# Leash reactiveness...a little bit of a rant :/



## Cdnjennga (Jul 30, 2009)

Hoo boy did I struggle with this when Darcy was an adolescent! And it was no fun at all. I can say it should get better - Darcy will never be completely non reactive, he still yells at certain big dogs he doesn't like the look of, but it is like night and day with how he was when he was younger when he was set off by just about everything.

The first thing my trainer suggested was a gentle leader, which I see you already tried. I found it fairly helpful to get control of his head, but frankly I didn't even use it that long. What I found most useful and still use today was being vigilant of my surroundings, learning what was likely to set him off and getting his attention on me with treats before he could react. I would get him to focus and then treat. Consistently doing this lessened his reactivity considerably over time (plus I guess he grew out of it?)

Anyway, based on my experience, it will get better. But I would suggest if you are really struggling that you have a one on one training session with someone who can see what your dog's triggers are and help you out accordingly. That was going to be my next step if Darcy got even worse, which thankfully he never did.

ETA: I went back to find a thread I started when I was in the thick of his reactivity... Reading it now is kind of funny,because we're so far past that, but I remember how frustrating it was back then! http://www.poodleforum.com/23-general-training-obedience/11568-oh-boy-adolescence.html


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Excellent advice from CDNJ. At eight months he is entering adolescence, so I would second the advice to find a really good trainer, who uses reward based methods only, to work on this before it becomes an established habit. I walk a neighbour's fear reactive dog, and some of the things I have found helpful are:
Being constantly aware, and focussing on her need to be safe - if she reacts, I try to remember it is my fault not hers, and not make her more anxious by scolding her
Turn and walk in the opposite direction, to increase space between her and whatever is worrying her
Walk in a wide curve around whatever it is, again increasing distance
Always keep my body between her and whatever it is - over time this has enabled us to pass much closer to dogs without her worrying
Treats helped, but walking past briskly is better than having her wait
Fending off dogs that get too close myself, so she doesn't have to!

Poppy can occasionally bark through excitement, and wanting to greet - that is much easier to deal with. I turn and walk away for about a hundred yards, then turn back. Any barking, and we turn away again. If the other dog is friendly, I ask the owner if they can meet, and remind Poppy to be polite. These days just the word "Politely!" Is usually enough to calm her down, after lots of work in the early days.


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## Countryboy (May 16, 2011)

fjm said:


> Treats helped, but walking past briskly is better than having her wait


Good point. Treats are often taken as a panacea. But there's a time for them... and a time for other action. If we've got something strange approaching us, that will be the focus of our attention. A sit-stay and wait-for-a-treat get tossed aside in favour of some different rewarding 'action'.


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## papoodles (Jun 27, 2011)

I have a three standard poodles, one of which, my 2 yr. old girl Pippa, is dog reactive, and would also lunge when we would meet up with other leashed dogs while out on walks. 
It was embarrassing, because she looked like a pit bull ready for the attack, while in reality, she really is just a sweet and great girl.
Luckily for us, she’s also very food oriented. What helped was taking a bag of high value treats along , and as soon as we noticed a dog approaching, we would put her into a ‘sit’ position while assiduously handing out those treats..so quickly, that she forgot about any dog approaching!
She has made soo much progress that the treats are no longer needed to reinforce the ‘sit’, which I think will always be necessary..
Forgot to mention, that we use a harness on her..


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

A gentle leader, as you have already discovered (since your dog was so concerned to try to get it off), is really a coersive tool. For any such tool and an easy walk harness would also fit this bill, Ian Dunbar would tell you to put the tool on the dog for 2 weeks without hooking it to your leash. Then put a new flat buckle collar that you have scented with something very aromatic and obvious for the dog along with your coersive tool. Hook both of them to the leash and then start your walk. The dog will associate the correction with the new collar and not the other tool. This gives you a much higher probability of fading the other tool successfully. 

I have clients who corrupted the use of a gentle leader by not doing the strategy I described before they hired me so we are employing different strategies. The dog is a border collie cross so very smart and quick at picking up things. She pulls heavily on leash and is dog reactive. We are currently working on the pulling on leash. I took her out in the yard and put the leash on and just held on tight when she pulled. Since she didn't get to go anywhere while pulling she turned to see why I wasn't going with her. when she reoriented towards me I praised and if she held her attention on me I also treated. Within about ten minutes she was barely pulling and we started moving with a loose leash. I stopped as soon as she pulled and rewarded her for reorienting towards me. She still only goes a short distance before she pulls, but she stops pulling the instant she feels the tension on the leash. Once we get the pulling on leash under control with no dogs present we will work on the reactivity. The plan will be to keep her and another dog (probably Lily) at a distance where the client dog stays under threshold. We will use praise for reorienting to teach her to ignore other dogs and then gradually decrease the distance between the dogs.

I hope this may be helpful to you.


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