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Would you go with a 15', 20', 30', or longer lead? Looking on Chewy now and trying to decide between a tie out where I can have my hands free, or a lead where we can move around the yard. When she's finally ready for the dog park perimeter I'll use her regular 6' bungee leash that I can buckle around my waist and the martingale collar. The side of the park we'll have to work on is near a busy street and I don't want to risk her slipping out or yanking the leash out of my hand. The other side would put us at risk of running into other dogs as they enter the park. Can you tell I've put some thought into this? I would start with 6' leash for better control to start with. Then, as she gets better with her impulse control, you can work with gradual longer leashes.

The question is: would that flirt pole be a good tool to use outside the dog park when I'm ready to get her to stop going ape over other dogs? I know it would be an excellent distraction, but I'm concerned it may put her in a height of excitability and thus lend to lowering her threshold when we walk closer. She's coming along nicely with "drop." I'm capturing it when she plays with her Kong - every time she drops it to dislodge the treats I say "drop!" and she's starting to piece it together. This girl self-trained on the potty bell after watching Gertie do it twice, she's Smart and very open to capturing. Oh the things we could do if only she could behave in public! Here's my thought: Walk around the perimeter with the flirt pole. When she starts to stiffen up I drop the flirt pole (if she even stops looking at it to notice the other dogs, that is), to redirect her attention. Move closer, pole, closer, pole, and so forth. I would say you can use the flirt pole, but if that's the absolute only thing that will distract her, but just as a brief starting point just to prevent her from getting into that "zone" where she's too distracted to listen, but I would aim to then switch to a calmer redirect. I would prefer starting with a response to a smacking sound or asking her to perform a behavior, even an easy one such as you asking her to "watch", looking into your eyes with your hand at eye level, followed by tossing a handful of treats/kibble on the ground to "find them!" treasure hunt style. I think about it this way: if she can only redirect to flirt pole at the dog park, it could be a sign of her being too over threshold, with the flirt pole becoming sort of something to vent her frustration rather than learning to be in a thinking state. I would suggest mimicking what is done in group obedience class settings, in other words, working at the park asking for behaviors such as sits, downs, hand targets, attention heeling etc. starting at a distance from which she is responsive and praising rewarding generously. I would also aim to do lots of impulse control/frustration tolerance training because I think she needs to lower her excitability and learn to be more in a thinking state rather than a super excited, reactive one. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/impulse-control-frustration-tolerance/ Oh! They got into a fight a couple nights ago. I was doing desensitization / conditioning training with Esther with YouTube dogs - we're still not up to real life interactions and that's my fault as we have so little time to train. After about 5 minutes of Esther getting treats for being good Gertie comes over to see what's going on. Ugh. Mistake. I was watching the video to see when a dog came on (Bondi Vet channel) so I missed what happened, but suddenly there was an eruption and yep, Esther had Gertie pinned. Don't know when Gertie is going to learn to stop starting fights because she's Not a scrapper whereas Esther is. I've said it before, but good grief what happened in her young life?! 9 months old and she's a brute. My best guess is Gertie touched Esther while Esther was trying to contain herself as we were training. I was able to verbally break it up, but I was ready to splash my half gallon of water onto them (the beds are joined by a waterproof mattress pad, bring it on!). Lesson learned: Esther can be trained for her reactivity Only when Gertie is contained or elsewhere. I'm remembering Hrdrika (sp?), Remy, and Hannah, and their journey at this point! We're not in quite the same situation, but parallel at the least, and the frustration and feelings of failure are probably similar. Yes, I agree, that behavior modification exercises should be done only with one dog, especially if there are elements of over excitability-reactivity that may spill into aggression. Does Esther become possessive over treats when training by any chance? Other than her being concentrated, and redirecting on Gertie (sort of like the redirected aggression cases we see when two dogs see another dog pass by the fence and one is overly aroused and redirects against the other ) I wonder whether Esther just wanted Gertie away from the area/you or the treats or the whole combo. Sadly, according to a study, the dogs most involved in household fights are same-sex dogs with female dogs being overrepresented. Typically, the instigators of most fights were younger dogs and the second dog in the home. Risks factors that predisposed dogs to fighting included: a history of having had multiple owners, being adopted after 12 weeks of age (past the socialization period), being acquired from a shelter, pet store or being a singleton puppy. Co-Morbid Issues included fear and aggression, with 40 percent of dogs having shown aggression towards unfamiliar dogs, 27percent aggression to human family members, 27 percent aggression towards strangers, and 6 percent aggression at the vet’s office. Thirty-five percent were fearful towards strangers, 31 percent were fearful in the veterinarian’s office, 23 percent were fearful towards unfamiliar dogs The first episodes of fighting typically occur when one dog matures and starts becoming confident enough to use aggression to control access to resources. It is also seen when one dog starts getting older. The owner intervening to support a particular dog can also contribute to fights, creating instability and increased conflict. Sherman,et al. in a study found that treatment involving systematic desensitization and counterconditioning and obedience training improved or resolved 59 percent of cases of interdog household aggression Prognosis was worse in cases where the instigating dog was younger, had bitten a person and the owner struggled in predicting the circumstances in which the fights did occur. In the study, it was found that there was a clear instigator and recipient of aggression in 71 percent of cases. In 70 percent of these cases, the instigator was the second dog added to the home and was younger than the recipient of aggression. The good news is that caught early, there may be better chances in keeping things under control, although there are various prognostic factors to consider. Even in Hrdrika's case (although advanced) it seems like she found a good behavior professional to work directly with her and last things I have heard was that things were going pretty well. I know you were considering getting help, but couldn't drive to the consultant's place, but I feel that it would be best if the professional could come to your home to directly observe their interactions and see how they behave in their "home base" rather than in a novel place and show you what methods to use to your advantage (on top of management of course) based on his/her observations./history taking/functional assessment.