Went to Penn Med for my reactive pup. Here are the handouts they gave us..

[dreamslikemovies]

Just wanted to share the PDF handouts from the behaviorist:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RlNdhSrzR_hAwW3nJDD7FQXHHP9zbnsF

After 3 months of following the behaviorist's protocols, learning the pup's body language and having my pup on 30mg of fluoxetine, my 65lb German shorthaired pointer mix is doing really well.

Hope the PDFs help someone!

Edit: Y'all are so very welcome! It's really my pleasure to share this info. It should be handed out with every single dog adoption and widely available - reactive dog or not.

 

[timothygrae]

@dreamslikemovies This is awesome.

For the relaxation protocol - there's an Mp3 format which is really easy to use here:

https://championofmyheart.com/relaxation-protocol-mp3-files/

That way you can focus on your dog without looking at a screen and counting.

Thank you for your generosity and sharing this! Our VB at the University of Florida was a lifesaver.

 

[andy101]

@timothygrae Thank you both so much for posting these!

 

[robbyn]

@dreamslikemovies There's a book with excercises set up the exact same way, and lots of information in the text chapters too. If anyone interested it's called "Mine! A Practical Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs" by Jean Donaldson. It's the best book, and if you like the lists and instructions here it's the same. Found it from the sidebar in r/dogtraining.

This rewarding calmness kind of excercise is the first thing I do when we get puppies, it's great to see them happy and relaxed.

 

[breathoffaith]

@dreamslikemovies Wow this diagnosis reads almost EXACTLY like my dog. My dog weighs the same, we adopted her at the same time, has the same issue almost down the a T. We even thought she might have some pointer in her at one point.

Curious to know specifically how your pup handles approaches from strangers now?

 

[dreamslikemovies]

@breathoffaith He's never really had a problem with strangers approaching him when were out on the street. He seems to love the attention.

He does bark and lunge at people on the street who are minding their own business while moving strangely - like elderly people and children - or people sitting or laying on the ground. This happens less frequently now, I'm sure bc of the training and light dose of prozac.

Most of our issues are in the house or the car - spaces he's protecting. He does just ok when we follow the protocol for people coming into the house. We have to keep visits short, like an hour. And we can't have people staying the night for now.

 

[breathoffaith]

@dreamslikemovies Ah okay. Maybe not quite the same then. Glad to hear he's doing well!

 

[lbohot]

@dreamslikemovies How did you find a behaviorist? I tried googling it, but all that comes up is obedience training.

 

[dreamslikemovies]

@lbohot Just lucky to live in a big city with loads of options and tons of people recommending stuff.

Try googling Applied Animal Behaviorists or Veterinary Behaviorists. These people will have their "MS, MA, or Ph.D. in animal behavior. Some go on to earn additional certs such as CAAB or ACAAB" or DVM. Mentioning this bc some dog trainers will lie and call themselves a behaviorist.

Heads up, behaviorists can be very pricey.

 

[lbohot]

@dreamslikemovies I don't mind, I'm just scared of Zelda hurting someone, so I want to nip it in the bud before she does.

 

[john919]

@lbohot The info the OP has posted has the contact details for that Vet school/clinic on it. You could try calling/emailing them and asking for recommendations for a similar facility or clinician in your area.

 

[timothygrae]

@lbohot Hey, here's a VB locator from AVSAB!

https://avsab.org/animal-behavior-consultant-directory-search/

 

[christinascott]

@dreamslikemovies Very great detailed info! Thank you!

 

[wowosa]

@dreamslikemovies Thank you for sharing this!! It looks very informative

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@dreamslikemovies Thank you for this!

 

[cliffordidepew]

@dreamslikemovies This is amazing and thank you for sharing! I have been debating taking my pup to UPenn for a consult after hearing about them through a coworker. Based on the documents you uploaded, our dogs’ tendencies seem very similar. This gives me hope they’d be able to provide solid recommendations for us!

Can I ask what the visit was like in terms of what they do/look for? My dog is extremely uncomfortable and reactive at the vet, so I get nervous just thinking about going through their processes and then sitting to review their recommendations and how he’s going to be throughout.

 

[dreamslikemovies]

@cliffordidepew I don't know what the observational criteria is, but these people know what they're doing - from the waiting room to the exit.

After greeting you in the waiting room and walking with you to the meeting room, they tell you they're going in the room first to sit down and setup, and you and your dog are going to wait outside for 40 seconds, then go in. This way, when your dog enters the room, the pup will view the observational team (3 people in our case) as part of the room and nonthreatening. They stay seated the whole time and barely move except to type notes and throw treats on the ground at random intervals. They don't interact with your dog. You all just discuss the very detailed intake form you filled in prior to the visit.

We were there for 4 HOURS.

My dog sat still for a total of 5 minutes while we there, no kidding. I thought he was just young, full of energy and curious. They said, in their diagnosis, nope. He's anxious as hell.

So, whatever they're looking for and find may be something that would never occur to you. And they have a protocol, amongst themselves, for whatever your concerns may be. The intake form took me about 45 minutes to complete.

 

[cliffordidepew]

@dreamslikemovies Thank you so much! I’m glad you were able to get answers to you questions as well. They sound really great and your explanation helped calm some of my nerves.

 

[catdance5]

@dreamslikemovies Have you seen an overall improvement in your dog's excitement level?

I did the same exercises with my dog after seeing a behaviorist and she breezed through them. She's generally pretty chill when she's home with me to begin with and she picked up on the rule of "if I just lay here I get treats" pretty quickly. We did it for a month or so and I could basically run in circles around her while squeaking toys and throwing food without issue lol.

It didn't seem to carry over to her leash reactivity at all.

I do need to go back and redo the exercise and then have another person do things like knock, slam car doors outside, or open the door, but I'm not sure if that will help with leash reactivity either.

I'm just starting some BAT sessions with a trainer (who works for our behaviorist) so hopefully that will show some more success.

 

[dreamslikemovies]

@catdance5 My understanding of the relaxation exercises are that they're one small step in a daily routine of many other exercises to help the dog with general anxiety/restlessness.

And yes, he's now able to regulate his excitement better - often with our cues - in most day-to-day situations. A big part of that, besides the training and physical exercise, is that he's a bit more mature and almost out of his "teenager" phase. Plus, he was on bedrest for 2 MONTHS this past summer, while he was adjusting to the prozac. It seems that also informed his new baseline.

There are just too many variables in our case to say why/how he's behaving differently, but I guess in general, few things in life are as simple as to say this complicated matter is different because of this one action I took.

For on leash stuff, we did a trainer, gentle lead for a few months and lots of cues and treats while slowly introducing more distractions. Everytime we saw person, creature or item that might set him off, we just shoved treats in his mouth for counter conditioning. This truly helped on leash and inside the house with pedestrians passing our glass front door.

'Also want add a cue that helps us a lot outside: "this way," for quickly changing directions. Additionally, his humans are seriously proactive while on walks, scanning the area to identify triggers before he does; then we engage/distract or reroute our path.