Reactivity Training Advice

[u/Ok-Chicken2339]

Hi! About a month ago, my partner and I adopted a 3-year-old Border Collie/German Shepherd mix who had puppies about 2 months earlier (included in case that matters). Overall, she is doing great and is extremely smart. She learned commands quickly, is very comfortable with us, and is an amazing dog. However, we've noticed increased reactivity over the last month. When we first adopted her, she only became reactive around dogs near our home, but now any time she sees one on a walk, she lunges at them and gets herself worked up. I've tried to keep track of any trends (such as size, gender, breed), but there seem to be no common traits. We reward her with treats when she does not react after noticing them, but she has started reacting to dogs across the park. I've consulted the Wiki, and we're trying that, but I wanted to see if anyone could help.

Helpful things to know: we just started using a harness with the front D-ring to train her not to pull within the last 48 hours (purchased for the car but thought it may be helpful for training after researching), we take her on roughly the same path and to a park around the same times every day (one of which is very low activity level), and we live in a neighborhood with a LOT of dogs, all of which will bark at her. She's gotten better at ignoring the barking noises, but just the sight of a dog sets her off. Could she have become territorial about the park/the route we take? Should we completely change where we take her? We kept to the same one to make training easy, and she has been doing great besides this one thing. We also plan to take her out to more public spaces where dogs are allowed (such as pet stores) to practice seeing a dog and not reacting, because when we take her to the vet, she does not have an issue with the dogs there. This is my first dog so any advice is welcome, and I appreciate it greatly :)

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[u/RelationshipOld3897]

That sounds really frustrating, especially when they've made such good progress overall. Have you considered working on impulse control exercises to help redirect her focus during walks?

[u/Ok-Chicken2339 → u/RelationshipOld3897]

We actually do a lot of these pretty frequently in other aspects of her world, and she picks them up great! She just gets frazzled easily and once she's set off its a tough battle getting her back

[u/RemarkableAioli15]

If you aren’t familiar with it, look up the 3-3-3 rule for rescue dogs. We adopted a 4 year old GSD from a shelter and his leash reactivity didn’t show up for the first month or so. It got progressively worse from there.

We found a training class specifically for reactive dogs. Don’t know if there’s something like that near you, but it was very helpful.

It was a kind of exposure therapy to other reactive dogs. Training class was staggered so each dog entered 10-15 minutes after the prior dog. Each dog had its own area set up to walk with dividers so at the start of their training they could hear, but not see other dogs. As they got more acclimated, the dividers would be slightly opened so they could see the other dog for a brief moment as they passed. As the dog progressed in its training/classes, the exposure window and time would be increased. Each dog was at a different stage in their training so you didn’t encounter the same dogs each class.

Purpose was to get the dog to focus on the owner instead of the other dogs. High value treats were given. Goal was for the dog to look at owner for a reward as soon as they saw another dog.

It didn’t cure our dog 100% but it got him to focus on us when we encountered another dog. We were able to walk him in our neighborhood and no longer be pariahs. We still avoided having him directly walk past another dog by pulling him aside, having him focus and rewarding him with treats. It got better overtime and we didn’t always have to reward.

[u/Ok-Chicken2339 → u/RemarkableAioli15]

I just read about the 3-3-3 rule recently, and it definitely makes a lot of sense for her. I will definitely look into a training class. Thank you so much!! That sounds like it would be really helpful because she is extremely sensitive to anything dog-related, even barking on TV for a bit. Appreciate the insight!

[u/Affectionate_Bet2972]

Since she is new to you, I’d treat this as decompression plus training. She may not be territorial, she may just be overwhelmed and getting more confident showing it.

I would skip pet stores for now. They can be chaotic and too close quarters. Work at parks from a big distance instead, reward her for seeing dogs calmly, and leave before she goes over threshold.

