How We Fix LEASH REACTIVITY Towards Dogs (Stop Barking and Lunging)

in this video I'm going to show you how we fix leash reactivity in dogs so this is Zeke he is a 2-year-old German Shepherd and before we started the training he was leash reactive towards other dogs so whenever he saw dogs out on the walk he would fixate he'd bark he'd lunge he'd pull towards them and he'd show all that reactive Behavior this behavior is often mistaken for aggression especially when it's a big scary German Shepherd but Zeke is not aggressive at all he's actually fairly social towards other dogs it's just when the leash is on he wants to go and engage and it holds him back and he gets frust ated and he shows all that reactivity so this is Zeke after our training program and as you can see it's almost like he's a completely different dog not only did we fix the reactivity but we also trained him to be 100% obedient on leash or off leash anywhere around any distraction whether that be dogs kids bicycles Ducks squirrels rabbits whatever it is he's 100% obedient and he's able to make good decisions around those things on his own without the Handler needing to micromanage him all the time so in this video I'm going to show you exactly what we did to achieve this picture with Zeke and specifically I'm going to show you how we fix his leash reactivity towards other dogs so let's get into the video so before I show you the what we did to fix the leash reactivity with Zeke and before I show you the session clips and all that I need you to understand the why I need you to understand why your dog is leash reactive why they select that behavior why we fix it why we fix it the way that we do right I need you to understand everything from a theoretical standpoint cuz if you go out and you try to fix your dog's least reactivity without understanding the why you're already before you started so make sure you watch this section before you get into the what the video you're watching right now was taken directly from our online training program so if you like this video if you like the way we train check out our training program it's the first link in the description so here's what we know about Zeke here's what I knew about Zeke when we started the training Zeke is a 2-year-old male German Shepherd the the Handler has had him since he was a puppy she has done only positive only training up to this point so positive only force-free training no Corrections just a harness all of that stuff right he knows the basic commands so she's laid like a basic foundation with him just positive reinforcement right so he knows sit he knows down he knows come he knows the basics he's not aggressive so he's never bit anyone he's never harmed another dog none of that stuff he's not aggressive he's actually Fair social with other dogs and he's more indifferent towards people now here are the seen problems these are the visible problems that people see and they want to get help with right so first thing we notice that there is no reliability in the behaviors at all so outside around distractions it's like the Handler doesn't even exist the command is in one ear and out the other it's just it's just non-existent whenever he whenever you tell him to do something you give him a command he thinks to himself like hm should I do it you know and I motive is a there something in it for me you know do you have a tree do you have a ball no okay I'm just going to smell around I'm just going to go chase after that dog I'm just going to go you know chase after that bunny whatever it is there's no obligation in The Obedience and this is really common for the positive only trained dogs is because positive only training relies solely on motivation so obviously when you run into competing motivators you're so there's no reliability in the behaviors he's leash reactive towards other dogs this was the big one so whenever he saw another dog out on the walk he would be barking l ing fixating pulling all towards the other dog whenever he saw the dog he would just show all of that reactive Behavior now leash reactivity is when your dog is reactive on a leash but not necessarily reactive off a leash right or the leash makes them significantly more reactive right and we'll talk about why that is in a little bit but he is leash reactive towards other dogs so off a leash he's like actually not bad he's actually not he doesn't show all of that reactive Behavior but on the leash H that's where it really gets him he's also reactive towards Wildlife so towards Ducks squirrels rabbits he'll chase after them right he just laser focuses on them whenever he sees them and it'll just completely break whatever he's doing to go and chase after it he pulls on the leash that's a big one so he's a big strong dog and he drags his Handler around can't have that that's a big scene problem and he also ignores commands around distractions right kind of like the first one so here are the Unseen problems these are things that I notice as a dog trainer when I am looking at the dog and I'm looking at the Handler so he has a complete lack of impulse control just impulse control is non-existent it's just not even there he sees something he does it he sees happens there is no like there is no layer there between thought and action it just happens right it's just stimulus response he just sees it does it sees it doesn't I'm going to go this way I do it I'm do I do it right I'm going to bark I do it and there's no there is there's nothing there there is zero impulse control with this dog so that's what I see right off the Hop he also has zero respect for the Handler zero respect just a complete disregard for the Handler entirely right like he's barking lunching showing all of this reactive behavior and he just completely ignores the Handler the Handler gives him commands completely blows them off so just a complete just zero respect for the Handler that's a big thing that I notice as well I also notice I also see just a dog who lacks structure and lacks guidance he lacks direction right he's like your he's your classic young German Shepherd confident who's just grown up in the world and figured out how to