Going crazy as soon as she sees the leash

[LAUREL OCONNOR]

Elizabeth is a two year old German Shepherd.   This is a behaviour that has gotten progressively worse over the last six months. There have been two changes in this time.  The first is that our other dog a male Great Pyrenees died.  The other is that due to an injury my husband was walking her instead of me.  I have done three in person training sessions with Elizabeth.  She is very smart and knows all the basic commands and how to heel. Exception is  if she sees another dog or perhaps a rabbit on the walk.  In those cases she barks and lunges and attempts to drag us. So that is a problem.  However the main problem is that as soon as she sees or hears the leash she goes crazy.  She barks she jumps she bites at our clothing and has bitten us doing that by mistake.  She starts this teeth chattering and you can tell she is in the red zone and focusing on nothing but getting that leash in her teeth and not letting go.   We have tried pushing her away yelling putting her in her kennel for a period but it is always a literal battle.  When she finally sits her teeth are still chattering and as soon as we get out the door she starts jumping again and trying to get the leash. A couple of times she has jumped up and actually hurt herself doing that. We use a choke collar but not a pincher and a material leash with a short metal section.  We really want to be able to walk her without fear of torn clothing or being pushed over.  Help,

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there!

Welcome to the forums!

So sorry to hear about the loss of your Pry. These losses deeply impact us and our dogs. 

Many dogs get overly excited when they see the leash. If this is a new behavior, there's likely also some element of anxiety as well considering all the recent changes.

I hope she has good bite inhibition, when dogs "miss" and end up biting us in this highly aroused state, the may not be as good in gauging the pressure of their bites. Please make safety your top priority. If she's rough with her mouth use a bite-proof basket muzzle for extra safety, (https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/train-your-dog-to-wear-a-muzzle/) and if you notice aggressive behavior, please don't hesitate to work along with a dog behavior professional for safety. 

Now, let's think like our dogs for a moment. A leash on its own may be a neutral stimulus and something that our dogs could care less about. In fact, a puppy who has never seen or worn a leash before may even perceive it as annoying, entertaining, or something to chew on.

As your puppy or dog gets used to having the leash clipped on and taken for a walk, the leash then starts to represent some strong, positive associations. It turns into a conditioned stimulus (previously a neutral stimulus), and your dog develops a conditioned emotional response to it. 

This conditioned response may consist of a variety of emotions depending on how walks are perceived. For some dogs who are fearful of the great outdoors—those scared of noises, seeing people, or other dogs—their emotional response may be based more on fear than excitement.  For others, it can be great emotional arousal from going on the hunt for critters, new intriguing smells and meeting other dogs and people. Some others there may be elements of mixed emotions, anxiety, fear mixed with excitement for all the things that can happen.

Trying to tone down the excitement/anxiety by scolding or pushing away can often makes things worse, and even if the dog maybe stays still for a bit, it's more a result of us suppressing the dog's emotions which can lead to side effects. For example, in sensitive dogs, it may lead to further anxiety of going outside.

So rather than getting frustrated we can tackle this excess excitement/anxiety in two ways: 1)Using the leash to our advantage to reinforce desired behaviors and 2) reducing the saliency of the leash. 

It's worthy to skip walks for a while so that you stop reinforcing all the excitement package taking place when your dog is in this hyper/aroused state. Because if every time we go out for a walk, Elizabeth is rehearsing all these problematic behaviors just prior, soon a new routine establishes and we're reinforcing it, sort of like letting a toddler go play with his friends outside after throwing a major tantrum. If the tantrum works in having mom and dad let him out, he'll be likely to repeat this scene over and over.  

So here are some tips: 

-Use a Chain Leash

Since you mention your dog chewing the leash, I would suggest for a while using a chain leash. Most dogs don't like to chew on chain and will give up chewing it after some time. With a new leash you also have an object with "less baggage'' in other words less rehearsal history. 

-Prevent Rehearsal of the Problematic Behavior 

If every time you grab the leash, your dog gets hyper excited just by seeing it, you will have to start changing things, or you may be stuck with a dog that lacks impulse control.  On top of this, your dog may adopt these impatient these behaviors in many other aspects of her life. So we need to tone down things and prevent her from practicing all these hyper aroused behaviors.

We therefore need to take several steps to keep her better under threshold. Here's the thing: when dogs get into too aroused states, they tend to get nippy, jumpy, humpy, and yes, they may chatter their teeth if anticipating something. So the primary goal is taking several steps to keep your dog under threshold: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/

-Try My "Unpower the Leash" Method

Here's the thing: dogs live in a world of associations. The leash therefore becomes particularly salient to our dogs because it's presented at distinct times, that is, always right before the walks. For sake of comparison, we can say that the leash becomes super salient and highly predictable such as the noise of the food bowl announcing dinner, or the treat bag announcing a fun training session, or the door bell announcing guests, or our car keys announcing our departure (and triggering anxiety in dogs with separation-related issues). 

