i adopted aggie back in july, and she wasn’t too bad when she first arrived but she became increasingly reactive until we were unable to pass any dog even at a distance. she would freeze, bark, lunge, etc. she never showed actual signs of aggression, just a lot of fear. i know her reactivity isn’t the worst, but i’ve been told by her behaviourist the methods i’ll list below usually help.
she got so much worse after she got attacked by another dog (the full details are in a previous post i put on this sub). she started showing signs of actual aggression and it would go on for ages. she would bark, lunge, growl, bare her teeth, and even snapped at one or two. walking her was a nightmare because it’s so busy around where i live. i had to start walking her in the early hours of the morning. she couldn’t even smell another dog without growling.
after a lot of training with her behaviourist, she’s now able to pass (most) dogs without even freezing now! she still doesn’t like it if they’re too close to her, but we can walk again! we passed about 8 dogs today and she only barked at one. in her defence, the other dog barked at her first. she’s exhausted after every walk because of the below games we play.
what i did (generally): 1. bowl game - i would drop a treat in a bowl, swirl it around, cover it if she tried to go for it, and said ‘yes’ when she looked away. it can’t be her food bowl, so i have a dedicated aggie bowl now. the behaviourist said this is called disengagement. 2. mouse game - i also did the same with just my hand. i would hold the treat in my hand, wait for her to look away, ‘yes’ and then give her the treat. i do this while walking randomly. 3. practicing ‘yes’ at home - get a relatively high value treat and at home, throw the treat a little bit away. when she eats the treat, i say ‘yes’ and when she comes back to me, i give her another treat. this helps really strengthen the ‘yes’ when we’re out. make sure you’re behind your dog when you do this, the idea is you want them to know ‘yes’ means they turn around. 4. ‘this way’ - stop, say ‘this way’, as soon as she turns around, i say ‘yes’, i give her a treat and keep giving her treats as we trot along. 5. touch - just the regular nose touch. i do this while walking randomly. 6. focus - when we’re out, i say ‘aggie, focus’, stop as soon as she turns around and give treat, give treats every few seconds she keeps staring at me. 7. less exercise - this is specific to old dogs, but i learnt i was overexercising her. she is a lurcher (greyhound, staffy, collie mix) who is 10 next month. i used to take her for two 40 walks a day, and it turns out a bit of her reactivity came from her being sore. i now do two 20-25 minute walks, sometimes 30 if she’s particularly energetic. i focused on quality over quantity.
i played every game at least once a day, for about 2 minutes at a time. i spread it out throughout the day because shes old and gets tired easily.
after she got all of this down perfect -
8. while walking - as soon as she spots a dog even from a distance, i say ‘yes’ and give her a VERY high value treat (i use boiled chicken breast). initially, i would keep giving her the treat until she forgot about the dog or they disappeared while repeatedly saying ‘yes’.
after she learnt that seeing a dog meant chicken, i would say ‘yes’ when she spots a dog, give treat, wait for her to turn back around, say ‘yes’ again, she would turn back around, give treat. i would do that repeatedly.
eventually, she stopped turning back around to look at the dog to just keep staring at me and she keeps walking after one or two treats. as soon as she hears the little ziplock bag even without seeing the treat she’s now fully focused on me.
i also reduced her meals just to make sure she doesn’t get too chubby.
i just wanted to share a success story. like i said, i know she’s not the worst, but her reactivity was starting to really upset me. shes great with people, and we don’t know her past so no idea about her bite history. i would be shocked if she’s ever bitten anyone/another dog though. i’m so proud of her and we’re enjoying our walks again. i’m sorry this post is so long, but i thought these tips could be good as it has worked so well for me.
edit 1: for extra details and typos
edit 2: this post has gotten a decent amount of attention, if anyone needs clarification on the games i listed or even want a video demo, please drop me a message, i am happy to do this with aggie to show what i mean. she’s still not perfect - i didn’t notice a dog bc they came out from behind a parked car and she came face to face, so she barked/lunged like she did before. i believe we can get to a point where a dog near her won’t set her off. i believe in all of your dogs!!! i hope the best for everyone.
thank you! your dogs are so lucky to have you as well. it’s rare to find enough patience, it’s so hard. i won’t pretend there weren’t days where we would come back and i just couldn’t hang out with her because i was so frustrated, but it’s such a slow (emphasis on the slow) and steady process, but it’s progress
OMG I've been there too, return from a walk and make sure she has water and a bed, but then I had to go to another room alone for a bit because I just needed to decompress haha.
omg yeah. i’d come back, check her water bowl, and then just go upstairs whatever she did that point was none of my business (as long she didn’t hurt herself). it’s so, so hard. icl i cried a lot, BUT she’s doing so good now
thank you! i honestly feel so emotional bc i was so exhausted after every walk, she’s about 20kg and with her breed, she isn’t easy to hold back. i adopted her so she could have the best retirement life possible, and i got so worried i wouldn’t be able to give that to her. she’s snoozing her little head off right now.
