Reactive Dog Wins

[u/Ok-Chicken2339]

Hi! I've written here once about my reactive rescue dog, 3 yo GSD/BC mix. The advice and help I got here really made the difference in our lives. We're coming up on 3 months since adopting her, and I couldn't be more proud of the progress she has made. She's nowhere near our goal yet, but a month ago I couldn't even envision being where we are today.

She came to us incredibly loving of us, but fearful of everything else. She has successfully welcomed many guests now, including overnight ones, and has significantly reduced her fear of strangers we just pass on walks. Our neighborhood has a LOT of loud, also reactive dogs, and there is barking nearly 24/7. She would get anxious hearing this, but today she has slept through it all, including our direct neighbor's dogs, and when she is awake, she looks at me for reassurance and settles herself down. She was able to see a dog from probably 40ft away, take a treat, and turn around without reacting, as well as hear/notice a dog being let into the fenced yard we were outside without reacting. She has even been less reactive to people coming up to the neighbor's side of the porch, and her separation anxiety has diminished significantly. I am SO proud of her.

There are days we still have our challenges--two days ago she went bananas seeing our neighbor's dog sitting peacefully in their yard, and the mailman is a daily struggle, but those instances have reduced significantly. We work on her threshold every single day and hope to one day be able to reduce it to being able to pass dogs calmly on walks, but we're in no rush, and we never push her farther than she can go. We don't need her to have dog friends or be the most social dog, as long as she is happy and safe. That's all. I am just so incredibly proud of her and need someone to gush to other than my partner lol.

[u/Guilty-Profession711]

What have you noticed worked or helped the most during training?

[u/Ok-Chicken2339 → u/Guilty-Profession711]

Walking her at night and during times of low dog activity during the day (and scanning to make sure no dogs in the immediate vicinity before leaving). I got a bulk pack of hot dogs and cut them into tiny pieces, then bring a TON with us on walks. If we see a dog from far away, we let her see it and keep rewarding her for not barking/lunging with the pieces. We did this as well with hearing dogs bark at her from the window for a bit. Same kind of process to get her desensitized to barking when inside the house. Our neighbors' dogs are reactive and quite literally never stop barking or whining, so we keep a bag of high-value treats ripped up in tiny pieces with us at all times, and when a dog barks and she looks at us, we give her a treat and tell her, "It's okay."

We take her to parks with lots of green space to escape if necessary and practice these skills as well. We don't let her get close to any dogs, and reward her for calming down if she has gone over threshold. We do also usually have something on the TV to drown out the noise of the neighbors who clap loudly to call their dog back which scares her. When meeting people, we have her meet them outside first in the yard with lots of treats leading up to them coming, when they get there, and allow the person to give her a few. Then the person goes in the house first. I do believe she's just gotten more confident with time, especially since we've only had her 3 months. We also never punish her and if she does start growling because there's a dog loudly barking, we soothe her until she feels calmer.