Its been a while since I've started a thread of my own. Mostly I find myself trying to answer others' questions!
I'm curious if anyone else here has had to deal with reactive dogs. I grew up with a cattle dog who was mostly a farm dog. He did his job well, but he didn't like visitors. He was usually confined to the office when we had people over. He is 15 now and was a great dog.
Now I live away from home and I'm in my third year of vet school. Last year (exactly one year ago yesterday), I adopted a dog from a shelter. She is a mixed breed (Definitely beagle, probably some lab, the rest heinz 57) and she was found as a stray. She is about three years old now and definitely had puppies before I got her. She is now spayed and was definitely somebody's pet. She was housebroken and knew what a couch was from the moment I brought her home!
For the most part, she's been an awesome dog. I've done a ton of training with her, we go to training classes at the school, she's done some agility, and we do a lot of hiking. When I adopted her, the rescue told me she had some issues with men and female dogs. However, she seems to be fine with female dogs (Most dogs, actually) if introduced properly. She will snap at dogs when she's on the leash and they are allowed (by the other owners despite me saying not to) to come up to her face. She LOVES guys. I'm a female myself, and my two room mates are females as well, but over the past year, I've seen her start to have some issues with certain females. Sometimes its when females come up to her to try and pet her without me knowing, and when I was staying at my family's house this summer, she seemed to have an issue with women washing their hands and reaching for paper towels at our kitchen sink.
Last year, I started to see some behavior like trying to bark at certain people on our walks around the apartment. I signed up for some training classes and a reactive dog symposium and learned how to teach dogs to get their attention on you using treats. So I worked with this method over and over and over again. What I started to find is that giving treats in an excited state, even if her attention was on me, was making the behavior worse, despite trainers claiming this would not happen. As soon as I would run out of treats, she would stop listening to me. Since I live in an apartment complex, this behavior is worrisome for me, because I don't want people to be afraid of her. Over the summer, I started investigating some new training methods and now I have been leaving the treats home and going for walks with a calm, yet somewhat stern demeanor. This seems to work well for her, but I was so torn about this method because a lot of sources claim this can cause the opposite effect in dogs. While it may stop the barking, it could make them more reactive or aggressive in other ways. I haven't seen that yet and she's been ok. She did bark at a neighbor on a walk the other night, but I think we were both a bit startled when she came around the corner so fast. Regardless, the behavior is still concerning to me.
I do have to be more wary when visitors come over (usually only female visitors). Its kind of disappointing because I was hoping the dog I adopted would be a social dog. She was pretty social in the beginning, albeit timid. I definitely have learned a TON about dog behavior as I've seen this side of her emerge. I think a lot of what I've seen is her finally settle in to her routine and she feels more comfortable. Part of the issue I think might stem from lack of socialization early on, and since she was a stray, I'll never know her history. I have two years left here at this apartment in this town, so I'm hoping I will be able to control it until I move. What has been throwing a wrench into things is that a girl from my class moved into a nearby apartment and she has a very dog-reactive dog. While my dog is not usually dog-reactive, this dog just sets her off. Her hair goes up on her back and she'll bark and growl a bit. I have to be very careful that the dog is not walking by when I step out of the apartment, which makes walk time a bit more stressful. The other owner is very responsible with her dog and is one of the trainers I actually worked with at the symposium, but she ascribes to positive only training. I'm trying very hard to control my stress about the whole situation, but it would be helpful to hear about other people's experiences with people or dog-reactive dogs.
If anything should happen here, I know my parents would not hesitate to take her temporarily until I move somewhere different. At least that gives me a sense of peace about things and I've just been trying to remain vigilant yet deal with things as they come up.
I'm curious if anyone else here has had to deal with reactive dogs. I grew up with a cattle dog who was mostly a farm dog. He did his job well, but he didn't like visitors. He was usually confined to the office when we had people over. He is 15 now and was a great dog.
Now I live away from home and I'm in my third year of vet school. Last year (exactly one year ago yesterday), I adopted a dog from a shelter. She is a mixed breed (Definitely beagle, probably some lab, the rest heinz 57) and she was found as a stray. She is about three years old now and definitely had puppies before I got her. She is now spayed and was definitely somebody's pet. She was housebroken and knew what a couch was from the moment I brought her home!
For the most part, she's been an awesome dog. I've done a ton of training with her, we go to training classes at the school, she's done some agility, and we do a lot of hiking. When I adopted her, the rescue told me she had some issues with men and female dogs. However, she seems to be fine with female dogs (Most dogs, actually) if introduced properly. She will snap at dogs when she's on the leash and they are allowed (by the other owners despite me saying not to) to come up to her face. She LOVES guys. I'm a female myself, and my two room mates are females as well, but over the past year, I've seen her start to have some issues with certain females. Sometimes its when females come up to her to try and pet her without me knowing, and when I was staying at my family's house this summer, she seemed to have an issue with women washing their hands and reaching for paper towels at our kitchen sink.
Last year, I started to see some behavior like trying to bark at certain people on our walks around the apartment. I signed up for some training classes and a reactive dog symposium and learned how to teach dogs to get their attention on you using treats. So I worked with this method over and over and over again. What I started to find is that giving treats in an excited state, even if her attention was on me, was making the behavior worse, despite trainers claiming this would not happen. As soon as I would run out of treats, she would stop listening to me. Since I live in an apartment complex, this behavior is worrisome for me, because I don't want people to be afraid of her. Over the summer, I started investigating some new training methods and now I have been leaving the treats home and going for walks with a calm, yet somewhat stern demeanor. This seems to work well for her, but I was so torn about this method because a lot of sources claim this can cause the opposite effect in dogs. While it may stop the barking, it could make them more reactive or aggressive in other ways. I haven't seen that yet and she's been ok. She did bark at a neighbor on a walk the other night, but I think we were both a bit startled when she came around the corner so fast. Regardless, the behavior is still concerning to me.
I do have to be more wary when visitors come over (usually only female visitors). Its kind of disappointing because I was hoping the dog I adopted would be a social dog. She was pretty social in the beginning, albeit timid. I definitely have learned a TON about dog behavior as I've seen this side of her emerge. I think a lot of what I've seen is her finally settle in to her routine and she feels more comfortable. Part of the issue I think might stem from lack of socialization early on, and since she was a stray, I'll never know her history. I have two years left here at this apartment in this town, so I'm hoping I will be able to control it until I move. What has been throwing a wrench into things is that a girl from my class moved into a nearby apartment and she has a very dog-reactive dog. While my dog is not usually dog-reactive, this dog just sets her off. Her hair goes up on her back and she'll bark and growl a bit. I have to be very careful that the dog is not walking by when I step out of the apartment, which makes walk time a bit more stressful. The other owner is very responsible with her dog and is one of the trainers I actually worked with at the symposium, but she ascribes to positive only training. I'm trying very hard to control my stress about the whole situation, but it would be helpful to hear about other people's experiences with people or dog-reactive dogs.
If anything should happen here, I know my parents would not hesitate to take her temporarily until I move somewhere different. At least that gives me a sense of peace about things and I've just been trying to remain vigilant yet deal with things as they come up.
