Even though I haven’t been doing much organized training with Luke lately, our week of staycation gave me a lot of opportunities to work with him on his fear of strangers. Between contractors, cleaning help, and company for the weekend around, we got lots of work in and even though they were small steps, I feel really good about the progress we’ve made.
While I still mostly keep Luke separated from anyone around the house, I try to keep him within sight of them if I can as well. Since I’m often busy interacting with these people, I don’t always use treats as a reward but mostly praise. Summer and two screen doors to our main living area really make it easy. If someone arrives at the house, I can put Luke outside on either the patio or the deck where he can see the people coming in from a safe distance.
There was a time when he would bark endlessly at them. Now he will bark a little bit and then stop. We’ll often tell him to “leave it” or just say “enough” or “it’s OK” in normal tones of voice, but often he’ll stop barking on his own anyway. He might start up again if the people make sudden large movements or talk loudly, but for the most part he’ll just lie down outside the door and watch.
I also sometimes put him in our bedroom, and what helps there is our enclosed entryway. Our contractors and family/friends know that they can step into the entryway, but then they will wait until I get Luke corralled before they come in the next door. Luke is actually getting so good at this, that all I do is motion to the bedroom and he will run right down there where he’ll wait for me to come close the door, and then let him out as soon as I can.
The big test was going to be when we had 20+ people at the house for a BBQ. Most of the time I had him enclosed in our bedroom, along with his sisters and the fan on to drown out noise, especially as people were arriving. Even Cricket will bark at people arriving so that sets Luke off too. The nice thing about the set-up of our house is that I can take them directly from the bedroom into our small dog pen, a separate area from the rest of the fenced in yard. I had to do that a few times when showing the house to some of the guests.
From there, they could see everyone on the patio. I asked our company to please not approach the pen or try to interact with Luke in any way, and everyone was very understanding. I’m happy to say that the times I brought Luke, with or without his sisters, into that area he would only bark a few times.
I let the girls out to visit with our company, and my sister (who is our house-sitter as well – Luke loves her) and I gave Luke some attention out in the small pen. The girls were playing ball, and we were starting to serve dinner so I wanted to put them back inside (so there would be no begging for food). I had my friend’s son who was playing with the girls toss the ball into Luke and that made him happy, and he did not react at all to Alex coming closer to the pen to do so.
Later in the evening, as most people left, it was just my hubby and I, my sister and her boyfriend, and my friend who was our overnight guest, left. I decided to bring the girls out and I put Luke on a leash and brought him as well. Everyone was sitting down and I was able to walk him past them on the leash and bring him to the couch with my sister and I. He did not even bark or react once! He was a little fidgety though (they hadn’t had their supper yet so that was understandable!); and when he didn’t want to stay with me and seemed a bit nervous I put him back outside. I knew they would be getting up to leave soon too, and didn’t want to push it. It’s one thing when people are sitting still, but sometimes when they move it might set him off.
The next morning, I brought him out on leash again before my friend left. He did bark at her when her first saw her but he quickly stopped. We also had him show her some of his tricks (the ones he could do while on a leash). People had suggested to me that having him do tricks might relax him some and I think it helped.
In fact, I used that theory again last week. Before I get to that, I just want to express how thrilled we are with how Luke did! It’s tough to take it slow sometimes but I think that has been key to our success here. As time goes on, I learn more and more about training, and also about what works for Luke to help him the most.
I mentioned in our Staycation Part 2 post last week that a cement truck in our yard had scared Luke and now all trucks in the yard are scaring him. We still have a lot of construction to do at our house, so I need to nip this in the bud if I can. I didn’t realize how much it had upset him until I got home from work on Monday and found someone had gotten sick. The cement truck had been back that day. I suspected it was Luke (everyone was fine when I got home) and because of the truck, and that was confirmed the next day when a delivery truck arrived and he started to shake.
At first I just sat with him to comfort him. I don’t go overboard with coddling him, but just have him lie down and talk to him in a normal voice while petting him, reassuring him that it’s OK. But I knew that wasn’t going to be enough. I also took him in the kitchen and had him sit and gave him and his sisters some treats. That truck wasn’t around long; but when another one arrived another day, this time I took him right into the kitchen, opened all the cabinets and drawers and had him close them all! Then we went through high fives and all tens and I gave lots of treats (I use a jar of kibble that I keep handy for this).
I think that helped a lot; and I hope it will help in the long run. Trucks never bothered him before other than initial barking; I just hate that he’s afraid. I may have to come up with other ideas for trucks that stay longer though.
