Loose Lead Walking gentle ideas for a reactive gsd?

[reactive123gsd]

Good evening guys thanks for the support! You all can not imagine how you are all helping me. Yes my biggest problem is learning how to take time off. For two weeks straight like I said we where going okay but then one night we ran into a dog durring training, then for some reason we kept on running into reactive dogs that night but science he seemed like he was able to recover better after each encounter I didn't take the time off. Plus I have been sick, sore throat, herpes, infected wisdom tooth(ouch), and in two days I have to finish one of my tattoos, and in 4 days I have to go to the doctor for a tiny operation. The whole time I was sick I didn't even think once of myself (right now I am realizing that I made a mistake).

I can't even take him in the backyard anymore without him going in the backyard with his hackles up, rigid, barking at nothing! He had a bad experience with a cat in the backyard. ! I don't know I to deal with that too! I am giving up for 3 days, and it is not for him but for me! I can't believe how much I cried today just for him.

Good idea to write everything down, and evaluate each place by how stressful it is. I am going to make a month goal for everything new I will teach him. Yeah you guys know me better than I do, and we havn't all meet in real life. I am a person with little patience, I never in my life had this much patience for anything else.

Right now every time I leave house with the dog I feel like I can't breathe because I get anxious. Which I know is not a good thing but I can't control myself. I feel like I am doing more harm than good. I don't know what to think any more.

[emmabeth]

You really do need to learn to relax - unfortunately, I don't know how to teach that - I am generally far TOO relaxed on the whole, I wish I had the energy and drive other people do at times!

Stand and look at yourself in a mirror and repeat 'I do not need to achieve everything NOW' and 'I can and SHOULD take time off, relax, take things easy'.

For some reason a lot of us are almost brain-washed into thinking that everything we do must be DIFFICULT and HARD for it to be of any use, to mean something - thats just NOT TRUE. We think that if we push things further, ask for a little bit more, a little bit more, keep the pressure on.. we will get what we want, and whilst that MIGHT apply in some cases, when it comes to animals, it definitely does not.

If you think things MIGHT get too much, get out of hand or get on top of you, remember please, we are telling you categorically it is not just 'ok' to give yourself and your dog a break, its NECESSARY - its a crucial foundation of the training and behavioural modifications you are doing.

Don't think of the breaks or the 'taking it easy' or 'giving things a miss today' parts as cheating or as slacking off, think instead of these as the building blocks in the foundations of your dogs behaviour and relationship with you/with the world. Its letting things settle and sink in,...

I have another one of Ems Crazy Analogies for you here - though it might depend on how much you know about building a house.

If you rush in, and try to build a whole house out of heavy blocks in one day, on land that never supported a house - you will find that over the next few months, it settles, goes lopsided, cracks appear.. bits fall off!

What you have to do is drain the land, take things slowly, dig the foundations deep, build on those secure foundations. It takes time, months to do properly. But when its DONE, there are no nasty surprises, your house won't drop by a foot in a week, you won't suddenly find a six inch crack in the bathroom wall.

Dog training like this is the same - you take time to drain the stress out of things, you give time for lessons to be learned, trust to be built - you take everything steadily. Would you think a builder was 'cheating' or not working hard enough if he waited for the mortar to set before putting the roof on the walls?? No!
If you rush in and try to do it all at once, the cracks will appear, in you and your dog (hopefully bits won't fall off either of you though. I didn't promise I'd thought this analogy out!! ).

[reactive123gsd]

Emma what you have just wrote helped me so much. I finally understand how important it is to not think how to over rush things. Even if to me it is "not rushing", it is "rushing" for the dog. I just get anxious all the time for the dog even if things are going okay... I guess I just need to get over that, and I wish I had friends with dogs where I am at that would help me. I am just afraid that I am isolating him to much too. Yesterday night really late I took him out on a walk around the block. At a certain point at a FAR distance we see a cat in the middle of the street. I clicked (trying to do the LAT game), but imediatly I see he was getting aroused. So I took him away. He didn't bark but he tried to lunge towards the cat. He was a nervous wreck, and with every little tiny noise he heard (public bus passed by) he was jumpy. The moment he started to "lip lick", and send calming signals I treated him til he was calm...

I.. after that the walk went fine. I have noticed that he wanted to sniff everywhere like he would see every pee spot. I have decided to let him walk infront of me for now, and even let him sniff when he wants to(at first he was never allowed to sniff, or walk ahead). But wow yesterday he was getting anoying that every few seconds he had to sniff (I know that he has been at rest for a week, but I hate being on one side of the leash without being looked at). Would you think that all that sniffing is a calming signal. I also hate dragging a dog with his nose stuck on the ground. Oh yeah I made shure to pause every now, and then (to relax him). I had REALLY high value treats, but I guess they are not enough anymore for him because he is not intrested. For now should I just let him do what he wants to til he gets over his reactivity? Yesterday I counter conditioned to people too (I don't want to risk that he gets scared of people), and every thing new in the enviroment.