deal with it on his own right he just he just does stuff that's reinforcing and he just lacks structure and guidance to live in the world productively in in a way that we deem productive right now let's talk about a little bit about the Handler so these are all things that I take note of as as well so the first thing I note about the Handler is she's motivated she is motivated to fix the problem she wants to fix it ASAP okay she has a dream she has two German Shepherds right both have their own unique set of problems the other dog is Corsair you'll see the video a little later and she has a she has a dream she wants both of her dogs to be off leas trained that is her dream that's her goal right and I hear that right in the beginning right when we start talking she's committed she's willing to put in the work this is a really really big one right cuz what I'm basically doing here is I'm trying to figure out if this Handler has what it takes to fix the problem if they're actually going to do the work right and I see right away okay this Handler is committed she is willing to put in the work and it becomes very apparent to me that this Handler has all of the right things she was just acting on the wrong information right she was just acting on the wrong information that's it like it's not like she wasn't putting in the work she was right she she was putting in the work every single day with both of her dogs she was just doing the wrong things she was acting on the wrong information and she realized that the information she was acting on wasn't going to get her to the goals so something had to change and that's why she sought help right so that's just a little bit about the dog and the Handler why am I telling you this stuff why is it important that you know it's important that you know this stuff especially about the Handler because not everybody has what it takes to fix their dog's reactivity that's just the truth not everybody has what it takes to fix their dog's reactivity it just is what it is right there is a very specific type of person who has what it takes to fix it and not just to fix it in the short term not just like with the trainer you fix it in the session and okay he's a little better now I mean completely eliminated over the long run lifetime of the dog there is a certain type of person that's able to achieve that and not everybody is that person if you're watching this video and you're in this course you're probably that person right but the reason I'm telling you this is because she was able to fix this it's really important that you know that I didn't fix it I did not fix Zeke's leash reactivity right I did not train him to be off leash I did not do that she did it she was the one that woke up every day and trained the dog she was the one that did the reactivity training she was the one that went to the park and S sought out distractions and trained him every single day she was the one that played with him she was the one that fed him she was the one that did all of the training all of the work she did it I didn't do it right so when you are working with your reactive dog it's important that you understand that as well there's no magic trainer or magic video that going to pop up and solve your problems for you you've got to be the person who does it and she was that person right so that's why I'm telling you this because you have to realize too that if you have a reactive dog you were the one that created that right it was things that you weren't doing or you were doing that created that picture to begin with so in order to get a different outcome in order to change your dog's Behavior you have to change your behavior right and not everybody's willing to change their behavior right so so that's that okay so that's a little bit about Zeke and about the Handler now that we've established that let's go ahead and take Zeke through our eight-step reactivity framework all right so I'm assuming you've watched this video already and let's go ahead and plug all the pieces into play so let's identify the problem the root cause and the goals for Zeke so before we start fixing it we first must identify the problem what is it well for Zeke we know that the problem problem is he's leash reactive towards dogs and he's reactive towards Wildlife but we'll focus on the dogs right so he's leash reactive towards dogs what is the root cause of that behavior for eque right what is the root cause of it because remember reactivity is always a symptom of some underlying root cause so what's the root cause well all you have to do to figure this out is ask yourself what does your dog get out of exhibiting this Behavior what do they get from the reactivity what do they get out of it they wouldn't do it if it wasn't reinforcing right so what does your dog get out of it for Zeke his reactivity towards other dogs is frustration based right so when he's on that leash he wants to go interact with the other dog cuz he locks impulse control so he wants to go interact with the other dog he sees the other dog he sees reinforcement he wants to go interact with it and that leash holds him back it holds him back and that backwards tension creates that forward display way of reactivity he's barking he's lunging cuz he gets frustrated cuz he wants to get to the thing and he can't get to the thing and it comes out in the form of that reactivity and for Zeke he likes that that reactivity that barking that lunging all of that reactive Behavior he gets off on that he likes that he finds that reinforcing now not every dog is like this right for some dogs their reactivity is more rooted in fear insecurity like anxiety like they want to keep the other dog away not Zeke Zeke wants to go to the other dog but that leash is holding him back and it pisses him off so he reacts and he likes reacting he likes barking he likes lunging he gets a kick out of it right that's his reinforcement in this equation here that's his root cause so what's the goal for Zeke well obviously we want him to be as neutral as possible towards the stimuli and or capable of making good decisions around them without Handler interference so we would want them to be