and Ive been able to generalize the "allowed" keyword to other situations where I want the dog to stop panicking about strangers.