(Repost with edit) What a difference a year makes…to new reactive dog owners, don’t give up hope

[mjr88]

@panda01 It is a hard journey being a reactive dog parent. Your pup sounds just like ours - a complete love bug, but socially inept.

About your comment that you feel like a failure when he has a reactive episode…I know this is easier said than done, but you aren’t a failure. A huge thing our behaviorist taught us is that reactions are inevitable because that’s just life. Of course you set things up to avoid them if possible, but even with the best plans they’ll still happen. Our girl has even had them with our behaviorist handling her, so if someone who has spent literally thousands of hours of handling dogs can’t be perfect how can I expect to be perfect? So instead of dwelling on the episode consider it an opportunity to learn something more about your dog and move on.

I’m sure your pup is living his best life because he’s with someone who is willing to put in this kind of work to help him manage his big emotions. If he could talk I’m sure he’d say thank you, and that he loves and appreciates you.

 

[preservetheson]

@mjr88 I’ve recently started this journey with my Belgian Malinois. I’ve been so concerned about the fact that we didn’t seem to be progressing fast enough. I’ve only had her for a little over 4 months. But I stress out due to the fact that I have memory problems and executive dysfunction and can’t get myself to train every day, which leads me to frustration that she doesn’t seem to be getting better.

I think I forget that I need to take it slow. I can’t set super high expectations for myself, cause I’ll just stress myself out. I tend to forget that this is my first time training a dog, even though I’ve been around dogs my entire life.

Even if I’m not doing regular training sessions, when I take her outside I’m regularly using commands. I think she’s learning them slowly because I’m going slowly, and I honestly think it’s fine to go slow.

I’m still working on loose leash walking at the moment, since every time I think we’ve got it, we go on a walk outside of our apartment complex and we lose that progress, which can stress me out. I think I’m going to give her a solid foundation for walking with me before I go on another walk somewhere around people and dogs.

I should be proud of myself for what I’ve accomplished during these 4 months. Her and my cat are able to coexist without bothering each other (other than when my cat starts a little fight and wants to try and play with the dog’s tail lol. Nothing ever escalates because I’m always watching them when they’re together).

She has this problem with walking with me because I walk slow, and she wants to walk really fast, haha. But she’ll realize that we’ll get there regardless eventually! I think some treadmill walking will help once I get some cash to buy a treadmill for her!

 

[mjr88]

@preservetheson Our treadmill has been such a lifesaver. Our pup will put herself on it if she’s anxious and needs to jog off some stress. You can sometimes find them used on resale sites like OfferUp. One note, you have to train dogs to use them because many get scared of the noise and movement - don’t just put your dog on and turn it on.

 

[preservetheson]

@mjr88 Oh yeah totally! I was actually looking for a dog specific treadmill that she can stop on at any time. I don’t want to accidentally over run her or have her hurt herself. I might look for a used one