EdwardBateman

Thanks so much, there is a lot of information to digest and i will probably have to read it a few times to let it sink in fully. I have tried a lot of your exercises and Cali loves them, he is a genius when he wants to be and other times as stubborn as a mule. For example with the airplane game, before we even start he will sit and stare me in the eyes. I do the lip smacking on the walk too and usually he is good to stop, sit and look. Other times he is just lost in his own world sniffing and ignoring, lol. I have ordered a new harness to try and will start new training with it so that its a new feeling for him too and let you know how we get on. I also think that the rewards I am using are not high value enough for conditioning, i am only giving him his croquettes (dry food) as rewards so i will change that on our next walks and with the harness training too. Thanks again for all your time and responses 🙂

Hi Andriene, thanks for the response, here are the (sorry very long) answers to your questions: How long have you had Cali? we had him since he was 8 months (he was castrated just before we received him) You mention Cali is 4 years old, has he always been reactive this way or is this a rather new behavior? I would say we have noticed it for at least 2 years, i dont remember him being that way when he was younger than that. When you state he is good 90 percent of the time, do you mean on a particular walk (like he does well 90 percent of the walk)? Or across a specific span of time (like he's OK for like a month and then one day out of the blue starts reacting? ) How often would you say these episodes happen in a week if he is walked daily? I mean that he is generally calm - he doesnt spend the day barking or wrecking things - so if you were to meet him you would think he is a calm dog. But we walk him 3 times a day on average and i would say he would have 1 or 2 reactive episodes during those walks. Not every walk has an episode, and not every trigger causes one, sometimes he will look at a scooter and ignore it, other times he will see it and react so its hard to prepare. So he is reacting to a particular trigger and then right afterward he starts acting reactive as well to other things that move? What is the original trigger in most cases? The triggers vary, but the most common is a dog barking which he cannot see (for example from a car, an appartment or a garden in the distance), second is a dog across the road (not barking, just walking and ignoring Cali), and third would be things like electric scooters/skateboards. But again, he doesnt react every time to a trigger, it appears to be random, but the reaction is always the same: stares, starts whimpering, then lunges and barks towards trigger, then lunges and barks at everything moving. (there are certain dogs who cause a reaction by being within 100m, one of my theories is that they pee outside my gate and that Cali gets it as soon as he leaves which puts him on alert) Have you noticed any common denominator when it comes to his triggers causing him to bark and lunge? Like, for instance, he reacts to them when they are too close? Or on days when he has been around kids more? Or these triggers just pop up unexpectedly out the blue, like behind a corner? I have tried to understand the common denominator but have not been able. Sometimes i think that he is worse if he hasnt pooped, or other times i think if it has rained (he doesnt really like water/wet ground) but i cant say with any certainty. In fact, just thinking about it now, it has only ever happened on the lead, if we walk in the woods off lead there has never been a similar reaction. Yesterday as another example we went out, i brought some treats and we walked down the road slowly and trying to keep him by my side with treats, he was quite pully. But after 100m he was more anxious, 200m more again, and after 300m he just lost it and was lunging and barking at nothing that i could see/hear. We waited until he calmed and continued on our walk 25 mins later and no more episodes on the walk. Strange. Is he very friendly with other dogs? Do you take him to dog parks? Does he play well with dogs off leash? Would you say he's a social butterfly? Sometime dogs who bark and lunge at other dogs on walks are actually friendly social butterflies who are frustrated because they can't say hello due to the leash holding them back. We definitely think this is a factor for the dogs across the road, i believe he just wants to say hello. He used to be more social, now he is hesitant to go and say hello (but i believe he wants to) and then he might freeze while the other dog sniffs and bounces around him, or he says a quick hello and suddenly does a play bow and runs away (once) and this is when he is on the lead, it is hard to know if it is really 'play' because it looks like a mix of 'play' and 'flee' How long does it take him to return to baseline/calmer behavior after he reacts to a trigger? Back to normal anywhere between 10 about 30 seconds You mention noticing signs of anxiety and fear once you get him to sit and lie down. Do these signs also show when he can't meet a dog or only with the other triggers (skateboards, scooters)? Sometimes when we walk it might be worse than others, and he might be very jumpy to any noise like cars driving over grates, delivery men dropping boxes, slamming doors etc. But this would be the case even without having a trigger, and again sometimes he is fine, other times very nervous. When you mention pack walks, do you mean him walking with other dogs? If so, is he on leash or off leash? Yes with other dogs off leash. He tends to walk ahead on his own, but doesnt seem uncomfortable at all when other dogs come over to him he seems happy but just not that interested in them. We try to do these once a week and there could be up to ten dogs on it. Any noise phobias? Exposure in the home to things that stress him out? Recent changes in his life? Medical issues? He barks back if he hears dogs barking outside, or on the TV, it starts with him getting alert and then whining and then barking but never reaches the same reactivity level that he would on the street. Sometimes he goes a bit crazy barking at birds on the telephone wire, there are squirrels/hedgehogs in the garden that i think he smells and might cause him to be a bit barky too. We have changed bedrooms and recently built an extension which may have mixed him up a bit. It's good to hear that Cali is food driven, although we need to consider that a dog's ability to take food considerably lowers when they're feeling under pressure and exhibiting reactivity. Sometimes before we leave for a walk i might offer him a croquette (kibble? i am in france and not sure of the word) and he either doesnt take it, or takes it and spits it out. If he's choking himself when pulling, I would suggest using a front-attachment harness (harness with a leash that attaches to a front ring), or even possibly a head halter, although the ultimate goal should be preventing him from getting so close to his triggers to cause such strong, over threshold reactions. This is the harness we have but we only use the back clip, if we used the front clip would it work the way you would recommend? https://kyflie.com/boutique/momentum/harnais-momentum/

Hi, my 4 yo dog Cali (Lab/Cocker), male, castrated, is good 90% of the time but occassionaly for certain triggers becomes extremely reactive and starts barking and lunging at anything that moves (cars etc included). I have him on a lead with a collar and so when he gets like this all i can do is hold him back which obviously is choking him and is not nice for either of us. These are a list of the triggers, but they dont always trigger, sometimes he will ignore them completely. Skateboards/scooters Dogs barking somewhere that he cant see Certain neighbourhood dogs Dogs on the other side of the road that he cant say hi to. Dogs where the owner pulls them aside so they cant say hello. I list them because they may not all trigger for the same reason, but the result is the same. Cali will start lunging and barking at them, and once they pass he continues to lunge and bark at everything nearby. Signs that it is about to happen include whining, or just his head turning and once it has his attention it seems impossible to snap him out of it. Once it has happened, i need to restrain him on his lead and collar, which is choking him as he lunges, and i try to get his attention, lead him to the side of the path and get him to sit and eventually lie down. But even when he does this he is still looking over his shoulder constantnly in apparent fear and anxious. We continue once he gets to a certain level of calmness again. He is very good on pack walks, he is a bit barky in the garden or when visitors come, but he is never agressiven just excited. He is food driven and any advice you can offer would be appreciated, thanks. 🙂