I'm growing to hate walking my dogs

[Laurenpatriciajoy]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum but I've watched lots of 'It's me or the dog' my issue is that I've just come home from walking my two dogs in tears.
I have a 12 month old female dachshund mix and a 6 month old male dachshund. I know they're still puppies and I know the breed tendencies to bark, etc but I know they can be better.
Right now my female barks at other dogs behind fences or other dogs on walks when we're walking (she does it off lead too) and my male will bark at people just walking by. I'm not scared or nervous by the people or dogs so it can't be my feelings they're picking up on.
I have tried 'leave it', 'quiet', sitting them down and trying to get them to look at me instead, walking in the opposite direction, etc but nothing aside from marching past the distraction can get them to stop. I try not to yell at them because I know they think I'm joining in, I've tried whistles, rocks in bottles, making other loud noises but nothing gets them to look at me instead.

We don't have a backyard so they don't get much outside time besides our walks, so I know they're beyond excited but I need help. We start puppy school with my male on Sunday and I'm bringing my female for a refresher too and my trainer knows about my issue but I'd like some personal experiences too.

Oh and it's not lack of socialisation, they go on walks almost every afternoon and we go to local dog beaches and parks to mix with other dogs every weekend (weather permitting)

EDIT: On long walks where we pass lots of people, they're much better after passing a few people, with barely any reactivity unless the person wants to say hi and stops. Unfortunately, we don't have the opportunity to do that every day, my only chance for walks is after work and since it's not daylight savings anymore I can take them to places with lots of people around

[delladooo]

I'm no expert in the matter but I would treat it as a reactivity issue and take the same approach as I do with my reactive pekingese. You don't want to add anything negative to the experience (eg the rocks etc) as this is only going to make them worse - scary people = my safe person also being scary so need to get rid of the scary people faster.

For us, we work to maintain a non-reactive distance and give copious praise for seeing triggers and remaining calm. She is people selective so walking down the street some people she completely ignores and others make her nervous but we've learnt her cues and know when she's going to react enabling us to distract before the reaction. I'm not saying it's easy - it is incredibly difficult and many times we've felt hopeless but it can improve. For praise, use whatever they find most rewarding whether that be attention from you, food or even a toy but it's important to remember that what you think they should find most rewarding isn't necessarily what the do find most rewarding - we made the mistake and finding what works for that particular dog is a big part of the solution. Personally, I'd also walk them separately too as they more than likely feed off each other so you could find that they're completely different dogs when walked independently.


Just something to point on for your socialisation too - often what people think is "good socialisation" isn't necessarily the socialisation the individual dog needs and for a really exuberant puppy, socialisation should be more about seeing the thing and remaining calm and in control, possibly getting to play, whilst a nervous puppy is going to have a socialisation plan more about building confidence and learning it has choices to interact or avoid the thing. It's something that doesn't really seem to appear much when reading things on "how to socialise a puppy" but it makes a huge difference to the dog. (Again, I made copious mistakes in this area and hate to see others suffer the same fate because of the wording of some articles)

[Laurenpatriciajoy]

Thank you for your reply!

I feel better today after yesterday's incident, I've been talking with my trainer and she says to walk the dogs separately too, which we can do. My older (12 month old) dog has always barked at other dogs so I know I need to work on that with her, she's never cared enough about people to be upset with them, people bend down to pat her and she usually just walks straight past them!
My 6 month old has never been walked alone so I'm interested to see how he goes with it, I definitely think they play off of each other when they're walking, I'm getting some high value treats for walking purposes only and we're going to teach them 'look at me' too.
I'm finding it difficult to teach them 'quiet' as I can't actually get them to bark when they're not reacting to someone :\ but school starts on Sunday and my trainer is interested to see it in person.

People told us to use a squirt bottle when they're reacting but I don't see the benefit in that, I don't feel that's positive training, I just need something that's going to distract them enough to look at me and calm down. I'm glad (for my sake) that other people have had this issue, I feel like people are looking at me like a terrible person because of the way they behave, but they're spoiled rotten! We home make their raw food and they live inside!

With socialisation, they're alright off lead, Pretzel (12 month) gets her excited bark on and is begging for other dogs to chase her, while Percy (6 month) is happy doing his own thing, until another dog sees him and wants to come over, Percy rolls on his back and submits every time except for puppies, those he has an attitude with, it's pretty much 'on lead' that their behaviour sucks.

[gwd]

I think you'd find it much easier to counter condition their responses if you were to only walk one dog at a time. it's very difficult to work on training and to perfect your timing when you've got the two together. Also, they tend to feed off of each others reactivity. I know it's more work but in the long run, better now while they're young than when the patterns have set even further.

[delladooo]

Squirt bottle is definitely a bad idea but honestly, you're not alone. There's a huge community of people with reactive dogs and they pop up in every community it seems. Lead reactivity isn't that uncommon - the dogs are restricted and cannot escape which naturally puts a lot of them on the defensive. Maintaining their safe distance and not forcing them to interact (whether that be you putting them in that situation - not suggesting you would! - or other people forcing themselves / their dogs on yours) will give you the groundwork required to help them overcome their issues. It is hard but you'll have lots of support here

[ScarletSci]

In addition to the excellent advice about counter-conditioning and walking them separately, I'm wondering whether they're getting enough exercise and mental stimulation. Doxies are such smart little dogs, and personally, I think every dog needs at least two short walks a day, regardless of weather. If they're maybe going out every other day, once, and sometimes on a weekend, they're likely to be even more hyped up when they do go out. Then they are reactive, and you end up less keen to walk - it becomes a vicious cycle.

I would up the mental exercise and training too. Check out the "working the mind" thread, it has lots of ideas for mental activities which can be just as good, if not better, then physical exercise to drain excess energy and calm the mind.

Find the distance each dog feels safe to be from other dogs/people while on lead, before they reach the threshold of becoming stressed or over-excited, before they react. You really do need to walk them separately for this I'm afraid, even the most skilled trainer would be working 1-1 for this kind of thing. For tips on counter-conditioning a response like this, and gradually working on the safe distance, look up posts by Jacksdad. He did excellent work with his own dog, and explains the concepts very well. Or feel free to ask more questions in this thread, there are some very experienced trainers here. Good luck!

(p.s: If you ever feel like posting puppy pics, we will love you forever! Baby doxies? Squee!)