One last bit of news: I signed up for the Beginning Nose Work class at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy! This is an on-line course that we can do at our own pace, and I think it will work perfectly for us. Luke will be my focus but I hope to try it with the girls a little bit too. We’ve done nose work games in the past and both Luke and Cricket loved it. Sheba wasn’t thrilled about all the boxes so we’ll see with her. I’m really excited about it and I’m ready to buckle down and get back to some regular training. This is hopefully going to be another great way to build Luke’s confidence. Stay tuned – we’ll be reporting on it!
We are joining the Positive Pet Reinforcement hop this week. It begins on the first Monday of every month and runs all week long. The hop is hosted by Cascadian Nomads, Tenacious Little Terrier, and Rubicon Days. Please visit them as well as other blogs through the links below for more positive pet training tips.
Having owned a reactive dog in the past, I feel for ya. Congrats on your recent success and continued good luck as you take those baby steps. ????
It’s good to hear that Luke is doing so well. Your hard work and patience are getting results!
I’m leaving another comment for the showcase linky. Mom says she forwarded a blog post to you about a product for your doors to keep the dogs out of the litter box. Can you let her know if you got it or not? Thanks! Love Dolly
Yes, I did get it! Please tell your Mom thank you SO much for sending it along! Another blogger offered me a similar product – maybe the same one – that she got in her BlogPaws swag (I think). I really appreciate all the recommendations your Mom has been giving us. We’re trying something different right now, and we’ll let you know how it works out. Thank you!! ♥
I have to do something very similar with our dogs when guests come over until we can introduce each dog to guests one at a time. They have to start upstairs behind baby gates and then everyone comes downstairs and they get high rewarding treats. Nosework has been the BEST thing I’ve done with our reactive guys – and I’ve heard wonderful things about the Fenzi Online Academy -I heard you can submit videos for critiques with instructors! Enjoy!
It’s always comforting to know that others are dealing with similar issues to ours!
The Fenzi class is great so far. We’re not in the level that submits videos ( they have 3 levels, we chose the least expensive for our first time), but we can see the videos that others submit and read the instructors’ critiques; it is very helpful.
An online nose-work course?! Wow, I will have to check that out. Cool! My dogs are reactive whenever a vehicle goes by my house. The UPS truck is probably the worst. Sigh. I enjoyed reading your tips about what works for you!
Our old house set back off the road so traffic was not a thing there, unless they pulled into the driveway. Our new house sits right on the street, and even though it’s a fairly quiet street, there has been a lot of drama over passing traffic since we moved in! Luckily they seem to be getting more used to it though. But the UPS guy? He’s just evil apparently (I guess because he dares to actually stop at the house). LOL
You are doing such a great job with this pup. I love, love your management and your slow training methods. Truly impressive. Fear is real and needs to be turned around slowly like you are doing. One recommendation I would have for you is a training devise like a Pet Tutor. I do work for this company (very small gig), but as a Certified Trainer, this is one power tool, especially in a situation like this. With the remote control, the dog could be focused on the machine and getting treats everytime he looks at one of the new people. So much you could do with it to speed up your progress a little bit. Great post, I really enjoyed it. https://smartanimaltraining.com/?aff=18
Thank you, it’s so nice to hear from a trainer that I’m on the right track with him! Thanks also for the tip about the Pet Tutor. I have seen those, or ones like it, but I hesitate because of our other dogs. Our beagle might make getting those flying treats into a competition, and she doesn’t always play nicely. 🙁 But I am definitely going to keep it in mind, we may be able to find a way to at least use one sometimes.
Poor guy. My Bear Cat is terrified of everything. It’s almost absurd … he was homeless for the first 8 months of his life, yet he’s scared of birds and squirrels. His own shadow makes him jump sometimes. We had new neighbors move in a few months ago with a dog and he now spends most of his time under the kitchen table. It upsets me to see him so stressed out – I can’t imagine how he must feel if he feels safest sleeping under the table where it can’t be comfortable. I’ve tried to be reassuring and loving and NOT react to the neighbor’s noise but none of that seems to help. Music and running water seem to help a bit. It’s been getting progressively worse over the last month … maybe I’ll need to move or try a calming spray so he doesn’t feel like he’s always being assaulted by noise.
Oh no, poor Bear Cat. It’s so tough to see them being afraid and worse when nothing we do seems to help. Luke seems to be afraid of more things lately….I sometimes think it’s phases he goes through.
