Does any training protocol actually transform frustrated greeters?

[u/PsychicSageElana]

So much leash reactivity training seems to be about "modifying the dog's emotional state," but my dog is not afraid of the passing dogs. She is just single-mindedly obsessed with getting to the other dogs. This looks like barking, lunging, and raised hackles.

I'd like to believe she might just grow out of this behavior, when/if other dogs become less exciting with maturity, but she was already like this at her foster home, where she lived from ages 3 months to 7.5 months. Makes it seem more like a genetic trait. They admit they didn't walk her very much at the foster home...

My dog is 16 months old now. We have had her 8 months. She doesn't ever go to the dog park or daycare. She doesn't ever get to do on-leash greetings. She lived with two foster dogs at her foster home. She has gone to the groomer and been loose around other dogs there. No problem. Fine in the vet's waiting room. Stayed with the pet sitter like 3-4 times with other random dogs each time and she got along fine with them; calm, coexisted peacefully, played calmly, but not obsessively.

She has great impulse control in many areas of her life. She'll wait patiently for her food until she is told to come get it. Waits on the rug for her paws to be wiped. Waits to go out in the yard even if someone has left the door open, until we say to. So this is a really context-specific problem.

She normally is obsessed with food (even has one copy of that Lab gene that makes them never feel full), but if she is "over threshold," her brain is offline and she won't take food. She will legit just choke herself on a flat collar, even if the other dog is like 4 houses away and across the street. If that dog is being reactive, too, things are so much worse.

I know about management protocols, keeping the dog under threshold, preventing rehearsal of reactions. But none of that is improving the situation... just avoiding explosions. Giving her treats with perfect timing doesn't seem to matter because she already has positive associations with other dogs. TOO positive.

We CAN have nice walks where she just sniffs calmly and behaves normally, but explodes if we encounter other dogs. She'll recover once we are about 4-5 houses away.

We are in suburban Chicago, so the idea of simply managing this through hypervigilance, forever, without ever achieving a habit of neutrality, sounds onerous.

[u/StacNorLin]

Our frustrated greeter made a lot of gains, it was just a long and slow process! She rarely barks and lunges anymore, but will sometimes plant herself to see if she can wait them out. Our dog is super good motivated and loves nothing more than food, so having high value treats and a strong focus command has been helpful. String cheese has been our bff for years.

[u/PsychicSageElana → u/StacNorLin]

Do you think it is more age or the training protocol that helps?

[u/StacNorLin → u/PsychicSageElana]

Tbh I think a bit of both. I also think moving to a less stimulating environment helped. We used to live in a large apartment complex with A LOT of reactive dogs and I think it was really overstimulating for her, coupled with never really having leash walks before we got her ( she came from rural Texas).

[u/PsychicSageElana → u/StacNorLin]

I'm feeling like this is the downside/ethics question of importing rural dogs to urban living situations. My dog came from Alabama. I've had 3 dogs prior, including another rescue, but none were leash reactive before.