If you've enjoyed this video please like, comment & share 🙂 It really helps! 🙋♀️COMPLETE DOG TRAINING SOLUTIONS: •❓🤨 STRUGGLING WITH LEASH TRAINING? 👇 ✅ 6 Weeks to Dream Walks: Step-By-Step Leash Training Program: e37240-61.myshopify.com/products/6-weeks-to-dream-walks-step-by-step-leash-training-program •❓🐿️ STRUGGLING WITH YOUR DOG CHASING ANIMALS (indoors or outdoors)?👇 ✅ Dog Prey Drive: How to STOP Animal Chasing: e37240-61.myshopify.com/products/dog-prey-drive-how-to-stop-animal-chasing-with-force-free-methods ►👀 WATCH NEXT: ✔️ Dog Prey Drive: Train Your Dog to STOP Chasing Animals th-cam.com/video/A7D9tE40xoE/w-d-xo.html ✔️ The MOST Important Thing to Understand for Dog Training (Threshold) th-cam.com/video/G1UVxRIBMEs/w-d-xo.html ✔️ Train Your Dog to Fix Their Own Leash on Walks: th-cam.com/video/qNk4EVgu5-g/w-d-xo.html ✔️ How I train "Leave it": th-cam.com/video/umt0jF9MHeI/w-d-xo.html ✔️ Full Louie playlist here: th-cam.com/play/PLiUh57UCWpFFC1h3Z4i-F0E7HtO7v051z.html ► 🗣️ STAY CONNECTED: • Instagram (my most active platform): instagram.com/happyhounds_dogtraining/ • Facebook: facebook.com/HappyHoundsDogTraining.ca • Blog: happyhoundsdogtraining.ca/blog/ • Email list: view.flodesk.com/pages/61898eeb3a0e5bcf6f5411ec ►❤️ FAVOURITE DOG GEAR: ➡️ *ALL* my favourite dog items & discount codes: happyhoundsdogtraining.ca/shop 🧸 Amazing faux & real fur toys: www.tug-e-nuff.co.uk/?ref=happyhoundsdogtraining 🐕🦺 My favourite harness & dog gear: rockymountaindog.ca/?ref=ka8S8Xue 🦴 My favourite treat bag: amzn.to/3UUGF60 🦮 Beautiful custom biothane leashes (I use the hands-free version): www.hightailhikes.com?aff=212 Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting my channel so I can continue to provide you with free content.
@@happyhoundsdogtraining Great, look forward to it. Today was walk #11 since 4/19 Weather & work sch, plus I am the only human in my household (2 dogs & 6 birds), so all chores fall on me. We had some wins today, Echo stopped a few times when tension was on the leash & checked in more. I think if I can walk the next 4 days in a row that will help, we walk about 30 mins, but we stop a lot & turn around if calling back leads to immediate pulling. He doesn't do ground treat search, he is more a sight dog then a smell dog,
I'm working with a trainer to try and get my reactive dog to stop. It's incredibly difficult. I'm constantly wondering if she'll ever be non-reactive and it's so hard to deal with her in public but I just have to remember this isn't something that can be fixed overnight. We'll get there eventually. Everyone who's going through this right now, just cry when you need to, take a break when you get frustrated, and remember tomorrow's another day to keep trying.
I'm glad you're working with a trainer! It can definitely make things feel more manageable when someone helps you with a plan ♥ Reactivity is hard for the dog AND guardian! That's a big part of the reason I made this video: th-cam.com/video/S1zhQyj65kI/w-d-xo.html
I've got four completely friendly dogs who's friendly with everyone, one who is friendly with Adult humans but not children or other dogs but is improving with children and is more reactive with other dogs not so much actually aggressive, one dog that is friendly with all humans but not dogs and is a bit wary of kids but improving hugely, and 4 dogs who aren't friendly with anyone at all, including humans or other dogs and I take all of them on walks in areas with not many people but also take one or 2 at a time in places where there is people and work on training them and it's so stressful omg it's my dream that one day all 10 of my dogs will be friendly with all people amd other dogs. But I'll work hard with them for the rest of their lives if that's what it takes in order for them to Safely enjoy their lives. ❤
Love, love, love this unedited video. It shows just how frequently you need to reward in the early stages and how hard you, as the trainer, need to work, watching and evaluating the dog. Did i mention, i love it!
Thank you SO much! This comment just made my morning 😊 I wanted to show exactly that: when you're starting training with force free methods you need to pay attention, catch the subtle things, and reward lavishly! Eventually your focus can absolutely decrease, but at the beginning it's sooo important to pay attention 🙂
I'm so glad you like the unedited style because I really enjoy making them 😊 I think it helps show the whole process rather than just a highlight reel. I have more Louie unedited videos too, but also have this one with a reactive dog named Millie: th-cam.com/video/z85LFeypIMM/w-d-xo.html
I found that helpful, it reminded me, early on, to realize that 'loose leash walking' is several different skills AND works against several different natural instincts a dog has - SO it is a pretty complex process for a dog to learn and I need to break it down more for my guy...set him up to succeed one step at a time. I have an adult male GSD we adopted when he was about 3.5 years old. Far as the rescue organisation knew he had NO training of any kind (did not even know "sit" when he was rescued at about 3 yo.) nor did he have any exposure to 'the world' (First time we walked him to some steps, he did not know what they were, how to use them - did not trust them. 3.5 years old and never seen steps!). So he has several disadvantages - he started learning with us with almost NO concentration span, with huge distractability out in the world (Every SINGLE thing was new and freaky for him.), low confidence and fear of other dogs/ignorance of other dogs. Being reminded by your video that what we are asking him to learn is complex - good for him and for me. At first he pulled like a steam train, I am large so it never came close to me losing control but nor was it at all enjoyable. He was also exceedingly reactive to other dogs. We both learned some skills and we can go on walks in the suburbs now and most of the time the only 'reaction' moments are 'fence fighting' - he reacts less, has more tolerance for other dogs and makes various other choices when the old 'fixation' temptation is calling to him - my skills of reading his body and encouraging those alternate choices has grown. I don't do the whole 'shame' thing so that has never been part of our 'problem solving' matrix - but it was clear I did not know the things I needed to know so a whole bunch of self education took place and we used a 'reactive dog group' training situation for a while. That was useful for both of us but ultimately I felt though it provided us with some 'alternate choices' training it was never going to address the emotional root of his reactivity. Still working on that. I don't need him to like other dogs, just need him to feel safe and able to ignore them - not sure that IS possible, dog individuality being a real deal, but it is worth aiming for. Thanks for sharing this type of video - it displays transparency, courage and a genuine commitment to improving the lives of dog guardians who are not paying you any money.
This message is incredible; I'm so glad your rescue ended up with you! 3 years old and never seeing steps is wild. Makes you wonder what his life was like... 😢 I think getting a dog with a difficult past & teaching them with compassion that life isn't scary is such a beautiful thing. And thank you for the kind words- I really want to encourage respectful treatment of dogs. I feel like the best way for me to change mindsets and encourage kind training is by showing 1) It works and 2) How to do it 🙂
Ok, I’m sitting here literally bawling my eyes out with relief. We recently rescued a dog who was found starving with a litter of puppies. She is a wonderful dog but is highly reactive to other dogs and small animals. I’ve been taking her to dog training and working with her but her reactivity is only getting worse. We actually discussed today that we might have to relinquish her, which feels absolutely heartbreaking. I don’t know if your specific training strategies are the answer for my dog but I do feel HOPE that they might work, which I haven’t felt in two miserable months. I can immediately see so many ways to improve the training I’ve been doing with her. I’m going to immerse myself in your videos and put what I learn to work. Hopefully, we can save a reactive but otherwise wonderful dog. And to your point, also save me as the owner from the pain of failing her and the shame I’ve felt the past two months being “that owner” with the out of control dog. Thank you so much for acknowledging this challenge of working with reactive dogs.
I'm SO glad you found my channel & that it's given you some hope. Reactivity can be incredibly difficult on both the dog & guardian. Can I ask what training you've been trying so far? Something is definitely going wrong if you're noticing her reactivity escalate! I'm glad you're searching for alternative solutions 🙂 Later this month I'm going to upload a video on threshold that I highly, highly encourage you to watch. I think it'll help a lot. Until then, if you haven't watched it already, I'd also suggest you check out this one: th-cam.com/video/S1zhQyj65kI/w-d-xo.html.
This video was so helpful! Seeing an unedited video of how these tips & tricks are used in real-world situations was excellent. It helped me hone in on my walk/reactivity training with my dog. Thanks!
It is really helpful to see the whole training walk process. Real life is unpredictable and it’s good to see how you deal with things as they occur on a walk.
Hi again, I am on about my 2nd week training with my dog Echo. We haven't trained daily, but probably 6 times (notebook in SUV where I keep records of our walks, good & bad). I took your advice and I am working on leash training before reactivity training. I was taking him in my SUV to a park. After watching and thinking I decided staying close to home was better. I have a cemetery behind my house that is quiet , so less distractions. We had a win last night even though my other dog was on this walk. It's hard to train with two dogs (won't do that again)even though Hunter is an easy walker. Echo heard two dogs in their yard barking & sure he saw them too(about a block away), He immediately turned & focused on me & I rewarded him., I was so proud. I hope the owner of those dogs saw it, as he uses negative training methods, choke, pinch, hitting. I wrote down your TH-cam info & gave it to him a day or two ago, told him how much it has helped me. Boiled beef liver is my dogs top treat, hot-dogs 2nd & soft grain-free treats are 3rd. Tonight just Echo & I walked & he did so much better, less stimuli and distractions in the cemetery. He checked in a lot more than had been. I think he even walked 1/4 of a block without pulling at all. I have ordered a 9 foot leash, couldn't find 8 feet, not sure but think the current leash is 5-6 feet, excited to try it when it arrives. I keep trying to find more of your videos on reactive training but don't see any except one or two with Louie on first 4-5 walks. I wondered if I was missing some or not looking in the right place??? Thank you, Debbie
I'm so happy to get an update and hear that things have improved so much! 👏 I'm really impressed how many changes you've made in such a short time. I'll link my entire reactivity playlist below. Starting next week I have a lot more reactivity tutorials coming as well 😀 th-cam.com/play/PLiUh57UCWpFGNNZWupCOccAHlFO6z9qZJ.html
This long video was perfect! I wish trainers would do raw footage more often. Especially large, big pullers. I foster and have either had small dogs who need a dog free home or 55lb dogs with big behaviour challenges. And I use a mobility scooter now. It’s been awful to figure out what is me, what is the dog and what is the machine’s drawbacks. I’ve added multiple bags to level the treats to the environment and have been doing more consistent treating on walks plus the up/down game. Even just watching your speed helps me see I need to slow my mobility scooter down. And we’ve had some better walks. Plus, walking I always have dogs fix their own leash. Watching you do it made me realize I have to have the dog in a different position to get her to adjust and it seems to be working! Really hope you keep putting out uncut videos. Really helpful!!
Thank you so much! Feedback like this is REALLY encouraging for me, so I appreciate it a lot. I was hoping that people would enjoy this uncut style because it's something I'd like to do more of (each dog has different struggles, so I thought a variety of dogs could be helpful). I wanted to show reality with an untrained large dog (Louie is just over 70 pounds). From working with clients I noticed that a lot of people know/understand the overarching principles of dog training BUT there were little pieces of training mechanics that get missed. Sometimes it's the "little stuff" that makes a huge difference. I was hoping that showing real sessions from my point of view (so that people could focus on the dog rather than on me) would be helpful! 🙂
This is exactly what most insta reels are missing for me. They only show you the good bits but I need to see the ‘hard’ bits to understand what to do in that situation so thank you for this! My 9m old is doing much better but when she was first reactive, barking and growling at dogs it was hugely embarrassing and I had no clue how to deal with it. We now just get the occasional low growl when out and about. I find your videos helpful as you are showing what to do in between with recall tips and loose lead.
I also will say we do let the dog sniff a lot, but we don’t want her to get way into people’s yards off the sidewalk. I absolutely love your videos. I currently am rewatching the whole Louie series and this time taking notes!
I think being respectful of other people's property is great! When I was leaving my own house the other day there was a man and his dog almost onto my front porch and it surprised me. He mentioned his dog had seen a rabbit in my garden and pulled him to my house, but it was still so strange to me 😂
I just adopted a young GSD mix with a history. He went from living outside 24/7 for the first year of his life to a questionable board and train with suspected e-collar abuse to a foster with 3 other large breed dogs who frequently sent them to a doggy daycare that encouraged poor behavior because it was 'cute'. He is so reactive on leash, over stimulated and not treat motivated when he gets in this state. He is also very smart and very sweet and I know that he is capable of being an amazing dog but our walks have been so incredibly frustrating. Adding to the frustration is how hard it is to find real world training videos that do not rely on prong collars, e-collars or forceful corrections, made in real world situations and not in controlled training environments. That's why finding this video and all of Louies videos has been such a relief. I see so much of my dog in Louie and watching him improve under your care and guidance is so encouraging. Thank you thank you thank you.
Comments like this genuinely make my day ❤ Thank you! This is exactly why I started making these videos. When I first switched over to force free training years ago, I really struggled to find anyone demonstrating techniques on untrained dogs. Lots of theory, but not lots of showing. I'm a very visual, step-wise learner so I wanted to start creating the tutorials I wish I'd been able to find! 😊 I do also want to add: I've only released ~ half the Louie series so far. I will be showing him in much more difficult settings in upcoming videos (dogs barking at him, walking right past men & dogs on a sidewalk, etc) but I haven't finished editing those ones yet. This TH-cam channel is a passion project of mine, but most of my work week/hours are spent with private clients. Those videos (as well as ones I've filmed with other reactivity clients) are coming though!