able to walk past dogs we want to be able to walk past stranger dogs not barking and lunging not breaking obedience not acting like an idiot we just want him to walk past and keep on moving right that's what we're after just neutrality right able to good make good choices around them ignore them don't engage with them so now that we've identified the problem the root cause and the goals let's move on to the next step so the next step of the training is to forget the past and take accountability so oh before I mention do this with your dog right identify the problem the root cause and the goal Next Step forget the past and take accountability right so a lot of people fall into the Trap of blaming the past or blaming others don't be one of those people okay don't live in the past wherever you point the finger of blame is where the power goes to so if you blame oh this trainer screwed me over oh this you know the the the breeder oh the the this event this guy at the dog park his dog you know this happened this event right whatever it it is don't point the finger of blame at anything else except you all right cuz the second you point the finger of blame towards other stuff that's where the power goes right all the power goes to that that one idiot that let his dog off leash and now your dog's that that this this one guy or your husband or your kids right whatever it is right don't point the finger of blame anywhere else except yourself in order to fix the reactivity you have to point the finger yourself take full responsibility take full accountability for where your dog is at you have to recognize that all of your dog's problems are because of what you did right even if they weren't accept it anyways it's my fault I should have known better there's something that I should have done differently or I shouldn't have done in the first place it's your fault you have to take that accountability it's really really important step three relationship restructure so now that you've taken accountability and you're like all right it's my fault I've got to change I've got to do do something different now you can change so relationship restructure if your dog is reactive towards other dogs your relationship is not good okay there's no two ways about it you you do not have a good relationship with your dog you I've never seen someone who has a perfect relationship with their dog and their dog is also reactive no no no no no those two do not they do not go together right there it's impossible for those to go together so if your dog is reactive towards other dogs your dog is barking lunging all of that stuff like Zeke then it means you need to restructure your relationship you need to change the way your dog perceives you in their lives you need to change the way that you communicate with your dog on an everyday basis how you live with them how you interact with them right everything needs to change a lot of people will they'll almost like overlook this part like they'll be like okay I just want to fix the I just want to fix the reactivity like that's it that's not how it works all right that's not how it works you don't just fix the reactivity and isolation and expect everything else to like here's what it is imagine it like the the way you're living with your dog is just like this bed of weeds okay and these weeds are popping up and there's this one big weed which is the reactivity and you just hack the weed and you expect this just weedy garden bed to not produce any more weeds or for the not one big weed to come back right if if you want to fix the reactivity you've got to restructure everything re take out all the dirt put fresh new soil in restructure everything like you can't expect to fix the reactivity and then ignore all of the conditions that created the reactivity in the first place and then expect the reactivity not to come back it just doesn't make any sense so make sure you either watch or rewatch the relationship in grounds Wheels module and where I show you how to have a healthy relationship with your dog implement it step four obedience and play so you need to have a a basic way to communicate with your dog right and the easiest way to do that is through obedience and through play obedience and play the dog learns how to communicate with you and you learn how to communicate with them I think this is important to have before you begin the reactivity training right so make sure you do this go through core do the loose leash walking right if you're watching this module right now I'm assuming that you've already watched the loose leash walking module right if you haven't watched the loose leash walking module yet you shouldn't be watching this video go and watch the loose leash walking module implement it with your dog get everything perfect the loose leash walking needs to be Flawless and then you can go on with the reactivity training so this is the very first session that we ever did with Zeke we haven't done any work before this and the first order of business at this session is we need to fix the loose leash walking all right we've got to fix the loose leash walking cuz that's what's going to put him in a receptive state of mind and allow us to change the the reactive Behavior All right so that's the first thing we need to do the second thing we need to do is fix the reactivity towards other dogs so that's the game plan for this session let's get into it zek here is a little bit rambunctious a little crazy when he sees other dogs he gets very aroused right he's got a lot of drive so when he sees something that he wants to get to he wants to get to it obviously and then when he can't get to it he gets very frustrated all right and then all that frustration all that pent up arousal just comes out in the reactivity right so with Zeke it's going to be really important that we dial in the loose leash walking and build the respect on the leash for the Handler okay because we're not going to have any hope at trying to communicate to him when he's in close proximity to another dog right so what we're going to do is we have we have other dog over there on the placeport and we're going to work over here at a