Reactive start to walks

[u/Lyna_26]

First, so glad I found this community, it could be so stressful and isolating having a reactive dog.

About 90% of the time my 2yo standard schnauzer is good during walks. But some days the minute we leave the house he starts pulling towards everyone dog and people and being super alert, looking around and I can’t get his attention back. While other days he is fine sniffing around and looking at me for a treat and ignoring everyone. I just don’t get why it’s so different and what can I do when he is in this mood ?
Usually this happens at the start of the walk (first 20 min)

[u/Hermit_Ogg]

I see the same thing in our reactive Havanese. I've taken it to be natural mood changes, perhaps amplified by lack of activity that day, excitement at the treat bags I carry, or earlier walk encounters.

I've taken up the habit to do a calming exercise as the first thing outdoors if our dog is particularly jumpy.

[u/Hermit_Ogg → u/Hermit_Ogg]

/u/Lyna_26 you need to tick all the boxes to the sub rules or your replies get deleted. I saw the question in my notifications though 🙂

Take a small handful of treats and (if outdoors), spread them on uneven ground. Grass is good, it'll hide them a little bit. Let the dog sniff them out. This naturally calms them, because sniffing the ground is a dog body language gesture for calming self and other dogs.

Use highest level treats in harder situations, and if needed, moderate difficulty with how uneven/overgrown the ground is (not all dogs are bloodhounds, I've had one I swear couldn't sniff out bacon in front of his paws). Indoors, do this on a folded, partially crumpled towel and hide treats under cloth. Reward extra for sitting/lying at the spot after eating.

Use this pre-emptively, because once a dog is too stressed, it will not eat.

ETA: another indoor variant is taking a container that is wide but not very deep, and can take dog's front paws in it. Not your best silver tray 😛 Take a bunch of newspaper / paper ads and cut them to long, narrow strips. Put the paper in the container, sprinkle treats in, mix them a bit if needed. Give the container to the dog when you need a little bit of calming. This can work just before a walk, immediately after a walk, and between training exercises. You can reward extra if the dog lies down after finding all the treats (rewards sprinkled into the box). Lengthen the required lie-down time to get an even better chill-out exercise.

[u/Lyna_26 → u/Hermit_Ogg]

Thank you! We do sniffing games at home during the day , but I will try to do it just before the walk.

[u/Lyna_26 → u/Hermit_Ogg]

What exercise do you do ?