I've got four completely friendly dogs who's friendly with everyone, one who is friendly with Adult humans but not children or other dogs but is improving with children and is more reactive with other dogs not so much actually aggressive, one dog that is friendly with all humans but not dogs and is a bit wary of kids but improving hugely, and 4 dogs who aren't friendly with anyone at all, including humans or other dogs and I take all of them on walks in areas with not many people but also take one or 2 at a time in places where there is people and work on training them and it's so stressful omg it's my dream that one day all 10 of my dogs will be friendly with all people amd other dogs. But I'll work hard with them for the rest of their lives if that's what it takes in order for them to Safely enjoy their lives. ❤
What an amazing goal ❤️ I love how committed you are to helping them. Also, trying to train them separately is definitely the way to do it for best results (even when it’s difficult with so many dogs!)
Thank you so much for the kind words! I think with the right approach dog training can be more enjoyable for both us & the dog while still getting results 😊
I love the unedited version! Life is not edited and it is so much more helpful to see how you handle when things do not go as planned. Thank you! I regularly feel lots of shame when my dog has reactions. She is a GSD mix. People seem to feel the need to make comments some of the time, which increases that feeling in me. I also feel awful for letting her down.
Life is not edited… I love that 😊 Thank you. I’m sorry people have made comments to you, but I wish I was surprised 😞 I’ve heard the kind of horrid comments clients have gotten, and I can’t fathom how anyone feels justified saying such things to strangers. Reactivity is a hard behaviour since it’s so public, but know you’re doing your best for girl and drop the shame ❤️
I also have a reactive GSD mix but she's so much better after counter conditioning and desensitisation. Don't give up! Persevere. It took years before my stranger reactive dog would allow strangers to approach her and pet her. She still sometimes reacts when she's startled, but she recovers quickly now and is attentive to my cues. Much easier to manage after training and there was no need to use force, coercion or punishments 😊
Absolutely love this unedited video!! So refreshing to see the great work you and Louie did and the little hiccups on the way. It made training real and helps us to understand that we aren't perfect but we can strive to get it right more times than not. And it was great to be talked through what to do when it didn't go to plan. Thank you so much x
I really think your videos are great and very helpful.My Dog,Dixie,is a very reactive Blue Merle collie mix.he is great on and off leash when we are alone.when other dogs appear he gets very excited..i am working on his behaviour and trying to bring him on walks where we meet other dogs and people. I am following your videos from Co.Clare in Ireland 😊
Another awesome real life session! Great highlights and points. THANK YOU! My sweet boy has been so good with being calm and non-reactive until the last few weeks as his testosterone levels are “growing”. He is a large breed (Rottweiler) and we know that in order for him to be at his healthiest bone/joint health we need to keep him whole as long as possible (we’re shooting for 3 years for his growth to be complete). He LOVES meeting other dogs. Used to be that other males have a problem with him. He would be sad when they reacted to him. Then at around 18 months he would respond when they reacted. Now at 23.5 months, we saw him initiate a reaction toward a male dog. We felt so much shame! He’s so sweet and we didn’t expect this from the character he’s shown. Another trigger is anything that drags/rolls with a deep sound similar to a growling dog…garbage cans, rolling cases…and also, the ice cream mans annoying music or the squeaky horn. HA! We’ve been trying a few tactics on that and he’s improving. Monitoring his reactions within distance of another dog and implementing these well timed tactics are next on our list. 🎉
Hi! I totally understand the shock & shame when they have their first reactions, but the age it’s happening is actually quite common if that makes things feel any better 😊 From your comment there’s two other videos I’d strongly suggest checking out! 1) This neutrality training video shows how I progress things stepwise so dogs can eventually just walk past other dogs without a care: Dog Pulls Towards Other Dogs? Try THIS to Walk Past With a Loose Leash th-cam.com/video/-O1u3T3zS2M/w-d-xo.html 2) and for the sounds that trigger him, I’d work on sound conditioning if you haven’t yet. This video explains how. I’m doing indoor training in it, but afterwards it’s helpful to also practice outside to get your dog used to the noises there too 😊 Dog's Scared of Thunder, Fireworks, or Other Sounds? Try This! th-cam.com/video/4mMF_XAX2b4/w-d-xo.html
Thank you so much for sharing this!! Loved watching it and so great to know we're actually on the right track with what we are doing, this was so helpful!❤
We are loving all your videos but have rewatched this several times! Our walks (here in snowy Sweden) with our rather pully Tibetan Terrier and our very fearful Galgo are now totally reflecting your advice and have already become less stressful for everyone! More, more! ❤
Thank you so much for letting me know!! Comments like this are precisely why I spend the time making these videos 😀 I love knowing that they help! I have two upcoming videos this month for skill building (getting leave it to work on walks, and how I trained my dogs intense prey drive) then the Louie series is coming back! I've also pre-filmed a bunch of leash tutorials with other reactivity clients that will be out next year 🙂
Thank you so much. This was very helpful to see the entire walk and how you responded to all of the stimuli. I particularly appreciate the comments about shame as I have struggled with that when things haven’t gone well.
@@happyhoundsdogtraining one quick one… if I want to add word to having my dog sit beside me before we start heel what is the command you use? Did you ever make a video about this? 🙏
Do you mean the process on page 22 for getting your dog into heel position? I usually personally say “beside me”, but you can use any cue you’d like. I do also initially cue the sit when they first start learning it, but I phase that cue out after a few repetitions ☺️
Thanks for a useful and helpful clip. As a handler of an enthusiastic and excitable young, working Tenterfield Terrier pulling towards great sniffs, kids, people, birds, wildlife and especially nearby dogs this is something we are slowly getting better at. Your clip of better cueing by handler is appreciated.
Epsilon is great at untangling herself and understands other side cue means she has to try backtracking or switching sides to find the solution. I find this learnt and cued skill very helpful.
Epsilon is great at untangling herself and understands other side cue means she has to try backtracking or switching sides to find the solution. I find this learnt and cued skill very helpful.
I have worked a great deal on becoming a better cue giver. This handler learning journey has often included poor judgement in regards to tolerance level (Eps safety bubble) awareness and what to do. We are still working on handler reducing unwanted reactive tendencies near exciting things. Patience and consistency practise are so useful. I have felt terrible witnessing my clever yet excitable adolescent struggle with managing to accept my requests. More space and time with gentler expectations and handler skill building and growing knowledge are making my poor reinforcing mistakes gradually be unlearnt. Thank you for some terrific suggestions and examples for improving our journey. A&E💞🐾
I'm SO glad the video and "watching it in action" was helpful! I was really hoping it would be. Also, I want to say I think it's so amazing how much reflection you've done about timing, expectations, and making requests reasonable. I think that's incredible! 👏🙂
Thank you so much for your video. I have found it really hard to work within our busy environment where dogs appear on every corner and instantly are way too close. Even though before I leave the house I remind myself that it’s important to stay calm and not be tempted to long for unrealistic results, it feels so frustrating to see my dog’s anxiety and feel so powerless in making her feel safe. I was already starting with the name game and treat scatter but not often enough because she first scans the whole environment before coming back to me. Her voluntary focus on me is improving so much. I really loved to observe how you manage the situation when the dog is over threshold. In our case i usually wheel her in because of the lack of distance but indeed also use my hands moving forward lately in stead of pulling. I hope over time she will listen in those moments to calling her back.
Thank you so much for the kind feedback 😊 Knowing the videos are helpful really encourages me to keep making them! I’m going to be posting more of my training sessions with Louie (and then other reactivity clients) in the next few weeks 😊 I genuinely understand your frustration trying to train in a busy setting. My previous rescue dog Burrito was reactive & dog aggressive, and I lived in a 4th floor condo that was packed with dogs 🤯 Even taking him out for pee breaks often meant bumping into dogs, so it was stressful. I’m not sure if you’ve watched it, but I would STRONGLY encourage you to teach your dog a rock solid “with me” cue so that you can quickly turn away from triggers without your dog scanning the environment. Once it’s trained I find if you do ~3 practice versions for every one time you’re actually avoiding a trigger it stays VERY effective. I’ll link a tutorial for that here: Try THIS for Faster Reactivity Results // Train an EMERGENCY U-Turn th-cam.com/video/K4oOcv-XMpM/w-d-xo.html
You should be very proud of your content it is so valuable. Feels so good to be seen by others that went through or still going through the same thing. Thank you so much for your reply and tip. I will definitely watch this. The hardest part is getting her to come with me when a dog is moving in on us. It’s so difficult that you want to reward the first response when it is not lashing out but she is fixated and then you need to remove her quickly and she does not want to move, the pulling sets her off every time. I understand so much better now why leash training is the first step because of the unnecessary tension it creates. I tried your method yesterday but I am still wondering how often and when I need to train the loose leash and when i should just let her be and let her pull, because it’s also a challenge to not overfeed her and always have high value treats with me. She gets bored easily with treats outside and with the scanning every time I call her or when she is getting interested in another smell on another side and then pulling that way again sometimes it’s hard to continue a walk and remain consistent in this.
I'm sooo grateful that you upload videos like this, unedited walks where we can see what to do in a regular walk and also in tough/unexpected situations! Usually, dog training videos just show a brief "what we want to correct" clip, then in the rest of the video, the dog just does everything perfectly, maybe with 1-2 little mistakes. It's very helpful, and I learnt a lot from watching you and our walks improve from day to day! Thank you!!! Also, can I ask how you make your treats? I want to try out ground beef/pork for my dog, she is so food-motivated that we can usually do training with just carrot pieces, but when she's reactive outside I have to use very high-value treats, with high meat content, and I would like to switch to something more budget-friendly :D
Thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I have more unedited walks with reactive dogs (Louie & other clients) already filmed... I just need to find the time to edit & upload them haha. Some will show very successful walks & another will show a disastrous one because I think we can learn a lot from mistakes too! For high value & affordable treats I often buy a huge pack of boneless pork chops from Costco, cook them on a tray in the oven, and then cut them into SUPER tiny pieces 🙂 Ends up being way cheaper than dog treats from a pet store!
Thank you for the tip! And I look forward to those videos, it's very motivating to see you stay so calm in (for me at least) tense situations! Now when I see a dog walking toward us, I feel much more confident I’ll be able to manage my dog, so doesn’t bark or lunge, but even if not, I have good examples what to do and I’m not just getting more frustrated with her. And the rest of the walk is a breeze, we’re both much more happier going on them!!
THANK YOU !!! Hi, my dog Echo is almost 3 & I adopted him on about his first birthday. I have another dog who is almost 4 & they are the best of buds, they will even chew on a bone together. Echo is reactive to other dogs (not sure what triggered it or when it started)& it can be a terrible experience if a dog get close. He will go down on his belly if over threshold and there is no getting him up, he has alligator rolled to try & get loose, he has barked & lunged, never gotten close, but don't think he would hurt it. I can't be certain of course. . I use a harness and a gentle leader with a coupler to be safe, I had a leash break on a very fearful foster dog when he rolled.Thank goodness a trainer I used had told me to walk same route & that dog ran to my house. I watched a trainer's video on reactivity and she suggested rewarding the dog while he looked at the trigger. Doing this I wasn't seeing the progress I hoped for. I watched your video today, and this evening after work I worked on getting Echo to focus on me when he saw another dog & when he pulled I stopped & rewarded him when he looked at me. He has been quite the puller, but we had a pretty good walk tonight. We had to quickly move away from a few dogs. His threshold is quite a distance away(like Louie in video), we go to a park with soccer fields and baseball fields with a path around, so very open to see & we can move away . Echo has made friends with some dogs my neighbor dog after a year, a pitbull dog that was across the street(she recently passed) a pit puppy when camping & my sister's dog. He lived with one of his sisters till I adopted him, was fostered with several dogs. He had a ruff start in life (dumped at 4-5 months with 3 sisters, found starving, adopted & returned). but I am bound and determined to help him have a great rest of his life. I am grateful for your videos & look forward to watching others. I can't afford a private dog trainer & many near me don't work with reactive dogs. He loves women, & kids but not most men.
So glad you found the channel and the video was helpful! 😊 Your dog sounds a lot like Louie! He would also fully lie down to prevent his guardian from being able to move him. It’s an effective tactic when the dog is heavy 😂 I haven’t finished uploading all of Louie’s videos, but I will resume showing them hopefully in the next month or so! So you’ll get to see how far he got with training 😊
Welcome to the channel! Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know they’re helpful 😊 Comments like this really encourage me to keep making more videos!
Our hound dog is so strong that she can pull me off my feet when wanting to get to a sniff or a trigger, dependent on her mood. We use a 6 ft leash on a harness. When she is like this, we tend to shorten the leash by attaching the 2nd point on her harness because otherwise she is harder to manage. I just am not sure what to do. We walk around the block and can’t anticipate if the environment will be too stimulating at the given time. It sounds great in theory to call her back to loosen the tension, but in these moods, I cannot get her attention for a call back. She takes treats fine in the driveway but generally interest diminishes as the walk continues.
If you haven’t already, I’d check out these two videos: 1) 10 Tips to IMMEDIATELY Improve Pulling on Leash: th-cam.com/video/V7kE4RZ18XM/w-d-xo.html 2) *INSTANTLY* Improve Dog Training Results By Managing Dog Threshold: th-cam.com/video/G1UVxRIBMEs/w-d-xo.html The latter one will help explain the decreased interest in treats! I also have a guide that explains how sequentially teach leash skills to match the dog’s skill level. I live in a city of over a million people so I definitely understand not being able to control all variables or what you’ll see on walks! The guide explains how I manage whatever comes up. I’ll link that here too: e37240-61.myshopify.com/
Also, another question - towards the end there, wheb the man is walking away, you are marking when he looks at the trigfer without reacting. He then gives you a pretty long look after the treat, and only then begins doing more quick glances which you mark each time (it seems to me he notices prolonged attention doesn't get the treat, so i have to look at the trigger quickly). Wouldn't it make sense to reward that long, calm look at you as well? Otherwise, won't you increase his glancing and staring at triggers? I get you want to counter condition, but i would be nervous to not reward continued attention (because isn't that great, especially around a trigger?)
