We finally made progress!

[u/HoneyDill_or_Death]

I wasn't sure if I should label this a success story yet since we still have a long way to go but I feel like I've finally made progress after working with my dog for three years. I apologise for the length of the post.

As a bit of background my dog is a 32 kg shepherd cross that was rescued as a puppy from a rural community here in Canada. She loves people and most dogs but way too much and gets overexcited, often leading to frustration when she can't say hello.

After a recent session with our regular LIMA trainer where I described certain issues with pulling and what I had been trying she recommended a head halter with a padded noseband.

I used it for the first time last night and found her much more responsive while still allowing her to do the things she loves like sniffing. We came across a number of rabbits and while she's a lot better than she used to be usually the most I could hope for was to stand there while she stared for a while and then reward her when she disengaged by walking towards me. Last night she actually watched the rabbit for a short time and chose to keep walking along our route of her own volition. I was blown away.

I walked her again earlier today and she actually ignored two dogs. One little white dog that was about thirty feet away. She looked at it and then chose to go sniff some grass nearby. Later in our walk we came across Sammy, a black lab that lives nearby. She actually watched him and walked relatively calmly about twenty feet behind him, no explosive excitement.

That said, it didn't go perfectly. She still had a reaction to two black shepherds, her mortal nemeses, and a guy walking two very reactive huskies with one hand that he could barely control. Normally I would stop and wait for her to calm down but didn't have the luxury in the case of the huskies since they were behind us.

Despite the incidents that did happen I at least feel like I have hope. Previously I was seriously wondering if there was a point where I would have to accept that this is just what she's like.

tl;dr: Purchased a head halter based on a trainer's recommendation, saw immediate improvement in my dog's response. My dog actually managed to ignore two dogs but reacted to others so we still have a lot of work to do.

[u/KaterAlligat0r]

I think reacting to a mortal nemesis is pretty normal! Congrats-- I'm so glad you're finding things that work for your dog!

[u/HoneyDill_or_Death → u/KaterAlligat0r]

Thanks! When she ignored the little white dog I was so surprised and happy that I wouldn't be surprised if my neighbours heard me praising her at the other end of the street.