[NAGDU] Dog Distractions
Julie Johnson
julielj402 at gmail.com
Thu Mar 2 12:03:09 UTC 2017
I went through some serious dog distraction issues with Jetta that she
developed a few months after I got her. I tried all sorts of things,
collar corrections, working progressively closer to other dogs, the
gentle leader to move her head away from looking at the other dogs,
treats for calm behavior, obedience exercises around other dogs and on
and on and on. If it had worked for me with another dog before or if the
method sounded promising, I tried it. None of it worked.
What did work is a combination of things put together in an
unconventional way that I hadn't tried or heard of before. Firstly, I
used the prong collar. It wasn't my first choice, but things were bad
and I needed to do something. I look at it like this: being so wound up
to be out of her mind around other dogs is not a fun situation for her.
she can't possibly enjoy being in that mental state. I can use treats
and progressive exposure spend the next two years working on this daily,
while she suffers and I can't work her safely or I can use the pinch
collar, get through this quickly and we can both move on much happier,
mentally healthier and safer. She was dangerous to herself, not other
dogs. she'd pull so hard she could have injured herself and she had the
potential to bolt if she had gotten away from me.
To be clear, she was not like this when she first came to me. This was
something that developed later. She had been well socialized. She grew
up with other dogs. she went to dog classes with other dogs. She had
been fine. Then something happened that I don't understand. What I did
understand is that it was my job to help her feel calm and safe around
other dogs.
So the method I used...
At the first instance of her noticing another dog, before she got so
wound up as to lose her mind, I would immediately start taking steps
backwards. I would call her to me with her formal recall command.
While walking backwards and calling her, I would give small tugs to the
leash. These are not typical corrections, but repeated small tugs. I'd
keep moving back and keep tugging until she turned and came to me.
Sometimes I would pair this with a treat, but not always.
At first I did this out of harness just on leash. Then I progressed to
having her work, but dropping the harness handle if needed to do the
interventions. I only moved back into space I had just walked through,
so I felt reasonably safe backing up. However I'd advise caution before
taking up this training method.
It took a few months to get her to the point where she could work past
dogs barking at her from a distance. Remember she was near insanity
over other dogs, much worse than what the original post in this thread
was describing. We started this method about a year ago. She's now
good to guide past dogs barking at her from 10 to 20 feet away. Closer
than that and I have to heel her, but she can remain in control of herself.
I'm not saying this method is safe. I'm not saying it makes sense for
anyone to try it. I'm not saying it will work for everyone. I am saying
that I had tried everything and I do mean everything and was faced with
some really tough choices if I didn't help her through this issue. It
was my one last chance and I took it. I'm glad I did. It worked better
than I could have hoped.
Julie
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