It's been awhile since I filmed this, so I watched the end again to guess what point you meant 😂 Do you mean around 23:15 ish and for the next 30 or so seconds? If so, I'd say it depends on the dog you're working with & what your goals are. Louie had a tendency of trying to AVOID looking at anything that scared him (but then blowing up if it stimulated him enough that he felt he had to look). I wanted him to learn that it's ok to look at his triggers but still stay calm. Giving the reward for looking at the trigger helps with both operant conditioning & association building! I do still give him the treat scatter around 23:40 for being such a good boy after they've left though 🙂
I’ve been doing this with my adopted dachshund for the past 2 years. It’s an ongoing struggle.some good days, some pretty good and some absolute disaster.
This is soo helpful, thank you so much for taking the time to do these videos! ❤️ one question: if the dog gets stressed and starts pulling what do you usually do? My dog is very fearful and gets spooked easily with loud noises when on walks, so when this happens if she pulls I usually let her until she calma down a bit and then do a treat scattering as if I don’t let her pull/get distance from the trigger she gets even more stressed.
I replied to this comment but it appears YT glitched when posting it, so you might get two replies haha. If a dog is pulling due to general obedience issues, I intervene and don’t allow it. However, if they’re pulling because they’re over threshold and trying to flee from a scary trigger I’d definitely follow them and let them take space in that situation! It’s way better for a dog to want to increase the distance from something scary than react to it in an aggressive way. However, I’d also work on sound conditioning so that their noise fears decrease over time. I have a tutorial for that which you can check out here: th-cam.com/video/4mMF_XAX2b4/w-d-xo.html
Hello, just found your videos on training. I have 2 four yr old who i need to train. I have no help. How should i train them ? Separate them and work one at time or how to do it. Many thanks for these videos i will review before i begin.
Welcome to the channel! If you have two dogs I always suggest working with each separately until there's at least a base level of skills built, THEN combine them for training. It may seem like more work at first, but you actually get results much faster 😊
Awesome video! Kind of a random question but what camera are you using? Studying to become a dog trainer and i always struggle to video walks with my phone cause i need two hands 😂 also, this looks so nice, wide angle, stable...
Thank you so much for all your content! I've been doing similar walks with my fear-reactive Chihuahua, she's afraid of everything and just overall very anxious. We practice loose leash walking inside of the home while playing sounds to desensitize her. I reward her when she checks it out/hears the sound but doesn't react and I'm hoping I can transfer the same technique with visual triggers. We walk at night time in the neighbourhood since we don't have a car/open fields within walking distance. She will have reactions here and there but managing has gotten a lot better and I do see a huge improvement in her engagement with me. She's able to recover quickly but she still takes treats a bit aggressively so I know that she is definitely at her threshold when walking around the block. I have a question: How many breaks did you give Louie in between walks? I'm not quite sure how often I should walk her during the week for training walks. Atm we do it once a week to see the progress of training we do inside.
I'm so impressed with how hard you're working on training & learning to read her cues (like the taking treats aggressively bit). Well done! The Louie series is coming back later this month & I'm going to show how I did some sound conditioning with him so he'd be less triggered on walks. I think that'll be helpful for you 🙂 I took Louie out for 20-30 minute training walks ~ 4 days a week. In between I had his guardian walk him daily for exercise, but at off times so it was quiet and she just avoided triggers. She still continued his leash training on those walks, but they didn't include any reactivity training. Typically I suggest my clients aim for ~10 minutes of reactivity training most days of the week, but with filming & driving I had to modify that slightly with Louie 🙂
Hi! I really love this video, and I wish that more dog trainers could share unedited videos like these. One question I have is how does rewarding Louie everytime he looks at a trigger help with his reactivity? Doesn't that encourage Louie to look on purpose just to be rewarded? Isn't it best to reward the dog when it looks at the trigger, but then looks back at you? Thanks again, and I will be subscribing!
Thank you so much! It wasn't something I'd seen done before, but I was hoping that it would be helpful to see what I did & why. I'm going to be uploading more of Louie's walks in the coming weeks 🙂 And great question! When addressing reactivity I look at from two angles: 1) The behaviour side (outward reactions which we deem undesirable) and 2) WHY the dog is acting that way. Rewarding only when dog looks away can encourage the behaviour you want (staying calm & disengaging from their trigger) but adding the marker & reward when they ARE looking helps #2. Essentially, rather than just using operant conditioning to change the behaviour, you're also using classical conditioning to fix the "why". If every time Louie spots a dog (currently scares him) he hears "yes" (which means a reward is coming) he'll build a positive association to dogs since dog = good thing happens to him. I work on building that first, then as a more advanced version later I switch to rewarding for the looking away. This was a great question and has given me an idea for making a video specifically about this exercise soon!
@@happyhoundsdogtraining ooh okay that makes sense. I'll be looking forward to your video on this! I think it'll help me fully understand when I see it put into action. Thanks for your response! You're changing lives with videos like these 💖
Hearing that genuinely means so much to me! I really want to encourage the kind treatment of dogs because they're awesome. I think the best way that I can do that is to create content that shows how to implement force free training and that it works ♥
Great video and so helpful. Can you share what your camera set up is I would love to video our walks and maybe learn by reviewing to see if I pick up additional body language I may miss while focusing on the walk.
It was really helpful to see a long walk with a reactive dog. But I still feel like my dog is on another level. If that man and dog had popped out at that distance (or even a hundred more feet away) he would have reacted with barking, lunging, pulling, growling, most likely until they were out of sight. I had a session with a trainer in which she brought out her calm dog and we kept a lot of distance between them but my dog was pretty much reacting the whole time (she timed it at 17 minutes!) until she took him away. I don't even take my dog on walks any longer because I was told by a couple of trainers that it wasn't good that he's rehearsing the behaviors and I had to work on things at home until he was able to see things from a distance at least. I've been training him for over a year. He's on meds. Nothing seems to change. I've been taking him to parking lots since last year to work on seeing people from a distance and he does okay with that. But at our home or when I take him to a park it's much harder for him. I know it takes time but when I see things like this (dog makes changes in a couple of sessions), I feel like I must be doing something wrong or my dog's behavior issues are much more severe :(
Hi Kelly. I want this video to be only helpful & encouraging, not guilt inducing! I apologize if it did the opposite. Reactivity is tough, and I'm so impressed by the guardians that work SO hard to help their dogs. Please keep in mind I worked with this dog personally and have been training dogs for a LONG time, so I can often see & address slight things that make faster differences. Can I ask a few questions/make a few suggestions based on your message? I don’t want to overstep!
@@happyhoundsdogtraining Yes please!! I am always looking for advice from professionals. I have worked with multiple (force free) trainers but I take breaks to try things on my own since I have learned a lot of tools. It's just hard implementing them when he's over threshold so easily. And I didn't mean to make you feel like your video wasn't helpful or made me feel bad! I think the content you share here and instagram is so helpful and even if it's not specific for my dog, I think it's amazing to share things like this that can really help others that are struggling. I'm just wondering what I can do to make progress (besides flying out to your and dropping my dog off haha!) Working on reactivity has been such a challenge but I am determined.
I had a dog like this and it was because I didnt address his reactivity early enough so he rehearsed it too many times and his distance threshold was *huge* (a dog could be a speck in the distance and he would already be reacting). It made counter conditioning almost impossible. I never figured out a way to fix it and just struggled with him on town walks until he passed. He was weirdly absolutely fine with friends and family's dogs (would play happily with them) just awful with strange dogs. With my next dog I did much better and started training much sooner when problems arose. She's so much easier to manage because there's years of training history and she's quick to take cues from me.
@@giftofthewild6665 Yep, that's how Harry is. But with people too. He's estimated to be 4 years old but I've only had him 1 year. He was fostered with kids and 2 dogs in AL for a few months and kids and 3 dogs for a week locally and I was told there were no issues. Which is why we adopted him. I was nervous because we had already had 2 failed adoptions - 1 dog bit my son in the face. The other dog started attacking my 16 year old dog and it was just getting worse even after working with a trainer for months. I'm hoping we can help Harry at least be neutral around people and dogs and it isn't something that we have to deal with until he passes :(
I'm impressed with your determination, and I'm confident you can make progress. I have some questions first to make sure I'm not making wrong assumptions. - What breed/age is he? - When you weren’t walking him, how did you provide exercise? - Any traumatic past history that you know to explain the behaviour/or what age it started? - Have you had him assessed for pain? What med is he on? - Does he have any “dog friends” or is he reactive to all dogs? - What did working on it at home look like? - Parking lot sessions: How was the training structured? Ex- what was he rewarded for, how long were sessions, etc
I’m wondering about the amount of treats given. Would you do this amount in place of a meal? My dog is getting pretty chubby with all the treats I use in training.
I see a lot of behaviors of my dog in the video that you explain (eg, higher threshold behaviors) I used force free training when my female terrier developed reactivity at about 4 or 5 years. The trainer suggested I replace a harness with gentle leader and it made big difference in pulling and hearing me when i clocked or said dig’s name. Thought?
Haha I'm always hesitant to speak against another trainers suggestions since they've met your dog in person & know your situation! However, as a general rule, I'm not a fan of gentle leaders. I find a lot of dogs dislike them, and it always concerns me if they DID pull hard while wearing one that they can damage the neck (since they twist the head back towards you quite harshly). I almost always suggest starting with a front clip harness so that the dogs body gets turned towards you instead 🙂
I'd say depends on the dog & situation. In general I think EVERY dog should know a solid leave it cue that works on walks (tutorial for how I train that here: th-cam.com/video/M1UvdL4-3B8/w-d-xo.html). However, Louie already had a laundry list of things he needed training for, and his guardian wanted as minimal cueing as possible. So for him, we skipped leave it training and focused more on general walking skills, reactivity (and later aggression since he had a dog bite history), and jumping up.
Thank you so much I have a super reactive puppy (18 mos rescue terrier) I work so hard on loosely, training socializing, I need to get my treats better and there's so many things I think I should do better and let me tell you something I have had some extreme shame about his reactions in my town and I have a 13-year-old beagles is perfect, but she didn't start off that and I have to remember He is pretty terrible. Find myself between a "rock and a hard Place" take it for me and my little puppy Rocky Raccoon terrier
I'm sorry you feel extreme shame, but I do understand. Reactivity can be SO hard because we feel sadness for our dogs but also embarassed for ourselves 😢 I wish more people understood reactivity so we'd all feel empathy for the people working with their dogs! Keep working hard, but make sure you take care of yourself too! ❤
Currently training an 8 year old rescue chihuahua with extensive scaring all along her back. The vet thinks she was burned. I have her sitting on command and walking at heel reliably on my left side on a loose leash, which is necessary for me as I use a cane. I don't want the dog to get her leash tangled in my cane in my right hand. I work with her on severe reactivity with dogs on walks, but where we live there are very many dogs to which she is reactive. She is very much improved and is able to walk past another dog who is minding its own business but she turns into cudjo instantly when another dog reacts to her that is lunging and barking. She lives with 3 other dogs and terrorizes them, even the husky. Her owner does not work with her alone. She walks her with another dog and has no control over the chihuahua on walks. The dog snaps when guarding toys and food at home and has even snapped at her owner. The owner had to throw a blanket over her to keep her own dog from biting her. I have her 3 days a week and she does not bite me, does drop her toy on command, walks at heel until released by me, and sits and stays even with distractions except when near other dogs. This is the toughest situation I have ever faced training a dog because the dog is responsive to me, plays appropriately without snapping at me, even playing fetch and dropping her toy on command to have it thrown again. But the other 4 days a week she pretty much undoes everything I've done for her. Her owner overfeeds all her dogs including handfeeding from the table despite repeated requests for her not to do this. The dog comes to me fat and full. In my house I can leave food out and the chihuahua will leave it reliably but not at home. She begs and whines for food at home. I'm about to stop training this dog because the owner won't follow through and it's really useless for me to put in all that effort only to have it undone four days a week. I can't get to reactivity with other dogs if there is no structure at home where she completely dominates and fights with the other dogs guarding toys, food and her owner in the house. One day that husky is going to hurt her because he too is unmannerly, pulling on l eash and barking at everything passing the house and on walks. It's a bad situation.
😩 That sounds like SUCH a frustrating situation! It's particularly hard when you can see things working & know what the dog is capable of, but can't get guardian buy-in. I think it's important as trainers for us to recognize that we can't necessarily "save them all" even though that's SO hard to accept. A huge amount of behaviour comes down to what happens at home during daily routines. Training sessions can help, but not if that's constantly undone during the non-training times. I'm sorry you're in such a frustrating situation, but I think it's something all trainers relate to unfortunately.
I have a dog-reactive dog, but he's only reactive in my neighborhood towards dogs that stare or bark at him. Should I stop walking him in my neighborhood and go to parks instead until he gets more confident around other dogs? I can't drive so we can't go as often. What are your thoughts on this? I've been doing walks just like the one shown in the video, but not seeing any progress and I think it's due to the reactive dogs in my neighborhood.
I haven’t released it yet, but I’m going to be sharing a tutorial for how I conditioned Louie not to react to dogs barking at him (he used to go wild). I think that’ll help you. I’d also encourage you to google the canine ladder of aggression to understand why dogs doing that bothers him so much. Usually for situations that I know the dog isn’t ready for I use this cue (Try THIS for Faster Reactivity Results- Train an EMERGENCY U-Turn th-cam.com/video/K4oOcv-XMpM/w-d-xo.html) to avoid the situation. Training that sounds like it could help in your neighborhood! Going to parks a few times a week for more enjoyable walks is also a good idea though ☺️
My male dog is only reacting towards male dogs. So when doong this type of training shall i just practice with any dog from distance? Meaning i should avoid having contact with female dogs?
If there's dogs you know your dog gets along with, I think interactions are fine (but make sure you're really watching body language to know that for sure)
Haha yes, often Beagles prefer to sniff rather than move 😂 I'm all for loose leash walks & letting dogs sniff, but I personally like teaching two styles of walking: loose leash & heel, both on separate verbal cues so the dog knows which one we're doing 🙂 In heel I don't stop for sniff breaks, which is nice for times you're trying to get somewhere or get more exercise! This video explains how I transition between & teach the two: th-cam.com/video/4fUVXntWPOM/w-d-xo.html
@@happyhoundsdogtraining thanks!I’ll definitely check out, I’ve been having fun with her on hikes and building out evangelist with each other and she does good with recall on a long lead for the most part but I know I need to start implementing the heel walk for those occasions when we have to go into society 😅 thanks!
