Meet Sebastian, he is leash reactive and today we had a great walk

[thisfeller]

Sebastian is an 8 month old Aussie. He joined the family about 5 months ago when we fell in love with this face. He is leash reactive and he gets to run for about 2 hours a day at an off leash park. He LOVES to try and greet every person and dog while we are walking and when he doesn't get his way he'll start barking.

Most days it feels like we are not making any progress especially now that he's lost interest in food motivation even for high value treats when he sees a dog or another person on our walks (live in an apartment complex with a lot of blind corners so we constantly are surprised with people). When I U-Turn I feel like I'm just dragging my pup along because he's already keyed in on someone.

Today however we had a great walk and I finally felt like we are making progress; we were loose leash walking, we sat and watched some kids play without barking or trying to go say hi, and were able to pass our neighbor and her dog without a fuss (while it was by making an arc but I'll take what I can get).

I'm hoping most of his issues are just related to his age and the world still being big and exciting but it is nice to have a great day once and awhile.

 

[janiesdad]

@thisfeller Oh my gosh Sebastian is so cute! (I'm sure you get that a lot).

Great days are a big cause for victory! Keeping his attention is amazing. I think that probably a lot of stuff is him being 8 months old, but resources here should help with training anyway.

 

[thisfeller]

@janiesdad We get comments about him being cute so often my s.o. and I have begun a sarcastic look at each othet meaning "sorry your dog is so ugly". He is a blockhead usually when I'm trying to keep his attention. I'm working mostly on leash behavior because out of all the other training I've learned from classes leash walking was a TON of leash checks until the dog "behaved" (I only got by that because my dogs already knew the end of the lead meant they couldn't go farther away, they'd be on a 10-20 foot lead when learning to work cattle) and I don't want to put my pup through leash checks because they aren't fixing anything but making your dog afraid to go away from you.

 

[janiesdad]

@thisfeller Leash checks being jerking the leash? I agree, that's not the most effective way to teach a dog how to walk on leash.

What we did for our non reactive dog for loose leash walking was to stop whenever he pulled. The walk would continue when the leash was loose. In the early days, walks would be done one step at a time, haha.

 

[thisfeller]

@janiesdad Yes, jerking on the leash to all but pull your dog back to your side. The instructor's reasoning is because it's better for your dog to have one strong jerk backwards instead of walking as far out as possible pulling against the leash.

I too am familiar with the art of becoming a tree and I've had many a shoulder injury from my pup flying from one side of me to the other (sprint one way, turn and sprint the other) trying to go explore. We had one day last week where we made it a block in an hour with two steps at a time.

 

[janiesdad]

@thisfeller Have you ever tried using a handsfree leash? They've been a godsend for our reactive dog. Totally saves your arms. We use the ones from TuffMutt.

 

[thisfeller]

@janiesdad I'll keep it in mind for if we regress to the point of needing it; currently the worse that happens is just going up and down stairs and even that we're working on him walking next to me.

 

[janiesdad]

@thisfeller Ah okay! Even so, we really like the handsfree leash with our non reactive dog too.

 

[thisfeller]

@janiesdad I plan on (hopefully) eventually getting one so I can jog with him (requires me to go jog outside but that's something he can't help).

 

[mads]

@janiesdad What type do you use?

 

[janiesdad]

@mads TuffMutt! We really like it.

 

[bjdea1]

@thisfeller I snorted loud enough at you comment about the look between you and your s.o. that my s.o. asked what was so funny. We do that too. "Oh your dog is cute too......." even though we think other people's dogs aren't cute.
Your dog is cute though!

 

[joshuawithmartin]

@thisfeller Nice job on the walk today! Its definitely tough to manage things when you're living in a complex-type building. Have you considered using a cap like this to get him in and out of the complex and then removing when you are far enough away?

Something else to consider might be muzzle training - its honestly one of the easiest ways to make sure other people and dog owners respect your space in a crowded area. You could get a harness or jacket that says "give me space" for busy areas as well!

I've found it can be really helpful to make a chart and log data about the reactivity and how many reactions they are having over time - progress can seem slow but generally you will be able to look back and see a gradual change over time and it can really help keep things in perspective. I believe /@janiesdad has some sort of chart set up and some others here have them as well!

 

[janiesdad]

@joshuawithmartin I do! @thisfeller should be able to save a copy from the one I just added to the sidebar.

 

[thisfeller]

@joshuawithmartin Does the cap just partially block vision/"muffle" vision (like a horse fly mask) or is it more drastic and blocks most of the vision?

 

[mads]

@thisfeller My guy is named Sebastian too!!

 

[fhigson]

@mads I also have a Sebastian! And I thought I was being so original

 

[thisfeller]

@fhigson It's more original than most dog names. I have a think for giving my dogs human names; Franz (had a brother Hanz), Sheri, Tucker, Alec, and now Sebastian.