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Cassie is a doll...what a cutie! Lots of great advice already given but just wanted to add her world is all new to her now...new owners, home, places. With patience and positive training, I'm betting she'll learn quickly and be a wonderful addition to your family.
I have five dogs and I've always kept walks about the walk. No stopping to potty, smell the flowers, nothing but the walk. When I see anything coming toward or alongside us, I calmly tell my dog to keep walking, I might even step up the pace a bit and once we're clear of whatever it was, a good girl/boy praise if freely given. LOL While still in the early training days, if I see people or people with dogs headed toward us, we cross the street or if need be, turn around and keep walking.
Try growling at the dog. Growling to a dog means NO!
Also try going for walk, then as soon as dog barks at anything... Growl, then immediately turn around and go home (growling a bit on the way back). Go home and ignore dog for an hour or two. No attention whatsoever!
If going on a walk and you pass someone and the dog does not growl, give the dog a treat, pet the dog, and say GOOD DOGGIE! You are just so happy with that doggie! And of course continue with your walk.
So the dog (if somewhat intelligent) will quickly or eventually figure out the path to treats, longer walks, and a happy master, is to not bark. The path to misery is by barking.
@601halfdozen0theother So sorry for your loss. Cassie does the same thing, when we were at the off leash dog park, she totally ignored the people and played and was friendly to all the dogs.
@Billy_J hahahaha! clever strategy! Although my neighbors might think I'm nuts
@k9coach Thank you so much for all the wonderful info!
So far I've been doing the "watch me" "let's go" step "back" "sit", tried out the clicker, that seems to work some. Tried some of the movements from the video K9coach posted.
Thanks for all the well wishes! I'll continue to try all the suggestions, also I will look into an instruction class or two.
k9coach is basically advising something similar what I did with my Catahoula. He would FREAK when he saw cars drive by when I first got him. So one day I took him out to the busy road near my house and just hung out on the sidewalk that ran along it. I had a HUGE bag of treats.
Cars would drive by. WHen I saw them before my dog saw them, I'd let him see them in the distance and just start feeding him treats as long as he stayed calm. If he'd start to get anxious as they got closer, I'd use the "Look" command, drawing his attention to my face and continue rewarding if he calmed down and remained focused on me. He has an insane food drive, so he was highly motivated to stay calm.
Honestly, this fixed the problem quite quickly. I can't remember him having any additional leash issues after that. 18 months later, he does not even acknowledge passing cars or cyclists, and only pays attention to other dogs that are paying attention to him.
I really think it was just the anxiety of a puppy who had a very uncertain existence until he came to live with me. He really just needed to become more confident, and my approach was really just intended to let him remain calm long enough to realize the approaching vehicles represented no threat. He didn't need to bark to scare them away because they weren't actually threatening him - once he understood that, he was fine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by k9coach
Cassie has a beautiful face!
The more she rehearses this behavior, the more ingrained the habit becomes. Ideally you'd start by working with her under threshold, which means at a distance away from her "triggers" where she is focused on the triggers but not to the point of barking and lunging. You can do both classical and operant conditioning. The classical conditioning would be associating a treat or something else she loves with the appearance of her triggers. So you have Cassie at a distance, a person comes into view, you give Cassie a treat. This way she will begin to form a positive association with her former triggers. The operant conditioning comes in when you specifically reward the behavior you want. So if Cassie is ultra focused on the trigger and then for a split second she takes her eyes off the trigger and sniffs the ground - reward! Anything other than fixating on the trigger is rewarded in the beginning. Once she catches on to the game, you steadily raise your criteria as to what will earn her the reward until eventually she is required to observe calmly for extended periods before she gets the treat.
Keep in mind that when you use punishment to deal with this type of issue you run the risk of escalating the problem. Your dog is feeling anxious / fearful / uncomfortable when she is confronted with her triggers. If we then punish her when her triggers are around, we are creating an even more negative association - now her triggers predict punishment so she will fear / hate them even more than before.
You say she is great at the dog park and the beach. Is she off leash there? This might be a simple case of leash reactivity. Try a front hook harness and watch this video for some tips to get you through your walks while you are still working on this issue:
I will tell you that I have had great success using a short cut with reactive dogs - I simply shove freshly cooked chicken in their faces as soon as we see their trigger approaching and I keep rapidly feeding the chicken as we pass the trigger, praising the whole time. Has reduced barking and lunging dramatically in just a few sessions and then we gradually wean off the chicken as the dog realizes she is safe on walks and forms new, positive associations with former triggers. If you try this simple technique and the dog is not taking the food - get some better food and/or create more distance between the dog and her triggers.
I have posted the link to Sporn before. This thing worked wonders with my lunging dog. She rarely barks, so I don't have a clue about that, but this Sporn saved my sanity:
You didn't mention it, but I'm not sure if the lunging makes it difficult for you to keep her from yanking you. I use a Gentle Leader headcollar for my two Great Danes, and it has been a miracle for me. Pulling is such an issue with dog owners, even little dogs, and choke collars and halters are often ineffective. I am a small woman, only 5'2" tall. Not only that, I have had shoulder surgery on both shoulders, and I can control both 120+ lb dogs simultaneously using this gadget. That's pretty impressive, I think.
One of my Great Danes is deaf, and because of this, I have to use tactile and hand signals with her. She doesn't like the Gentle leader, and she also lunges. I bring a stick with me and when she starts lunging, I tap her on the neck. Not hard, just lightly enough to let her know that is unacceptable behavior. Then I give her the thumbs down sign, her command for "No." It doesn't work perfectly, but it sure helps. Good luck!