But today I lost my temper with him (argh I feel so guilty), I was in the backyard getting ready with treats. I had him on leash at the moment. All of the sudden at a far distance we hear two cats fight! He started to lunge on the leash towards the fence, hackles up, and all of the sudden I felt the leash just pulling my thumb off. It was so painful. Now I feel bad for the dog.. I guess I wont take him out today... because of the two stressfull moments of yesterday, and today. I feel so bad for the dog. I never thought having a dog could be so hard. I am afraid to have another one, one day... what if they are all like Joker?

It seems so wrong never taking the dog out. Is it normal that I feel like it feels wrong?

[Ari_RR]

I have noticed that he wanted to sniff everywhere like he would see every pee spot. I have decided to let him walk infront of me for now, and even let him sniff when he wants to(at first he was never allowed to sniff, or walk ahead). But wow yesterday he was getting anoying that every few seconds he had to sniff

Well.. 2 cents here (not sure if others would universally agree, but still..)
What is so horrible if the dog walks ahead of you? What is so horrible if he stopps and sniffs? My answer - NOTHING!! Whose walk is it anyway?
It's much more interesting for the dog to sniff things around than just walk forward.. just walking forward is boring, and having to stay behind the slow-moving 2-legged human on top on that is annoying! No fun! And I'd rather dog have fun! What was annoying to me here - was having to follow the dog left, right, etc when he wanted to sniff things on the side of the road. That was a pain! But I fixed that by switching to a longer leash - so now I walk forward, dog can freely move from side to side, or get ahead, or stay behind and sniff, and when there is a person approaching or a dog or something else, I just hold the leash closer to him.

Much easier, much more fun!
And every now and then, during such loose walks, I stop and call him and he has to come over, and we practice "sit", and we practice "wait" (which is him walking ahead of me, me saying "Wait!" and he freezes and waits for me to come over and release him), and we practice other things...

I wouldn't get too hung up on dog walking behind the human with his nose glued to the human's rear end, not a step out of line, pee only when told, sniff only when told, etc.. This kind of walk would't work for us at all

[reactive123gsd]

Hi Ari! Well I think my biggest mistake with my dog is that a fake trainer told me how important it was for 2 month old puppy to walk by my side, and never ahead! I can't believe I listened to that person.(found out was fake after). I was so stupid at the time. Just recently I realized that is too much for a pup! I wish I have never met that person. Well anyways I was reading a book called Ruff Love by Susan Garrett where you use a gentle leader to not let the dog reinforce himself.. Ect.. Ect and I pretty much then followed that, but I guess I was asking to much from a dog. The book Control Unleashed really change my life, and made me learn to be more okay with everything. I know my dog will never be destined to do agility, free style, and ect ect. But I love to have him just look up at me to check me out and feel confident when he is with me at this point. If he walks ahead that's okay I don't want him to be a nervous wreck. I still can't believe how anxious he can get with even just going in a new environment. If we go to a new environment he will start panting, whining, pulling,zooming, bug eyed.. I don't know if it can be some neophobia, or just some super over stimulation.. If he has a routine he is happy if we go to the same places everday he is okay with it. I know my dog is reactive, but I don't know if he has other problems as well. Or is it normal for reactive dog to be so environment sensitive.. I am seriously think genetics is taking a big part here because I recently heard (allways after) that my dog's breeders inbreed dogs together. terrible!

[Ari_RR]

Perhaps, genetics.....
But also - your state of mind plays a huge role.
If you are a nervous wreck when out on a walk with him - oh, he will sense it, and will get even more unsettled.
I don't really know how to address those issues other then through very slow and carefull descensetization..
But first - separate issues from non-issues. Him walking ahead or stoping to sniff every 2 min - non-issues! Not worth an iota of frustration! Peeing on someone's roses (if he does that) - not great if you consider yourself a good neighbor, but not a big deal either! He barks at some weired looking guy - not a big deal, the guy will get over it soon!
So, try not to worry about all the little things... Chill out!!
And that alone should help him a little bit to relax.
And then, of course, the real issues need to be dealt with, but its easier when you yourself are not overstressed...

Good luck!

[jacksdad]

I absolutely agree, nothing wrong with a dog walking in front of you. a significant amount of the time Jack walks in front of me. he seems to be more relaxed with me behind him then unknown people and dogs coming up from behind as he walks next to me. I am also very relaxed about him just stopping and sniffing...ya it was highly annoying at first...walk a little, stop, walk a little stop..but I got over it. I also from time to time just let him take the lead, I follow him where ever the heck he wants to go...provided it's safe. I just find it fascinating to see what he finds fascinating and interesting and where he seems to want to go.

I think Ari is also correct about your state of "being". the more relaxed and confident you can be, the more it helps your dog.