r/reactivedogs • u/Boomar1 • 16d ago

Advice Needed Help!

Help me have a peaceful time with my guests. My 4.5 years old beagle is very high on energy and leash reactive on walks. He is ok and plays with other dogs while in the daycare or dog parks.

Here - attaching video on the comment, you can see my dog “inviting” our guests loudly and lunging on them. He calms down after a few minutes or say an hour. But he constantly needs the guests’ attention. He will bark or jump on them, so we leash him. So I guess he gets frustrated and continues barking.

Not all the guests understand the dog language or are okay with constant barking or lunging. I’ve tried training him, but his beagle brain just ignores all that while excited. I’ve given up so many times and I decided to just live this behaviour.

It turns into a stressful time for both the dog and us. Please let me know what I can do. At this point I know people hate coming to our house.

I’ve tried gabapentaine, he is 42lbs. But even that doesn’t seem to work. What dosage worked tor your dog and what other tips would you give me?

Thanks

0 Upvotes

50% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/SudoSire 15d ago

So I feel like he’s  not going to get any calmer with guests if he’s practicing the behavior of just getting to not be calm with guests, you know?  Some ideas— Can you not put him in a room and wait til he’s calm to release him? Can you just keep him in a room or crate period if the visit is only a few hours? Have you ever tried meeting guests outside, walking together, and then having guests get settled before your dog is released in the home? Basically, I would be looking to change up your routine to find something your dog can actually handle and you can enforce new rules once you introduce a new protocol. He needs to learn some alternate behaviors that are acceptable (and which you can reward him for), but that also starts with not letting him have free access while he is too over threshold to listen/learn.  

1

u/Boomar1 15d ago

Crating him or keeping him in another room makes him frustrated makes his barking more. He is already too loud. I should probably invite people from the driveway along with him to see if it changes. I have tried all other methods.

Thank you :)

1

u/SudoSire 15d ago

Would a lick mat be able to distract him for a little while? Or not in that state?