I joined this sub a little over a year ago at a low point with our reactive pup. She was almost 2 yo at the time - a working line GSD, and our first ever dog, so we were completely in over our heads. She was a perfect puppy until around 6 mos – happy, sweet, knew all the basic obedience commands so well I could down her from across a room with a hand gesture. Then she had a couple of bad incidents with dogs at a dog park and became extremely dog reactive. She would go full on Cujo at dogs 150’ away – lunging, barking, jumping, frothing at the mouth. That eventually developed into reactivity to essentially everything that moved fast outside, and noises when she was in the house. She also became a crazy resource guarder over food and food related items. And to add to the fun, after a bad ER vet visit she became vet and groomer phobic to the point where she nipped one groomer while getting her nails done. After that, I did her husbandry myself with her muzzled.
By the time I found this sub we’d spent hundreds of hours training her and thousands of dollars hiring training “experts” to advise us (6 different ones by that point), including an exorbitantly expensive board & train. With each change in training methodology she would get better for a short while, then would regress. I was so stressed and exhausted, and so worried we were going to have to give her up.
A year later she’s about to turn 3 yo, and she is a completely different dog. She’s essentially not reactive to anything except dogs now, and even with dogs she’s ok at about 20' if we warn her a dog is nearby and they don’t bark or make a motion to come towards her. And even when she reacts she recovers quickly with minimal after effects. We now do training in shopping centers because our behaviorist believes she can someday be a café dog, something we never could have imagined this time last year. We haven’t had a resource guarding incident in 10 mos. We’ve had 3 back-to-back uneventful vet appointments. I can now grind her nails, brush her, and give her a bath with her happily wagging her tail – no muzzle needed. Most importantly, our relationship has changed. It’s hard to put into words, but we now have a partnership – it’s the two of us together trying to navigate a sometimes-scary world instead of me trying to control her reactions. There was a wonderful post when I first joined where the poster said something like, “The things I did for her in the beginning became things we enjoyed doing together.” I didn’t understand what he meant then, but I do now. I never thought I’d look forward to quiet strolls through cemeteries and office parks, but I do.
We have a wonderful team of true experts who understand and love our pup – an IAABC certified behaviorist, a vet behaviorist, and a Nosework instructor who also teaches reactive dog classes. In addition to these experts, I was helped on this journey by so many wonderful people on this sub who offered moral support, training tips, and invaluable advice. I thought I’d pay it forward by listing the things that helped us the most in the beginning in case it can help any newbies who may be too overwhelmed to even know what to ask, or don’t have the financial ability to hire a string of “experts” who may or may not be able to help.
1. Calm the chaos. The first thing our behaviorist taught us is that stress causes hormones to build up in your dog (and you), and it’s impossible to learn when your body is flooded like that. He had us do an inventory of everything that stressed our dog and eliminate it. We put up window covers, played white noise machines, and stopped using loud appliances when she was in the house. We stopped taking walks in the neighborhood. We live in a high-rise condo so couldn’t eliminate taking her out entirely, but we would go to cemeteries and office complexes outside of work hours. I found the quietest time to take her out (surprisingly, it wasn’t the crack of dawn like I originally thought; it was 8:45-9:45am when working people headed home to work and before stay at home parents headed out with babies), and we’d take the stairs instead of the elevator. We also got a dog treadmill so she could still get physical exercise without going outside.
2. Teach stress reduction skills. Sniffing relaxes dogs, but our pup was so anxious when we went out she would spend her time frantically scanning for threats instead of sniffing. I had to teach her to sniff by scattering food on the ground. We fed her using a snuffle mat or hid her kibble throughout the house. We even started taking formal Nosework classes, which she adores, and doing search games at home.
3. Medication. We did all of the above but she was still hypervigilant and on a razor’s edge, so our behaviorist told us it was time to try medication. Luckily, we had the financial ability to hire a vet behaviorist because we had to go through 3 different med trials before finding the right combination. But once we did it was a game changer. Medication doesn’t cure reactivity – you still have to put in the time to train – but it allows training to be possible. Our pup used to go from 0-100 in a heartbeat, so desensitization training was incredibly difficult. Now on meds there is a beat before she reacts, and even when she does I can calm her in seconds. And even more amazing is there isn’t much after effect so we can just move away and continue training after an incident.
4. Less is more. Our behaviorist taught us that desensitization training every day is counterproductive because our dog wasn’t getting a chance to decompress and process. After a lot of experimenting I’ve finally figured out the perfect activity mix for our pup – 45 min treadmill trot daily, sniffaris in quiet places as many days as the weather allows, fetch in a Sniffspot 2 days a week, desensitization training only 3-4 days a week. We’re now training half as often as we used to but making twice as much progress.
5. Consent based husbandry. This was a game changer in grooming and vet visits. By giving her the opportunity to decide whether or not to participate in something, we found she would voluntarily choose to participate more often than not. We did vet happy visits, practiced a vaccine protocol at home (working on a blood draw protocol now), spent months acclimating her to the nail grinder and baths (about to start working on the high velocity dryer).
