Fear Aggressive/Reactive Lab

[RangerBeaut]

Hello all! I am new to this forum and would like some advice on my 2.5 year old yellow lab, Ranger. We got him as a puppy from a breeder at 11 weeks old in October 2014. As a puppy he was very hyper as most labs but did well with basic obedience (sit, down, leave it etc. He is a very smart dog and loves fetch which he is extremely good at. A few problems we had and still have with him is barking and growling at visitors (strangers and people he has met multiple times), people on walks, neighbors out in their yard,etc. This all started in the summer of 2015 so he was about 1 year old and thought it might just be a phase because as a puppy he never displayed these types of behavior and i think we did a pretty good job of socializing him. So the winter of 2015 I got some help from a "dog listener" (Jan Fannell certified behaviorist based on wolf pack behavior) and some things worked but most did not which was the barking and growling. I decided to stop the dog listening training and read as much as I possibly could about Victorias training and also Patricia McDougall+Ian Dunbar and went that route - Counter conditioning, desensitization, etc. This has helped the most for Ranger and has been ongoing for about 6 months now. I have a bag of cut up cheese in my pockets wherever i go with him and as soon as i see a stranger coming up i start feeding him cheese. At times he does great, other times we go over the threshold (my fault not his)or a surprise stranger comes too close and he is startled. It is a work in progress and i hope he is trying to understand what i am doing for him. Visitors at our house is a little different. He will bark and growl at them then he will get closer (after he is done barking) to the person sniff and then get really over excited and want to play (picks up ball, bone,etc) - every time and it takes him a while to finally settle down. We just started having our guest throw a kong to him when they enter and it seems to help alot. Ranger is really a great dog with just my wife and me around but in social situations he is very fearful and stressed. Though i have been working so hard with him and trying to help but I am wondering if this is something he will get over with age?? To add more- he is good with dogs - not aggressive however he humps alot but allows other dogs to hump him as well. This leads me to believe it isnt dominance but could be stress induced. He still pulls on the leash when walking (not as bad as he used to) as well. I have been working with him for a while with this as well but i think alot of the pulling also has to do with stress. Let me know your thoughts and or if you have had a similar dog with these behaviors.

[Erica]

It sounds like you're doing the right things! It's not something that will go away on its own, but if you keep on with what you're doing you will continue to see progress.

[RangerBeaut]

Thanks Erica. It will be and has been an ongoing process but I think he will start to get it. I agreed with some of the training methods from Jan Fennell but not all dogs are alike and a blanket training method cannot be used for every dog. What really got me to read, re read, and read more of Victoria, Dunbar, and Mcconnell is going through a drive thru (starbucks, macdonalds, etc.) Every time we went through a Starbucks with Ranger the cashier would give him a treat. Or Mcdonalds, we would give him a fry from the bag. He doesnt bark or growl anymore when we go through drive thrus and thats when it hit me. I just wish he would condition as fast as drive thrus, with strangers on walks and guests haha!

i do have one additional question, since Ranger isnt great on walks, whenever he is healing great and walking by my side i would reward him with a treat. But also, I would treat him anytime there are strangers or a loud noise, etc. I am wondering if i should hold off on the treats when he is walking nicely and only treat when we see strangers for him to associate quicker that i only get treats when i see a person.

[Erica]

You should be fine giving the occasional treat for walking nicely - I would maybe have higher value treats for strangers and give more of them as well, ie he gets a mid-value treat every 30 seconds - 1 minute of walking nicely (or whatever interval you're working at!) but gets a constant stream of tiny squishes of high-value treat (eg for most dogs, hot dog or chicken) when he sees a stranger until the stranger is gone. Dogs are pretty smart - they can learn more than one thing at a time - but I do agree that you want there to be a real contrast between stranger vs no stranger.

[RangerBeaut]

As I was typing that, I kind of answered the question in my head about mid value treats - good idea! This week i started to feed him half his breakfast in a big treat ball at that park after his walk. Hoping that can help him realize walks/parks are great - big buffet. Typically we feed all his meals in the treat ball. He seems to love it. Thanks for your responses and hope this helps anyone else having the same problems. this forum is great.