Leash reactivity is gone!

S

SheltieChe

Forums Sage
Yep, just like that. I have my happy well behaved, confident puppy back.
What has worked-
behavioral obedience classes where Leo learned that he does have a choice to have different response to stimuli
Crate Games- introduced all kinds of distraction in a playful manner which allowed Leo to build confidence and good choices
Autocheck in- a must have in place
meditation- firmly placed in my mind picture of my puppy being the friendliest dog on earth, it did traveled down the leash....
 
Congratulations to you!!
Could you explain auto check in:confused2:
You are so right about the confidence. I am certain I am my own worse enemy. I am so stressed over Ryder overreacting I am sure he feels it.
He has improved quite a lot on walks I am back to walking them together.
 
Autocheck in is term coined by Susanne Clothier and is similar to " look at it" but is voluntarily. You start with dog on the leash about 2-3 feet of space, give him some space but not much to be distracted...somewhere with low distractions- you just stand and observe- eventually your pup turns to you like "what are we doing?" and you "Jack pot!" 10-15 small treats given at rapid fire rate. Repeat, repeat, repeat.... take to new location.... repeat, eventually your pup will check in with you before getting into any trouble, lunging or going after distractions. When I walk with Leo into new space he looks at me and I reinforce it. When car passes by Leo turns to me and I reinforce it. After while Dog does not need to be reinforced a lot or every time, verbal support, praise, or even eye contact is enough to communicate....
It is intrinsic behavior which is much stronger than trainer one. Think of you watching TV and someone calling your name or you watching TV and feeling this NEED to check in how your child is playing in the playpen.
It is simple and you have to be consistent. Try it for couple of days and you will notice the difference.
 
I completely agree...
It's a great tool to condition the dog
I have started doing that because I still get a Mr Reactivity in agility class, again since there is new dogs he doesn't like, aka they are too happy :rolleyes2:.. which is funny, cuz Mister Mister certainly loves to get HIMSELF revved up and go a-barking when it is his turn, lol Dogs kinda have no sense of fairness? :lol:
 
SheltieChe said:
Autocheck in is term coined by Susanne Clothier and is similar to " look at it" but is voluntarily. You start with dog on the leash about 2-3 feet of space, give him some space but not much to be distracted...somewhere with low distractions- you just stand and observe- eventually your pup turns to you like "what are we doing?" and you "Jack pot!" 10-15 small treats given at rapid fire rate. Repeat, repeat, repeat.... take to new location.... repeat, eventually your pup will check in with you before getting into any trouble, lunging or going after distractions. When I walk with Leo into new space he looks at me and I reinforce it. When car passes by Leo turns to me and I reinforce it. After while Dog does not need to be reinforced a lot or every time, verbal support, praise, or even eye contact is enough to communicate....
It is intrinsic behavior which is much stronger than trainer one. Think of you watching TV and someone calling your name or you watching TV and feeling this NEED to check in how your child is playing in the playpen.
It is simple and you have to be consistent. Try it for couple of days and you will notice the difference.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the explanation. I will give it a try.
I just got back from my half hour walk with both dogs and when we walked past a fence with a loud barking dog. I repeated leave it while we walked past and not a peep from Ryder. This is after only one week of walking him alone maybe 5 times.
I also put his haltie on him for about 10 minutes before prior to our walk. He normally barks for the first 5 minutes of our walk but this time he did not.
 
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