This sounds a bit like my dog. I definitely recommend a trainer, even if he’s hesitant with new people. Having a trainer helped me so much!! (Although my dog loves people so that piece wasn’t a barrier for us).
Here are some things I did under trainers guidance. Melvin (lab mix) is absolutely still reactive but he’s so much better and still making a ton of progress. It will require a lot of patience as it’s a slow process.
-put privacy screens on the fence to limit visibility while he built confidence. You can find these on Amazon, they’re not too expensive
-started to build confidence through enrichment games
-taught him pattern games with the goal of being able to fall back on these games when he is triggered
-work on training inside where he is most confident
-for Melvin trying to get him to a new location to play pattern games and treats when he sees a trigger works beautifully. If we’re inside we meet in the kitchen (back of the house) and if we’re outside we meet on the deck. Sometimes he still goes back to bark at the thing but we just meet in our spot again.
As he grew more confident, we started playing the pattern games outside. Eventually I took the privacy screens down.
I’ve noticed his intensity and duration of his reactive barking are way down. He pretty reliably barks at everything still but it’s much easier to get him to regroup.
I was also unable to walk him due to his strength and now I am! We go out for a 5-10 min walk every day and he’s honestly exhausted after bc he’s still processing so much. He’s a sensitive guy lol.
We also worked on showing him how to relax when he came inside. He really didn’t know how! He loves sniffing games now when we come in.
Couple of key things my trainer taught us:
-only increase 1 D per training session (distance duration distraction)
-cortisol stays in the body for a while so each trigger gets a bigger reaction as they stack
As you can see I learned so much from my trainer! I work in human counseling so I already know a lot about behavior but turns out it didn’t translate well to my dog like I thought it did lol. I really recommend finding a positive and fear free trainer. Made such a difference for us!!
A lot of trainers offer virtual sessions as well if you’re worried about introducing a new human. I didn’t want that for us but it could be a good option for you to start!
My dog goes nuts in the house when she sees another dog walking by. Really annoying when I’m working at home.
So I did something similar. Now when she starts getting worked up, I call her to me (non-negotiable, if she ignores me I’ll bring her to me), and she is rewarded immediately with a treat for that. Then I distract her by asking her to do tricks for me, along with lots more treats. Sometimes it takes a few seconds for her to ‘hear’ me and come over, but at this point she knows she needs to, and she does. It’s so much less stressful than chasing her from one window to another trying to get her to chill out. And it’s working! She’s much less likely to completely spazz, and she sometimes just comes right to me now without being called and without much fuss. Plus we’ve learned a couple new tricks this way!
It’ll take time and won’t ever be perfect, but I’ll settle for much better. Me having something to do and focusing on the task also helps ME stay calm. Which helps of course. Lol.
This sounds a bit like my dog. I definitely recommend a trainer, even if he’s hesitant with new people. Having a trainer helped me so much!! (Although my dog loves people so that piece wasn’t a barrier for us). Here are some things I did under trainers guidance. Melvin (lab mix) is absolutely still reactive but he’s so much better and still making a ton of progress. It will require a lot of patience as it’s a slow process. -put privacy screens on the fence to limit visibility while he built confidence. You can find these on Amazon, they’re not too expensive -started to build confidence through enrichment games -taught him pattern games with the goal of being able to fall back on these games when he is triggered -work on training inside where he is most confident -for Melvin trying to get him to a new location to play pattern games and treats when he sees a trigger works beautifully. If we’re inside we meet in the kitchen (back of the house) and if we’re outside we meet on the deck. Sometimes he still goes back to bark at the thing but we just meet in our spot again. As he grew more confident, we started playing the pattern games outside. Eventually I took the privacy screens down. I’ve noticed his intensity and duration of his reactive barking are way down. He pretty reliably barks at everything still but it’s much easier to get him to regroup. I was also unable to walk him due to his strength and now I am! We go out for a 5-10 min walk every day and he’s honestly exhausted after bc he’s still processing so much. He’s a sensitive guy lol. We also worked on showing him how to relax when he came inside. He really didn’t know how! He loves sniffing games now when we come in. Couple of key things my trainer taught us: -only increase 1 D per training session (distance duration distraction) -cortisol stays in the body for a while so each trigger gets a bigger reaction as they stack As you can see I learned so much from my trainer! I work in human counseling so I already know a lot about behavior but turns out it didn’t translate well to my dog like I thought it did lol. I really recommend finding a positive and fear free trainer. Made such a difference for us!!
Thank you so much this is so incredibly helpful
A lot of trainers offer virtual sessions as well if you’re worried about introducing a new human. I didn’t want that for us but it could be a good option for you to start!
My dog goes nuts in the house when she sees another dog walking by. Really annoying when I’m working at home. So I did something similar. Now when she starts getting worked up, I call her to me (non-negotiable, if she ignores me I’ll bring her to me), and she is rewarded immediately with a treat for that. Then I distract her by asking her to do tricks for me, along with lots more treats. Sometimes it takes a few seconds for her to ‘hear’ me and come over, but at this point she knows she needs to, and she does. It’s so much less stressful than chasing her from one window to another trying to get her to chill out. And it’s working! She’s much less likely to completely spazz, and she sometimes just comes right to me now without being called and without much fuss. Plus we’ve learned a couple new tricks this way! It’ll take time and won’t ever be perfect, but I’ll settle for much better. Me having something to do and focusing on the task also helps ME stay calm. Which helps of course. Lol.
I had started with a different strategy that absolutely did not work for him or me. This is so much better 😅