# X days of Tekno's Leash Reactivity / Excited Greeting



## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

I keep seeing the reactivity thing come up so I think it would be good for me to start a thread on my journey with Tekno and his leash reactivity/excited greeting.

We are following Leslie Mcdevitt's Control Unleashed program, a little bit of BAT, and Susan Garret's Recallers to build value for me, the trainer/mom, rather than the environment (or in this case dogs in the environment). I also let him watch DogTV to help the sights and sounds of dogs become background noise to him.

In Tekno's case he is not afraid of other dogs big or small. He has great manners with dogs off leash and on leash as well when the distance is closed. It's dogs at a distance and especially quick moving ones that frustrate him and cause him to bark and lunge. After these "episodes" he relaxes back down fairly quickly, he also sometimes to attempts to self-calm and disengage during them by sitting and sniffing the grass. To me and to the trainers we've spoke to it looks like boiled over excitement doubly fueled by adolescence and prey drive.

For a couple months I did the avoidance thing and still do that to a degree but I'm mostly done with that because
1. I live in the city and there's just no such thing as avoiding other dogs. It made me walk him less and anxious which wasn't helping anything
2. He really enjoys other dogs, it's the over-arousal that's the problem. I feel like if he was excited to see people the solution wouldn't be don't let him see people for 2 years until he's past adolescence lol
3. He's a puppy who has had amazing socialization and is starting to show bucket loads of self control. I think he's a good canidate for this kind of training and can do it as long as he understands the rules. I also don't want to wait until these behaviours are more set in stone nor have him avaoid dogs for so long that he becomes genuinely fearful or skittish of them.
I want to actually help change how he feels, not just avoid the situation and hope for the best.

So for us, we're going towards a desensitization/habituation route, found a positive trainer to help us through it. I wanted to share these videos with you guys from the last couple days to show you what his behavior is and a bit of training + management. It's always embarassing for parents/trainers to show their not-so perfect sessions but I think it's helpful to be honest about the process.

I'll post more on this thread as I learn more and we progress 






















(I know this pic looks uncomfortable but I included to show how he creates space when he observes that a dog is uncomfortable, the other dog does the same  )

















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http://instagr.am/p/COZO0LLBPTC/

In this video, Tekno was out pottying and a little black pug crossed in front of him, across the street and was staring in his direction. Tekno sat and stared, I didn't pull him because that would most likely cause an opposition reflex outburst. I praised him lightly for sitting, though the intensity was a bit much so I called him to me to check his arousal. He came over, great! He still wanted to look at the dog though, for me that's fine, as long as he's not lunging or barking he may freely look as long as he likes until I call him. I asked him to sit because it is his strongest default position and I wanted to check his arousal. He didn't budge, he probably literally can not hear me because of the focus on the dog. I bend down to hunker down and wait for his attention, and invite him to come near me when he's ready. I ask for sit again because I see him starting to relax, he sits, relaxes even more and then signals he would like to move on. I think this little event was a win though it wasn't perfect. Also the reason I'm not treating him is because of how aroused he is, I don't want to throw any fuel on the fire by moving too much or interrupting his choice to disengage by himself.





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This is near a field with dogs playing. I'm using the baseball dirt to mark how far we are and know better when a dog is getting too close. I'm not asking for attention from Tekno because that's too hard. At this point in his training it would be setting him up for failure to ask for it so he can quietly look at dogs and receive treats. As long as the bum stays planted he can have treats. A dog runs slightly too close to the baseball field and he goes in its direction, I circle him and return him because the dog is on it's way out of the field. We break off this session shortly after this to keep it mostly positive.






(I don't know why this video is age restricted -.-)



*NOTE: I am not a professional trainer and am not qualified to give training advice. I have worked with dogs for a long time (over 10 years) and have a knack for "figuring them out" and special interest in there psychology. Overall, I just want to share what I'm doing with my dog because in hopes that something about it can be of help to someone  and also to show that a confident, well-socialized dog with great breeding can be reactive (it's not always "how they're raised"  ). For individual pets issues I always recommend consulting with a professional CCPDT certified trainer or equivalent accreditation for your region.*


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## Dechi (Aug 22, 2015)

I watched your videos and to me Tekno’s just wanting to go sniff and play. I think you’re handling it very well and pretty soon with your good work this will be a thing of the past.

Dogs who are very reactive are a whole different story. I wish I could make a video of Beckie when she’s being the devil but I need my two hands to manage her and Merlin, even though he’s good.

Hang in there, Tekno is a good boy and will be even better when he matures a little bit.