The more she rehearses this behavior, the more ingrained the habit becomes. Ideally you'd start by working with her under threshold, which means at a distance away from her "triggers" where she is focused on the triggers but not to the point of barking and lunging. You can do both classical and operant conditioning. The classical conditioning would be associating a treat or something else she loves with the appearance of her triggers. So you have Cassie at a distance, a person comes into view, you give Cassie a treat. This way she will begin to form a positive association with her former triggers. The operant conditioning comes in when you specifically reward the behavior you want. So if Cassie is ultra focused on the trigger and then for a split second she takes her eyes off the trigger and sniffs the ground - reward! Anything other than fixating on the trigger is rewarded in the beginning. Once she catches on to the game, you steadily raise your criteria as to what will earn her the reward until eventually she is required to observe calmly for extended periods before she gets the treat.
Keep in mind that when you use punishment to deal with this type of issue you run the risk of escalating the problem. Your dog is feeling anxious / fearful / uncomfortable when she is confronted with her triggers. If we then punish her when her triggers are around, we are creating an even more negative association - now her triggers predict punishment so she will fear / hate them even more than before.
You say she is great at the dog park and the beach. Is she off leash there? This might be a simple case of leash reactivity. Try a front hook harness and watch this video for some tips to get you through your walks while you are still working on this issue:
I will tell you that I have had great success using a short cut with reactive dogs - I simply shove freshly cooked chicken in their faces as soon as we see their trigger approaching and I keep rapidly feeding the chicken as we pass the trigger, praising the whole time. Has reduced barking and lunging dramatically in just a few sessions and then we gradually wean off the chicken as the dog realizes she is safe on walks and forms new, positive associations with former triggers. If you try this simple technique and the dog is not taking the food - get some better food and/or create more distance between the dog and her triggers.
I'm going to get one of these collars and use it on the boy who still has aggression issues when we go on walks. This is SO much better than a leash attached to collar around the neck. Doesn't really work well with a typical leash/collar set up.
The "Let's Go" thing should be interesting. My boy doesn't just bark, he goes ape spit when he sees another dog.
If I combine this with the "It's Yer Choice" training regarding impulse control, hopefully we can nip this b.s. in the bud. I don't know if he'll ever like other dogs, but to get him to stop acting like a total arse on walks if we see another one would be heaven.
(Of course, it would be helpful if the dog owners around here would contain their dogs instead of letting them run loose...even when they are right there. I had to let one owner have it when she was out gardening with her dog. I was on the walk with my girl, thankfully. Her dog came bounding up to us...well, I don't let strange dogs come up to my dog without a proper introduction. Bounding up to us is NOT a proper introduction. The lady was all, "it's fine, he's friendly". Yah? Well you don't KNOW MY DOG now do you?! And that is NOT how you introduce dogs, you stupid bint. Others just let their dogs roam free in the yard with no tie out, no leash, no fence, and the owner INSIDE the house. So that has made training aggression issues even more difficult. I never know if I'm going to encounter a loose dog along the walk, no matter WHAT direction we walk. I'm going to have to start carrying a walking stick to crack a dog over the head if I have to. We've already been attacked once...)
I'm going to have to start carrying a walking stick to crack a dog over the head if I have to. We've already been attacked once...)
A poster that goes by 'beans213' gave a great idea in another thread about leash reactive dogs: bring an umbrella on walks! If a loose dog is approaching you and your dog, popping the umbrella open toward the approaching dog could be enough to deter him. The umbrella also acts as a shield and visual block for your reactive dog. Plus it can be used to defend yourself and your dog if absolutely necessary.
You didn't mention it, but I'm not sure if the lunging makes it difficult for you to keep her from yanking you. I use a Gentle Leader headcollar for my two Great Danes, and it has been a miracle for me. Pulling is such an issue with dog owners, even little dogs, and choke collars and halters are often ineffective. I am a small woman, only 5'2" tall. Not only that, I have had shoulder surgery on both shoulders, and I can control both 120+ lb dogs simultaneously using this gadget. That's pretty impressive, I think.
One of my Great Danes is deaf, and because of this, I have to use tactile and hand signals with her. She doesn't like the Gentle leader, and she also lunges. I bring a stick with me and when she starts lunging, I tap her on the neck. Not hard, just lightly enough to let her know that is unacceptable behavior. Then I give her the thumbs down sign, her command for "No." It doesn't work perfectly, but it sure helps. Good luck!
Okay, so I've been using the clicker which seems to work for the most part. I just purchased the Gentle Leader head collar, but she is able to easily wriggle out of it. I'm going back to get a smaller size.
Even my older dog Zeus is losing his patience. The last couple of days he refused to go on walks with us. He will only go with me alone (I don't blame him, it can be pretty stressful).
She is getting a little better, however she had a little setback today when we all went to Petco. She went berserk The clicker + gobs of treats worked a couple of times, but it didn't distract her long enough. Poor Zeus got so stressed he was shaking then to top it off Cassie pooped in the store! I was trying to get her outside quickly, but that only resulted in a trail of poop across the floor. I'm laughing about it now, but at the time it was stressful.
Thanks all! I appreciate and will heed all advice!
Gentle Leader~ check ~
harness~check~
double clip lead~check~
treat bag with gobs of treats~check~
clicker~check~
poop bags~check~
one wild & crazy dog~check check~
Wish us luck!
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Great advise!
Update
The clicker + gobs of treats worked a couple of times, but it didn't distract her long enough. Poor Zeus got so stressed he was shaking 
then to top it off Cassie pooped in the store! 
I was trying to get her outside quickly, but that only resulted in a trail of poop across the floor. I'm laughing about it now, but at the time it was stressful.
