I've found something that genuinely makes walks and reactivity tracking feel less miserable

[faitfulservant67]

6 months ago, we adopted a puppy from a shelter that wound up being pretty reactive. Once his teen phase hit it was ten times worse. I've always struggled with anxiety, but his decline honestly sent me into an anxiety tailspin.

We're working with a wonderful trainer and making slow but steady process, but I still find myself absolutely dreading stepping foot out of the door for his walks every day. Recently I came across this talk by Janet Finlay about the emotional toll a reactive dog can take on their handlers, and methods she's discovered to help the mental health of the humans involved.

The most interesting thing to me was her encouragement to gamify reactivity tracking. As she was talking about it I immediately thought about Habitica, which is a habit tracker app with kind of an RPG game format. I tried using it years ago for my own habit tracking, but I never really vibed with it then. I decided to try again with reactivity specific goals!

I'm sure this could work with any habit tracker, but Habitica definitely pumps the "game" aspect up because you level up, lose and regain health, etc. You can even get pets and mounts that remind you of your dog (my dog is copper in color and named Bear Claw so I have a golden bear mount, haha).

I'm not exaggerating when I say this has been a total game changer for me. I've stopped skipping walks because of anxiety, and sometimes I even find myself wishing there were more people and dogs out so I have a chance to rack up more points and gain a level.

Here's a screenshot of my app today after our AM walk. We didn't encounter a lot of triggers but it should give you an idea of how it can be used for reactivity! I also like that you can assign higher or lower difficulty to tasks, so I get more points for him not reacting to a dog (his biggest trigger) than a person, for example.

It's amazing how reframing walks as a game has encouraged me not to view our bad moments like they're the end of the world, and how it's helped me focus on all the wins we have instead. I just wanted to share this in case it could possibly help anyone else.

If you have any other stuff like this that's helped reactivity be less stressful for you, I'd love to hear what you're doing as well!

 

[hotairballoon]

@faitfulservant67 This is super great and I’m so glad to hear the app helped you!! I’ll have to give it a try as well. Thank you so much for sharing!

 

[faitfulservant67]

@hotairballoon Thanks! If you try it and it works for you too I'd love to hear about your experience.

 

[frane81]

@faitfulservant67 How long have you been using it? Has it managed your anxiety when out a bit as well?

 

[faitfulservant67]

@frane81 I played around and figured out how to use the app for this purpose for a while, and then I reset and started using it daily a couple weeks ago. It genuinely has helped my anxiety while I'm out. Instead of tensing up when I see a dog in the distance and trying to avoid them at all costs, I get a little excited about potentially getting more points and I start strategizing for how best to make it a successful interaction. Tallying up points in my head as I walk is also strangely calming, because I usually fill in my encounters once I get back to the car rather than while I'm walking.

I think the best part is that me being less tense seems to really help my dog relax too. We are having a lot more fun together on walks for the first time since he was about 5 months old, and that means the world to me.

 

[frane81]

@faitfulservant67 That’s really encouraging I feel like managing my anxiety is getting to be the larger part of it

 

[faitfulservant67]

@frane81 Same for me. My dog's reactivity has been so much more challenging to handle than I ever expected, but I am figuring it out bit by bit. I think a lot of us on this sub feel similarly!

 

[juie]

@faitfulservant67 “It's amazing how reframing walks as a game has encouraged me not to view our bad moments like they're the end of the world”

The irony! This is basically the premise of exactly what we’re doing to help our reactive dogs... turns out it works on us, too . Thanks for the share!

 

[faitfulservant67]

@juie Right? We are so focused on rewarding them and changing their emotions to be more positive that we often neglect doing the same for ourselves.

 

[kokavkrystallos]

@faitfulservant67 Could you outline in more detail how you use this app? I’d like to try but not sure where to start.

 

[faitfulservant67]

@kokavkrystallos Yeah, absolutely! So the way Habitica works, you can create Habits which have either positive or negative value or both. Habits can be done an unlimited number of times in a day. Negative means you lose HP, positive means you gain EXP. When you've got enough EXP to level up, you heal all your HP back up. Some sample habits for me are:

• Encountered a dog and had a reaction (negative value)
• Encountered a dog and had no reaction (positive value)

but you could also just make one that is "encountered a dog" and make it so you can log either a positive or negative experience under that one habit. I just chose to split it.

Every time we see a dog on a walk and we avoid a reaction, I tap the little + on that habit to log it. I usually just keep track in my head, but you can obviously do it as you go if you're seeing a lot of triggers.

I also chose to add difficulty levels for each habit, so I get more points for a good encounter with a dog (his biggest weakness) than with a person for example. I also added a habit for surprise or especially difficult encounters, solely because I feel we deserve more credit for not reacting to a dog that pops out from behind a bush 10 feet away than one we see 2 blocks off, haha.

The app also has dailies, which you can only check off once per day. If you don't do them your HP drops. Some of mine are:

• Give dog his medication (my boy started fluoxetine recently)
• A 10 minute training session at home for trick training or reviewing foundational skills
• Doing something small to destress myself, like having a cup of tea

I hope this helps! It really comes down to what you're focusing on, but I've found this to be immensely helpful and every level up feels truly earned and is really satisfying!

 

[kokavkrystallos]

@faitfulservant67 Wow!! This looks awesome! So do you have a separate Habitica for your dog or work it into yours?

 

[faitfulservant67]

@kokavkrystallos Honestly it never really clicked with me for personal use so I use it solely for dog stuff!

 

[kokavkrystallos]

@faitfulservant67 How do you use it for dog stuff? I’m loving this idea, I’ve created an account and I’m starting to create habits and dailies

 

[mattlwood]

@kokavkrystallos Agreed!! Would love more detail

 

[kanandele]

@faitfulservant67 Wow thank you so much. I just downloaded the app and am interested to give this a try. I have struggled a lot with staying positive about my dog and it feels like a complete rollercoaster. It’s so important for me to stay calm in order to help him stay calm.

 

[clouds68]

@faitfulservant67 I love that idea! I recently created a Google Form that I fill out after every walk which asks me to rate my pup on her dog reactivity, surroundings reactivity, and then I also write what we did well and what we need to work on. It's been super helpful to be able to reflect on every walk and then also when I'm feeling discouraged, see all that data in one place and see that we're actually making progress!

 

[vanda]

@faitfulservant67 That’s so awesome!

Honestly, this perspective really resonates for me with how I relate to the process and I get so much joy out of training reactive dogs.

It’s a little different for me because I don’t struggle with reactivity and the process of working through it for the most part (although I did have one really tough case), because I’m teaching other people and their dogs how to work through that process.

 

[vaden30]

@faitfulservant67 I just got the game tracker but I'm not a gamer so I didn't keep up with it much, but this is such a fantastic idea and thank you for sharing it!!!

 

[ivoryebonykeys]

@faitfulservant67 I'm gonna try this! i've recently fallen off of tracking my dogs reactivity in a spreadsheet. between separation anxiety training, and all other basic obedience, it was exhausting.