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

Dechi said:


> I watched your videos and to me Tekno’s just wanting to go sniff and play. I think you’re handling it very well and pretty soon with your good work this will be a thing of the past.
> 
> Dogs who are very reactive are a whole different story. I wish I could make a video of Beckie when she’s being the devil but I need my two hands to manage her and Merlin, even though he’s good.
> 
> Hang in there, Tekno is a good boy and will be even better when he matures a little bit.


Thank you, I appreciate that 😇


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## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

Thanks for sharing your training journey. I had forgotten how the first 2 years feel like a decade. Love to see McDevitt, Garrett, and Stewart getting referenced.


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## Oonapup (Oct 16, 2020)

Thanks for posting! I need to work on a similar desensitization process with Oona, but for running children. She's very good when they're far enough away. She can even keep focus right by the playground, if off to the side. She loses her mind somewhere in the range of 15-10 feet. The tricky bit is that at the distances we need to work on gradually, I can't control what kids do or how close or suddenly they come, 'in the wild'. What we really need to do is enroll some kids to help practice running by closer in a controlled way, but our kid friends have limited interest in helping out and it's different with her own kid (my daughter), who she is more practiced at ignoring.


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

On a positive note, I am so grateful that something Tekno is very much not reactive to — is people. He is aloof (but never fearful) with people unless released to go say hi. He even refuses treats and runs back to my leg when offered them without a release. He’s also calm and patient with all except the most wild of children 😋. My vaccine is finally in effect so we’re starting the indoor training we missed out on due to Covid, now 😅 (double masked and still socially distanced of course) I on the other hand am very reactive to people and wanted to go home within about 20 minutes of being around so many after a year of being at home 😄


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## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

Phaz23 said:


> I on the other hand am very reactive to people and wanted to go home within about 20 minutes of being around so many after a year of being at home 😄


Ha, so relatable! Glad you can trust Tekno to help you overcome your reactivity


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## Apricot mini momma (Dec 22, 2020)

It’s always impressive how much time and attention pay off in terms of a dogs behavior as time marches on. I feel like I am spending a lot of time but still I am behind on Beau’s training. He learns so quickly and he’s doing so well that sometimes I take him for granted. I see his testing and ignoring phase starting strong at 7 months as well. Thank you for your inspiration!

Your Tekno is such a doll and look at how good he is doing. Me <— jealous! 🤩🤩🤩


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

Apricot mini momma said:


> It’s always impressive how much time and attention pay off in terms of a dogs behavior as time marches on. I feel like I am spending a lot of time but still I am behind on Beau’s training. He learns so quickly and he’s doing so well that sometimes I take him for granted. I see his testing and ignoring phase starting strong at 7 months as well. Thank you for your inspiration!
> 
> Your Tekno is such a doll and look at how good he is doing. Me <— jealous! 🤩🤩🤩


Hehe Thank you- trust me I feel the saaame way especially when we go to puppy school and we're surrounded by Australian and German Shepherds, and other working dogs happily staring endlessly at their handlers...meanwhile Tekno is eating grass and sunbathing without a care in the world haha


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

I finally found a calm neutral dog to practice LAT with Tekno 😁 Spoiler: it's a decoy





In case anyone needs one, this is the Melissa & Doug Labrador Toy - it's very realistic, I think I'm going to buy a couple more for different breeds


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

Here's a video from my boyfriend's view with the decoy dog. As you can see, Tekno has nooo idea how he feels about this situation. I think that's the weird thing about leash reactivity, it's a mix of things happening in quick succession. Within the course of 30 seconds he says with body language + vocalizations:
"Hey let's play dog!!"
"I'm so excited and frisky _kick_ _kick_"
"Mommy, lets get the hell out of here, that dog is weird!"
"BACK OFF WEIRD DOG"
"Okay, I'm calm, I'm calm. I'll sit"
"NO I'M NOT, LET'S GET HIM!"

note: Tekno growls when in a high state or arousal such as when he's playing really hard, zooming around, or frustrated. I don't think the growl in this video is aggression based on my observations of his vocalizations. When Tek is truly afraid or alarmed he has a different pitched more "fierce" alarm bark and intense howling


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

A good day: Tekno stayed focused and calm in his new group training class even near a couple other puppies that were whining and barking. There are barriers up between them but the fact that he wasn’t concerned about finding the dogs nor worried about any of the noises was great. He even chewed a marrow bones on his little mat, played tug with a toy with me, and sat quietly in his crate in between lessons.


