[NAGDU] Dog Distractions

[Julie Johnson]

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