[Success Story] Keep at it — it can get better!

[waynespiegel]

I first joined this community just over a year ago. My puppy Hiro had just turned one, and seemingly out of nowhere started freaking out when dogs came near (at it's worst, near meant 25-30 feet away). My partner and I were baffled, overwhelmed and upset. We watched youtube videos, hired a behaviorist, read tons of posts in this community, and started training.

It was hard. It didn't go anywhere for several months. We felt like fools trying to shove treats into a dog's mouth who was not responding in a normal way to the world around them. We had a lot of days where we didn't believe the training was doing anything.

We got our buddy on fluoxetine after the behaviorist realized that his threshold was so low — it was hard to get any kind of effective training in because he'd go into the danger zone so easily. It took 6 weeks to kick in and we didn't really notice a different, although some other nervous behaviors he exhibited at home magically stopped.

We kept at the training though, and sure enough we had our first breakthrough. We were on vacation in another city, taking him for a walk and not only did he look at us when he saw a small dog come around the corner, but he actually touched noses with him for a second before we quickly went on our way. That win was fleeting. As soon as we got back home from vacation (and on his home turf), he was much more reactive and getting that close to another dog, even a small one, didn't seem possible.

But it slowly got better. It was two steps forward, one and a half steps back. He'd start being able to say hi to dogs smaller than him (he's 15 lbs, so that's not a big group). Some days he just had bad days and would be reactive towards even the smallest dogs, but those days became less and less frequent. Eventually we were only crossing streets for medium and large dogs, and slowly pushing the size of what he considered "small".

Two weeks ago, we reached a point I wouldn't have dreamed possible a year ago. We were at our favorite coffee shop, and a Rottweiler came around the corner. He's particularly bad with big black dogs, and he's particularly bad when we are at rest and a dog comes into his zone. We started treating as soon as we saw the rottie, but Hiro didn't seem to be getting worked up at all. My partner decided to try walking up to them... and Hiro said hello! Now, the Rottweiler was especially sweet and calm, and I'm sure it could have gone downhill had they been less ok with Hiro's body language, but it was incredible to see that we had made it this far. We took him for a walk yesterday, and said hello to no less than 5 dogs, including a German Shepherd! Today he was a screwball and couldn't say hi to anyone. It's par for the course. We will try again tomorrow.

I just wanted to give a shoutout to everyone who is trying their best and sticking with it. You're doing everything you can for your little guy or gal. We have been training for 13+ months. Every day. It was exhausting. It still is exhausting. We lost our minds some days. We will keep doing it, though. It's absolutely worth it. Thank you all for your help and support — to good days and bad days and hopefully more good than bad in your future!

Apologies for the blurry photo, I was so shocked I could barely get my phone out in time.

 

[davidhussy]

@waynespiegel Can you explain a little more about your training methods? Or was the medication a huge factor? I dream of the day my dog can see another dog and not scream at it. Lol.

 

[waynespiegel]

@davidhussy Sure, the method is pretty basic: it is half management (keeping dogs a sufficient distance so that he does not go over threshold at which point no training will ever work) and half counterconditioning (every time he sees a dog, he gets a high value treat). It's super tough to do consistently every day, especially if you rely on walks for them to do their business and live somewhere where the dog density is high. We did our best on weekdays, and then on weekends we'd seek our areas that had leashed dogs but enough space that we could really control the distance, get to the point he'd see the dog but not yet be huffing or flipping out, and just feed him high value treats. We slowly worked to decrease the distance where he'd start getting reactive. Eventually (like after 9 months, haha) we were able to walk past dogs on the same sidewalk... He'd try to stop and turn around but we would just cruise past. When he started looking up at us upon seeing a dog coming down the street, we knew we were finally getting somewhere. We would reward intermittently — at this point our trainer said to transition to being a slot machine, not a conveyor belt. He never knows when he's going to get rewarded, but it happens enough that he keeps playing. The first hello (sniffing each other) to a dog was by accident, we just turned a corner and there was one suddenly there. We thought we were going to have to drag him off, but he just said hi and then we were on our way. We kept at the training though, as he'd have many days of being reactive again, even to small dogs. Even now, there are some days he just takes a big step back for apparently no reason, but it's usually now isolated to a day or two and then he's good again.

I have no idea how much medication helped. We noticed some anxious behavior at home (scratching the wall at night continuously) stop after 6 weeks of fluoxetine, which is when it's supposed to start kicking in. It seemed to do nothing for his reactivity, however, at least not a drastic change that we could notice. It may have helped the training we were doing stick, it may not have, hard to say. We've kept him on it since he hasn't had any side effects other than the couple weeks of no appetite when he started on it, and as I say it's curbed some anxiety at home so he just seems to be happier on it. As he gets older and chills out more, we might try weening him off and see how he does.

Edit: one other thing that seemed to have helped is bringing him to a boarding place our behaviorist recommended as good with reactive dogs. They monitor energy level and play style very closely so that no dog is ever in a situation where they feel unsafe. Luckily, Hiro wasn't that bad yet and his reactivity is only while leashed. They started him with other small dogs who love to chase / be chased (his favorite way of playing). Eventually they would bring him into bigger groups with different types of dogs and see how he did. We've noticed he's always considerably better after spending a weekend there. Maybe he gains confidence with bigger dogs while not feeling constrained by a leash, maybe it's just coincidence, but we think it's been a factor for sure.

 

[davidhussy]

@waynespiegel Thank you so much for the detail sounds like I’m doing about the same thing! I hope to have success like you!

 

[dudemandapanda]

@waynespiegel Thank you. I needed to hear this today. And congrats on seeing such progress with your boy!!

 

[waynespiegel]

@dudemandapanda Thank you, and hang in there! You're both doing great work and some days it just doesn't seem to stick. Try again tomorrow (I literally say this to Hiro when we put him in his bed).

 

[dudemandapanda]

@waynespiegel Thanks. Some days are just "like that." Tried to go for a walk and didn't even get down the block when he saw a dog and lost it so badly we had to go home. Bad as that was, my impatience with him was worse. But less than a half hour later, he was over all of it and doing happy zoomies up and down the hallway. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[dyesa]

@waynespiegel Thank you for sharing! It's really inspiring!