distance and just get the Loos leash walking di in build the respect for the Handler stop all this stuff and then just stop all the nonsense right and then we're going to start working around the other dog and then start going from there okay all right Zeke it's time for you so we're going to walk over here create some space and if he hits the end of the leash he hits the end like right there right so right off the Hop I'm going to use a lot more pressure than I did with his sister because he's just that type of guy okay good so he just has uh just lacks impulse control right whatever he wants to do he just goes and does it right and he's so strong that usually he just kind of gets his way like right there he just besides I'm leaving right right there all right he just I'm leaving you're not [Music] leaving good boy nice one good work buddy all right so I'm just making sure the loose leash walking is perfect before we start the reactivity stuff cuz I need to make sure I'm in his head I need to make sure that he's thinking clearly right before he wasn't even thinking he was just in arousal and he was just he was just out of it so he's doing pretty good in loose leash walking yeah good so he's in your you're in his head he's paying attention you're starting to build some respect on the leash right establishing a system of consequences good now for his reactivity right we understand that his is more rooted in arousal frustration excitement right he basically just wants to get to the thing and he gets frustrated when he's held back good so what we need to do is for him we need to teach him that he cannot generate arousal towards things in the environment right dogs stranger dogs like that you see on walks are not something to generate arousal towards right what I want you to do with him is or what I want for him is I want him to understand that things in the environment dogs people bikes cars whatever are all all just neutral don't generate arousal towards those things arousal will be directed towards you when you play with them right that's the outlet that's where you satisfy the drive right it's with you it's not with all these things in the environment okay for many dogs this is all it takes like you fix the relationship you do The Obedience and play you do the loose leash walking and then the reactivity completely goes away on its own for a lot of dogs that's the case right but not for every dog so once you're ready to fix the reactivity here's what we do so three- term contingency you already know what this is because you've watched the how dogs learn and think module in the foundation in core and let's plug in the pieces so we have the stimulus we have the behavior response and we have the reinforcer or The Punisher this gives us the three- term contingency now let's plug Zeke in so for Zeke it's another dog his behavior response is to bark in Lune that behavior is self-reinforcing for Zeke he likes barking and lunging that's just what he likes he likes doing it he likes that reactive display he likes doing that behavior right and that in it in and of itself is enough to continue the behavior right it's enough to it's enough reinforcement for him to select this Behavior again in the future dogs have these self-reinforcing behaviors remember right things like barking things like chasing things like digging these are all self-reinforcing behaviors so even if there's not a a prize at the end so to speak it's enough to keep going just the behavior in and of itself self is reinforcing enough to continue so for Zeke that's what his three-term contingency is so in order to change Zeke's three-term contingency if we want that behavior response to be neutrality right if we want to substitute the barking and lunging for neutral behaviors neutrality how do we do that well here's how so step five of the reactivity process is freedom of response all right and you'll see us do this in the session itself all right so I have my dog out zes out and we just let him see the dog right complete freedom of response when we see the dog we just release him and we let him do whatever he wants to do it's his move completely he gets to decide and we do not make the decision for him right we release the dog so they're just on a loose leash with complete freedom of how to respond it's his move that's what we do all right because we're trying to change the three term contingency right so he has to have freedom of response obviously so what do we do now that he has freedom of response well contingent punishment and contingent reinforcement so depending on his behavioral response we're either going to punish that behavior or we're going to reinforce it right so contingent punishment let's talk about that first so if the dog offers an undesirable Behavior response by that I mean The Barking the lunging the fixating all of that stuff right undesirable Behavior response we don't like it we want it to stop we are going to punish that behavior how do we do that we we marked the behavior with no followed by a hard leash correction at a punishment level you guys have done the loose leash walking already and you know the loose leash walking punishment level is like down here right just over this red line but for the reactive Behavior we need to be all the way up here big punishment for that behavior right so that's where we need to be marked by the Red X here we mark it with no and a firm leash correction at this level here you might be wondering how hard is that like how hard do I need to pop how how how much pressure do I need it's not about how much pressure it's about the behavioral response of the dog your dog decides what's punishing right you don't get to choose what's punishing for your dog your dog decides so you need to learn how to read your dog's Behavior response when you apply the pressure just like with the loose leash walking right you start out low you work your way up you're like okay that's the punishment response for my dog in Loos leash walking on this walk right and for the reactivity you've got to do the same thing but here's how you know you punish the behavior properly you know you punished it properly when you