@jesus_is_our_lord I can kind of explain it. I first really categorized what kind of reactivity my dog had specifically and what were his triggers. His reactivity was over arousal and excitement based, he is not a fearful dog nor is under socialized (meaning he has nervousness, fear around those things) be it people, objects or other dogs. I also noticed that he had a huge lack of focus in new environments and struggled to give me attention.
So knowing those things I minimized interaction with new/exciting people, super new environments and all dogs excluding the ones we lived with as much as possible.
Because I understood that focus was a major issue for his reactivity I really emphasized creating games and exercises that defaulted to him engaging with me. All forms of play came through me to build engagement, I added more structure to walks and play. I started introducing lots of functional and trick training to all types of play just to work on keeping his attention. I did and still do games with him throughout the day at home, then outside my backyard and eventually moving those to places like the park, training school, slow commercial areas (parking lot, sidewalk of a business where no one is really entering) then to busy areas with people/dogs around.
I did a similar thing with food. I incorporated moderate and high value food into every day things and began to create classical responses to cues so my dog would always be inclined to take a treat on a specific cue (treat and three). I worked food into engagement games and once those games were concrete at home moved them to slightly more stimulating areas until I was able to treat him in busy spaces.
My dog is super high drive and high energy. He needs a fairly extensive amount of exercise but because his behavior stems from easy arousal it’s important to incorporate mindful, structured exercise that allows him to intentionally go from low arousal, to high arousal and back down. This helps lengthen his ability to regulate his intensity and help him understand that we can be “on” during play but should never be manic. I love using parts of agility and some other training like obedience with extremely arousing activities. This helps my dog not only focus but find that sweet spot of drive instead of just being anxious and hyperactive. I then built in down time where we reward lots of settling throughout play, his agility classes also works like this.
I also do a lot of mental work with him. Lots of nose work games like finding scents, hide and seek and using snuffle mats, introducing new challenges to training (for example I’ve been working on a settle and release cue at my front door, I’m working distance and distractions so I will have him on a long line while I’m all the way at my neighbors house, going into the car or crossing the street. I ask for behaviors, and then release and even sometimes have him wait after a release. This is all mentally very tiring). Things like trick training and task work can be super helpful in this regard.
Lastly I make sure he is getting adequate enrichment. I rent sniff spots on occasion (especially during his most reactive months) so he has opportunities to free roam giant properties and just do whatever he wants. I do predation substitution games and exercises with him to help meet his prey drive needs, I make sure he has opportunities to forage, chew, lick, and for a dog who is a herding breed use his sight to orient on things, allow him to chase, and do activities that replicate parts of herding.