 The contingency leash=walks therefore becomes particularly strong. So how can we break up this contingency? By removing the power from the leash and making it less salient. We will therefore present it throughout the day so to desensitize her to it

-Casually keep the leash around

I would skip grabbing the leash in front of your dog for now because she'll likely get all revved up, and maybe even more nippy because she may get frustrated that it will be presented when she's not going on walk. So let's start easy peasy, when she's out in the yard or in another room, away from where the leash is kept, get that leash out and place it on the couch or hang it to the door knob. Then, let her find it on her own. Because the leash is lifeless at this point and not in your hands, she shouldn't get overly excited about it. 

***If at any time she tries to grab the leash/steal it, say 'leave it" and toss a kibble away. If she knows "leave it" already, even better. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/take-leave-it/

-Add Movement 

Have the leash on the couch or hanging by the door knob, and casually during the day, move it a teeny bit. Your dog may show interest at this point, twitch an ear or come running towards it, so be ready to toss her a kibble or treat every time you move it. The kibble or treat should keep her from thinking about nipping you and keep her mind busy on something else. It also reinforces any other behavior than the nipping. Do this several times. 

-Add Sits

If your dog knows how to sit, start practicing this exercise: Move the leash a little bit and then ask for a sit and toss a kibble/treat to reward that. Rinse and repeat several times, the movement/noise of the leash should become a predictor that a sit must follow. The treat toss should keep her busy and prevent her from thinking about nipping. 

-Start wearing the leash 

If your dog did well with the above exercise, start "wearing" the leash. In other words, walk around with the leash clipped to your belt. You want your dog to start getting used to seeing it around more and more without getting excited. Every now and then, stand in front of your dog, lift the leash a bit, ask for a sit and toss a treat. 

-Desensitize to the clipping noise

Every now and then, as the leash is clipped to your belt, stand in front of your dog, lift the leash a bit ask for a sit,  make the clipping noise by opening the snap hook thingy and toss a treat. Rinse and repeat several times, lift leash-ask for a sit, clipping sound- toss treat. 

-Start practicing clipping on the leash 

Start practicing clipping on the leash to your dog's collar, when your dog is sitting calmly. Lift the leash a bit make the clipping noise by opening the snap hook thingy, ask for a sit, clip it to the collar, feed a treat. Then, unclip it and give another treat. Rinse and repeat several times. The leash comes on only when you dog is sitting calmly. 

-Work by the door

Do the same exercise this time by the door.  Lift the leash a bit,  make the clipping noise by opening the snap hook thingy, ask for a sit, clip it to the collar, feed a treat. Then, unclip it and give another treat. Rinse and repeat several times. The leash always comes on only when you dog is sitting calmly. 

-Walk Away From Undesirable Behavior

What if your dog breaks the sit or starts getting nippy right when you are about to clip on the leash? In that scenario, stop trying to clip the leash, turn around, and walk away. By doing this, you are informing your dog that their excited behavior sends you away. Come back and try again. If your dog is still wiggly and bouncy, make an about turn and try again. At some point, your dog will tire out from acting excited and will get the message. You should, therefore, start seeing some calmer behaviors. At that point, ask for the sit, clip the leash on, and go out the door a brief second and then back inside, unclip the leash and feed a treat (you can toss several small pieces, treasure hunt style)

-Don't Be Afraid to Repeat the Technique

What if your dog sits nicely when you clip the leash on but pulls towards the door, jumping and acting hyper again? In that case, once again, turn around. You don't want to reinforce this behavior. Make sure you exit the door only when your dog is in a calmer state of mind.

It may take some time to get out of the door the first few times, but since you keep going towards the door and then turning the moment your dog acts hyper, your dog will get tired; you will eventually start to see a calmer dog. Things get better once your dog understands that calmness equals walking towards the door and getting out. If you are consistent, you will notice an improvement.

-Watch for Frustration 

If you notice any signs of frustration building up, or reverting back to nipping/jumping, take that as a sign that you have progressed to fast. You may have raised criteria too fast and need to back to a few steps in the process. Make sure to use treats that are valuable enough to your dog so that it's easy for her to make good choices. 

