When your dog-reactive puppy is bigger and stronger than you..

[alexwhitt]

https://imgur.com/a/gY3z1J5

Tried taking my girl out to burn some energy today. I tried doing some damage control by driving 40 minutes away to a secluded park during crappy weather with the hopes that there wouldn’t be any other dogs there.

We got about 20-30 minutes of walking/running and sniffing around in before a man showed up with his beagle. My girl is a 90+ pound Newfoundland “puppy” (she’s about a year and a half old) and as usual, she went bananas when she spotted that little guy. His owner was a very nice older man who let Daisy jump on him and gave her pats, and let her sniff/“pat” (aka...whacking him gently with her big paws) his dog (who snarled a bit but tolerated it—he was 9 years old and didn’t have a lot of patience for puppy behavior/overly excited dogs). Daisy had a meltdown when I tried to take her back to the car... dragged me around on the ground a bit and started barking. I couldn’t do much to avoid the interaction because we were in an open field :/ the man was really nice and actually apologized (which I told him there was no need for—we all have a right to be there and his dog was well behaved) and took his dog and left to another part of the park. Unfortunately though I’m healing from a hip injury and getting dragged on the ground aggravated my hip quite a bit so I decided to just go home. She’s sleeping on the couch now though so hopefully she got enough energy out.

 

[jsis]

@alexwhitt Ahh that completely sucks

But it definitely sounds like you need to work on some leash manners and possibly a better option for a walking tool to maintain control before you bring her to interact with another dog.

If she is going to drag you around and especially if you have a hip issue, I think it's imperative! The last thing you need happening on a regular basis is your injury being irritated more and then making it worse!

There are days that my dog-reactive boy can walk by and greet dogs without issue, but there are also days where he is losing his mind. The good days, I make every effort to introduce him to the dogs we encounter but if I see any escalation to his reactivity, we leave.

Does she respond to treats or certain toys if you wave them in front of her nose when she's having a meltdown?

Sorry if my post started off sounding a bit harsh! Was NOT my intention ^-^

 

[alexwhitt]

@jsis She doesn’t respond to anything while having a meltdown lol. She’s 100% focused on the other dog. Normally she does respond to treats though.

Thankfully the hip issue is just a pulled muscle so it should clear up pretty soon, I just pulled it yesterday while moving furniture.

I have a whole rack of harnesses, leashes, and things that I’ve been trying to control her right now we’re using a halti harness, a gentle leader, a double leaded leash that’s connected to both the harness and head collar. It works pretty well but nothing deters her from trying to get at other dogs. I just furnished my house so I’m low on cash but once I get paid a couple more times I’m going to try some formal training and doggy daycare in hopes of socializing her and getting her to calm down a bit

 

[jsis]

@alexwhitt Gah what a stubborn girl!

I definitely think teaching her a form of "watch me" or "on me" command will help with breaking or preventing a meltdown.

You want to almost catch her attention before she loses her mind. A trainer will definitely be able to help with that!

 

[emmanuel330990]

@alexwhitt You really might want to switch to a halti head time harness. It has been amazing for my dog and I. She doesn’t mind wearing it at all once she got used to it. When she loses control I can still hold her with one arm and it’s helped a lot with pulling. As a bonus people think it’s a muzzle and usually stay away.