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

A video I think you all may find interesting. I'm doing some "yield to leash pressure" work with Tekno and you'll see a big trigger for him leash tightening and pressure on his chest. He performs the exact same reactions he has to other dogs but this time on a toy he wants to play with. Behavior is so interesting and weird, though I ultimately wish for Tekno to feel nothing but peace with his leash, it's so interesting to me to see devoid of a dog he will still lunge and cry, as long as there is leash pressure and something he wants to get to. This means it's really important for me to communicate with him and condition yielding and letting up on leash pressure, if we are to ever get at his "reactivity"

If you're short on time the "reactivity" starts at 1:11 and he starts to boil over at 1:30, 2:30 is a full blown reaction complete with a frustration growl this is exactly the same behavior he has when he sees a dog he would like to greet (if the toy begin walking away the way that dogs do, he probably would have started a barking and lunging tantrum at his "toy" leaving him). A combination of opposition reflex and low tolerance for frustration makes him quickly "blow up" when he can't get to what he wants it might actually have very little to do with dogs, besides the fact that he finds them valuable and interesting. This seems "bad" but I'm actually super relieved because I know he can learn how to let up pressure and the frustration tolerance will improve with training and maturity . Notice when I drop the leash completely, he's calms down, he's not even that interested in the toy anymore. It was the pulling him back from it that drove him forward. This is not that unlike how he doesn't care about dogs in his group training, they're boring, there's no chase, and he's not being pulled from them so there's no game.

Also a note, Tekno is an exception perhaps in that he is much less reactive on a collar compared to a harness, shows almost zero reaction on a gentle leader (though we try only to use this very sparingly because he very much isn't into it), and zip reaction off leash.


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## For Want of Poodle (Feb 25, 2019)

That's really interesting. I have noticed Annie is much more reactive on leash (to squirrels, her trigger) than off leash. That gives me some ideas.


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

Here’s my ‘reactive rover’ settling nicely and laser focused during training in a class full of barking, whining, screeching, hopping, covid dogs and puppies lol. Im so proud of him, not a single bark today and no reaction during a recall exercise where 2 large dogs that he didn’t know well were fully visible to him 😊


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## Rose n Poos (Sep 22, 2017)

Look at his focus!


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

update- so Tekno’s been going to a doggy socialization class once a week to make sure that he stays comfortable with dogs of all sizes through his adolescence especially since he’s going to be intact indefinitely. An important thing about the class is the dogs get to play off lead and then we do some training on-lead and keep them apart from each other which in turn helps to communicate to Tekno that when he’s on lead he doesn’t need to be worried about dogs approaching him or how he’s going to meet them properly. Off lead he has full range of motion and is very confident and socially saavy so no worries there. These sessions + nosework is translating to waaay less reactivity daily. Tekno seems to be getting much better at reading other dog’s body language and knowing they have no desire to engage with him, and accordingly is minding his business much more on walks. The only time Im seeing him react is to off lead dogs when he’s on lead and reactive males staring and/or lunging at him. Both situations are understandable and Im hopeful with time that even those very triggering stimuli can become background noise to our walks


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Phaz23 said:


> Tekno’s been going to do a doggy socialization class once a week


What a smart idea. I wish they had something like that where I live. You're doing fabulous work with Tekno


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

Skylar said:


> What a smart idea. I wish they had something like that where I live. You're doing fabulous work with Tekno


Thank you 😅


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

We’ve been having more and more progress with Tekno keeping his cool on walks. For us the number one thing that helps is frequent practice of loose leash walking, followed by loads of reinforcement for checking in, and playing LAT/“where’s the dog?” Tekno really likes having jobs and by asking him “where’s the dog” he’s able to point it out to me in a constructive manner instead of dodging towards it. The loose leash walking sets up a safe pattern and rules, and doesn’t leave too much room for anxiety, over-arousal, and confusion out in the big world. He knows as long as he’s in hot zone beside me, he’s doing the right thing and there’s no need to worry or handle situations that come up (like surprise dogs or people doing strange things).

Lately the extent of his “worse” reactions is really just staring and whining. Lunging and barking is very rare and I can usually interrupt it fast with a “Let’s go, puppy, puppy, puppy!!” He turns towards me and we high tail it out of there. If we can’t escape I ask for a sit because it is his strongest default behavior and it seems to help relax when he’s unsure about something.

