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8yo female german sheperd reactivity
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8yo female german sheperd reactivity
My 8yo GSD named Bree understands basic obedience but I’m still having issues with focus, reactivity to dogs, and constant sniffing on walks. We walk about 1hr-2hr daily and routinely practice obedience. Walking by other dogs is a still very difficult, I can command a “look”, which works until about 30ft or so to another dog. My current strategy is having her sit while the dog passes, since it’s the only way that I can keep her calm and slightly less hyper-focused on the other dog. She won’t respond to any commands when dogs are around. If they get too close, it just results in a very aggressive posture and I’m unable to redirect her, short of just dragging her away. My walks every day are focused walks. If she starts to walk away from me, we go the other way. if she lunges at something to smell, we go the other way. I do this many times throughout my walks. I constantly practice “look” on walks to make sure she’s attentive, (often rewarded with a treat and praise) and change direction very often as practice, but nothing provides consistent results. I practice in many different locations to get her used to new environments, but that doesn’t really help. I have difficulty with just holding her attention. If I could just go for a normal walk, I can keep working on other issues. I realize she’s a bit older, but I’m not willing to give up on her.
I’ve watched many of Roberts videos, and it’s all the same training I’ve worked on with trainers in the past, and that I practice regularly. Much of her earlier training was more positive reinforcement, which did nothing to correct her behavior. I’m sure that I’m not sufficient, but I’ve tried many trainers, and the only minor success I had was introducing a Star Mark collar, but even that has limited success. She ends up just choking herself, so I’ve stopped regularly using it. Once she’s around other dogs, she’s generally very friendly. It’s just the approach that ends up far too aggressive, so socializing with strange dogs isn’t really possible. She went to day care between about 2-4yo. No change in behavior since then.
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5 Replies
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Cory , hi
I would like to know how long you have owned her .
My dog took months to engage with me . He was four and never had a real leader .
It took a little while to change his way of thinking .
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Hi, thank you for the reply. I have had her for about 7 years now, since a bit after 1yo.
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Hi Cory,
Is she trained on duration for the look command? I have a reactive dog as well and I have her sit and then do a very strong look command to let dogs pass us. I have trained her to hold it out for a long time first indoors where it’s very clear until being released and then outside before introducing any distractions, and dogs are the highest distraction for her. I found for my dog, training for things like focus was more effective as a separate training from her neighborhood walks. There wasn’t enough consistency in results on her walks to have the active training be conditioned there. Training in long periods of duration before distraction may help if you aren’t already doing that, but it’s harder for them to learn both at the same time off the bat. I also stand in front of her facing her when I put her in the sit since she will do the look command and then just stare at me until released. The duration on look will take away the buildup or fixation from visual stimulation of the trigger and timing on when to cue the look command is everything. This is just what I’ve found success with and have trained a lot on the look command. There are a lot of trainers that say passing by a dog fast is easier than having them sit and focus like a sitting duck, but it’s the only thing that works for my dog, at least for now.
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Hi, Thank you for you suggestion! I never really practiced a long “look”, but that seems like a great idea. I will start to incorporate this practice.
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Good luck! Also with any command, when training duration, gradually increase it similar to when training strong stay commands.
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