We are pleased to be co-hosting the 6th WOOF blog hop along with Oz the Terrier. WOOF (Working Out Our Fears) Support is where reactive dogs and their owners can come together to share similar experiences. Are you a reactive and/or fearful dog or its owner? We’d love to hear your story! This month’s theme is “Hopes and Challenges This Holiday”. Will the upcoming holidays be a challenging or hopeful time for you and your reactive dog? Maybe it will be a little bit of both. We have a giveaway this month, at the end of the post!
In Part 1 I shared how we started clicker training with Luke. Just a few days after we signed him up for private classes, something happened that made us realize just how much we all really needed it. Let me back up just a bit…..
How It Started
It’s hard for me to admit this, that Luke is reactive, because of course I partially blame myself (and my hubby). I fear that we didn’t socialize him well enough. I knew how important socialization was, and we honestly did try. We had every intention of taking Luke to puppy kindergarten to get him off to a good start. However, he had only been with us a day before he came down with kennel cough, and not long after that, worms. Both of these things set back his vaccination schedule (my vet won’t vaccinate an ill dog), and since I prefer to split up our dogs’ vaccines, Luke was 4 months old before all of that was finally done; too old for kindergarten, yet too young for basic obedience.
On one trip to the vets’, he growled at two different dogs. One of the dogs was being calm and friendly, but the other was jumping and pulling at his leash trying to get to us, so I don’t blame him for that one. In both cases, I just moved Luke away and he was fine. Next thing we noticed was that he started barking at people coming to our house. Mostly he only barked initially but then he would settle down and be fine. I was concerned when he started obedience school, but he did fine there. On the other hand, he barked at our neighbors when I was walking him. We thought (hoped) that just getting him out more would help him.
Over the summer our son and grandson came for a visit. We probably screwed up by not introducing them all more slowly, but we were just getting home from a trip ourselves and things were a little chaotic. What we didn’t expect was that Luke would bark at our grandson the whole time he was there (which was really just a short overnight visit). So we either had to keep Luke separate or stay right with him to keep an eye on things. I don’t believe that Luke would ever bite anyone, I know this barking is out of fear, but of course it’s not a chance I would ever take, especially with our grandson. William, who is 3, was great with Luke….he never tried to approach him, bother him, or anything like that. Luke wanted to get up to him and smell him, but children move quickly and that always startled Luke and he would back off and start barking again. For some reason, William still liked Luke….he kept telling his Dad he wanted to see “the black and white dog”!
Now we knew additional training was even more important than we thought. When we told the trainer, Dave, what was going on he immediately said Luke was reactive. To his credit, he didn’t suggest that we had screwed him up or anything. When we told him Luke had been transported from down south, he told us that often puppies transported can come from inbreeding, and that could possibly cause a sort of disconnect in their brains. To me, that doesn’t mean Luke isn’t smart, but that his genetics might predispose him to being fearful. That at least eased my guilt a little. The bottom line is this is what we’re dealing with, and with the holidays coming, and company, we need to work with Luke to help the situation. Dave felt that clicker training could be a good tool for this.
Know Your Dog
I wrote in Part 1 that our first week working with Luke at home didn’t go well. Dave felt that we needed something to get Luke’s attention when he was not cooperating. He suggested a “leash correction”. I was wary of leash corrections, but I also knew we had to do something to get Luke to pay attention to us. From the beginning, Dave assured us he would never ask us to do anything we were uncomfortable with. We weren’t talking about using any special collars, just giving a tug on his collar so he would focus on us.
To be honest, I was not totally comfortable with the idea, but my hubby was OK with it. I don’t even like to raise my voice with the dogs, and frankly, they sometimes know that and walk all over me. I thought we should at least try it, and we did. However, it didn’t take me long to figure out when back at home that it wasn’t working. For me, it made Luke worse….I could see him kind of “shutting down” and paying even less attention to me. So I stopped doing it. When back at our next class, Dave asked about it, and I told him what I thought.
So we stopped using the leash when training (except for loose leash walking of course) right after that and we found that a sharp “Hey!” or clap will usually get Luke’s attention. Sometimes I have to physically get in front of him to get his attention as well, but it works and Dave approved of how I was doing it. Then later when my hubby was working on heeling with Luke, and gave Luke a slight leash correction, Dave saw what I had seen. To his credit, he made a point of telling me that I was right, he saw Luke shut down too. I felt good that I had observed this, for me it was a confirmation that I was learning and paying attention, and that I know my dog.