Something else that really helps Tekno but might not help other dogs is frequent exposure to dogs in a controlled training setting and occasional off leash group play. Every time we do this his reactivity drops down to nearly zero the week following. This is probably because Tekno is more an anxious and curious excited greeter, and the more he sees known friendly dogs the less pressed he feels about meeting randos. Also he grows better at understanding the body language of stranger dogs and seeing that they actually don’t care about him as much as he thinks they do lol.















(long down stay around group of puppies)


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## Rose n Poos (Sep 22, 2017)

Your success with Tekno encourages me for my boys. I think I'm seeing progress but we have a couple of really big dog triggers that we haven't crossed paths with for a while .


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

Wanted to share a video of a very tough sidewalk encounter today. We had a little hiccup but overall I'm proud of Tekno for his fast recovery and not completely losing it.







In the video, I had setup my camera to do a little heeling practice outside with distractions. I put myself in place at the end of the wall and just as we got started a man with a dog flipping around on a long leash turned the corner. I tried to get away but cars we're coming, and my camera was on the ground so I had to just go to the edge of the sidewalk and play it cool so that Tekno didn't get too upset. The approaching dog was staring, crying, pulling, skiing, and wanted to play very badly. Tekno's body language is "I WANT TO PLAY TOO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE" but we have to stay firm on, no greetings on leash. Sorry bud. Also the other dog's owner pretty much did NOTHING until they had walked well past us smh and he had plenty of room and a crosswalk to go the other way and diffuse the situation. So considering all this, the fact that Tekno was just leaping up and doing a little whining and very shortly after was able to follow commands and get back in the heeling groove was super impressive. The reason I kept working with him is because his body language was not very wound up so I wanted to see if I could "catch" him again, simulating a real show or training environment where he may become overaroused and then quickly needs to get back in gear. I started luring him in the end because I wanted him to feel successful and confident without having to use any more of his precious reserves of self control. This wasn't an ideal situation and we won't be practicing by corners again but all and all I'm happy with him taking it stride and I just have to relax and remember he's a baby and his self-control will wax and wane. Multiple other times on the same walk, he dogs passing across the street a little glance, but was happy to engage back in with me and walk 

As a note, Tekno is on a soft silk collar in this video and is "walking" on his hind legs. When he is very excited he likes to walk and jump straight up in the air like a pogo stick lol. I am not pulling the leash up and hanging him 😅 That would be HORRIBLE but I know it might look like that out of context. I usually walk him on a harness but I knew I wanted to practice some obedience work with him and I try to always do that on collar since he is allowed to pull the harness in nosework and sniffy walks. I rather not to confuse them too much.


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

Tekno had a wonderful social day today practicing a stay while I “chat” with another dog owner, friendly passes, and a pack walk where he was a model canine citizen -heeling nicely beside me for most the walk and doing frequent sit and down stays at rest points.

He didn’t have single outburst today and offered frequent focus and engage/disengage. This was all in a harness to boot. I discovered (and this is important) that the collar triggers bigger reactions in Tekno, he is much better behaved on harness and especially good, off leash. We’re of course going to keep using a collar for obedience training but not on regular daily walks and pack walks.


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## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

What a great dog community you’ve got!


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

My boyfriend caught these photo moments today that I thought were really nice. A little backstory: Tekno and I were playing on the sidewalk with a tug toy, and out of nowhere a man crossed the street with his huge mini-poodle (the thing was at least 35lbs and beefy) and they came right at us without saying a word, just staring. I was quickly processing the situation and read the dogs body language, and though it was super rude neither the man nor the dog seemed to be mean any harm. I also don’t believe the man spoke any English and that the approach was also a bit of a cultural misunderstanding- so anywho I just smiled and monitored the sudden greeting to keep everyone calm. Losing your cool around a person that possibly doesn’t have all their marbles is never a good idea lol. Tekno wagged his tail and offered the dog a sniff, the dog was pushy but friendly. I gave the dogs some space so they could greet sideways rather than head on after a few seconds I said “good boy” and gently pulled Tekno away to signal to the man that he should do the same. He looked a little disappointed, I think he thought Tekno was a girl and was probably hoping to chat about making babies with his giant mini-poodle lol. After the two walked away, Tekno was beginning to get upset because he wanted to play with the dog and it was leaving so soon. I swiftly picked him up, told him what a good boy he was, and gave him his favorite food, cheese. I didn’t want him to know how thrown off and scared I was about that encounter and did everything to make sure he was calm and like it was “no big deal”. The reason I was scared was because this man b-lined diagonally across the street, wordless, and let his dog pull towards Tekno the reason I didn’t pull Tekno up is because it could’ve escalated the situation needlessly, Tekno is very good with greeting and very fast, if the dog did something aggressive Im confident he would move and if I had restrained him I would inhibit that and could’ve possibly made both dogs become over-aroused, basically I had to do a loooot of dog-related calculations really fast lol. When I was sure the man and mega-poodle were down the street I put Tekno back down and started playing with him again, he looked for the poo for a little bit and then got right back into a game of tug with me. This was awesome because Tekno absolutely won’t play with me when he’s worried. He’ll take food but he won’t play, so tug is a good way for me to know how he really feels. The photos are of the moment I picked him up as the dog and man walked away. You can see in Tekno’s face how upset he was that the dog was leaving but also see the calm, soothing, puppy eyes he does when presented with cheese (he even closes his eyes as he enjoys it loool). The photos were like counter conditioning in slow motion 😊