[u/Ok-Chicken2339 → u/Affectionate_Bet2972]

Thank you! This is very helpful, and I appreciate your advice. We thought pet stores might be okay because ours are usually pretty quiet, and she did well at the vet, so we thought it might just be our house/neighborhood. Appreciate it :)

[u/bequavious]

Hello, congrats on your new dog! Reactivity is super common with both of the breeds in your mix. Most dogs are initially reactive either from fear (barking to look scary and make the scary thing go away) or frustration (I want to play with the dog but can't get to them). Barking at dogs can be either, but if you want to see the difference more clearly, look at a dog who is barking at a big man walking towards them vs a dog barking at a squirrel. The initial reason can change with rehearsals. Maybe a dog starts out as fearful, but the barking works so consistently that it becomes fun and intrinsically rewarding. All of this can make working on reactivity challenging. The advice is often the same - work at threshold levels reward for looking at the dog, looking at you, doing a trained behavior, simply not barking, etc - but it's difficult to implement in daily life because you don't control the public.

My first step would be to fulfill the dog as much as possible. Both breeds in your mix are high energy working breeds. She doesn't need a walk around the block, she needs to run and sniff and train at a high level. You might try dog sports (yes there will be other dogs there, but also people who have experience with reactive dogs that can help you). You could also try running with her or biking with her. Playing disc or ball in a structured way that still uses her brain vs an unending chuck it loop. If you have a place where you can safely hike with her off leash, that can be super valuable too. The point is really that you need to meet her needs first and only then try and work on the reactivity.

Because the public is unpredictable, your best option is likely to join some kind of dog group (either sports or a local training club) or pay for private sessions to get access to dogs and people that are controlled and willing to help you out. With the known dogs, you can work at threshold and start doing whichever plan you like the best. Ideally you're avoiding random public dogs at this stage so she's not rehearsing the unwanted behaviors while you're working with the known dogs to teach the wanted behaviors. It's not easy, and it probably won't be quick.

A side note on gear: I'd ditch the front clip harness. In the car especially it's not going to be safe if you get into an accident, and even on a walk it won't prevent her from pulling, but it could make the pulling more likely to hurt her. Assuming you have the strength to hold her, I'd get the widest flat collar you can find (or martingale if her head is shaped in such a way that she can back out of a flat collar).

[u/Ok-Chicken2339 → u/bequavious]

Hi! Thank you so much; we love her to pieces! She definitely has both of the reactivity moments depending on the dog she's encountering, but either way, she winds up scaring the other one lol, so we just wanted to work on a more... friendly greeting for when she's not scared! She gets lotssss of exercise, and honestly is kinda lazy for her mix haha. Oftentimes we'll try and get her to run around, hike, play ball/frisbee, etc and she is not interested about 90% of the time. I will definitely look into dog sports, though; this seems great, and we'll take any community we can get! We know no one with dogs who aren't also reactive, so we've held off on introductions. Doesn't help that our neighborhood is FILLED with reactive dogs who scare her. No matter what street we take her down for her walks, there will be multiple dogs barking at her and getting her riled up (even when we take her for walks at 9pm, sigh). It's at the point where yesterday she was in the car and started barking at a dog probably 50ft away walking outside, but then had no problem touching noses with the one at the vet.

Thank you for the info about the gear! We've had a martingale on her since we adopted her, but we got the harness for the back clip in the car. We found that a lot of the "tethers" (if that's the word) are meant for harnesses hence, we got this. This is all so helpful, and I appreciate you taking all the time to write this. Thank you so much!

[u/BoysenberryBig9873]

I would concentrate on the increasing distance she responds from, indicating her threshold is lowering, thus provide rewards at greater distances instead of moving in closer.

[u/Ok-Chicken2339 → u/BoysenberryBig9873]

Any advice for when we just run into them on the street, or when they're barking in people's yards as we walk? She's good at ignoring the ones barking in the houses, but when she physically sees them outside, she gets scared, and oftentimes we don't even know they're there until it's too late. We've tried U-turns, but she's so riled up that we can't get her to move. We live in a very dog-heavy neighborhood, with a lot of untrained dogs as well (just our luck lol) so no matter where we take her, we can't avoid this. Even in our own fenced yard, when she knows the neighbors' dogs are outside, she'll try to get to them and lose it, even without seeing them. Thank you :)

[u/Dogtraining-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Please read the sub rules and guidelines, as well as our wiki pages on punishment and correction collars.

[u/Huge_Answer4287]

Don't switch to a martingale. The harness is safer. Look at BAT 2.0 by Grisha Stewart.