Closing thoughts and advice based on our experience. I’m not an expert – you should always consult a trainer or behaviorist for expert advice!
- Blaming yourself for your dogs’ reactivity is a waste of time. Yes, we could have done better, but personality does play into it. Sheba had the same upbringing as all of our dogs, and she is not reactive at all. Luke has a lot of other personality quirks that lead me to believe this might have happened no matter what we did.
- Don’t be afraid to try something new, but also, don’t be afraid to say no to something you are uncomfortable with.
- Be observant of your dog’s reactions during training. Most of our classes were spent with either my hubby or I working with Luke and the other watching to learn.
- Having a trainer who listens to you and works with you is very important. One of our trainer Dave’s strong points is his communication skills. He gave us instructions but never told us what we had to do, if that makes sense. For example; he keeps his own dogs out of the kitchen, but he wasn’t going to tell us that was something we had to do as well. I want to keep them out when I’m cooking, so he helped us to work on that.
In Part 3, I will explain how we are using clicker training to help Luke with his fear of strangers coming to our house.
Giveaway!
One winner will receive a Training Package that includes a Clicker, Sport Treat Pouch (I have this pouch and love it) & Lickety Stik dog training treat courtesy of PetSafe. Just fill out the Rafflecopter below. The giveaway is open for 1 week, it closes on Thursday, November 20 at 11:59 PM – you can come back and tweet daily! Contest is open to USA and Canada only, age 18 or over, void where prohibited by law. Good luck!
Thanks for sharing and great closing thoughts, I think you hit everything on the head. Keep up the good work and it will all be good in the end.
Thank you for the encouragement!
I am no trainer and I haven’t met Luke, but I would say he is more a soft dog than a reactive dog based on what you are describing. Soft dogs do tend to shut down if you use harsh training methods, even a raised voice. Really soft dogs can be fearful and can bite if they feel threatened. Freighter is softer than our other two dogs, but only a bit. I sure would not want him any softer. But then Chessies as a breed are somewhat soft. Storm on the other hand is hard as nails…lol. Two ends of the spectrum.
I wasn’t familiar with soft and hard dogs, but I looked it up so I understand what you’re saying now. I believe you could be right about Luke being soft. It’s definitely something I’ll keep in mind when working with him. We’re really hoping he’ll outgrow some of his fears.
Great promotion. I’d be willing to donate a Clicker Ring for you and contestants in the future. http://www.ClickerPlus.com
Josh, that would be wonderful! We would love to try the ring, so I will be in touch.
I would use it for my new pup. He gets a little overly excited when we pass by other cute critters.
It’s fun and I think it will help you bond with you new pup as well. Good luck!
That is wonderful your training is coming along and paying off.
Thank you, Emma. I’m not sure we’ll get everything out of it that we need, but we’re making progress.
Glad to hear that your trainer is willing to listen to you and change things when things are working!!
The problem with leash corrections for a dog reacting out of fear is that you are basically punishing / correcting the dog for being afraid. This sometimes stops the barking and other unwanted behavior, but only because the dog completely shuts down. It doesn’t do anything to help the dog feel more confident and comfortable with the situation.
Also glad to hear that you are doing clicker training with Luke! I read your first post and look forward to reading part 3. 🙂
cheers,
Mary
Thank you, Mary! I am so glad you are enjoying the series.
I know exactly what you mean about the leash corrections, and we are trying to use that same principal in everything for Luke. We want to build his confidence and hopefully reduce his fears.
I’m not sure the clicker training will solve everything, but it definitely is helping.
It sounds to me as though you’ve found a great trainer who can adapt to the dog’s reaction and try something different.
It’s been really easy working with him, and that has made it better for all of us. He’s enthusiastic too…he gets almost as excited as we do when we see results!
Great post and lots of good information for owners about knowing your dog and finding what works for both of you. Our Golden Retriever was abused by a trainer (long before I adopted him) and he shut down anytime he felt threatened. It was heartbreaking to watch the life drain out of the mellowest dog you can imagine. But we learned his triggers, how to avoid them, and how to get him responsive if we accidentally startled him.
Thank you.
It’s so difficult to see your dog being fearful, and how awful that your dog was abused. Luke’s fears are mostly based in his personality which I think will make it easier to deal with them. I want to be sure he doesn’t have any bad experiences that could make it worse.
Great giveaway!
I know what you mean about not wanting to admit when you have a reactive dog. I go through the same thing with Mika
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Hope you entered and good luck, Jenna!
