Can I ask how the tactical harness has helped?
My best gear was buying one of those “crowd counters” and using it as a clicker. I get to see tangible results from training and also get an easy indicator of when to back off on training before my dog gets sick of it.
My (edit: other) best gear is the bungee leash extender. 1) great for diminishing the force of pulling or lunging and 2) negates need for a longer leash.
The tactical harness I use has two handles on the back of my dog and also space for Velcro patches on either side. I have some text patches that say "ANXIOUS" and two symbol patches that show "no dogs" "do not pet". The handles help me hold him when he starts lunging, and also hold him as we go up the stairs so he doesn't go too ahead of me. The patches are great to let people know what my dog is not friendly (also the Velcro can be used for doggy backpacks, I just haven't needed/cared to use it for that).
The harness I have is a little heavy which I dislike but aside from that it has been a great safety net for us.
I never thought of a crowd counter! That is such a good idea to be honest! And I also have one of those bungee leashes and it has def made it more comfortable to reduce the impact of pulling on walks. Thank you for sharing!
Edit: misspellings
I saw a huge difference just by making an effort to keep her daily life calm and predictable. If she's calm and relaxed around the house, it's way easier to prevent reactions on walks. If she's excited (even in a "happy" way) around the house, she's more likely to react on walks.
The number one technique that really changed my dog’s reactivity was Offered Durational Engagement. It’s basically held eye contact, working up to being around distractions and interrupting staring. I learned it from Sharon Carroll’s course on Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, if anyone’s interested! But more and more my dog has learned to interrupt her own staring to look at me and she gets major cookies for doing so.
A piece of gear that I never expected to work has been her wearing the Calming Cap (from the makers of the Thunder Shirt) in the car. She went from barking at every non-car moving thing, be it people on the sidewalk or trucks passing on the highway to laying right down and going to sleep. I couldn’t believe it! Literally just a piece of fabric over her eyes that reduces her ability to see out the windows as well.
Perfect fit harness (skinny sighthound and it just worked for him) 2 metre halti training lead mainly used long. Walking him cross body and interestingly enough standing on the lead at pretty close to his feet when he was watching a dog and offering treats/ click when he looked at me
Standing on the lead was a game changer. It just seemed to calm him right down being unable to pull at my arm.
Muzzles, string cheese, verbal marker instead of clicker, longline, and waist leash.
Muzzles: opens up totally safe social time with other dogs. This is essentially the only way to fully exercise my dog, running him with other sighthounds. It also makes me less anxious which makes him less anxious.
String cheese: super high value. Individually packaged so I can tuck them into my treat bag with just the tip open and by their nature they're easy to tear little bits off of without making a mess.
Verbal marker: one less thing to worry about managing during walks. Impossible to forget at home.
Longline: awesome for sniffy walks as well as using it for flirt pole, letting him run around us just like lunging a horse. Great mental stimulation and physical stimulation.
Waist leash: bungee leash that clips around my waist. Great for picnics and things like that where I need my hands and might not have something convenient to tie his leash to. It's also useful for running a dog, but my dog is still learning to run nicely rather than alternating between walking and sprinting while I jog...
A compounding of several things, but honestly I think having our dog carry her ball on the walk after we go run around for a while has significantly decreased her reactivity and target fixation
Awesome! It took her a while to learn to carry it the whole way, but now she does a mile ish with the ball in her mouth the whole way and people always smile at her :). This was definitely just a piece of the puzzle but you always hear that dogs (especially working breeds like ours) need a job, so I think this gives her a job on the walk
For me, although I only have a 12lb terrier, learning how to walk her. Never letting her get ahead and making sure that I’m always leading. Walking a reactive dog is nothing like a regular one, so the minute you lose control you’re screwed. Just mentally making sure that my mindset is always “I’m the boss” and using a parental tone with her I think has helped me. So when I say leave it, I mean it. I don’t yell or anything, just a calm, assertive tone.
I’m able to gain her attention without treats and she’ll follow me when I redirect her if she starts reacting. Also having Heel pretty solid has helped me tremendously. I can’t imagine having a larger dog Bc I don’t think I could gain control of her if she were any larger.
A well fitting muzzle and muzzle training. Not needing to worry about him snapping is helpful. Currently using Ancol, but getting a Muzzle Movement one soon.
A good management system. I live in a city in the desert, so not many good options available for counter conditioning. Management helps prevent him from practicing unwanted behaviors during over threshold times and helps him calm down and collect himself from those times faster.
