SianNewman

Thank you so much again! I think where I've been going wrong is the belief that walking Brenin twice a day is more important than training thus exposing him to triggers that he is rehursing over and over again. It's such a deeply embedded belief that exercising a dog is the most important thing when actually if it is reinforcing bad behaviour, it isn't so good! So, after reading your advice and having an initial chat to a professional trainer (I found one!!) who uses positive reinforcement methods I've decided to change our routines to the following: 7am (no-one around) - Brenin goes for a 3 mile run or walk to practice heeling when the village is very quiet. 8am - Kong in the car (car desensitisation work) 8.30am - 30 minutes of training in the garden, (brain games and obedience) 12pm - 30 minutes of training in the garden 4pm - 30 minutes of training in the garden I have agreed with the trainer not to expose him to any triggers for four weeks and just work on obedience. Then we will go to see him for a consultation. We can't go just yet at we have to complete a few more longer car journeys over the next month. Here is a part of the email I received from the trainer: "Try and forget about exercise and focus strictly on training, the more you allow him to exhibit behaviours you do not want the further conditioned they become. Acceptance is reinforcement. Playing frenetic games with him constantly also elevates his state of mind keeping him close to or over threshold, you do not want this. You want to reinforce and condition calm states of mind both when out on a lead in public and day to day, believing you have to physically exercise him each day to provide him with what he needs is incorrect thinking. He needs more structure, control and better management. " https://www.extremusdogtraining.co.uk/ I really can't thank you enough (again) for the great advice and I will be sure to feedback on how the new routine is working out and Brenin's progress. I have started doing the foundation training for Treibball today and of course he has picked it up really quickly. The real problem isn't with Brenin, it's my lack of training but I'm determined to get there. Sian

Hi Adrienne, I have recently adopted a failed sheepdog called Brenin and we have been making great progress with brain training and obedience. However, he is uncontrollable when he sees another dog. As soon as he sees one he goes down to the ground first of all, then as then get closer, he pulls and lunges to get to them. It's like he is stalking them like prey. If he is off the lead a fight sometimes breaks out which is most often down to his behaviour. Even if the other dog is very calm and relaxed, he won't stop being aggressive. He doesn't do it is if the dog gives a play bow. If I go to get him and pull him away, he barks and barks aggressively. I feel its getting worse and I need to do something because it's hard to stop him meeting dogs when we go out to walk. He also does the same with joggers so I have to keep him on the lead pretty much all of the time in case a jogger appears. Many thanks Sian

Hi Adrienne, I'd like to feedback after following your advice. I now have a dog that does not pull and walks to heel!! It's taken a month but he gets it now. I found that talking to him a lot helps. It's really great. So you have helped with two things and I have one more big problem to solve. I will start a new post for this. Thank you so much Sian

I meant to say 'instead of darting forward' !!!

Hi Adrienne, Thanks so much for all this information, I have a much clearer idea of what I'm aiming for now. I think I can see how we have contributed to this behaviour. When he is off leash, we play this game very often where we turn in the opposite direction and he runs back to us for a treat and immediately off he goes again. He is very good now at staying close to us off leash and checking in and often coming back of his own accord BUT I can see how inadvertently we have trained him to get a treat and go. So, I tried this morning to interrupt the behaviour by calling him back to heel before he gets to the end of the lead which worked only on some parts of the walk where he was very under threshold (maybe 3-4 mins of a 45 min walk - he's very interested in everything!!) For the other sections of the walk, he won't come back to heel when I ask and just keeps pulling. I think if he saw me get another treat out of the bag it would bring his attention back to me but he is so quick, it's literally eat and dart forward. So I was wondering what you think of this idea to give us both more time: Heel for say 12 seconds - before I release the treat (while I still have his attention), stop walking - release the treat and say 'wait' - let him see me put my hand back in the treat bag - start over again Over time, hopefully he will learn to wait for another treat before darting forward? I will cook up some chicken to try for our first time and I will probably try it in the back garden too for a day or so. Also I should do this off leash so I don't reinforce the problem behaviour. I do have a command called 'on you go' where he is allowed to go off by himself. If he does get away from me, I will stop walking. l'll let you know what happens! It's going to be a very hard but interesting week 🙂 Sian