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

Big successes this morning with Tekno engaging and disengaging. In the photos below you can see him looking at his biggest triggers small friendly dogs that would be fun to play with  He looks at them, maybe gives a little whimper and then turns back to me 🥰

I think a number of things helped him be successful
1) Before starting our walk, we sat on our front porch and practiced offered eye contact.

2) he was on a long leash with a loose martingale

3) I cut his topknot so that he could have a better range of vision

4) he had just woken up, the weather was great, and he was in a good, playful mood

5) Im introducing chicken back into his diet. I suspect he has a food sensitivity to poultry but Im weighing that compared to feeding him red meat and cheeses. If it turns out the effects of poultry are very mild, I rather him be a little itchy rather than end up with pancreatitis from foods that are rich with fat.


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## Starla (Nov 5, 2020)

I love your thoughtful approach to dog ownership. He is such a lucky boy to have found you!


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

Haven’t updated this is in a while so here’s a vid from today-






In this video we were practicing some informal heads up heeling and just as we were wrapping up a surprise dog and owner passed us about 15ft away. Tekno and I both were taken off guard and this is usually when he is most likely to be reactive. Instead he stayed by my side, gave a couple of borfs borfs, and went straight back to work. As you can see emotionally he was clear headed just excited and we were able to dissipate that arousal through work. This is super important because the key goal is for him to be able to trial and focus in the presence of other dogs.

Something newish to our training tools under the guidance of a multi-OTCH and MACH competitive obedience trainer is a vibration collar (not stim) which you may notice in the video. Since Tek has been reinforced thousands of times at this point for his recall and stay, the vibration is used as a sort of ‘tap on the shoulder’ when his ears aren’t working too well. It’s made a world of difference in getting his attention when he ‘locks on’ to things with his eyes and every time he responds to the vibration he receives a high value treat to continue reinforcing recalls and stays. I think before I wouldn’t bawked at using one but the results were nearly instant and Tekno seems to really appreciate the clarity in situations where his adolescent brain wants to make poor decisions lol. He also hates gentle leaders and no pull harnesses, and those don’t translate at all to off leash which we often do for comp obedience training. Anywho, having a stronger recall and stay, and practicing that impulse control is rapidly improving the reactivity. Tekno can stare, he can sniff, he can whine, and let me know when he’s over threshold. The only rule is no hitting the end of your leash and always come when called. Having that clarity has been lovely and Ill continue to report on how it’s going 

For anyone curious this is an IQ mini e-collar. Its very small and the vibration feels like a cell phone on a low setting. It has the ability to stim but you can just set it to 0 and then there’s no worry of accidentally stimming. We also tried the micro-educator but it was big, clunky, and the receiver was confusing. I don’t recommend it at all for a little guy. Also, only use this under the guidance of an experienced and proven trainer. Your dog needs a huge reinforcement history before introducing any form of corrections and certain personalities will not do well even with something as mild as a vibration. Tekno is very stable, confident, and loves to work and being right, so he doesn’t mind it one bit but that doesnt mean that another dog won’t find it highly aversive.


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

I haven’t updated this thread in a while  just wanted to note on here that Tekno earned his CGCU. Even though he’s technically “reactive” with training and communication (and a dollop of good genetics), its possible for reactive pups to do all sorts of things while unstressed and a optimal arousal ☺


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## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

Congrats to you & Tekno. i love reading and watching the videos. You are an amazing team!


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## Rose n Poos (Sep 22, 2017)

Great work from a heckuva team!


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## Kukla the Tpoo (11 mo ago)

Several days ago, after seeing your latest post on last weekend's dog show, I was thinking about your 2021 posts on Tekno's reactivity and how far Tekno has come with all of your dedicated training. Congratulations!


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