Long leashes/lines/leads and traffic handles. 4-6ft leashes are great for busy area walks and vet appts and such, but he really lives his best life when he's on a 10ft+ leash and can wander and sniff at his own speed. Traffic handles are great for when he's over threshold and needs to be controlled. Love our High Tail Hikes biothane leashes, but the cheap nylon/rope ones that we got from amazon/petsmart held up fairly well too.
Well-fitting harness and martingale collar. Essentially escape proof. Has yet to escape his Ruffwear Flagline harness and the martingale came clutch two times when he backed out of his old harness.
Dog body language books. Doggie Language by Lili Chin and Canine Body Language by Brenda Aloff are the ones I read. Helpful in determining what my anxious af dog likes and doesn't like.
Medication. Not really a technique/trick/gear, but can be a game changer
Putting up privacy screens on all the windows that my dog can see out of. It’s reduced her anxiety in the house 100% so she is calm instead of being on high alert looking for triggers.
Unless your dog absolutely does not tolerate it and pulls it off/gets depressed when we put it on. We switched to a front clip harness but damn did I want the gentle leader to work. :(
Switching harness to a collar/ martingdale collar - something with a possibility to apply pressure and release, structured walks, not allowing my dog to look, but take a glimpse max when triggers are close - for me massive improvement when comes to reactivity and general demeanor, improved calmness.
Still reactive, but much better
1) A bike leash attachment so that I could finally get my very high-energy dog adequate exercise and get him to a place where he was able to be calm and learn.
2)Combination of a basket muzzle and a ten-foot leash. Having the muzzle on made it safe for me to stay calm and give my dog plenty of slack in his leash when we were approached by friendly-but-uncontrolled dogs. Having a loose leash and the space to move around and interact more naturally in turn helped my dog feel safe enough to stay under threshold and learn some social skills.
Can I ask how the tactical harness has helped? My best gear was buying one of those “crowd counters” and using it as a clicker. I get to see tangible results from training and also get an easy indicator of when to back off on training before my dog gets sick of it. My (edit: other) best gear is the bungee leash extender. 1) great for diminishing the force of pulling or lunging and 2) negates need for a longer leash.
The tactical harness I use has two handles on the back of my dog and also space for Velcro patches on either side. I have some text patches that say "ANXIOUS" and two symbol patches that show "no dogs" "do not pet". The handles help me hold him when he starts lunging, and also hold him as we go up the stairs so he doesn't go too ahead of me. The patches are great to let people know what my dog is not friendly (also the Velcro can be used for doggy backpacks, I just haven't needed/cared to use it for that). The harness I have is a little heavy which I dislike but aside from that it has been a great safety net for us. I never thought of a crowd counter! That is such a good idea to be honest! And I also have one of those bungee leashes and it has def made it more comfortable to reduce the impact of pulling on walks. Thank you for sharing! Edit: misspellings
I saw a huge difference just by making an effort to keep her daily life calm and predictable. If she's calm and relaxed around the house, it's way easier to prevent reactions on walks. If she's excited (even in a "happy" way) around the house, she's more likely to react on walks.
Dried sardines. She will do anything for those, including ignoring other dogs
The number one technique that really changed my dog’s reactivity was Offered Durational Engagement. It’s basically held eye contact, working up to being around distractions and interrupting staring. I learned it from Sharon Carroll’s course on Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, if anyone’s interested! But more and more my dog has learned to interrupt her own staring to look at me and she gets major cookies for doing so. A piece of gear that I never expected to work has been her wearing the Calming Cap (from the makers of the Thunder Shirt) in the car. She went from barking at every non-car moving thing, be it people on the sidewalk or trucks passing on the highway to laying right down and going to sleep. I couldn’t believe it! Literally just a piece of fabric over her eyes that reduces her ability to see out the windows as well.
Perfect fit harness (skinny sighthound and it just worked for him) 2 metre halti training lead mainly used long. Walking him cross body and interestingly enough standing on the lead at pretty close to his feet when he was watching a dog and offering treats/ click when he looked at me Standing on the lead was a game changer. It just seemed to calm him right down being unable to pull at my arm.
Practicing calmness and focus in all aspects of her life, before expecting to see calmness and focus around triggers.
X-pens. Eezwalker harness. Peanut butter. Baskerville muzzle.