What video do you suggest for a reactive dog that barks his head off at another dog while we're out enjoying dinner on a restaurant patio? He usually just wants to meet the other dog but I'd really like it if he could just chill.
Keeping their attention is so important for successful training! This simple game can really help build engagement (th-cam.com/video/E1bY5ZeUxXQ/w-d-xo.html) but it also sounds like your dog may be over threshold (Improve Dog Training Results By Managing Dog Threshold: th-cam.com/video/G1UVxRIBMEs/w-d-xo.html). Hopefully one of those videos helps!
Taking my dog to the river park for the first time. I haven’t really been able to take him out to much cuz I’m disabled. He was doing really well but there was a period or we went through three shootings because we don’t live in the best neighborhood. One completely messed my van up and was really close. We were lucky the bullets didn’t come in our house ever since then he does have a little bit of reactivity, and I’ve been scared to go out with him even things like trash cans. He sometimes a little bit scared, but I’ve been working with him a lot just around the neighborhood and he seemed to calm down quite a bit, so I’m gonna try to give it a go and we’re going to go to the river.
Oh gosh, I am so sorry for what you & your dog have been through!! That's so scary, and makes sense that you've both been fearful since. Good for you on facing that and going to the river! I hope you had a great trip! ♥
Thank we did, he saw a horse and dogs and people on bikes and rollerblades, and he didn’t really well. The only thing that he did have a very strong fear was to the log his hair went up and everything, but then he gained enough confidence and sniffed it, and realized that it was just a log.
It sounds like she's over threshold, in which case treats lose all motivation! (Read this if you've never heard of threshold: happyhoundsdogtraining.ca/what-is-a-dogs-threshold-and-why-should-you-care/). I'd suggest trying to give her extra distance from dogs when you first start training & reward her for looking but staying calm 🙂
@@amybarathStorminStormy Unfortunately I won’t have the video up for ~6 weeks, but I am going to show a video where I taught Louie to walk right past MY dog. How to know when to get closer, what to do for training, etc. I think that’ll help you!
I just read the article . However, she is so far beyond that. We have been through 4 trainers. She acts perfectly for them but then is a nightmare when they give her back to me. She knows how to act and knows her commands and how she is expected to act but does her own thing. Yes she is a Husky. Very smart but hard headed. She just turned 4 years old but has energy as if she's 4 months. I try to anticipate situations but she begins to react Before anything is visible. Like she knows something is going to appear before it does. It's alot.
Trying since over a year to get my reactive dog to take treats outside but without success. ( even under threshold she won't take them ) Believe me I have tried everything cheese meat chicken stinky fish butter....no way nothing works. She isn't food motivated or toy motivated....so how do I train such a dog? Anybody else there with that problem? Feel like I am the only one on earth having that issue😢
Great videos, thank you, so very helpful. Question though, my 14 month lab hesitates so much is scared of tractors, lorries and any sound a difficulty getting her out of the drive. Ihave been doing your loose lead walking away from home and it works a treat 😊 also when she is fixed on sniffing she pays no attention to me calling her even with treat in hand, can you advise me on this matter. So pleased I found your videos. 0:56
I'm so glad you found them helpful! Hilariously my planned content in the next ~ month is going to answer SO many of those questions 😂 It's basically tailored to you haha. This Friday I'll release a video with Millie where I show one of my favourite training exercises. You'll be encouraging your dog TO sniff, then building up a default behaviour of leaving that spot and returning to you. It's one of the few exercises I teach to every dog because it's so helpful for engagement. I'm also going to release videos about 1) How I teach "leave it" to work REALLY well on walks with smells & gross items and 2) sound conditioning (in Louie's case it was for his reaction when dogs bark at him, but you could use the same method for the sounds that scare your dog). I think those 3 will answer all your questions & it's easier if I can demo the training rather than answering in text!
Here are links for two of those videos I suggested! 1. Training your dog to check in with you by default after something of interest: th-cam.com/video/E1bY5ZeUxXQ/w-d-xo.html 2. How to get “leave it” to work with anything your dog finds on walks: th-cam.com/video/M1UvdL4-3B8/w-d-xo.html
Great video but I couldnt help noticing that you are causing the leash to tangle on his legs by not keeping the attachment at the top of the collar. I would have tightened the collar to stop it slipping or used the leash like a long line (where you feed out just enough for the dog to move around and take up slack when it forms). It must have been quite frustrating for louis to constantly be called back to fix the leash because you arent managing the leash correctly.
Oh I 100% agree that his loose collar is contributing! I even mention that in this video. I touched on his gear in a prior Louie video, but my preference with any dog that pulls is to switch to a harness for safety however we switched his gear as a progression. Louie is a very powerful dog, and his guardian was initially very hesitant to “lose control”. We compromised at the beginning with me using a longer leash for his training (6 ft) while she continued using the ~ 3 ft one she had. Since that leash is so short, I actually kept his collar loose/as is so that it could at least give him a little extra length as it switched sides when he walked on the uber short leash. Very soon though his guardian believed in his progress on the longer leash, so she upgraded to a 6 ft one too. In upcoming videos you’ll see we even progressed Louie to my initial goal which was a harness and 8 ft leash. So this collar was a brief transition period during his training! I’m not sure I’d agree with you though about Louie finding it frustrating to be called back and asked to fix his leash. We were working heavily on name recognition & returning to me anyhow, and he seemed pretty pleased to offer his new “fix leash” trick for a treat.
Thank you. Excellent video. I have a female 11 month old blue gsd. How many seconds do you allow for when the dog is at a standstill watching? I do try to encourage quickly, before going in the opposite direction to avoid reactiveness. I've also found when she's walking & sniffing sometimes she will pay no attention but will glance up quickly and then bk to sniffing again paying no attention to the treatment. Any suggestions would be much appreciated
Thank you for the kind words 🙂 I'm glad you liked it! When I FIRST start reactivity training or if I'm pushing to a closer distance, I try to cue the dog to look back at me rather than the trigger almost immediately (within ~ a second of Louie seeing it). Once the dog understands the game a bit more OR if we're at a distance I think is easier for them to tolerate, I like to give them up to 5 seconds to voluntarily disengage before I cue them. Ultimately my goal is for the dog to look away on their own, but that's a more advanced skill 🙂 I have two video suggestions for you question! 1) This super simple "recall" game is incredible at teaching your dog to reorient back to you after a sniff. I actually teach it to all of my reactivity clients because it completely changes how much focus you get from your dog on walks and makes their response to their name VERY fast: th-cam.com/video/E1bY5ZeUxXQ/w-d-xo.html 2) This management cue is also really simple, but if you practice it a lot when there ARE no triggers around it helps your reactive dog learn to immediately follow you in the opposite direction without any leash tension needed (which makes reactions worse): th-cam.com/video/K4oOcv-XMpM/w-d-xo.html Hope they help! 😀
Louie seems to have a high prey drive like Neriah and my dog. If a dog you are walking sniffs out a ground squirrel warren for example would you let them dig for a while? Or if a squirrel is up a tree and you just can't pull them away would you let the dog satisfy some of their natural genetic traits and let them stand up on the tree so after a little while the dog realizes that the squirrel is staying up the tree and there is no way to get to it and they naturally disengage themselves? Nature v nurture or is there a happy medium?
Louie's prey drive is wildly high hahaha. Even birds would trigger him initially 😂 Good question about the squirrels. Sniffing, yes, I'd let them. Personally I try to avoid letting them chase (even things they have zero chance of catching) because it can be so rewarding it strongly encourages a repeat of the behaviour. If you haven't watched it, I made a really in-depth tutorial about how I train prey drive & animal chasing: th-cam.com/video/A7D9tE40xoE/w-d-xo.html
Well, I have a dog that is bred to tree squirrels. You have to teach them squirrels are not worth their time. Easily done by ignoring and encouraging interests in other things which align with your goals
"Generally, Laikas of East Siberia are prone to hunt “red game” (sable and big game) with maturity (Voilochnikov and Voilochnikov, 1992). Pure squirrel dogs are rare. The best squirrel dogs are usually young ones, one - two years old. Squirrel is a mass species and, if the sable population is low, dogs seek out squirrels enthusiastically until such time as they mature and become interested in more valuable game. In the first fall hunt the puppy is very agile and tirelessly searches in all habitats and stays very well squirrel it has found. Mature, experienced dogs save their energy for sable and hoofed game. By the end of the first hunting season - the early period of next fall’s traits of hunting specialization begin to show. The dog tends to go after a certain kind of game and by the age of 5-6 years, the dog will not pay attention to squirrels and focuses, for example, on sable only. An industrial hunter, specializing in fur bearing animals, would not walk by a squirrel treed by his dog. However, if the dog “turned away” from the sable tack (dropped the sable and switched to squirrel), it would be reprimanded severely and the squirrel would never be shot. When harvesting the meat of wild animals, there is a different pattern. The hunter would never shoot a squirrel even if his dogs were not tracking big game at the time. He would rather call off his dogs or punish them, if they tree squirrel, because big game might be not too far away and be frightened by the dog’s barking. I know some big game hunters who do not even carry any shotgun cartridges" - Bogatov, SV. "Hunting For Profit Versus Hunting For Sport." Journal of the International Society for Preservation of Primitive Aboriginal Dogs 17 (2004): 29.
I would love to learn from you. Animal behavior is my future career after I finish my degree and I am so interested by your mind, methods, decisions and results. Keep going!
Thank you so much for sharing this full video, reactions and all! Our dog has serious stranger danger and is very reactive to people from a big distance. We are working with a behavior consultant on that, but I just learned a ton from watching how you engaged with Louie on the walk. Your narration and “why” behind what you were doing was really helpful!
I wonder how do you decide when there is tension on the leash? I always find it kind of hard to notice especially when you move the hands toward the dog so the leash is not fixed to your body. Kind of hard to explain what I mean but it's hard to stay consistent when there's no clear line between pulling/not pulling so how do you draw that line?
I just want to clarify to make sure I'm understanding your question! Do you mean how do I stay consistent/decide what's pulling? Or do you mean how does the dog learn boundaries/consistency when I'm extending my arm for extra length sometimes?
@@happyhoundsdogtraining sorry I had some difficulty formulating my question. My question is how do you decide what is pulling? For me I usually extend my arm when the dog is slightly pulling probably, and I don't want to loose that extra space, but it makes it more difficult for me to distinguish. So I'm wondering how you handle this. But basically the question is all about me, how I know whats pulling:) Thanks for taking the time to answer
Ah, ok, I’m glad I clarified. I was going to send you a spiel about how Louie understands boundaries even with the varying leash length haha. To answer your question: Sometimes you’ll see that I’m just lazily holding the leash with two fingers. Even if I’m holding it with my full hand, I want it to be loose enough that I COULD easily hold it with two fingers. So while there can sometimes be the tiniest bit of “feeling Louie” on the leash, I never want enough pressure where I feel like I NEED to close my hand into a fist to be able to hold on. If I DO feel like I need to, that’s pulling, and you’ll see me call him back to me to learn to release that tension. If Louie is approaching something loosely and I can see he's just going to need that extra little bit of length to reach it, that's when I'm extending my arm to give him the extra 🙂 I hope that made sense!
@@happyhoundsdogtraining okay thank you so much. I want loose leash walking without heeling so I really appreciate your approach, but the defining of pulling/not pulling is something I've struggled with so I am grateful for the inside tips:)
That’s usually a sign they’re over threshold! Give this a watch: *INSTANTLY* Improve Dog Training Results By Managing Dog Threshold th-cam.com/video/G1UVxRIBMEs/w-d-xo.html
![[Full Episode] The Restaurant War Thailand ศึกพ่อค้าซ่าแม่ค้าแซ่บ Episode 1 | 22 ก.ย. 67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BuzQ70v-UZQ/mqdefault.jpg)
If you've enjoyed this video please like, comment & share 🙂 It really helps!
🙋♀️COMPLETE DOG TRAINING SOLUTIONS:
•❓🤨 STRUGGLING WITH LEASH TRAINING? 👇
✅ 6 Weeks to Dream Walks: Step-By-Step Leash Training Program: e37240-61.myshopify.com/products/6-weeks-to-dream-walks-step-by-step-leash-training-program
•❓🐿️ STRUGGLING WITH YOUR DOG CHASING ANIMALS (indoors or outdoors)?👇
✅ Dog Prey Drive: How to STOP Animal Chasing: e37240-61.myshopify.com/products/dog-prey-drive-how-to-stop-animal-chasing-with-force-free-methods
►👀 WATCH NEXT:
✔️ Dog Prey Drive: Train Your Dog to STOP Chasing Animals th-cam.com/video/A7D9tE40xoE/w-d-xo.html
✔️ The MOST Important Thing to Understand for Dog Training (Threshold)
th-cam.com/video/G1UVxRIBMEs/w-d-xo.html
✔️ Train Your Dog to Fix Their Own Leash on Walks: th-cam.com/video/qNk4EVgu5-g/w-d-xo.html
✔️ How I train "Leave it": th-cam.com/video/umt0jF9MHeI/w-d-xo.html
✔️ Full Louie playlist here: th-cam.com/play/PLiUh57UCWpFFC1h3Z4i-F0E7HtO7v051z.html
► 🗣️ STAY CONNECTED:
• Instagram (my most active platform): instagram.com/happyhounds_dogtraining/
• Facebook: facebook.com/HappyHoundsDogTraining.ca
• Blog: happyhoundsdogtraining.ca/blog/
• Email list: view.flodesk.com/pages/61898eeb3a0e5bcf6f5411ec
►❤️ FAVOURITE DOG GEAR:
➡️ *ALL* my favourite dog items & discount codes: happyhoundsdogtraining.ca/shop
🧸 Amazing faux & real fur toys: www.tug-e-nuff.co.uk/?ref=happyhoundsdogtraining
🐕🦺 My favourite harness & dog gear: rockymountaindog.ca/?ref=ka8S8Xue
🦴 My favourite treat bag: amzn.to/3UUGF60
🦮 Beautiful custom biothane leashes (I use the hands-free version): www.hightailhikes.com?aff=212
Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting my channel so I can continue to provide you with free content.