It was a long, hard year, and we still have a ways to go, but we can now see a path to a semi-normal life with our pup. One of my favorite proverbs is, “A person moves a mountain by moving one rock at a time.” I think that describes life with our reactive dog perfectly. One rock at a time, and we’re slowly moving that mountain of reactivity.
By the time I found this sub we’d spent hundreds of hours training her and thousands of dollars hiring training “experts” to advise us (6 different ones by that point), including an exorbitantly expensive board & train. With each change in training methodology she would get better for a short while, then would regress. I was so stressed and exhausted, and so worried we were going to have to give her up.
A year later she’s about to turn 3 yo, and she is a completely different dog. She’s essentially not reactive to anything except dogs now, and even with dogs she’s ok at about 20' if we warn her a dog is nearby and they don’t bark or make a motion to come towards her. And even when she reacts she recovers quickly with minimal after effects. We now do training in shopping centers because our behaviorist believes she can someday be a café dog, something we never could have imagined this time last year. We haven’t had a resource guarding incident in 10 mos. We’ve had 3 back-to-back uneventful vet appointments. I can now grind her nails, brush her, and give her a bath with her happily wagging her tail – no muzzle needed. Most importantly, our relationship has changed. It’s hard to put into words, but we now have a partnership – it’s the two of us together trying to navigate a sometimes-scary world instead of me trying to control her reactions. There was a wonderful post when I first joined where the poster said something like, “The things I did for her in the beginning became things we enjoyed doing together.” I didn’t understand what he meant then, but I do now. I never thought I’d look forward to quiet strolls through cemeteries and office parks, but I do.
We have a wonderful team of true experts who understand and love our pup – an IAABC certified behaviorist, a vet behaviorist, and a Nosework instructor who also teaches reactive dog classes. In addition to these experts, I was helped on this journey by so many wonderful people on this sub who offered moral support, training tips, and invaluable advice. I thought I’d pay it forward by listing the things that helped us the most in the beginning in case it can help any newbies who may be too overwhelmed to even know what to ask, or don’t have the financial ability to hire a string of “experts” who may or may not be able to help.
1. Calm the chaos. The first thing our behaviorist taught us is that stress causes hormones to build up in your dog (and you), and it’s impossible to learn when your body is flooded like that. He had us do an inventory of everything that stressed our dog and eliminate it. We put up window covers, played white noise machines, and stopped using loud appliances when she was in the house. We stopped taking walks in the neighborhood. We live in a high-rise condo so couldn’t eliminate taking her out entirely, but we would go to cemeteries and office complexes outside of work hours. I found the quietest time to take her out (surprisingly, it wasn’t the crack of dawn like I originally thought; it was 8:45-9:45am when working people headed home to work and before stay at home parents headed out with babies), and we’d take the stairs instead of the elevator. We also got a dog treadmill so she could still get physical exercise without going outside.
2. Teach stress reduction skills. Sniffing relaxes dogs, but our pup was so anxious when we went out she would spend her time frantically scanning for threats instead of sniffing. I had to teach her to sniff by scattering food on the ground. We fed her using a snuffle mat or hid her kibble throughout the house. We even started taking formal Nosework classes, which she adores, and doing search games at home.
3. Medication. We did all of the above but she was still hypervigilant and on a razor’s edge, so our behaviorist told us it was time to try medication. Luckily, we had the financial ability to hire a vet behaviorist because we had to go through 3 different med trials before finding the right combination. But once we did it was a game changer. Medication doesn’t cure reactivity – you still have to put in the time to train – but it allows training to be possible. Our pup used to go from 0-100 in a heartbeat, so desensitization training was incredibly difficult. Now on meds there is a beat before she reacts, and even when she does I can calm her in seconds. And even more amazing is there isn’t much after effect so we can just move away and continue training after an incident.
4. Less is more. Our behaviorist taught us that desensitization training every day is counterproductive because our dog wasn’t getting a chance to decompress and process. After a lot of experimenting I’ve finally figured out the perfect activity mix for our pup – 45 min treadmill trot daily, sniffaris in quiet places as many days as the weather allows, fetch in a Sniffspot 2 days a week, desensitization training only 3-4 days a week. We’re now training half as often as we used to but making twice as much progress.
5. Consent based husbandry. This was a game changer in grooming and vet visits. By giving her the opportunity to decide whether or not to participate in something, we found she would voluntarily choose to participate more often than not. We did vet happy visits, practiced a vaccine protocol at home (working on a blood draw protocol now), spent months acclimating her to the nail grinder and baths (about to start working on the high velocity dryer).
It was a long, hard year, and we still have a ways to go, but we can now see a path to a semi-normal life with our pup. One of my favorite proverbs is, “A person moves a mountain by moving one rock at a time.” I think that describes life with our reactive dog perfectly. One rock at a time, and we’re slowly moving that mountain of reactivity.