I’ve had people recommend Feliway spray for cats that are stressed, so maybe that would help Bear?
I am happy to hear of Luke’s progress. It saddens me too when our furry friends are fearful of anything. Congrats on the online nose class, can’t wait to hear more about it.
It sounds as if Luke is making big progress, and you are being so good about taking everything slowly. Back when I got my dog Shyla (late August, 2012), she had terrible fear issues. I worked extremely hard with her to help her be able function in our world. She’s a lot better now but still the fear lurks under her coping facade. I still have to take things slowly, and that can be hard for us humans!!!
I hope that you love the nosework class. We’re now on our 5th nosework class at Fenzi. I love them. Shyla is too fearful for trials so we use the classes to help us keep progressing. Have fun!!!
Reading about dogs like your Shyla gives me more hope for Luke! I’m doubtful that Luke will ever compete in the nosework either, and we don’t live close to trials anyway, plus I’m not much of a traveler. But I’d love to think we can just keep moving forward in the classes like you have to learn more and more and keep building his confidence.
You are doing such a good job with him. I think training a dog to do a job definitely gives the dog confidence. I have written about this a lot. I also think not acting like something is unusual or to be taken notice of is important when you have a reactive dog. This kind of goes against the grain of modern dog training. I really should do a post about this because I just saw this in action the past week.
Thank you! Luke seems to challenge us daily, and sometimes it feels like I’ll never get all of his issues dealt with. It’s also tough when there can be conflicting advice out there. I like to think I’m getting in tune with him enough to have a better idea now of what will work and what won’t – but it’s still trial and error sometimes.
I’d love to read anything you might write on the subject!
Good job, Luke! Sweet boy!
It’s so important to recognize the incremental changes. One day, you’ll look back and think, “Wow, remember when he couldn’t even be within sight of people without barking?”
I can’t wait for that day! 🙂
It sounds like you are making good progress and have a great management plan in place to help Luke adjust. It helps to have so many options with him too as well as he doesn’t seem to mind the places you have for him where he feels safe.
I hope he loves the nose work and that it gives him more confidence!
With Sam’s situation, I’ve hardly had any time to myself. I need to get back to my school work; but I also need every tiny bit of “just me” time I can grab. Thankfully doggy daycare is helping Ducky to de-stress during the day so she can relax more here at home, around the dog-daddy’s cane. I wanted to start working on muzzle training with her, but time is an almost non-existent commodity around here.
Glad Luke is doing so well! Sudden movement startles Ducky into a case of the barks, too; so I understand. But slow, easy baby steps are the way to go with both of them. I find the place command helps Ducky a lot, too. She relaxes better when she knows what is expected of her; and she has learned that place means a combination of down, stay, and settle. It usually – 9 times out of 10 – works wonders for her.
Even when things are normal, time enough to do everything seems hard to find, doesn’t it, never mind when things are crazy like they are for you now.
I have worked with Luke some on going to his bed, which I think is similar to your “place” command. I just need to work more with him on actually staying there.
Same here. I think the trick to it is paying enough attention to correct their attempts to leave the spot.
That’s great that he’s doing better – but it is a slow ride, isn’t it? He sounds similar to Rita – she can settle down when folks come over, but then if they move too fast or something, she’s all upset again. Hopefully Rita will do okay once we get around to having our kitchen redone. Unfortunately, she HATES our contractor. Ugh.
BTW, interesting that you put him where he can see what’s happening but not approach folks. That’s what our one trainer told me, but then another one said putting that “barrier” between her and whoever is coming in is like a sign to her that it’s a potentially bad situation. So I stopped putting her outside where she could see in – but maybe I’ll go back to it. It seemed to work okay.. It’s a lot of trial and error!
I actually wasn’t sure about the barrier thing, because I had also read conflicting things about it, and I know Luke can be weird when he’s on the other side of a fence or gate from his sisters. But I just felt like he couldn’t move forward if he couldn’t see the people eventually, but I still needed everyone to be at a safe distance to start with. You are definitely right that it’s trial and error, and I think it might be different for every dog too, so all you can do is try different things to see what works.
Dogs sure can be selective, and Rita may never get to like your contractor. Cricket can be selective sometimes too. There are some men she doesn’t like, one of them being one of my brothers-in-law! I don’t worry about her getting upset enough to bite though, like I do Luke. I know that she’ll just back off, whereas I’ve seen Luke actually go at people in defense, so I have to be extra cautious with him.