see complete suppression in the behavior and in the body language of the dog suppression means to forcibly put an end to so if you correct your dog and they keep on reacting then you didn't punish anything you accidentally probably negatively reinforced the reactivity right has that ever happened to you right you your dog is barking lunging you correct your dog on the on the leash right and they just become worse they become more reactive you're negatively reinforcing it you're not punishing anything you're not you haven't even crossed this line right so you need to escalate the pressure for most dogs in order to do this we use a prong caller or a choke chain to punish the reactive Behavior because these tools gives us leverage if you're working on a tool like a flat collar or something you literally can't cross over this line so you need a tool that can cross over the line I do not recommend using the e-collar to punish reactivity there's just too many mistakes you can make if it is there's too much room for Handler error and there's too much work that you have to do beforehand do not use an e-caller to punish the reactivity it is a bad idea all right use a prong caller or a choke chain for most dogs I recommend the prong caller all right that's what we use for Zeke so that's how we do it okay he offers the undesirable Behavior the moment he does it we mark it with no and then we punish the behavior on the leash and important too important note when we Mark the behavior with no we're doing a couple things we're not only marking the behavior to make it clear but we're also putting social pressure on the dog right social pressure we are letting him know that we are not okay with that behavior right and do not underestimate the power of social pressure many dogs are so they're just physically resilient dogs right you got these big strong dogs they're physically resilient like you can put all the physical pressure in the world on them and it's like and it's like you barely get to punish man M level right but for these same dogs you put the social pressure on them no do not do that right pop pop and now all of a sudden the social pressure amplifies the physical pressure so that's the purpose of marking it with no right not only does it build the clarity right because you can mark the behavior in a timely effective way but it also puts the social pressure on the dog and it lets them know that you are not okay with that behavior next thing is contingent reinforcement so okay so okay the dog makes the wrong choice we punish the behavior we see suppression in the behavior the behavior immediately completely stops right that's what you should see your dog is reactive no punishment Done Right visibly suppressed holy what am I supposed to do that's what you should see now is your opportunity to fill that hole because you have to understand when you punish a behavior all you're doing is you're buying yourself time to then fill that hole the behavior response with something more desirable all right you cannot just punish the dog and then not fill the hole right you can't do that if you do that the reactivity is just going to keep coming back because that's the only thing the dog knows how to do right if if we did that for Zeke like Zeke starts barking at a dog we punish it and then he's like what am I supposed to do what what am I supposed to do right he doesn't no cuz in his mind he just always barks and lunges at dogs it just always leads to reinforcement he doesn't know it's bad he doesn't know he shouldn't be doing that right it just always leads to reinforcement he just it's just what he does right so if we go and punish the behavior all of a sudden now this behavior that led to reinforcement all of a sudden leads to punishment he's going to be like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa what am I supposed to do around other dogs now and that's your opportunity to show him what you expect them to do around other dogs right that's where you're going to be reinforcing desirable behaviors so if your dog offers a desirable Behavior towards the stimulus we reinforce the behavior often times we're looking to reinforce neutral behaviors towards the stimulus like looking at the stimulus looking away looking looking at you completely ignoring the stimulus Al together and so on right and what we need to do is we need to just like the punishment we need to Mark the behavior with a mark so we use chip right so you need to Mark the behavior with CH to Mark the exact behavior that you like and then pay the dog with high value treats right boiled chicken hot dogs string cheese I like bringing out the Heavy Hitters for this because reactivity can be a stressful thing for the dog when we all of a sudden punish this reactive Behavior it can be kind of stressful so the reinforcement in order to balance out the dog's emotion I like bringing it up to make them more motivated right and if the dog likes to play sometimes we reward them with a game of talk we'll bring their toy out and so on right so Behavior favors that we're looking for by the way is little things things like ignoring the dog altogether they look at the dog they break Focus they disengage CH reward that they look at the dog look up at you chip reinforce that right they just the other dog's barks or something they just ignore it all together chip reward that right so all of these neutral behaviors is what we're looking to reinforce we're not looking to reinforce a direct alternate Behavior that's also really important right we don't just teach the dog to to sit and look at you and that's what gets the treat whenever they see a dog we don't do that right we're trying to reinforce a just neutral response towards the other dog not a direct alternate Behavior what you might notice at this point too is if the dog has low food drive or they're too stressed to take food just use verbal praise and affection to let them know that they're doing awesome so the the theme that you're seeing here guys is we are just black and white in our communication and we're extremely clear with the dog there can be no doubt in the dog's mind what is acceptable and what is