It is tough having a reactive dog….but I think sometimes it makes us love them even more, don’t you?
Corrections are hard for me, too–even a sharp “hey” isn’t natural for me–but Barley’s developed some undesirable behaviors, such as nipping at me (but not actually making contact) when she gets overexcited in agility class. Our trainer’s been really good at working with me to help me find solutions I’m comfortable with–she’s helped me understand that positive reinforcement isn’t going to work there because she’s so nutty then that she’s going to associate the reward with the running around crazily and think that if she does that and then comes back to me, she’ll get a reward and I have to do something otherwise the behavior will escalate and that’s not something I want to get out of hand. We’ve had a lot of success with an immediate “No!” and then a firm down so that she learns that the fun stops when she starts that behavior and if she doesn’t down immediately, usually if I get in front of her and then take her collar and gently pull up on it to put just a little pressure on it, she does what I asked. Then we use the positive reinforcement in other situations to reinforce the calm behavior and keep her from getting overexcited in the first place. It’s really working! This week, we made it through 11 obstacles in a row without any nipping or barking or running around doing her own thing–for a while we hadn’t made it through more than 3 without having to stop!
It sounds like you have a great trainer as well, who has lots of ideas of how to find something that works. Not every technique is going to work with every dog, so I think it’s important to have someone willing to try different things to find the ones that work.
It sounds like Barley is doing great! I need to get over and visit your blog…I’ve been so busy lately, it’s always one thing or another! I’d love to try agility with Luke at some point, so I love reading about it.
Yes! We love our trainer! Some how, she’s able to come up with a different solution for every single dog in our class, no matter what issues we’re all struggling with. Having great, patient, supportive classmates also helps! Agility has been a great way for Barley to get used to being around other dogs in a high energy setting (and our trainer and classmates have been very good at making sure we’re comfortable and giving us the space we need on our turns). From all the pictures you’ve posted of Luke romping and playing, I’m sure he would love it!
The mom tried clicker training on us. But she gave up…too soon, we think. Great post!
Thank you! Hmmm….should I be trying this with my cats as well? I’m not sure I have the patience either!
I would use it to help Bentley become a better walking friend. He tends to get distracted by all of the interesting smells. ☺ We love PetSafe! They make so many products that we love. Bentley’s very favorite toy ever is PetSafe “Slappy” a.k.a. Pogo Plush Slap Happy.
Luke has some hound dog in him, and it definitely comes out when we’re walking. That is something we are working on as well! We have a few things from PetSafe now as well, and there are others I want to try.
Glad to hear that Luke is doing so well! My mom went out of her way to socialize me from day one but I still started having issues later on. Its hard to tell what causes what when it comes to dog’s behavior. It really is just a crap shoot. Love Dolly
Thanks, Dolly, that makes me feel better to hear you say that too. xo
I could REALLY use a new treat bag, in fact it’s on my Christmas list….it seems a certain someone chewed mine. LOL
Let you a comment on the FB page.
Thank you, and good luck in the giveaway!
I’ve tried clicker training with Oz and have had mixed results. It is fine when there are no distractions but when he is on leash and another dog walks by, forget it. All training goes out the window. I am glad that you are having a positive experience with the clicker training. In regard to the leash correction, I really think that type of training really depends on the dog and the human doing the correction…as with so many training tools/techniques, misuse will just make things worse. It is great that you know Luke so well that you recognized immediately his negative response to the corrections. Keep up the great work!
Gina and Oz
Thank you, Gina and Oz. I’m not convinced yet that clicker training will be the answer to all of our problems, but we’re pleased with the progress we’ve had with it so far. One of my problems is that I want instant results….I have no patience…and I know it’s going to take ongoing work.
I love clicker training. You get better results with positive re-enforcement and your relationship will be much better with your dog.
I totally agree, Jim. I just wish I could get my husband 100% on board with that.
Ii so relate! As you know, Isis was not socialized properly either. Leo was socialized (our puppy preschools here don’t require dogs be fully vaccinated yet, just “up to date.”) but he’s leash reactive from spending formative months in the house with a reactive dog!
Clicker training is the best. I don’t like doing any corrections either!
Since our beagle Cricket also barks at people that come to the house, I suppose that hasn’t helped Luke at all. But she usually stops, whereas he’s carrying it further.
Your book has been a help to me during this, Kari, knowing what to look for in a trainer is an important part of it, so I have to thank you for that!