-Implement Impulse control games

Dogs who get overly excited and struggle coping with their emotions, benefit from learning more impulse control. Training is ultimately teaching dogs to better cope with their emotions and develop better frustration tolerance. They must learn that patience pays and only calm behavior leads to what they want. Here are several impulse control games:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/10-impulse-control-games-for-dogs/

Once the leash has lost its salience and you are putting the leash on and walking towards the door only when your dog is calm, you are tackling the issue on several fronts:

-You are no longer reinforcing excited behaviors

-You are rewarding calm behaviors

-The leash will have assumed less importance so that you can help your dog succeed 

-Your dog is learning how to tone down her emotions

The above techniques are more tailored for dogs who act super excited when they see the leash. Remember, if your dog is super excited, this may be a sign that your dog needs more training, enrichment and mental stimulation during the day. Make sure you provide enough brain games, training, food puzzles so that you will have a calmer and better behaved dog.

Now, you have mentioned some issues on walks and these will need to be tackled too, as they're part of the arousal problem package. I will be discussing this later today in the next post. 

Disclaimer: behavior modification comes with risks. If your puppy or dog shows signs of potential aggression (lunging, barking, growling, snapping, biting) for safety, please consult with a dog behavior professional who uses force-free behavior modification techniques (no shock, prongs, or physical corrections) for direct in-person guidance. Articles, videos and general info found in the forums or course (or any online source) are not meant to replace in-person training/instruction. By using this course and forum, you are waiving any liability claims or other type of claims related to any dogs' behavior against you or others.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

  She is very smart and knows all the basic commands and how to heel. Exception is  if she sees another dog or perhaps a rabbit on the walk.  We use a choke collar but not a pincher and a material leash with a short metal section.  We really want to be able to walk her without fear of torn clothing or being pushed over. 

That's very good, it sounds like she has a good grip on heeling, but struggles applying it in overwhelming situations, when her arousal goes way too up. Once again the goal here is, once she's acting calmer when seeing her leash, working with her under threshold, preventing her from being exposed to too overwhelming situations (distance is your best friend), using super valuable foods (baked liver etc). 

Here are some tips for mellowing down the instinct to chase: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/chasing-things/

More tips for dogs who pull/lunge to chase critters or who are reactive upon seeing other dogs on leash:

1) Prevent Rehearsal of Problematic Behavior

As with the hyper behavior displayed upon seeing the leash, you'll need to take steps to prevent rehearsal of the problematic behavior. Just like actors get better and better in their recitals, the more they practice, the more your dog's pulling and lunging behaviors establish and become more and more habit-forming, courtesy of repetitions. As the saying goes, "practice makes perfect."

Here's the thing: even if your dog gets to pull and lunge occasionally, as she doesn't always encounter his triggers on walks, those occasional rehearsals maintain the behavior alive. 

Preventing rehearsal can therefore mean taking a little from walks until your dog is better equipped with coping skills and has demonstrated the ability to tolerate low-intensity exposures toward triggers. Taking your dog off the reactivity fog will allow both of you to get some relief.

No worries, this is not a permanent solution and there are many ways to keep your dog active, and happy in the meanwhile through brain games, food puzzles, clicker training, fun games in the yard (treasure hunts, use of large herding balls for dogs), sniffing adventures, canine sports, hikes in areas where you are absolutely sure your dog's triggers won't show up. 

2) Become a Pro In Reading Your Dog

In order to tackle reactivity correctly, it's important to familiarize yourself with your dog's body language. Recognize when she is at an emotional baseline level and when she's starting to rev up. If you have recordings of your dog's reactive behavior, watch them in slow motion and watch carefully the precursor signs. There may have been a quick lip lick or wrinkling of the skin on the forehead or she may stop panting—focusing on something in the distance.

A good behavior modification plan will have your dog orienting towards the trigger, but without causing her to react. You therefore need to pay extra attention so that your dog doesn't go over threshold. 

3) Train Replacement Behaviors

The goal is to gradually train an alternate behavior for your dog to engage in and obtain a fluid response so that it can be then eventually prompted in face of the trigger.

This training should be started in the comfort of the home away from distractions. With cases of reactivity, I have found more success in using dynamic behaviors than static behaviors (like sits, downs and stays) because I find that dogs struggle more to stay still when they are concerned about their surroundings.

One of my favorite dynamic replacement behaviors to train is attention heeling (where the dog looks at me while walking past distractions).https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/heeling-attention-heeling/

You can train this starting in the hallway using kibble, then move to the porch and yard using high-value treats, and then on brief walks back and forth in front of the home when you are sure there are no triggers.

I would also recommend working on conditioning your dog to respond to a smacking sound. Train this by making the sound and then tossing your dog immediately a treat. Smacking sound/treat, smacking sound/treat. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/the-airplane-game/the-smacking-sound/

Practice in low-distraction areas, gradually adding in distractions (not the actual trigger though). You want your dog to immediately orient towards you for her treat upon hearing this sound.