I look forward to new videos I have watched all your videos on reactivity, some 2 times.
I have a new unedited one coming out next week! 😀
@@happyhoundsdogtraining Great, look forward to it. Today was walk #11 since 4/19 Weather & work sch, plus I am the only human in my household (2 dogs & 6 birds), so all chores fall on me. We had some wins today, Echo stopped a few times when tension was on the leash & checked in more. I think if I can walk the next 4 days in a row that will help, we walk about 30 mins, but we stop a lot & turn around if calling back leads to immediate pulling. He doesn't do ground treat search, he is more a sight dog then a smell dog,
I'm working with a trainer to try and get my reactive dog to stop. It's incredibly difficult. I'm constantly wondering if she'll ever be non-reactive and it's so hard to deal with her in public but I just have to remember this isn't something that can be fixed overnight. We'll get there eventually. Everyone who's going through this right now, just cry when you need to, take a break when you get frustrated, and remember tomorrow's another day to keep trying.
I'm glad you're working with a trainer! It can definitely make things feel more manageable when someone helps you with a plan ♥ Reactivity is hard for the dog AND guardian! That's a big part of the reason I made this video: th-cam.com/video/S1zhQyj65kI/w-d-xo.html
I've got four completely friendly dogs who's friendly with everyone, one who is friendly with Adult humans but not children or other dogs but is improving with children and is more reactive with other dogs not so much actually aggressive, one dog that is friendly with all humans but not dogs and is a bit wary of kids but improving hugely, and 4 dogs who aren't friendly with anyone at all, including humans or other dogs and I take all of them on walks in areas with not many people but also take one or 2 at a time in places where there is people and work on training them and it's so stressful omg it's my dream that one day all 10 of my dogs will be friendly with all people amd other dogs. But I'll work hard with them for the rest of their lives if that's what it takes in order for them to Safely enjoy their lives. ❤
Love, love, love this unedited video. It shows just how frequently you need to reward in the early stages and how hard you, as the trainer, need to work, watching and evaluating the dog. Did i mention, i love it!
Thank you SO much! This comment just made my morning 😊 I wanted to show exactly that: when you're starting training with force free methods you need to pay attention, catch the subtle things, and reward lavishly! Eventually your focus can absolutely decrease, but at the beginning it's sooo important to pay attention 🙂
I love that you explain his body language as well. If you can do more of these unedited walks, that would be wonderful. It is so helpful!
I'm so glad you like the unedited style because I really enjoy making them 😊 I think it helps show the whole process rather than just a highlight reel. I have more Louie unedited videos too, but also have this one with a reactive dog named Millie: th-cam.com/video/z85LFeypIMM/w-d-xo.html
I found that helpful, it reminded me, early on, to realize that 'loose leash walking' is several different skills AND works against several different natural instincts a dog has - SO it is a pretty complex process for a dog to learn and I need to break it down more for my guy...set him up to succeed one step at a time. I have an adult male GSD we adopted when he was about 3.5 years old. Far as the rescue organisation knew he had NO training of any kind (did not even know "sit" when he was rescued at about 3 yo.) nor did he have any exposure to 'the world' (First time we walked him to some steps, he did not know what they were, how to use them - did not trust them. 3.5 years old and never seen steps!). So he has several disadvantages - he started learning with us with almost NO concentration span, with huge distractability out in the world (Every SINGLE thing was new and freaky for him.), low confidence and fear of other dogs/ignorance of other dogs. Being reminded by your video that what we are asking him to learn is complex - good for him and for me. At first he pulled like a steam train, I am large so it never came close to me losing control but nor was it at all enjoyable. He was also exceedingly reactive to other dogs. We both learned some skills and we can go on walks in the suburbs now and most of the time the only 'reaction' moments are 'fence fighting' - he reacts less, has more tolerance for other dogs and makes various other choices when the old 'fixation' temptation is calling to him - my skills of reading his body and encouraging those alternate choices has grown. I don't do the whole 'shame' thing so that has never been part of our 'problem solving' matrix - but it was clear I did not know the things I needed to know so a whole bunch of self education took place and we used a 'reactive dog group' training situation for a while. That was useful for both of us but ultimately I felt though it provided us with some 'alternate choices' training it was never going to address the emotional root of his reactivity. Still working on that. I don't need him to like other dogs, just need him to feel safe and able to ignore them - not sure that IS possible, dog individuality being a real deal, but it is worth aiming for. Thanks for sharing this type of video - it displays transparency, courage and a genuine commitment to improving the lives of dog guardians who are not paying you any money.
This message is incredible; I'm so glad your rescue ended up with you! 3 years old and never seeing steps is wild. Makes you wonder what his life was like... 😢 I think getting a dog with a difficult past & teaching them with compassion that life isn't scary is such a beautiful thing. And thank you for the kind words- I really want to encourage respectful treatment of dogs. I feel like the best way for me to change mindsets and encourage kind training is by showing 1) It works and 2) How to do it 🙂
Ok, I’m sitting here literally bawling my eyes out with relief. We recently rescued a dog who was found starving with a litter of puppies. She is a wonderful dog but is highly reactive to other dogs and small animals. I’ve been taking her to dog training and working with her but her reactivity is only getting worse. We actually discussed today that we might have to relinquish her, which feels absolutely heartbreaking. I don’t know if your specific training strategies are the answer for my dog but I do feel HOPE that they might work, which I haven’t felt in two miserable months. I can immediately see so many ways to improve the training I’ve been doing with her. I’m going to immerse myself in your videos and put what I learn to work. Hopefully, we can save a reactive but otherwise wonderful dog. And to your point, also save me as the owner from the pain of failing her and the shame I’ve felt the past two months being “that owner” with the out of control dog. Thank you so much for acknowledging this challenge of working with reactive dogs.
I'm SO glad you found my channel & that it's given you some hope. Reactivity can be incredibly difficult on both the dog & guardian. Can I ask what training you've been trying so far? Something is definitely going wrong if you're noticing her reactivity escalate! I'm glad you're searching for alternative solutions 🙂 Later this month I'm going to upload a video on threshold that I highly, highly encourage you to watch. I think it'll help a lot. Until then, if you haven't watched it already, I'd also suggest you check out this one: th-cam.com/video/S1zhQyj65kI/w-d-xo.html.
Did the dog improve?
calm and confidence said the one with partial wisdom
This video was so helpful! Seeing an unedited video of how these tips & tricks are used in real-world situations was excellent. It helped me hone in on my walk/reactivity training with my dog. Thanks!
I'm so glad it was helpful!! Thank you for taking the time to leave encouraging feedback 🙂
I’ve NEVER had a loose leash walk with my dog in three years so here’s to your videos! Thank you.
It is really helpful to see the whole training walk process. Real life is unpredictable and it’s good to see how you deal with things as they occur on a walk.
I’m glad it’s helpful 😊 I wasn’t sure if anyone would like these unedited walks!
Hi again, I am on about my 2nd week training with my dog Echo. We haven't trained daily, but probably 6 times (notebook in SUV where I keep records of our walks, good & bad). I took your advice and I am working on leash training before reactivity training. I was taking him in my SUV to a park. After watching and thinking I decided staying close to home was better. I have a cemetery behind my house that is quiet , so less distractions. We had a win last night even though my other dog was on this walk. It's hard to train with two dogs (won't do that again)even though Hunter is an easy walker. Echo heard two dogs in their yard barking & sure he saw them too(about a block away), He immediately turned & focused on me & I rewarded him., I was so proud. I hope the owner of those dogs saw it, as he uses negative training methods, choke, pinch, hitting. I wrote down your TH-cam info & gave it to him a day or two ago, told him how much it has helped me. Boiled beef liver is my dogs top treat, hot-dogs 2nd & soft grain-free treats are 3rd. Tonight just Echo & I walked & he did so much better, less stimuli and distractions in the cemetery. He checked in a lot more than had been. I think he even walked 1/4 of a block without pulling at all. I have ordered a 9 foot leash, couldn't find 8 feet, not sure but think the current leash is 5-6 feet, excited to try it when it arrives. I keep trying to find more of your videos on reactive training but don't see any except one or two with Louie on first 4-5 walks. I wondered if I was missing some or not looking in the right place??? Thank you, Debbie
I'm so happy to get an update and hear that things have improved so much! 👏 I'm really impressed how many changes you've made in such a short time. I'll link my entire reactivity playlist below. Starting next week I have a lot more reactivity tutorials coming as well 😀 th-cam.com/play/PLiUh57UCWpFGNNZWupCOccAHlFO6z9qZJ.html
Thank you
This long video was perfect! I wish trainers would do raw footage more often. Especially large, big pullers.
I foster and have either had small dogs who need a dog free home or 55lb dogs with big behaviour challenges. And I use a mobility scooter now.
It’s been awful to figure out what is me, what is the dog and what is the machine’s drawbacks.
I’ve added multiple bags to level the treats to the environment and have been doing more consistent treating on walks plus the up/down game. Even just watching your speed helps me see I need to slow my mobility scooter down. And we’ve had some better walks.
Plus, walking I always have dogs fix their own leash. Watching you do it made me realize I have to have the dog in a different position to get her to adjust and it seems to be working!
Really hope you keep putting out uncut videos. Really helpful!!
Thank you so much! Feedback like this is REALLY encouraging for me, so I appreciate it a lot. I was hoping that people would enjoy this uncut style because it's something I'd like to do more of (each dog has different struggles, so I thought a variety of dogs could be helpful). I wanted to show reality with an untrained large dog (Louie is just over 70 pounds). From working with clients I noticed that a lot of people know/understand the overarching principles of dog training BUT there were little pieces of training mechanics that get missed. Sometimes it's the "little stuff" that makes a huge difference. I was hoping that showing real sessions from my point of view (so that people could focus on the dog rather than on me) would be helpful! 🙂
This is exactly what most insta reels are missing for me. They only show you the good bits but I need to see the ‘hard’ bits to understand what to do in that situation so thank you for this! My 9m old is doing much better but when she was first reactive, barking and growling at dogs it was hugely embarrassing and I had no clue how to deal with it. We now just get the occasional low growl when out and about. I find your videos helpful as you are showing what to do in between with recall tips and loose lead.
That’s amazing progress!! You should be so proud of you pup & yourself 😊 I’m really glad you find these unedited videos helpful!
Thank you! And Yes good is good enough.
I try to laugh when it goes wrong and focus on the best parts of our walk. 🐾
That's SUCH a fantastic attitude to have 👏😊
I also will say we do let the dog sniff a lot, but we don’t want her to get way into people’s yards off the sidewalk. I absolutely love your videos. I currently am rewatching the whole Louie series and this time taking notes!
I think being respectful of other people's property is great! When I was leaving my own house the other day there was a man and his dog almost onto my front porch and it surprised me. He mentioned his dog had seen a rabbit in my garden and pulled him to my house, but it was still so strange to me 😂
I just adopted a young GSD mix with a history. He went from living outside 24/7 for the first year of his life to a questionable board and train with suspected e-collar abuse to a foster with 3 other large breed dogs who frequently sent them to a doggy daycare that encouraged poor behavior because it was 'cute'. He is so reactive on leash, over stimulated and not treat motivated when he gets in this state. He is also very smart and very sweet and I know that he is capable of being an amazing dog but our walks have been so incredibly frustrating. Adding to the frustration is how hard it is to find real world training videos that do not rely on prong collars, e-collars or forceful corrections, made in real world situations and not in controlled training environments. That's why finding this video and all of Louies videos has been such a relief. I see so much of my dog in Louie and watching him improve under your care and guidance is so encouraging. Thank you thank you thank you.
Comments like this genuinely make my day ❤ Thank you! This is exactly why I started making these videos. When I first switched over to force free training years ago, I really struggled to find anyone demonstrating techniques on untrained dogs. Lots of theory, but not lots of showing. I'm a very visual, step-wise learner so I wanted to start creating the tutorials I wish I'd been able to find! 😊
I do also want to add: I've only released ~ half the Louie series so far. I will be showing him in much more difficult settings in upcoming videos (dogs barking at him, walking right past men & dogs on a sidewalk, etc) but I haven't finished editing those ones yet. This TH-cam channel is a passion project of mine, but most of my work week/hours are spent with private clients. Those videos (as well as ones I've filmed with other reactivity clients) are coming though!
I've got four completely friendly dogs who's friendly with everyone, one who is friendly with Adult humans but not children or other dogs but is improving with children and is more reactive with other dogs not so much actually aggressive, one dog that is friendly with all humans but not dogs and is a bit wary of kids but improving hugely, and 4 dogs who aren't friendly with anyone at all, including humans or other dogs and I take all of them on walks in areas with not many people but also take one or 2 at a time in places where there is people and work on training them and it's so stressful omg it's my dream that one day all 10 of my dogs will be friendly with all people amd other dogs. But I'll work hard with them for the rest of their lives if that's what it takes in order for them to Safely enjoy their lives. ❤
What an amazing goal ❤️ I love how committed you are to helping them. Also, trying to train them separately is definitely the way to do it for best results (even when it’s difficult with so many dogs!)
I just found your channel and I love it! Helpful, compassionate to dog and owner, realistic and positive! Thank you!
Thank you so much for the kind words! I think with the right approach dog training can be more enjoyable for both us & the dog while still getting results 😊
I love the unedited version! Life is not edited and it is so much more helpful to see how you handle when things do not go as planned. Thank you!
I regularly feel lots of shame when my dog has reactions. She is a GSD mix. People seem to feel the need to make comments some of the time, which increases that feeling in me. I also feel awful for letting her down.