Hi Adrienne, hope you are well. I wanted to provide some feedback with regards to something you helped me with a while back. I adopted a failed sheepdog from a farm called Brenin, and he was sniffing my daughter in her private areas quite a lot! So you advised that she use hand targeting and got involved with his training and it has worked really well. Now when she comes downstairs (usually with a treat) he looks to her for a command instead of sniffing her which she is getting quite good at! My son has also started training with him too. We were having a few other problems with him, when the kids hugged us, he became intense and agitated, but that has stopped too since they have been interacting with him more. There are a few little things he does, like when my daughter laughs, he reacts by running up to her but I have read your answer to the coughing/sneezing reactive lab so I'm going to follow that advice. He's not aggressive but it is obvious he is startled and is not sure what to do. With regard to the Brain Training he is progressing really well and comes up to me to do more of it at certain times of day. He LOVES free shaping and can't get enough of it. We will continue! I'm amazed at how well he is doing. So out on walks he is reactive to pretty much everything that moves so I have been getting him to sit and go down to the ground when we see anything coming and he gets a treat once the thing has passed. He's getting very good at that now and today sat down without me asking him too. My main question is about the lead pulling. We have been doing attention heeling and when he is under threshold he will do attention heeling for about 12 seconds and then goes back to pulling again for about 30 seconds (or longer) then he will come back to my side for 12 seconds and then go back to pulling again etc etc. Is the idea that I release the treat after longer periods of time so say, after 13 seconds then 14 seconds and eventually he will just keep walking next to me? It's like having a yoyo at the end of the lead and I have to brace myself for the yank! He just seems so keen to be ahead of me leading the way. Anyhow, we have made lots of progress in three months but we still have a lot more work to do. Thanks in advance Sian

Will do 😀

Adrienne, thank you so much for the quick reply and great advice. We will give those ideas a go starting at the weekend properly. My daughter likes the idea of giving him a treat too. We have had a much more successful 'leave it' session tonight. I'm sure this is no surprise to you but Brenin is really enjoying this training, I actually think he needs it. He was a failed sheepdog and was left behind when the other dogs went out with the farmer. Brenin's father (who he lived with and was the primary sheepdog) died a week before we adopted him and the farmer decided to rehome Brenin as he didn't want a pet and couldn't train him to be a sheepdog. I don't really know much more than that but he was not in good mental or physical shape when we first met him. Thanks again, it's so valuable having this resource as there are no certified dog trainers living in this area of Wales. In all honesty, Brenin does have a long way to go. I'm working mostly on trying to assess whether he is under or over threshold and if I don't know, assuming that he is over. I'm sure I will be back for more advice! Sian

Hi Adrienne, We have recently adopted a 3 year old male un-neutered sheepdog from a farm. He has some reactive problems (joggers, some walkers, some bicycles!) which I am working on following the techniques shown on this website which seem to be working although it is early days and we have a lot more work to do. Safety first! I am writing about a particular issue we are experiencing with him in the house. We have desensitized him to a lot of things and he seems quite settled but I need to redirect his attention away from my 13 year old daughter who he rushes up to and sniffs her inappropriately. When she walks downstairs his ears go up and he heads intently towards her. I have asked her to turn her back and ignore him but she finds this hard when he is sniffing her private parts. He is not aggressive. I can call him away but I'd like to stop it from happening and teach my daughter how to handle it as I won't be there to call him away all the time. My daughter likes him and understands that we need to show him how to behave but it is making her embarrassed which I totally understand. I wondered if you had any ideas? In the last few weeks we have started training as his health was very poor at first. Now he's better, he has learned sit -stay, down, hand targeting and he also targets a particular toy I throw (he touches it with his nose). He is currently learning 'leave it' but I think he's a bit confused as he is offering me sit and down. Many thanks in advance Sian