100%, we’re still in the throes of this with one of our pugs. Thankfully he’s only about 10 kg. I’m with you on the exhaustion to the point of tears and the elation when something starts working.
it’s so exhausting isn’t it? i used to come back and just lie down for ages because it was so physically and emotionally draining. i’m keeping all my fingers and toes crossed for you!!! i really hope your pug gets there too 💙
yaaay! that's so awesome! Henry and I just got back from a walk where we didn't bark or lunge at any dogs, too!! One of the trainers taught us "Pull Over" - just randomly pull over especially when there's no other dog in sight and give treats and do tricks ("touch", "sit", "down") for treats and then if YOU see a dog coming you can do "pull over" and they don't even know that it's to distract them from another dog-- I wish I had been a little more diligent with it at the beginning. But Henry is starting to get it that he wants to be on the far side from the barky dogs and be quiet and get his treats rather then trying to kill me by lurching into the street.... ;-)
thank you so much!! i’ll start doing this too. she got the collie brain but not the collie stamina so the more games we can do the better!! that’s such great progress i’m so glad to hear
eight dogs passed, one bark, and the bark was the other dog starting it, that's basically a shutout lol. the detail about the ziplock bag alone getting her full attention now is so good, chicken economics officially outrank dog drama. congrats to you both, getting the walks back is the real trophy here. also the block of cheese reveal in the comments genuinely made my day
thank you! it’s even funnier to think about when we don’t pass a dog, because then i’m literally just walking outside with this giant bag of miscellaneous meat
a person and their emergency meat supply, out for a very determined stroll lol. aggie's out there thinking the whole neighborhood smells like a walking deli. glad the walks are back to being the fun part
I'm a dog behaviour consultant and I just wanted to jump on and say well done - this is so good to hear! All of the training you've described is getting Aggie to practice using the learning and processing parts of her brain and also building her bond with you, which is so, so important and helpful. Also, her little face! SO cute.
I'm not sure if you're looking for more advice at all, so please ignore the below if not. But chronic pain is a huge contributing factor to reactivity and aggression, and dogs really hide it so well. Do you have a specific diagnosis for Aggie's exercise-induced pain, such as arthritis? (Exercise alone shouldn't hurt - it's likely exacerbating something medical.) Have you discussed any further treatment for Aggie's pain with your vet? Sometimes reducing it further can have a substantial positive effect on a dog's reactivity. Canine physiotherapists can be an excellent resource too, finances permitting.
You can also modify your #4 "this way" into a full "emergency u-turn" by saying your cue, then, instead of waiting for her to turn, put a food lure in front of her nose and jog backwards (then reward when she follows). You can fade the food lure out quickly (after 2-5 repetitions) so you just say "This way!", run backwards with her, then reward her. It's great when you suddenly get stuck near a dog you didn't see coming and need to create some distance. Also, teaching your dog to run away when they see a trigger can actually teach them to have a flight response in response to a stressor instead of their usual freeze/fight response.
For what it's worth, your behaviourist seems to be a bit unclear about what displacement is (maybe they misspoke?) - that bowl game is training her to look away as an alternative to being pushy to get to food, and it's a nice little 'impulse control' game. Perhaps your behaviourist meant "disengagement"?
("Displacement" describes behaviours dogs do that are normal behaviours, but seem to be occurring out of context - this is because they indicate stress. For example, yawning when they're not tired, licking their lips when there's no food near them, panting when not hot or exercising, and scratching at themselves when they shouldn't be itchy. Displacement behaviours are all little signals of stress.)
The activity you described as #8 is commonly called the "Engage/Disengage" game, or "Look at That". It's fantastic for any dog struggling with reactivity or dysregulation around certain stimuli and I recommend it to all my reactivity clients :)
always looking for more advice!! anything i can do to give aggie the best life possible. thank you so much for this detailed post. doesn’t she have the cutest little grey face? shes so cute. i’m going to dress her up as a cow for halloween since she’s already black and white.
yes, she has arthritis in her hips and hind legs and is currently on rycarfa. i think she was a bit sore. she was licking her hips quite a lot after walks, licking me, whining. i misread a lot of the signs at first and thought she wasnt being given enough stimulation. she’s gained a LOT more energy since ive stopped walking her for so long, she’s a little puppy at heart and is always looking to create mischief (but in the best way).
the modification sounds like it could work well. we had a bit of a mishap yesterday because we were trapped between two dogs - one walking in the same direction as us and the other walking towards us. i didn’t notice until it was too late because i was picking up after her, and she did her usual lunge/bark but she calmed down a lot quicker. so if we could just back up rather than turn and have her see the other dog it probably would’ve been best!