Life is not edited… I love that 😊 Thank you. I’m sorry people have made comments to you, but I wish I was surprised 😞 I’ve heard the kind of horrid comments clients have gotten, and I can’t fathom how anyone feels justified saying such things to strangers. Reactivity is a hard behaviour since it’s so public, but know you’re doing your best for girl and drop the shame ❤️
I also have a reactive GSD mix but she's so much better after counter conditioning and desensitisation.
Don't give up! Persevere. It took years before my stranger reactive dog would allow strangers to approach her and pet her. She still sometimes reacts when she's startled, but she recovers quickly now and is attentive to my cues. Much easier to manage after training and there was no need to use force, coercion or punishments 😊
Absolutely love this unedited video!! So refreshing to see the great work you and Louie did and the little hiccups on the way. It made training real and helps us to understand that we aren't perfect but we can strive to get it right more times than not. And it was great to be talked through what to do when it didn't go to plan. Thank you so much x
I’m so glad that you enjoyed it and that it was helpful! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a kind comment ☺️
I definitely need to teach my dogs to fix their leashes. Great idea!
Finally got that tutorial made! This is how I train a dog to fix their own leash 🙂 th-cam.com/video/qNk4EVgu5-g/w-d-xo.html
I really think your videos are great and very helpful.My Dog,Dixie,is a very reactive Blue Merle collie mix.he is great on and off leash when we are alone.when other dogs appear he gets very excited..i am working on his behaviour and trying to bring him on walks where we meet other dogs and people.
I am following your videos from Co.Clare in Ireland 😊
I love hearing where viewers are from! It's cool to me that I can film a video in Canada and it's watched throughout the world ☺
Another awesome real life session! Great highlights and points. THANK YOU! My sweet boy has been so good with being calm and non-reactive until the last few weeks as his testosterone levels are “growing”. He is a large breed (Rottweiler) and we know that in order for him to be at his healthiest bone/joint health we need to keep him whole as long as possible (we’re shooting for 3 years for his growth to be complete).
He LOVES meeting other dogs. Used to be that other males have a problem with him. He would be sad when they reacted to him. Then at around 18 months he would respond when they reacted. Now at 23.5 months, we saw him initiate a reaction toward a male dog. We felt so much shame! He’s so sweet and we didn’t expect this from the character he’s shown.
Another trigger is anything that drags/rolls with a deep sound similar to a growling dog…garbage cans, rolling cases…and also, the ice cream mans annoying music or the squeaky horn. HA! We’ve been trying a few tactics on that and he’s improving.
Monitoring his reactions within distance of another dog and implementing these well timed tactics are next on our list. 🎉
Hi! I totally understand the shock & shame when they have their first reactions, but the age it’s happening is actually quite common if that makes things feel any better 😊 From your comment there’s two other videos I’d strongly suggest checking out!
1) This neutrality training video shows how I progress things stepwise so dogs can eventually just walk past other dogs without a care: Dog Pulls Towards Other Dogs? Try THIS to Walk Past With a Loose Leash
th-cam.com/video/-O1u3T3zS2M/w-d-xo.html
2) and for the sounds that trigger him, I’d work on sound conditioning if you haven’t yet. This video explains how. I’m doing indoor training in it, but afterwards it’s helpful to also practice outside to get your dog used to the noises there too 😊 Dog's Scared of Thunder, Fireworks, or Other Sounds? Try This!
th-cam.com/video/4mMF_XAX2b4/w-d-xo.html
Thank you so much for sharing this!! Loved watching it and so great to know we're actually on the right track with what we are doing, this was so helpful!❤
You are so welcome!
We are loving all your videos but have rewatched this several times! Our walks (here in snowy Sweden) with our rather pully Tibetan Terrier and our very fearful Galgo are now totally reflecting your advice and have already become less stressful for everyone! More, more! ❤
Thank you so much for letting me know!! Comments like this are precisely why I spend the time making these videos 😀 I love knowing that they help! I have two upcoming videos this month for skill building (getting leave it to work on walks, and how I trained my dogs intense prey drive) then the Louie series is coming back! I've also pre-filmed a bunch of leash tutorials with other reactivity clients that will be out next year 🙂
You're the best! I love your videos and your calm energy. Thank you for posting this unedited video! It helps a lot.
I’m so glad it’s been helpful! I’m going to share another unedited video with a different reactive client this Friday 😊
Thank you so much. This was very helpful to see the entire walk and how you responded to all of the stimuli. I particularly appreciate the comments about shame as I have struggled with that when things haven’t gone well.
You are so welcome! The shame aspect can be REALLY hard, so I wanted to normalize that we all have bad days ♥
@@happyhoundsdogtraining 🙏 I grabbed your leash walking program yesterday, and I am excited to dive into it
@@kathydarcher Ah awesome! 👏 Be sure to ask questions if anything comes up ☺️
@@happyhoundsdogtraining one quick one… if I want to add word to having my dog sit beside me before we start heel what is the command you use? Did you ever make a video about this? 🙏
Do you mean the process on page 22 for getting your dog into heel position? I usually personally say “beside me”, but you can use any cue you’d like. I do also initially cue the sit when they first start learning it, but I phase that cue out after a few repetitions ☺️
Thanks for a useful and helpful clip. As a handler of an enthusiastic and excitable young, working Tenterfield Terrier pulling towards great sniffs, kids, people, birds, wildlife and especially nearby dogs this is something we are slowly getting better at.
Your clip of better cueing by handler is appreciated.
Epsilon is great at untangling herself and understands other side cue means she has to try backtracking or switching sides to find the solution. I find this learnt and cued skill very helpful.
Epsilon is great at untangling herself and understands other side cue means she has to try backtracking or switching sides to find the solution. I find this learnt and cued skill very helpful.
I have worked a great deal on becoming a better cue giver. This handler learning journey has often included poor judgement in regards to tolerance level (Eps safety bubble) awareness and what to do.
We are still working on handler reducing unwanted reactive tendencies near exciting things.
Patience and consistency practise are so useful.
I have felt terrible witnessing my clever yet excitable adolescent struggle with managing to accept my requests.
More space and time with gentler expectations and handler skill building and growing knowledge are making my poor reinforcing mistakes gradually be unlearnt.
Thank you for some terrific suggestions and examples for improving our journey.
A&E💞🐾
I'm SO glad the video and "watching it in action" was helpful! I was really hoping it would be. Also, I want to say I think it's so amazing how much reflection you've done about timing, expectations, and making requests reasonable. I think that's incredible! 👏🙂
Thank you so much for your video. I have found it really hard to work within our busy environment where dogs appear on every corner and instantly are way too close. Even though before I leave the house I remind myself that it’s important to stay calm and not be tempted to long for unrealistic results, it feels so frustrating to see my dog’s anxiety and feel so powerless in making her feel safe. I was already starting with the name game and treat scatter but not often enough because she first scans the whole environment before coming back to me. Her voluntary focus on me is improving so much. I really loved to observe how you manage the situation when the dog is over threshold. In our case i usually wheel her in because of the lack of distance but indeed also use my hands moving forward lately in stead of pulling. I hope over time she will listen in those moments to calling her back.
Thank you so much for the kind feedback 😊 Knowing the videos are helpful really encourages me to keep making them! I’m going to be posting more of my training sessions with Louie (and then other reactivity clients) in the next few weeks 😊
I genuinely understand your frustration trying to train in a busy setting. My previous rescue dog Burrito was reactive & dog aggressive, and I lived in a 4th floor condo that was packed with dogs 🤯 Even taking him out for pee breaks often meant bumping into dogs, so it was stressful. I’m not sure if you’ve watched it, but I would STRONGLY encourage you to teach your dog a rock solid “with me” cue so that you can quickly turn away from triggers without your dog scanning the environment. Once it’s trained I find if you do ~3 practice versions for every one time you’re actually avoiding a trigger it stays VERY effective. I’ll link a tutorial for that here: Try THIS for Faster Reactivity Results // Train an EMERGENCY U-Turn
th-cam.com/video/K4oOcv-XMpM/w-d-xo.html
You should be very proud of your content it is so valuable. Feels so good to be seen by others that went through or still going through the same thing. Thank you so much for your reply and tip. I will definitely watch this. The hardest part is getting her to come with me when a dog is moving in on us. It’s so difficult that you want to reward the first response when it is not lashing out but she is fixated and then you need to remove her quickly and she does not want to move, the pulling sets her off every time. I understand so much better now why leash training is the first step because of the unnecessary tension it creates. I tried your method yesterday but I am still wondering how often and when I need to train the loose leash and when i should just let her be and let her pull, because it’s also a challenge to not overfeed her and always have high value treats with me. She gets bored easily with treats outside and with the scanning every time I call her or when she is getting interested in another smell on another side and then pulling that way again sometimes it’s hard to continue a walk and remain consistent in this.
I'm sooo grateful that you upload videos like this, unedited walks where we can see what to do in a regular walk and also in tough/unexpected situations! Usually, dog training videos just show a brief "what we want to correct" clip, then in the rest of the video, the dog just does everything perfectly, maybe with 1-2 little mistakes. It's very helpful, and I learnt a lot from watching you and our walks improve from day to day! Thank you!!! Also, can I ask how you make your treats? I want to try out ground beef/pork for my dog, she is so food-motivated that we can usually do training with just carrot pieces, but when she's reactive outside I have to use very high-value treats, with high meat content, and I would like to switch to something more budget-friendly :D
Thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I have more unedited walks with reactive dogs (Louie & other clients) already filmed... I just need to find the time to edit & upload them haha. Some will show very successful walks & another will show a disastrous one because I think we can learn a lot from mistakes too!
For high value & affordable treats I often buy a huge pack of boneless pork chops from Costco, cook them on a tray in the oven, and then cut them into SUPER tiny pieces 🙂 Ends up being way cheaper than dog treats from a pet store!
Thank you for the tip! And I look forward to those videos, it's very motivating to see you stay so calm in (for me at least) tense situations! Now when I see a dog walking toward us, I feel much more confident I’ll be able to manage my dog, so doesn’t bark or lunge, but even if not, I have good examples what to do and I’m not just getting more frustrated with her. And the rest of the walk is a breeze, we’re both much more happier going on them!!
THANK YOU !!! Hi, my dog Echo is almost 3 & I adopted him on about his first birthday. I have another dog who is almost 4 & they are the best of buds, they will even chew on a bone together. Echo is reactive to other dogs (not sure what triggered it or when it started)& it can be a terrible experience if a dog get close. He will go down on his belly if over threshold and there is no getting him up, he has alligator rolled to try & get loose, he has barked & lunged, never gotten close, but don't think he would hurt it. I can't be certain of course. . I use a harness and a gentle leader with a coupler to be safe, I had a leash break on a very fearful foster dog when he rolled.Thank goodness a trainer I used had told me to walk same route & that dog ran to my house. I watched a trainer's video on reactivity and she suggested rewarding the dog while he looked at the trigger. Doing this I wasn't seeing the progress I hoped for. I watched your video today, and this evening after work I worked on getting Echo to focus on me when he saw another dog & when he pulled I stopped & rewarded him when he looked at me. He has been quite the puller, but we had a pretty good walk tonight. We had to quickly move away from a few dogs. His threshold is quite a distance away(like Louie in video), we go to a park with soccer fields and baseball fields with a path around, so very open to see & we can move away . Echo has made friends with some dogs my neighbor dog after a year, a pitbull dog that was across the street(she recently passed) a pit puppy when camping & my sister's dog. He lived with one of his sisters till I adopted him, was fostered with several dogs. He had a ruff start in life (dumped at 4-5 months with 3 sisters, found starving, adopted & returned). but I am bound and determined to help him have a great rest of his life. I am grateful for your videos & look forward to watching others. I can't afford a private dog trainer & many near me don't work with reactive dogs. He loves women, & kids but not most men.
So glad you found the channel and the video was helpful! 😊 Your dog sounds a lot like Louie! He would also fully lie down to prevent his guardian from being able to move him. It’s an effective tactic when the dog is heavy 😂 I haven’t finished uploading all of Louie’s videos, but I will resume showing them hopefully in the next month or so! So you’ll get to see how far he got with training 😊
I just found your channel and I love it!!! Thank you so much for sharing these videos and tips, they are really, really helpful!
Welcome to the channel! Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know they’re helpful 😊 Comments like this really encourage me to keep making more videos!
Our hound dog is so strong that she can pull me off my feet when wanting to get to a sniff or a trigger, dependent on her mood. We use a 6 ft leash on a harness. When she is like this, we tend to shorten the leash by attaching the 2nd point on her harness because otherwise she is harder to manage. I just am not sure what to do. We walk around the block and can’t anticipate if the environment will be too stimulating at the given time. It sounds great in theory to call her back to loosen the tension, but in these moods, I cannot get her attention for a call back. She takes treats fine in the driveway but generally interest diminishes as the walk continues.
If you haven’t already, I’d check out these two videos:
1) 10 Tips to IMMEDIATELY Improve Pulling on Leash: th-cam.com/video/V7kE4RZ18XM/w-d-xo.html
2) *INSTANTLY* Improve Dog Training Results By Managing Dog Threshold: th-cam.com/video/G1UVxRIBMEs/w-d-xo.html
The latter one will help explain the decreased interest in treats! I also have a guide that explains how sequentially teach leash skills to match the dog’s skill level. I live in a city of over a million people so I definitely understand not being able to control all variables or what you’ll see on walks! The guide explains how I manage whatever comes up. I’ll link that here too: e37240-61.myshopify.com/
Thank you so much for sharing!!!
You are so welcome!
Also, another question - towards the end there, wheb the man is walking away, you are marking when he looks at the trigfer without reacting. He then gives you a pretty long look after the treat, and only then begins doing more quick glances which you mark each time (it seems to me he notices prolonged attention doesn't get the treat, so i have to look at the trigger quickly). Wouldn't it make sense to reward that long, calm look at you as well? Otherwise, won't you increase his glancing and staring at triggers? I get you want to counter condition, but i would be nervous to not reward continued attention (because isn't that great, especially around a trigger?)