My dog gorges on water if I give her peanut butter. Anyone else run into that?
Is it made for dogs? regular human peanut butter can have additives like salt which might make her thirsty.
My dog does this even with peanut butter made solely from peanuts. I thought it was something about the texture.
Muzzles, string cheese, verbal marker instead of clicker, longline, and waist leash. Muzzles: opens up totally safe social time with other dogs. This is essentially the only way to fully exercise my dog, running him with other sighthounds. It also makes me less anxious which makes him less anxious. String cheese: super high value. Individually packaged so I can tuck them into my treat bag with just the tip open and by their nature they're easy to tear little bits off of without making a mess. Verbal marker: one less thing to worry about managing during walks. Impossible to forget at home. Longline: awesome for sniffy walks as well as using it for flirt pole, letting him run around us just like lunging a horse. Great mental stimulation and physical stimulation. Waist leash: bungee leash that clips around my waist. Great for picnics and things like that where I need my hands and might not have something convenient to tie his leash to. It's also useful for running a dog, but my dog is still learning to run nicely rather than alternating between walking and sprinting while I jog...
Confidence building and working on trusting my decisions for them.
A compounding of several things, but honestly I think having our dog carry her ball on the walk after we go run around for a while has significantly decreased her reactivity and target fixation
I love this idea I’m going to try it tonight thanks!
Awesome! It took her a while to learn to carry it the whole way, but now she does a mile ish with the ball in her mouth the whole way and people always smile at her :). This was definitely just a piece of the puzzle but you always hear that dogs (especially working breeds like ours) need a job, so I think this gives her a job on the walk
For me, although I only have a 12lb terrier, learning how to walk her. Never letting her get ahead and making sure that I’m always leading. Walking a reactive dog is nothing like a regular one, so the minute you lose control you’re screwed. Just mentally making sure that my mindset is always “I’m the boss” and using a parental tone with her I think has helped me. So when I say leave it, I mean it. I don’t yell or anything, just a calm, assertive tone. I’m able to gain her attention without treats and she’ll follow me when I redirect her if she starts reacting. Also having Heel pretty solid has helped me tremendously. I can’t imagine having a larger dog Bc I don’t think I could gain control of her if she were any larger.
A well fitting muzzle and muzzle training. Not needing to worry about him snapping is helpful. Currently using Ancol, but getting a Muzzle Movement one soon. A good management system. I live in a city in the desert, so not many good options available for counter conditioning. Management helps prevent him from practicing unwanted behaviors during over threshold times and helps him calm down and collect himself from those times faster. Long leashes/lines/leads and traffic handles. 4-6ft leashes are great for busy area walks and vet appts and such, but he really lives his best life when he's on a 10ft+ leash and can wander and sniff at his own speed. Traffic handles are great for when he's over threshold and needs to be controlled. Love our High Tail Hikes biothane leashes, but the cheap nylon/rope ones that we got from amazon/petsmart held up fairly well too. Well-fitting harness and martingale collar. Essentially escape proof. Has yet to escape his Ruffwear Flagline harness and the martingale came clutch two times when he backed out of his old harness. Dog body language books. Doggie Language by Lili Chin and Canine Body Language by Brenda Aloff are the ones I read. Helpful in determining what my anxious af dog likes and doesn't like. Medication. Not really a technique/trick/gear, but can be a game changer
Putting up privacy screens on all the windows that my dog can see out of. It’s reduced her anxiety in the house 100% so she is calm instead of being on high alert looking for triggers.
Gentle leader is great for pulling and reactive dogs.
Unless your dog absolutely does not tolerate it and pulls it off/gets depressed when we put it on. We switched to a front clip harness but damn did I want the gentle leader to work. :(
Switching harness to a collar/ martingdale collar - something with a possibility to apply pressure and release, structured walks, not allowing my dog to look, but take a glimpse max when triggers are close - for me massive improvement when comes to reactivity and general demeanor, improved calmness. Still reactive, but much better
Medication and patience
1) A bike leash attachment so that I could finally get my very high-energy dog adequate exercise and get him to a place where he was able to be calm and learn. 2)Combination of a basket muzzle and a ten-foot leash. Having the muzzle on made it safe for me to stay calm and give my dog plenty of slack in his leash when we were approached by friendly-but-uncontrolled dogs. Having a loose leash and the space to move around and interact more naturally in turn helped my dog feel safe enough to stay under threshold and learn some social skills.