Small victories

[OnceInAWeil]

Tony and I don't have a huge success story yet, but since I started his reactive training regimen, I have noticed improvements. I work him under threshold (as much as possible) on nearby streets that rarely have cars, and that have some foot traffic without it being difficult to avoid. This way we can cross the street at any time we need to. When we first started out, he needed to be at least 20 feet from a passerby to be comfortable. Now we can walk in the bike lane while a pedestrian passes us head-on (silly people walking on the wrong side of the road, against traffic) on the sidewalk and he is fine. I use Leslie McDevitt's Look At That game, and it works very well for him. He needs to be able to check out his environment and the things that worry him, and LAT allows him to do that while still paying attention to me.

So last week, we were coming home from our morning walk, almost to the apartment door, when my neighbor from across the stairwell opened her door. She was only about 5 feet from us. I fully expected Antonio to react because the space was small and enclosed, and her appearance was unexpected. But he didn't. In the second it took me to pull myself together and click/treat, he did not explode. He was calmer than I was! Let me tell you, I was ecstatic.

We have definitely had some setbacks, but little victories like that mean a lot.

[jacksdad]

very cool. keep it up.

yes, you will have setback..that is just life. overcoming "re activeness" will be a series or 2 steps forward, 1 back, 5 forward, 3 sideways, etc, etc. it's a on going process.

The more you dog gets to practice getting it right, the more he will default to that behavior. Just don't get over confident. just like it is advise able to take a "day off" if you have a set back, success has it's own stress and breaks after a really good success is also a good idea.

Again, keep it up. this is one of those endeavors where success is achieved not by one "big get it right", but rather through a continuous series of small victories.

[OnceInAWeil]

Thanks. I was very inspired by your post about Jack. I try to stay cautious after reading Scaredy Dog! as Ali stresses that, like you said, there will be setbacks. Trying to follow the "day off" advice, but I feel so guilty not giving him his walks. He expects one in the morning and one at night, and despite his fears you can tell he enjoys outside. I also have no yard to throw a ball in. We can play limited fetch, as well as hide and seek and other training games...but I still feel bad at the thought that he's not really getting to stretch his legs.

[jacksdad]

"day off" doesn't necessarily mean no walks. Just try and go places you have low to no risk of running into what scares your dog or go at an alternate time when people/dogs/cars (whatever scares your dog) are less likely to be out and about.

not having a back yard, I never truly skip a walk. They might be shorter but more often, they might be in the late evening when most other people have gone home for the night, or they might be to a location where I don't often if ever run into dogs, which is what mostly scares Jack.

[OnceInAWeil]

Great tip! Thanks.