It's been awhile since I filmed this, so I watched the end again to guess what point you meant 😂 Do you mean around 23:15 ish and for the next 30 or so seconds? If so, I'd say it depends on the dog you're working with & what your goals are. Louie had a tendency of trying to AVOID looking at anything that scared him (but then blowing up if it stimulated him enough that he felt he had to look). I wanted him to learn that it's ok to look at his triggers but still stay calm. Giving the reward for looking at the trigger helps with both operant conditioning & association building! I do still give him the treat scatter around 23:40 for being such a good boy after they've left though 🙂
I’ve been doing this with my adopted dachshund for the past 2 years. It’s an ongoing struggle.some good days, some pretty good and some absolute disaster.
By "this" do you mean force free reactivity training? I hope you start to see consistent success soon! ♥ Reactivity can be such a journey.
This is soo helpful, thank you so much for taking the time to do these videos! ❤️ one question: if the dog gets stressed and starts pulling what do you usually do? My dog is very fearful and gets spooked easily with loud noises when on walks, so when this happens if she pulls I usually let her until she calma down a bit and then do a treat scattering as if I don’t let her pull/get distance from the trigger she gets even more stressed.
I replied to this comment but it appears YT glitched when posting it, so you might get two replies haha. If a dog is pulling due to general obedience issues, I intervene and don’t allow it. However, if they’re pulling because they’re over threshold and trying to flee from a scary trigger I’d definitely follow them and let them take space in that situation! It’s way better for a dog to want to increase the distance from something scary than react to it in an aggressive way. However, I’d also work on sound conditioning so that their noise fears decrease over time. I have a tutorial for that which you can check out here: th-cam.com/video/4mMF_XAX2b4/w-d-xo.html
@@happyhoundsdogtraining thank you so much!!
Excelente vídeo where are you located?
Thanks! I'm in Alberta (Canada)
Hello, just found your videos on training. I have 2 four yr old who i need to train. I have no help. How should i train them ? Separate them and work one at time or how to do it. Many thanks for these videos i will review before i begin.
Welcome to the channel! If you have two dogs I always suggest working with each separately until there's at least a base level of skills built, THEN combine them for training. It may seem like more work at first, but you actually get results much faster 😊
Awesome video! Kind of a random question but what camera are you using? Studying to become a dog trainer and i always struggle to video walks with my phone cause i need two hands 😂 also, this looks so nice, wide angle, stable...
Not a weird question at all! This is what I use: amzn.to/49YfUSS
I love it!
Thank you so much for all your content! I've been doing similar walks with my fear-reactive Chihuahua, she's afraid of everything and just overall very anxious. We practice loose leash walking inside of the home while playing sounds to desensitize her. I reward her when she checks it out/hears the sound but doesn't react and I'm hoping I can transfer the same technique with visual triggers. We walk at night time in the neighbourhood since we don't have a car/open fields within walking distance. She will have reactions here and there but managing has gotten a lot better and I do see a huge improvement in her engagement with me. She's able to recover quickly but she still takes treats a bit aggressively so I know that she is definitely at her threshold when walking around the block.
I have a question: How many breaks did you give Louie in between walks? I'm not quite sure how often I should walk her during the week for training walks. Atm we do it once a week to see the progress of training we do inside.
I'm so impressed with how hard you're working on training & learning to read her cues (like the taking treats aggressively bit). Well done! The Louie series is coming back later this month & I'm going to show how I did some sound conditioning with him so he'd be less triggered on walks. I think that'll be helpful for you 🙂
I took Louie out for 20-30 minute training walks ~ 4 days a week. In between I had his guardian walk him daily for exercise, but at off times so it was quiet and she just avoided triggers. She still continued his leash training on those walks, but they didn't include any reactivity training.
Typically I suggest my clients aim for ~10 minutes of reactivity training most days of the week, but with filming & driving I had to modify that slightly with Louie 🙂
Hi! I really love this video, and I wish that more dog trainers could share unedited videos like these. One question I have is how does rewarding Louie everytime he looks at a trigger help with his reactivity? Doesn't that encourage Louie to look on purpose just to be rewarded? Isn't it best to reward the dog when it looks at the trigger, but then looks back at you? Thanks again, and I will be subscribing!
Thank you so much! It wasn't something I'd seen done before, but I was hoping that it would be helpful to see what I did & why. I'm going to be uploading more of Louie's walks in the coming weeks 🙂 And great question! When addressing reactivity I look at from two angles: 1) The behaviour side (outward reactions which we deem undesirable) and 2) WHY the dog is acting that way. Rewarding only when dog looks away can encourage the behaviour you want (staying calm & disengaging from their trigger) but adding the marker & reward when they ARE looking helps #2. Essentially, rather than just using operant conditioning to change the behaviour, you're also using classical conditioning to fix the "why". If every time Louie spots a dog (currently scares him) he hears "yes" (which means a reward is coming) he'll build a positive association to dogs since dog = good thing happens to him. I work on building that first, then as a more advanced version later I switch to rewarding for the looking away. This was a great question and has given me an idea for making a video specifically about this exercise soon!
@@happyhoundsdogtraining ooh okay that makes sense. I'll be looking forward to your video on this! I think it'll help me fully understand when I see it put into action. Thanks for your response! You're changing lives with videos like these 💖
Hearing that genuinely means so much to me! I really want to encourage the kind treatment of dogs because they're awesome. I think the best way that I can do that is to create content that shows how to implement force free training and that it works ♥
Great video and so helpful. Can you share what your camera set up is I would love to video our walks and maybe learn by reviewing to see if I pick up additional body language I may miss while focusing on the walk.
Thank you! Of course, I think that's a brilliant idea! I'm just using a Gopro camera & head mount to film this 🙂
It was really helpful to see a long walk with a reactive dog. But I still feel like my dog is on another level. If that man and dog had popped out at that distance (or even a hundred more feet away) he would have reacted with barking, lunging, pulling, growling, most likely until they were out of sight. I had a session with a trainer in which she brought out her calm dog and we kept a lot of distance between them but my dog was pretty much reacting the whole time (she timed it at 17 minutes!) until she took him away. I don't even take my dog on walks any longer because I was told by a couple of trainers that it wasn't good that he's rehearsing the behaviors and I had to work on things at home until he was able to see things from a distance at least. I've been training him for over a year. He's on meds. Nothing seems to change. I've been taking him to parking lots since last year to work on seeing people from a distance and he does okay with that. But at our home or when I take him to a park it's much harder for him. I know it takes time but when I see things like this (dog makes changes in a couple of sessions), I feel like I must be doing something wrong or my dog's behavior issues are much more severe :(
Hi Kelly. I want this video to be only helpful & encouraging, not guilt inducing! I apologize if it did the opposite. Reactivity is tough, and I'm so impressed by the guardians that work SO hard to help their dogs. Please keep in mind I worked with this dog personally and have been training dogs for a LONG time, so I can often see & address slight things that make faster differences. Can I ask a few questions/make a few suggestions based on your message? I don’t want to overstep!
@@happyhoundsdogtraining Yes please!! I am always looking for advice from professionals. I have worked with multiple (force free) trainers but I take breaks to try things on my own since I have learned a lot of tools. It's just hard implementing them when he's over threshold so easily. And I didn't mean to make you feel like your video wasn't helpful or made me feel bad! I think the content you share here and instagram is so helpful and even if it's not specific for my dog, I think it's amazing to share things like this that can really help others that are struggling. I'm just wondering what I can do to make progress (besides flying out to your and dropping my dog off haha!) Working on reactivity has been such a challenge but I am determined.
I had a dog like this and it was because I didnt address his reactivity early enough so he rehearsed it too many times and his distance threshold was *huge* (a dog could be a speck in the distance and he would already be reacting). It made counter conditioning almost impossible. I never figured out a way to fix it and just struggled with him on town walks until he passed. He was weirdly absolutely fine with friends and family's dogs (would play happily with them) just awful with strange dogs.
With my next dog I did much better and started training much sooner when problems arose. She's so much easier to manage because there's years of training history and she's quick to take cues from me.
@@giftofthewild6665 Yep, that's how Harry is. But with people too. He's estimated to be 4 years old but I've only had him 1 year. He was fostered with kids and 2 dogs in AL for a few months and kids and 3 dogs for a week locally and I was told there were no issues. Which is why we adopted him. I was nervous because we had already had 2 failed adoptions - 1 dog bit my son in the face. The other dog started attacking my 16 year old dog and it was just getting worse even after working with a trainer for months. I'm hoping we can help Harry at least be neutral around people and dogs and it isn't something that we have to deal with until he passes :(
I'm impressed with your determination, and I'm confident you can make progress. I have some questions first to make sure I'm not making wrong assumptions.
- What breed/age is he?
- When you weren’t walking him, how did you provide exercise?
- Any traumatic past history that you know to explain the behaviour/or what age it started?
- Have you had him assessed for pain? What med is he on?
- Does he have any “dog friends” or is he reactive to all dogs?
- What did working on it at home look like?
- Parking lot sessions: How was the training structured? Ex- what was he rewarded for, how long were sessions, etc
I’m wondering about the amount of treats given. Would you do this amount in place of a meal? My dog is getting pretty chubby with all the treats I use in training.
I definitely suggest decreasing meals during periods of heavy training to offset the calories! Also remember to use really tiny treats (just a taste)
I see a lot of behaviors of my dog in the video that you explain (eg, higher threshold behaviors) I used force free training when my female terrier developed reactivity at about 4 or 5 years. The trainer suggested I replace a harness with gentle leader and it made big difference in pulling and hearing me when i clocked or said dig’s name. Thought?
Haha I'm always hesitant to speak against another trainers suggestions since they've met your dog in person & know your situation! However, as a general rule, I'm not a fan of gentle leaders. I find a lot of dogs dislike them, and it always concerns me if they DID pull hard while wearing one that they can damage the neck (since they twist the head back towards you quite harshly). I almost always suggest starting with a front clip harness so that the dogs body gets turned towards you instead 🙂
Is it sufficient to use the dog's name as a cue to focus attention on you or return to you during the walk. Why did you avoid using "leave it"?
I'd say depends on the dog & situation. In general I think EVERY dog should know a solid leave it cue that works on walks (tutorial for how I train that here: th-cam.com/video/M1UvdL4-3B8/w-d-xo.html). However, Louie already had a laundry list of things he needed training for, and his guardian wanted as minimal cueing as possible. So for him, we skipped leave it training and focused more on general walking skills, reactivity (and later aggression since he had a dog bite history), and jumping up.
Thank you so much I have a super reactive puppy (18 mos rescue terrier) I work so hard on loosely, training socializing, I need to get my treats better and there's so many things I think I should do better and let me tell you something I have had some extreme shame about his reactions in my town and I have a 13-year-old beagles is perfect, but she didn't start off that and I have to remember
He is pretty terrible. Find myself between a "rock and a hard Place" take it for me and my little puppy Rocky Raccoon terrier
I'm sorry you feel extreme shame, but I do understand. Reactivity can be SO hard because we feel sadness for our dogs but also embarassed for ourselves 😢 I wish more people understood reactivity so we'd all feel empathy for the people working with their dogs! Keep working hard, but make sure you take care of yourself too! ❤
Currently training an 8 year old rescue chihuahua with extensive scaring all along her back. The vet thinks she was burned.
I have her sitting on command and walking at heel reliably on my left side on a loose leash, which is necessary for me as I use a cane. I don't want the dog to get her leash tangled in my cane in my right hand. I work with her on severe reactivity with dogs on walks, but where we live there are very many dogs to which she is reactive. She is very much improved and is able to walk past another dog who is minding its own business but she turns into cudjo instantly when another dog reacts to her that is lunging and barking. She lives with 3 other dogs and terrorizes them, even the husky. Her owner does not work with her alone. She walks her with another dog and has no control over the chihuahua on walks. The dog snaps when guarding toys and food at home and has even snapped at her owner. The owner had to throw a blanket over her to keep her own dog from biting her.
I have her 3 days a week and she does not bite me, does drop her toy on command, walks at heel until released by me, and sits and stays even with distractions except when near other dogs.
This is the toughest situation I have ever faced training a dog because the dog is responsive to me, plays appropriately without snapping at me, even playing fetch and dropping her toy on command to have it thrown again. But the other 4 days a week she pretty much undoes everything I've done for her. Her owner overfeeds all her dogs including handfeeding from the table despite repeated requests for her not to do this. The dog comes to me fat and full. In my house I can leave food out and the chihuahua will leave it reliably but not at home. She begs and whines for food at home.
I'm about to stop training this dog because the owner won't follow through and it's really useless for me to put in all that effort only to have it undone four days a week. I can't get to reactivity with other dogs if there is no structure at home where she completely dominates and fights with the other dogs guarding toys, food and her owner in the house. One day that husky is going to hurt her because he too is unmannerly, pulling on l eash and barking at everything passing the house and on walks. It's a bad situation.
😩 That sounds like SUCH a frustrating situation! It's particularly hard when you can see things working & know what the dog is capable of, but can't get guardian buy-in. I think it's important as trainers for us to recognize that we can't necessarily "save them all" even though that's SO hard to accept. A huge amount of behaviour comes down to what happens at home during daily routines. Training sessions can help, but not if that's constantly undone during the non-training times. I'm sorry you're in such a frustrating situation, but I think it's something all trainers relate to unfortunately.
I have a dog-reactive dog, but he's only reactive in my neighborhood towards dogs that stare or bark at him. Should I stop walking him in my neighborhood and go to parks instead until he gets more confident around other dogs? I can't drive so we can't go as often. What are your thoughts on this? I've been doing walks just like the one shown in the video, but not seeing any progress and I think it's due to the reactive dogs in my neighborhood.
I haven’t released it yet, but I’m going to be sharing a tutorial for how I conditioned Louie not to react to dogs barking at him (he used to go wild). I think that’ll help you. I’d also encourage you to google the canine ladder of aggression to understand why dogs doing that bothers him so much. Usually for situations that I know the dog isn’t ready for I use this cue (Try THIS for Faster Reactivity Results- Train an EMERGENCY U-Turn
th-cam.com/video/K4oOcv-XMpM/w-d-xo.html) to avoid the situation. Training that sounds like it could help in your neighborhood! Going to parks a few times a week for more enjoyable walks is also a good idea though ☺️
Begging for treats or duration of focus on you. That's a 50/50 call. I'd treat duration of focus, it's hard to obtain that.
