I'm pulling my hair out!!

A

adellelauren

Forums Regular
If it's not one thing it's another. She has issues on and off with the cats, jumping all over people, she started peeing in the house and we found out she had a UTI but after that she started having accidents again (we rechecked her UTI and it was gone) but she will pee at least once a day in the house. Now the new thing is when I make her sit to go out I also make her stay and I tell her ok she goes out the door almost ripping my arm off and she will bark at nothing but if there is a dog going by she looses her mind. She pulls, barks, and growls. I can't even get her to watch me.
 
I believe Mia is around the same age as Kyara was when she started getting more intense and reactive. Yey dog adolescence :rolleyes2:. I remember she did exactly the pulling my arm out and barking as soon as the door open even though there was nothing there.

Drove me nuts! I even wrote a thread asking for help here I believe.

Overall the best trick I found was, before going out, grab a wooden spoon, dip it generously in peanut butter. Then do the regular routine of leashing up Mia and having her sit (good luck not putting peanut butter on her or your clothes :razz:). Then, as soon as you open just a crack in the door (well whatever you can with her remaining calm) and quickly lower the wooden spoon, let her have a good lick and praise her for not reacting. This is the thing that worked for me because once Kyara would get her mouth all sticky and would have trouble barking, thus preventing any reaction ahah.

At first I would practice just opening the door even when it wasn't time to potty, just a few times per night. That would really help for the times I was actually taking her out to potty.
 
Meldor said:
I believe Mia is around the same age as Kyara was when she started getting more intense and reactive. Yey dog adolescence :rolleyes2:. I remember she did exactly the pulling my arm out and barking as soon as the door open even though there was nothing there.

Drove me nuts! I even wrote a thread asking for help here I believe.

Overall the best trick I found was, before going out, grab a wooden spoon, dip it generously in peanut butter. Then do the regular routine of leashing up Mia and having her sit (good luck not putting peanut butter on her or your clothes :razz:). Then, as soon as you open just a crack in the door (well whatever you can with her remaining calm) and quickly lower the wooden spoon, let her have a good lick and praise her for not reacting. This is the thing that worked for me because once Kyara would get her mouth all sticky and would have trouble barking, thus preventing any reaction ahah.

At first I would practice just opening the door even when it wasn't time to potty, just a few times per night. That would really help for the times I was actually taking her out to potty.
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I put her in a sit when it is time to go out even if it isn't potty. Then I will tell her to stay. I open the soor and she will stay till I tell her ok. But if there is another dog or joggers or anything she feels she needs to bark at een if nothing is there is when she shoots out 90mph. I will try the peanut butter with her especially if there is another dog. Hopefully she will be to busy trying to lick it from in her mouth and stuff to care.
 
Make sure to let her lick the peanut butter before she shows any signs of wanting to react. The more she reacts, the more she will repeat the behavior. It took me a while to notice the signals Kyara was giving before she reacted, I always thought, man she is out of control that came out of nowhere.

Then, I read various training books that mentioned the most important thing was to always train the dog under threshold so I started paying more attention to the signals she was giving me. She will perk her ears up, get a very focused and serious stare on whatever is going to make her freak out and then she tightens her jaw. These are all steps where I can try a prevent the reaction, telling her ''look at that'' (which is the command for her to look at what is scaring her then focus back at me to get a treat), and if she doesn't respond and keeps on staring, I know it is too late to prevent it so I go in damage control, either going off in another direction, or back inside if I am close to my front door.

Good luck!
 
We have a female blue merle who is very reactive. Starting putting her in a sit/stay, allowing my other Shelties out back and then releasing her. She still zooms around the yard barking at nothing. I'm going to try the large wooden spoon with peanut butter trick BEFORE she gets ramped up. She also goes nuts whenever she's getting out of the car (something she never used to do) and most recently starts barking and whining when our home phone rings. All this behavior got worse since we quit agility lessons in mid-June (trainer hasn't been offering our level of classes). Hope to sign her up for the next round of classes that start in November.
 
I love the PB Spoon idea! I might have to give that a try w/ my reactive dog. Is it common that reactivity develops w/ adolescence? Does it get any less intense w/ adulthood?
 
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