I enjoy reading about the techniques you employ to help Luke overcome his fears! He’s lucky to have your attention and patience. I don’t know if this will help with your pack, but I find that the poodles are way more calm around construction noise if they can see what we’re doing. They don’t seem to mind the banging if they know the why and what of it all! Trucks delivering cement may be a different matter though!
Thank you for that tip! We had a truck delivering wood today, and Luke was outside with me so I made sure he could see it. Of course, it didn’t help that the delivery truck had a dog in it that was also barking too – LOL.
You could be onto something here….I know they saw the 2nd dump truck that they didn’t react to, but I’m not sure they ever did see the cement truck. Though I think that truck might have been a bit too much for them no matter what. 🙂
Baby steps are better than no steps. He is doing well. I can’t wait to read about the online course you are taking. I never heard of that place until a gal I work with told me about them but I never did check them out.
That all sounds like great progress for Luke! Alex didn’t tell me he threw a ball to Luke. I don’t think he knew what a big deal that was! I’m still hoping that someday he’ll love me again. ❤️????
I am hoping so much for that too! ♥
You are doing such a fantastic job with Luke! I think it’s awesome how you’ve gone to special links and using great management to keep him happy and your guests safe! Great job!
I bet you’ll love the nosework class! I really like the Fenzi Academy and both of my dogs had fun learning nosework. I hope I can continue with it soon!
Lengths*** Sorry! I don’t know where my brain went. 🙂
Thank you, Lauren! Sometimes training my company can be just as challenging as Luke, but they are getting more cooperative now too. 🙂 I do understand that people who love dogs just want to see the dogs when they visit, so it is tough for them too. And it’s tough for me because I know just how loving Luke is with us (and my one sister) and I want people to see that too. But I also know when we moved too quickly we might have set him back.
I’m excited about the nose work class, I think it’s going to be fun, and I have a feeling Luke is really going to take to it.
Glad you are finding ways to keep going forward.
Mom is all about positive training. We did have a few instances she pulled out the water gun
Lily & Edward
Good luck with the Fenzi class! I know several nose work dogs from rural areas that train that way and are very successful. I think with the fear, aggression, the hardest part is always remembering to work on it and take it slow. A setback would really be going back to square one. It is a challenge, but you seem to be doing well with it.
Thank you, Emma! It’s tough sometimes to keep going slow, but since we keep seeing progress that helps me to know we’re on the right track.
I’m really excited about the nose work class! I feel like it’s another step in helping Luke to move forward even more. I’ll probably be asking you and your Mom lots of questions too. 🙂
Yay for Luke’s progress! We took that same nosework class and it was fun. Right now, we’re taking the Bogeyman class to work on Mr. N’s reactivity. They also cover fear of strangers, I believe. Maybe something to look into for Luke down the road. Thanks for joining the hop!
I did look at that class, and it sounds like something that would be good for Luke so I do hope to take it in the future. I look forward to hearing how Mr. N does in it.
I kind of went between taking that one and the nose work, but I’ve talked about doing the nose work for so long so I wanted to do that first.
You have some great ideas, and I’m so glad he is getting better.
Thank you, Mary! It’s been kind of a trial and error thing, so I’m glad right now we seem to be hitting on stuff that works!
Luke you are the bestest pup of that whole slice earth :o) I guessed it!… and I would love to hear more about this nose work class… if it is online, we theoretically could enter that class too, right?
Absolutely!! You should check it out! You can still register for current classes through August 15th, and then the next semester after this one starts October 1st. They have quite a few different classes to choose from as well.
Luke is doing so well! Love how your house has different areas for Luke to go and still be able to see. Keeping him busy is such a good idea. The nose work course looks fab.
My garden flag came today. I love it! Thank you so much. Hugs to you and kisses on Sheba, Luke and Crickets noseys. Gentle strokes for Samantha
I’m so glad you received the flag, Lorna! I thought it might take forever to get there but I was following the tracking and it went right along pretty quickly! Thank you, and the crew sends kisses right back to you. ♥
The boys love company but we usually keep them on a leash for the first few minutes because they get so excited. Once they have a smell of everyone, they get off the leashes and behave themselves. LOL! Scent work will be such fun!
That is really smart to keep the boys on leashes! It used to be a free-for-all when people came to our house when we had four dogs; especially when Sheba used to be a jumper (we finally trained her out of that habit). Back then I wasn’t smart enough to corral them in any way, and it was always a challenge to get people into our house! LOL