👍
My male dog is only reacting towards male dogs. So when doong this type of training shall i just practice with any dog from distance? Meaning i should avoid having contact with female dogs?
If there's dogs you know your dog gets along with, I think interactions are fine (but make sure you're really watching body language to know that for sure)
I have a beagle whom for obvious reasons loves to stop and sniff, hardest part is balancing that with forward progression lol
Haha yes, often Beagles prefer to sniff rather than move 😂 I'm all for loose leash walks & letting dogs sniff, but I personally like teaching two styles of walking: loose leash & heel, both on separate verbal cues so the dog knows which one we're doing 🙂 In heel I don't stop for sniff breaks, which is nice for times you're trying to get somewhere or get more exercise! This video explains how I transition between & teach the two: th-cam.com/video/4fUVXntWPOM/w-d-xo.html
@@happyhoundsdogtraining thanks!I’ll definitely check out, I’ve been having fun with her on hikes and building out evangelist with each other and she does good with recall on a long lead for the most part but I know I need to start implementing the heel walk for those occasions when we have to go into society 😅 thanks!
What length lead is being used here ? xx
This one is a 6ft because I hadn't managed to convince his guardian to upgrade to an 8 foot leash yet (which you'll see in his later videos)
What video do you suggest for a reactive dog that barks his head off at another dog while we're out enjoying dinner on a restaurant patio? He usually just wants to meet the other dog but I'd really like it if he could just chill.
Does he only bark at patios (more extended durations around the other dogs) or while on walks & such too?
He usually just pulls towards other dogs when we're out waking or are in dog friendly stores shopping.
What’s the equipment you used to film this video? It looks so steady!
Thanks! I'm using a Gopro 🙂
My dog is less visibly anxious than this, and even with a lot of work, she just won’t respond to me when we’re out and about
Keeping their attention is so important for successful training! This simple game can really help build engagement (th-cam.com/video/E1bY5ZeUxXQ/w-d-xo.html) but it also sounds like your dog may be over threshold (Improve Dog Training Results By Managing Dog Threshold: th-cam.com/video/G1UVxRIBMEs/w-d-xo.html). Hopefully one of those videos helps!
Is it over threshold if she just seems to find the environment super hard to disengage from?
Taking my dog to the river park for the first time. I haven’t really been able to take him out to much cuz I’m disabled. He was doing really well but there was a period or we went through three shootings because we don’t live in the best neighborhood. One completely messed my van up and was really close. We were lucky the bullets didn’t come in our house ever since then he does have a little bit of reactivity, and I’ve been scared to go out with him even things like trash cans. He sometimes a little bit scared, but I’ve been working with him a lot just around the neighborhood and he seemed to calm down quite a bit, so I’m gonna try to give it a go and we’re going to go to the river.
Oh gosh, I am so sorry for what you & your dog have been through!! That's so scary, and makes sense that you've both been fearful since. Good for you on facing that and going to the river! I hope you had a great trip! ♥
Thank we did, he saw a horse and dogs and people on bikes and rollerblades, and he didn’t really well. The only thing that he did have a very strong fear was to the log his hair went up and everything, but then he gained enough confidence and sniffed it, and realized that it was just a log.
My dog is uncontrollable when she sees another dog. She doesn't care about treats. She just wants to play at all costs.
It sounds like she's over threshold, in which case treats lose all motivation! (Read this if you've never heard of threshold: happyhoundsdogtraining.ca/what-is-a-dogs-threshold-and-why-should-you-care/). I'd suggest trying to give her extra distance from dogs when you first start training & reward her for looking but staying calm 🙂
@happyhoundsdogtraining thank you I'm really trying
@@amybarathStorminStormy Unfortunately I won’t have the video up for ~6 weeks, but I am going to show a video where I taught Louie to walk right past MY dog. How to know when to get closer, what to do for training, etc. I think that’ll help you!
I just read the article . However, she is so far beyond that. We have been through 4 trainers. She acts perfectly for them but then is a nightmare when they give her back to me. She knows how to act and knows her commands and how she is expected to act but does her own thing. Yes she is a Husky. Very smart but hard headed. She just turned 4 years old but has energy as if she's 4 months. I try to anticipate situations but she begins to react Before anything is visible. Like she knows something is going to appear before it does. It's alot.
Trying since over a year to get my reactive dog to take treats outside but without success. ( even under threshold she won't take them ) Believe me I have tried everything cheese meat chicken stinky fish butter....no way nothing works. She isn't food motivated or toy motivated....so how do I train such a dog? Anybody else there with that problem? Feel like I am the only one on earth having that issue😢
Great videos, thank you, so very helpful. Question though, my 14 month lab hesitates so much is scared of tractors, lorries and any sound a difficulty getting her out of the drive. Ihave been doing your loose lead walking away from home and it works a treat 😊 also when she is fixed on sniffing she pays no attention to me calling her even with treat in hand, can you advise me on this matter. So pleased I found your videos. 0:56
I'm so glad you found them helpful! Hilariously my planned content in the next ~ month is going to answer SO many of those questions 😂 It's basically tailored to you haha. This Friday I'll release a video with Millie where I show one of my favourite training exercises. You'll be encouraging your dog TO sniff, then building up a default behaviour of leaving that spot and returning to you. It's one of the few exercises I teach to every dog because it's so helpful for engagement. I'm also going to release videos about 1) How I teach "leave it" to work REALLY well on walks with smells & gross items and 2) sound conditioning (in Louie's case it was for his reaction when dogs bark at him, but you could use the same method for the sounds that scare your dog). I think those 3 will answer all your questions & it's easier if I can demo the training rather than answering in text!
Here are links for two of those videos I suggested!
1. Training your dog to check in with you by default after something of interest: th-cam.com/video/E1bY5ZeUxXQ/w-d-xo.html
2. How to get “leave it” to work with anything your dog finds on walks: th-cam.com/video/M1UvdL4-3B8/w-d-xo.html
Great video but I couldnt help noticing that you are causing the leash to tangle on his legs by not keeping the attachment at the top of the collar. I would have tightened the collar to stop it slipping or used the leash like a long line (where you feed out just enough for the dog to move around and take up slack when it forms).
It must have been quite frustrating for louis to constantly be called back to fix the leash because you arent managing the leash correctly.
Oh I 100% agree that his loose collar is contributing! I even mention that in this video. I touched on his gear in a prior Louie video, but my preference with any dog that pulls is to switch to a harness for safety however we switched his gear as a progression. Louie is a very powerful dog, and his guardian was initially very hesitant to “lose control”. We compromised at the beginning with me using a longer leash for his training (6 ft) while she continued using the ~ 3 ft one she had. Since that leash is so short, I actually kept his collar loose/as is so that it could at least give him a little extra length as it switched sides when he walked on the uber short leash. Very soon though his guardian believed in his progress on the longer leash, so she upgraded to a 6 ft one too. In upcoming videos you’ll see we even progressed Louie to my initial goal which was a harness and 8 ft leash. So this collar was a brief transition period during his training! I’m not sure I’d agree with you though about Louie finding it frustrating to be called back and asked to fix his leash. We were working heavily on name recognition & returning to me anyhow, and he seemed pretty pleased to offer his new “fix leash” trick for a treat.
Thank you.
Excellent video.
I have a female 11 month old blue gsd.
How many seconds do you allow for when the dog is at a standstill watching?
I do try to encourage quickly, before going in the opposite direction to avoid reactiveness.
I've also found when she's walking & sniffing sometimes she will pay no attention but will glance up quickly and then bk to sniffing again paying no attention to the treatment. Any suggestions would be much appreciated
Thank you for the kind words 🙂 I'm glad you liked it! When I FIRST start reactivity training or if I'm pushing to a closer distance, I try to cue the dog to look back at me rather than the trigger almost immediately (within ~ a second of Louie seeing it). Once the dog understands the game a bit more OR if we're at a distance I think is easier for them to tolerate, I like to give them up to 5 seconds to voluntarily disengage before I cue them. Ultimately my goal is for the dog to look away on their own, but that's a more advanced skill 🙂
I have two video suggestions for you question!
1) This super simple "recall" game is incredible at teaching your dog to reorient back to you after a sniff. I actually teach it to all of my reactivity clients because it completely changes how much focus you get from your dog on walks and makes their response to their name VERY fast: th-cam.com/video/E1bY5ZeUxXQ/w-d-xo.html
2) This management cue is also really simple, but if you practice it a lot when there ARE no triggers around it helps your reactive dog learn to immediately follow you in the opposite direction without any leash tension needed (which makes reactions worse): th-cam.com/video/K4oOcv-XMpM/w-d-xo.html
Hope they help! 😀
Louie seems to have a high prey drive like Neriah and my dog. If a dog you are walking sniffs out a ground squirrel warren for example would you let them dig for a while? Or if a squirrel is up a tree and you just can't pull them away would you let the dog satisfy some of their natural genetic traits and let them stand up on the tree so after a little while the dog realizes that the squirrel is staying up the tree and there is no way to get to it and they naturally disengage themselves? Nature v nurture or is there a happy medium?
Louie's prey drive is wildly high hahaha. Even birds would trigger him initially 😂 Good question about the squirrels. Sniffing, yes, I'd let them. Personally I try to avoid letting them chase (even things they have zero chance of catching) because it can be so rewarding it strongly encourages a repeat of the behaviour. If you haven't watched it, I made a really in-depth tutorial about how I train prey drive & animal chasing: th-cam.com/video/A7D9tE40xoE/w-d-xo.html
Well, I have a dog that is bred to tree squirrels. You have to teach them squirrels are not worth their time. Easily done by ignoring and encouraging interests in other things which align with your goals
"Generally, Laikas of East Siberia are prone to hunt “red game” (sable and big game) with maturity
(Voilochnikov and Voilochnikov, 1992). Pure squirrel dogs are rare. The best squirrel dogs are usually young
ones, one - two years old. Squirrel is a mass species and, if the sable population is low, dogs seek out squirrels
enthusiastically until such time as they mature and become interested in more valuable game. In the first fall hunt
the puppy is very agile and tirelessly searches in all habitats and stays very well squirrel it has found. Mature,
experienced dogs save their energy for sable and hoofed game. By the end of the first hunting season - the early
period of next fall’s traits of hunting specialization begin to show. The dog tends to go after a certain kind of game
and by the age of 5-6 years, the dog will not pay attention to squirrels and focuses, for example, on sable only.
An industrial hunter, specializing in fur bearing animals, would not walk by a squirrel treed by his dog.
However, if the dog “turned away” from the sable tack (dropped the sable and switched to squirrel), it would be
reprimanded severely and the squirrel would never be shot. When harvesting the meat of wild animals, there is a
different pattern. The hunter would never shoot a squirrel even if his dogs were not tracking big game at the time.
He would rather call off his dogs or punish them, if they tree squirrel, because big game might be not too far away
and be frightened by the dog’s barking. I know some big game hunters who do not even carry any shotgun
cartridges"
- Bogatov, SV. "Hunting For Profit Versus Hunting For Sport." Journal of the International Society for Preservation of Primitive Aboriginal Dogs 17 (2004): 29.
I would love to learn from you. Animal behavior is my future career after I finish my degree and I am so interested by your mind, methods, decisions and results. Keep going!
Thank you SO much for the kind words & encouragement ❤️ That was really lovely to read😊 Animal behaviour is fascinating, so it’s a great career!
Thank you so much for sharing this full video, reactions and all! Our dog has serious stranger danger and is very reactive to people from a big distance. We are working with a behavior consultant on that, but I just learned a ton from watching how you engaged with Louie on the walk. Your narration and “why” behind what you were doing was really helpful!
I'm so glad it was helpful! Thank you for taking the time to leave a nice comment 🙂
I wonder how do you decide when there is tension on the leash? I always find it kind of hard to notice especially when you move the hands toward the dog so the leash is not fixed to your body. Kind of hard to explain what I mean but it's hard to stay consistent when there's no clear line between pulling/not pulling so how do you draw that line?
I just want to clarify to make sure I'm understanding your question! Do you mean how do I stay consistent/decide what's pulling? Or do you mean how does the dog learn boundaries/consistency when I'm extending my arm for extra length sometimes?
@@happyhoundsdogtraining sorry I had some difficulty formulating my question. My question is how do you decide what is pulling? For me I usually extend my arm when the dog is slightly pulling probably, and I don't want to loose that extra space, but it makes it more difficult for me to distinguish. So I'm wondering how you handle this. But basically the question is all about me, how I know whats pulling:)
Thanks for taking the time to answer
Ah, ok, I’m glad I clarified. I was going to send you a spiel about how Louie understands boundaries even with the varying leash length haha. To answer your question: Sometimes you’ll see that I’m just lazily holding the leash with two fingers. Even if I’m holding it with my full hand, I want it to be loose enough that I COULD easily hold it with two fingers. So while there can sometimes be the tiniest bit of “feeling Louie” on the leash, I never want enough pressure where I feel like I NEED to close my hand into a fist to be able to hold on. If I DO feel like I need to, that’s pulling, and you’ll see me call him back to me to learn to release that tension. If Louie is approaching something loosely and I can see he's just going to need that extra little bit of length to reach it, that's when I'm extending my arm to give him the extra 🙂 I hope that made sense!
Just to be clear: I'm not saying you SHOULD hold the leash with two fingers, I'm just saying to me lack of tension means you COULD 😂
@@happyhoundsdogtraining okay thank you so much. I want loose leash walking without heeling so I really appreciate your approach, but the defining of pulling/not pulling is something I've struggled with so I am grateful for the inside tips:)
my dog not eating anything when she's outside
That’s usually a sign they’re over threshold! Give this a watch: *INSTANTLY* Improve Dog Training Results By Managing Dog Threshold
th-cam.com/video/G1UVxRIBMEs/w-d-xo.html