First success was when I took him on a walk, we started out and were only able to walk about halfway down the block across from my house when a couple exited their house with their two small dogs. I stopped and waited to see which way they were headed as Ace was unable to see them thanks to a conveniently parked car.
When they started heading our ways, I quickly turned and walked quickly until I knew Ace would be under threshold when they appeared around the car. I turned and let him see the dogs, and waited for a calming signal (Since he's been using BAT a little bit, he's started giving the look away calming signal) and he did wonderful, so I ran the opposite way with him and rewarded him with some hotdog pieces. The other dogs kept following us home, so I was able to allow Ace to see the dogs and give a calming signal a few more times, and only when he heard a dog barking nearby (Not either of the two dogs behind us) did he start to go over threshold and made a few grumbling noises, but WAY better than he usually would have been previously. I was able to just guide him gently home, and took him into my backyard to wait for the other two dogs to pass by. Ace sniffed around a little bit, and ended up going potty, but he watched the two dogs pass the front of the house without reacting at all. He looked and just continued away to sniff some more. I rewarded him and took him in front of the house, to start walking back the way we were going, but I noticed something strange with Ace that I didn't see before. He was wagging his tail calmly in the direction of the other two dogs, so I took him across the street where they dogs walked, and he happily was sniffing the ground and trying to pull in the direction of the dogs. I wanted to try following them, but Ace was too excited and was completely forgetting about any of his loose leash walking, so I spent the rest of the walk (home and up and back down our street) loose leash training to calm him back down. He did really well, and I was so proud of him after that!Not very specific, but he's also starting to become less reactive to the two white neighbor dogs. Before, if he just heard them inside the house, he'd be set off into a frenzy. I know it's not completely positive, but I use what is called the "emergency" dog aggression technique, but I modified it a little. Keeping a distance from the neighbor's dogs seems to be impossible without outright avoiding them, so I keep to the farthest side of the yard, and keep him looking at me while feeding him hotdogs, and then I calmly move a little until we are on the side of the house, and repeat. It's worked to the point, that he can hear the dogs, and not react while passing by the house. I haven't been able to make much progress for Scotty, the other neighbor's dog, but I'm hoping to start. The difference with Scotty as opposed to the two white dogs is the owner of Scotty is aware of Ace's problem, so she avoids having Scotty out when Ace is out, where as the owner of the white dogs couldn't care less about anyone else and lets her dogs out to bark nonstop at passersby or anyone in nearby yards... Anyways, I digress. Here's the link to the technique, but I only use the "emergency" part in the backyard and when a dog, person, or cat appear in threshold before I was able to see them, otherwise I use the BAT system. I know it's not purely positive, but I find it works the best to get him out of a situation as when he goes off, it's him thrashing around growling, barking, and lunging whenever possible. For the safety of others and him, I use this method, and he's on a face lead whenever out on a walk. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUCl6ndLN7Q
Now for the Grand Finale! I mentioned before how it was difficult for me to get Ace and Titan (the puppy who is now the same size as Ace at 8 years old) to be able to be around each other without fighting. Well, I started really watching Ace's reaction whenever he saw Titan, and it was always calm and very positive. (Slow tail wags, panting, and relaxed ear position) I started to wonder if the reactions were more due to the leash than anything, and so I put Ace's muzzle on and took him into the garage with a whole bag full of hotdog pieces. I had him off leash, but kept close to him and under control as my girlfriend walked in with Titan. Titan walked up to Ace, and there was some grumbling from Ace, but more in response to Titan's barking and telling him off. Then out of nowhere Ace gave Titan a play bow and they played a little bit before I brought the hotdogs out and started rewarding each of them for basic things like sit and down.
Titan turns out to be the more nervous of the two, as he couldn't leave my side without freaking out and acting more nervous. Although I can't do anything about his socialization as Titan isn't mine, I'm happy that we don't have to worry about one of them getting into each others' area of the house. In fact, today when Titan was out and my girlfriend had Ace on leash and was taking him outside, Titan came up and sniffed Ace and they went their separate ways. Ace still reacts when I hold him by his collar when Titan and Zeus are coming up the stairs to go outside, but I think that is more because he hates being held, and I have an idea of using the Lickety Stik, http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... lInUS%2FNo, to solve that problem, but overall is a HUGE success!He's also having better reactions to noises inside the house, though if he hears something in the middle of the night, he still barks for a little bit, but better than before.
And all of this started happening after I went to the vet and she told me she told me that Ace may need a mixture of medication and behavioral modification because of how extreme he gets. He does get dramatic, but I think that's just his personality as when he's excited, he's very dramatic as well. I haven't called the other vet because my girlfriend and I both decided we'd wait until the spring to allow the BAT some time, plus we don't really want to put him on medication if we don't have to. But with all of this success, it's looking more like we'll continue all of this even with setbacks that I'm expecting to happen.
) was behind his respective fence, and I wasn't quite able to get him close enough to be able to pass calmly only because the owner came out and brought the barking dog in after only like 3 or 4 of our "laps." He looked at me a little funny, but I was using his dog to my advantage, in a safe way for Ace. I wasn't quite as aware of it as I should have been either, but a large black dog walked calmly past us on the other side of the street behind us, and Ace gave me calm signals on sight of this dog. 