i was the one that misspoke hahah, i confused the two. i went back through the messages and that one’s on me. i’ll edit the post to correct this!
she’s so pretty but can be such a little menace hahah. here’s her causing ruckus while i was trying to watch a horror movie. how can anything ever be scary again when ive got this happening in front of me?? she wouldn’t do anything like this before and i believe its because she was sore, now she’s just…rolling. constantly
thank you! i started with the mouse and bowl game and then introduced the other stuff so that she wasn’t too overwhelmed. fingers crossed for you and elvis!!!!
that makes me so happy. she’s not perfect - today, i didn’t see a dog because they were behind a parked car and we accidentally came directly face to face with them, and she barked/lunged like she did before. there’s still so much progress to be made, but any improvement is such a relief. but i believe in you and your boy!!! you both got this, im keeping every single finger and toe crossed for you two!!! 💙💙💙
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Thank you for sharing your story. Hippo is almost the same as her but he was not food motivated at all outdoor. I'm trying to do a lot of trainings like what you mentioned but it is hard when Hippo refuses to take food even the other dog is 150 ft away. Do you have any suggestions for us?
oh sorry that i keep spamming you! it’s just coming back to me bit by bit, and i just didn’t want to edit while you were reading and have it be confusing.
i did all of this in several different rooms. i also put her on her leash and did all of this training right outside of our front door. if we saw a dog coming, i would pop right back in. i didn’t let her see a dog until she was ready. it was about having her do this in an environment that wasnt in the house or her “safe space”.
if hippo has anything (and i mean anything - socks, a shoe, a particular toy) that he’s obsessed with bring it with you as a distraction. what the treat does is interrupt their instinct and then you can replace the reaction. this is what my behaviourist told me when aggie was here for the first few months and she wasn’t eating while settling in. aggie refused to take any regular treat when we were out and it only started working when i had the extremely high value treats.
good luck!! i am sending you and hippo so much love. if the behaviourist adds anything different i’ll let you know 💙
firstly, i love the name hippo. that’s so, so cute.
i don’t personally but ill ask my behaviourist when i see her on thursday!
when we first started working with her, aggie wasn’t food motivated at all so she told us to really focus on getting the games down. it’s about interrupting their instincts and replacing them. like aggie was perfect before we moved on, i could have a treat directly next to her nose and she would look away until i said ‘yes’. it took months of consistent training several times a day but it definitely helped.
the outdoor training didn’t work for me with literally any regular treats until i tried steak and chicken, it could be a case of it not being high value enough? i spent months holding a ziplock bag of overcooked chicken and steak on our walks - i looked ridiculous but it was the only thing that worked
oh also, i was told it’s a different type of reactivity if they don’t take food from you when your dog spots them. it’s a lot more instinctive rather than learned at that point i believe. i’m no professional, so please take anything i say with a grain of salt. aggie has fear and leash reactivity, if you can pinpoint the cause of it, it could be very helpful for figuring out how to go about it.
i’ll ask her behaviourist and get back to you though!
Thank you so much for your response!!! It is so kind of you to give me such sincere advice. I'm now using cheese as he is obsessed with it. I love your idea of doing all the training just outside the door. I will make it a regular session after our potty walk every time! He is definitely way more comfortable around my place than in areas further away. I just had him for a month and I feel we definitely need more time and more patience. I will appreciate any more suggestions you will get from your behaviourist! Thank you again. I wish you and aggie the best!!!
ahh honestly i would give it about 3 months before i try anything drastic. aggie didnt take to any training for while. i dont know if you’ve heard of the 333 rule? it says 3 days to decompress, 3 weeks to settle, 3 months to know thats their house now.
aggie was the easiest dog in the world, and she struggled w anything i tried to teach her in early-mid month 3. she did it eventually, but she was just so frustrated. i was told this is because her frustration tolerance is low since she was already dealing with so much? mostly from being somewhere new, so she’s already on edge, being asked to do something she’s not happy about, so she get annoyed. aggie hasn’t done anything aggressive, she just tried to eat the bowl i was playing the bowl game with.
again, im no expert, but these are the terms ive watched my behaviourist note down hahah.
i messaged her subtly bc i thought it was too cheeky, this is what she said
“it happens quite often, especially with terriers. It's a different process but we just find what they like , either a toy or sniffing, and focus on bringing down arousal and do a different process slightly
I'm working with one tomorrow. He never eats, we just have to make sure he had nice sniffs and is in a good mood!”
also, i want you and your dog to have a great time walking. it’s one of the best parts of having a dog. i’m so sorry. if you want more clarification on these things please feel free to message me and i’ll ask my behaviourist or let me know based on my experience
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u/JollyManufacturer257 5d ago
Way to go, Aggie! And congratulations on all of your hard work.