Reddit reviews Feisty Fido: Help for the Leash-Reactive Dog

This is pretty textbook leash reactivity. I always recommend the book Feisty Fido as a good intro to understanding and working with leash reactivity. You can get a kindle version on amazon for less than $10 and it's a really quick read.

There are a lot of theories on why some dogs spaz out on leash and the exact reasons differ for every dog. There are "Frustrated Greeters" who just really want to say hi and others that are more fear reactive who might feel trapped being on a leash. It's hard to say without personal experience with your dog.

It takes time, patience, and a lot of love, but you will be able to work through this. There is A LOT more to all of this, but that's just some basic stuff.

A couple other random things to watch out for:

1. Make sure your dog is getting enough exercise (if possible, wear himout a bit before a walk)
   
2. Make sure he is getting enough mental stimulation (google dog enrichment)
   
3. Make sure you are being as calm and composed as possible on walks. If you tense up every time you see a dog, you're telling your doggo that there's something to worry about. Dogs are very good at picking up on tension and stress like that and it can directly feed into their reactivity. Deep breathes, try to keep the leash loose, and redirect as calmly as possible.

Join us over in /r/reactivedogs - we have wine, and can mop up frustration tears with chocolate and other food coping mechanisms.

In all seriousness, it's a really slow process. Tesla (also GSD rescue) and I have been working on it for 3 years. We can FINALLY work around other dogs with a lot of management on my behalf. In my opinion, excitement/frustration reactivity where the dog WANTS to play with the other dog (as opposed to fear/aggression where the dog wants to be away from the other dog) is the worst to deal with.

With regard to what I've done to get us to this point:

• Lots of personal play. I also had to teach Tesla how to play! Now we have an awesome tug game. Denise Fenzi runs a relationship building through play course that is awesome and Shade Whitsel runs a play course with tugs and balls. Both are available through Fenzi Dog Academy. Both are really good courses. Make sure you 'proof' your play. For example, Tesla will play all day inside, but we're still working on transitioning that off our property, because she goes into 'shepherd' mode and gets hyper-vigilant.
  
• Mat Work. Seriously one of the best investments of my time. This builds value for a mat. Once you've built that 'value' you can start taking it on the road. I combine this with working at whatever distance is under threshold for her at a dog park (so we'll sit like 500m+ away - the dog should be interested but not yet to the point where they are ignoring you).
  
• Look At That. Again, managed with distance. This is where we teach the dog to look at the dog without reacting. I strongly advise moving through this exercise quickly. So mark/reward for looking - feed with the dog facing AWAY from the other dog. Your dog should start picking up that looking at the dog and looking to you gets a reward, so start marking the look away (even if it's not at you), and then build duration. What we don't want is the back and force head game where the dog just snaps back and forth between you and the other dog.
  
• Look and Dismiss. Again, distance (greeeaattt theme here). Work at a distance where your dog can look and dismiss the other dog. When your dog does that dismissal, ask your dog to engage in play (this links back to the first point). Don't force it, but don't close the distance until your dog is comfortable enough to 'play', even if 'play' is just getting belly rubs. 'Play' is one of the first things that fly out the window when a dog gets triggered, so it's a super nice judge of how aroused or triggered your dog is and whether it's safe to move forward.
  
• Get a firm grip of your dog's body language. You want to be able to interrupt the behavior BEFORE the dog is too far gone. For Tesla, that means when I start to see 'stillness', I instantly u-turn, and mark and reward when she follows me. Every dog is different, but I know - ears up and forward, laying down and staring, or just stopping with a high tail, etc means we're about to start down a bad road and I need to get out of dodge.
  
• Practice emergency exits and carry super duper high value treats. Emergency exits are where you shove an extremely high value food in front of the dog's nose and lure the dog off into safety.
  
• Whenever you change the criteria you need to reset to zero. For instance, let's say I can get my dog to a point where another dog is just walking and ignoring us and Tesla can happily look and dismiss the other dog. If I change my criteria to the other dog jogging, I need to reset to zero (so increase my distance) and start again. Also remember, different dogs can be different levels of trigger. Tesla isn't as leash reactive with small dogs. But bigger, fluffier dogs are like an instant "let me play" and be an asshole on a leash.
  
• Try not to let him practice the behavior. I'm super lucky now, I moved into a house, but I did 2 years in apartment complexes and I know it sucks, but walking at odd hours really helped us. We got to train the 'environment' alone without the added risks of dogs. Remember that when your dog goes over threshold, it releases a shit tonne of hormones, those hormones can take DAYS to come back down to zero, so try not to let it happen too often (I know, I know, apartment living sucks for this, I'm sorry).
  
• Try to find a reactive rover class or a trainer that understands and will let you work. I STILL take good manners classes because I have an excellent trainer who lets me work off to the side while exposing Tesla to new dogs. It's a controlled environment, I have visual barriers if I need it and honestly it's been the thing that probably helped us the most.
  
• Try not to pre-empt a reaction. Try not to tighten the grip or have a reaction of your own. It can feed the dog.
  
• Feisty Fido is a good book. So is Fired Up, Frantic and Freaked Out.
  
  Good luck. :)

I have a similar problem that I am just starting to work on. It's called "leash reactivity" because - just as you said - when the dog is off leash, he is fine with other dogs. I just read a very short book called Feisty Fido that gives a training plan for reducing this. Basically you teach your dog to "watch" you when he sees a dog/cyclist/whatever passing by, instead of reacting to it. My trainer recommended it highly but I'm just starting out so I can't say whether it works.

In the book, they do talk about different types of walking equipment. They suggest an easy-walk harness that clips in the front (at the chest), because a normal harness makes it very easy for your dog to pull you. I haven't tried that yet but something to think about. Good luck!

One last thing, I would try speaking to the trainer about obedience classes. My dog didn't used to be this way, but we had a different dog in our classes that was leash reactive and the trainer did a good job of managing it. I don't think it means you can't go to class.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Friendly Frustration! My dog is Mr. Social Good Time Guy but holy cow is it embarrassing. This behavior falls into r/reactivedogs territory.

I tackled this by following Patricia McConnells Feisty Fido plan. It includes total avoidance of triggers (lots of early morning and late night walks) and working on “look at me” at home until it becomes second nature. You have got to stop rewarding the behavior by allowing him to meet dogs on leash (it’s how I created the issue myself in my dog).

I also highly recommend relaxation protocols. I found a clear step by step plan for simple training while slowly adding challenges very helpful. There are lots of YouTube videos of trainers running through the exercises.

My dog still shows intense interest in other dogs on walks, and I still do avoidance movement (crossing the street and U-turns). But we are past the barking, lunging, and general losing his shit. You can do it!

Edit some extra words