A great game to play before going on walks is the Look at That game using a window, skip the leash initially until she's calmer being around it. 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/

4) Use minimally aversive equipment

When we use training tools that work by creating discomfort (like choke chains, prong collars  and shock collars) we risk that dogs may start associating triggers with these unpleasant sensations which further aggravate the dog's reactivity. Not only, dogs may also come to associate our presence with such discomfort along with their neck areas and whatever is nearby them. 

However, it's important for us to have a sense of control. By having a better sense of control, we may feel more confident in walking our dogs For more control, I recommend using a front attachment harness, where the leash attaches to the front ring of the harness. For security, I like to attach the leash to the dog's regular collar and the harness's front ring so I have a backup in case of equipment failure.

For cases where I am particularly concerned about safety, or there are particular struggles in walking the dog, I may even invest in a head halter.  Consider that this requires an acclimatization process like the muzzle.

5) Start With Easy Systematic Exposures

Once you have learned how to read your dog's body language, how to keep your dog under threshold, acclimatized your dog to her new training gear and practiced a replacement behavior, it is time to start working with systematic exposures.

These are again low-intensity exposures where you can control the intensity of the trigger through set-ups (like volunteers walking a dog back and forth at a distance your dog doesn't react).

6) Use Fun Games 

A helpful game that aims to distract the dog and help her make good choices when triggers pop up is the " dynamic Treasure Hunt game." Upon noticing the trigger at a distance, toss a handful of treats and say "find it!" in a happy tone as you point towards the treats. 

A Treat Toss game instead consists of the dog noticing the trigger at a distance, I then make the smacking sound then tossing the treat a little ahead on the road for the dog to catch. I have found some dogs respond better to tossed treats rather than hand-feeding as it stimulates their prey drive and allows them to release some energy too.

If you need to keep your dog busy when another dog is walking by, or when you stop talking to a friend, you can try my Hand-made Kong method: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/my-hand-made-kong-trick/

7) Have a Plan for Setbacks

If at any time, your dog becomes reactive, take that as a sign that you have progressed too fast or the trigger was at a too intense level. End the session on a positive note, feeding treats as your dog sees it from a distance that doesn't evoke a reaction, and call it a day.

Once home, make a mental note of presenting the trigger at less intense levels. It could be the trigger was presented too close or for too long or was too animated. Each of these elements should be presented one at a time, too many elements presented at once can easily push a dog to the edge.

It could also be that your dog has endured other stressful events at home and due to trigger stacking and her threshold for feeling reactive has temporarily lowered. Maybe she is not feeling well, or the exposure was just too many various elements at once. 

8 ) Improve Dog's Emotional Wellbeing (And Yours Too!) 

On top of working around the reactivity, it's important to not forget to also tackle the dog's overall emotional well-being. Improvements can be made by decreasing the overall stress in the dog's life, increasing the dog's confidence and helping the dog develop coping skills.

Particularly beneficial may be adding enrichment under the form of brain games and food puzzles, adding an exercise regimen, promoting positive experiences, shaping, clicker training, impulse control training, letting the dog explore the world at his own pace, building frustration tolerance, splitting exercises into easy steps, teaching the dog to relax.

Another important aspect is controlling our own behaviors. Most likely if you own a reactive dog, you are emotionally charged as well.

Learn to feel more relaxed, breathe deeply and avoid tightening the leash the moment you notice a stimulus that your dog reacts to. This reflex-like action will alert your dog of danger, traveling all the way down the leash and making him reactive as well.

By taking baby steps, to some extent, you are also "rehabilitating" yourself as well along with your dog and learning how to "read him better" and be more in control of certain situations.

Hope this helps,

Happy Training!

[LAUREL OCONNOR]

Thanks so so much. This all makes sense and I really appreciate the simple step by step instructions.  She is really such a well behaved and calm dog the majority of the time.  We love her so much and can tell that she really wants to “be good” but just cannot control herself in some situations so I am so happy to know now how to help her.  We will start implementing the steps you provided and let you know as we progress.  I am totally committed to taking whatever pace gets her and us there.  Today I did your Leave training with her and she got it after one try.  I will continue with that 4 or five times a day for the next few days before I move on to the Take training.  It was kind of funny because I could tell she was looking at me thinking hmmmm what is this now, what kind of game is my Mom trying now!

[Adrienne Farricelli]

You are very welcome! 

It's great that she's in such a thinking mode and perceives the training as a fun game. That's what we want. 

Elizabeth is very lucky to have such a committed and patient owner. Working at the dog's pace is so important. 

Keep us posted on how things go.