unacceptable that's it we're super black and white with them now that you've seen all that stuff and you've kind of got the game plan of what we're about to do with Zeke I think you're ready now to jump into the actual session so here's the plan I'm going to start at a distance I'm going to build engagement with him and I'm going to shrink the distance and contingent reinforcement contingent punishment if he reacts I'm going to mark it with no o and I'm going to correct him on the leash and I should see suppression behavior and then I'll just continue doing what we're doing and I'll reinforce them with food maybe even a ball at some point I don't know we'll see okay okay good I'm watching him very closely seeing where his intent is good good seek yeah there you go there you go yeah okay so you see like the arousal starting to pick up and then now he's like okay I don't even really want the food I'd rather just see what's going on here so let me go ahead and move towards good and we'll come back good good boy good nice work man nice work okay so this it isn't really redirection cuz I'm not giving him a queue good nice nice redirection would be more like if I let him see the thing and I was like zek good right I'm trying to let him make his own choice though good good boy there we go good boy man good job good now I'm prepared because I know he could take off after him at any at any moment good good boy nice good good job buddy Zeke sit chip good nice work man nice work nice work okay golden good good boy hope not good good boy little kids running I think was thing good good boy good job Zeke good job watching watching good good boy I was ready there right good good I was ready there too if he made any intent if he acted on that what he was doing there I would have corrected him good that's a good boy Zeke good what I'm trying to do is build up a bunch of just neutral reps where we walk past and literally nothing happens no no good or bad just nothing good good that's it good job buddy good job Zeke sit sit good boy man good job good job and he gets a little decompressed right good job cuz he's doing so good yeah and working through that stress good boy man good boy yeah yeah yeah good give right give good good good boy good job man good job give give good ah give that's a good boy that's a good boy that's a good boy yeah man yeah man yeah man yeah give give that's it buddy that's it buddy good boy man good boy what you got what you got what you got you got that ball huh you got that ball huh yeah yeah yeah you got that you got that good give good good sees me playing with his ball good okay all right little decompressed there right give him a space to relieve that arousal cuz it's all pent up good and now we'll go back to the other dog and other dogs are not something you generate arousal towards if he does I'm going to put a stop to it good job buddy good job Zeke right there little correction why did I correct him there because he just stopped what he was doing in his tracks and just turned to look at him right and I was walking I would him keep on moving with me good that's your good boy Zeke that's a good boy that's a good boy good good boy Zeke yes good job man good job they are rewarding with food okay good good good good boy good and then you can Mark like right when he completes the U-turn if he hits it right and [Music] turn good there you go good boy turn good very good nice excellent good work good we'll do one more and then we'll make it a little bit more challenging nice good no problem okay so now I'll go ahead and release him just like I did with Corsair and you'll just keep working him okay if he reacts at any point if he starts to show up and show that arousal mark it with no and then correction correction right as much as you need to do until you see suppression and behavior with dogs like this if you make pressure and it's not punishing it's negatively reinforcing you run the risk of making it worse so like you know you make pressure and instead of showing suppression he actually becomes more reactive right so it's better to overdo it than underdo it especially with a dog like him so when you say no correct him with all the strength that you have okay and really let him know that that's not it okay so now I'll release him okay good boy buddy good over sit nice not all the way up there uh-huh not yet I can still mhm good heal he he no there you go good so there you see Zeke he's like oh I'm just going to like bark at the dog and see what happens and there the Handler marks it with no and then delivers a correction right punishment level correction now was the technique perfect no the technique wasn't perfect it could definitely use some work but this is the first time she's doing it right so she's getting the hang of it she's getting used to it she's learning right just like how you're going to be learning as well when you do this with your dog so if you make mistakes in the beginning it's all right just learn from your mistakes right and improve get better the next rep and the next rep and the next rep that's what it's all about okay so was it perfect no but she was able to get the timing right and now she can improve the technique later and as you can see when the dog has a punishment event right what do we do after we punish the dog for that behavior what do we do we fill the hole we fill the hole with all of the desired Behavior responses all of these neutral behaviors all of these passes she's doing all of the looks looks ways all of the looks looks up at her all of the ignores the other dog all of that stuff we are reinforcing heavily right we are filling that hole creating Clarity in the picture for the dog's mind and creating clear communication and clear understanding of what we expect of him thought about it but he's trying he's trying good good Place good heel good all right now I'm GNA play with him this is going to be the toughest okay so get ready I'll start at a distance okay good we'll start kind of far and then we'll get closer and closer okay good there you go good boy good job buddy good job buddy so I'll show you a good example of a missed correction opportunity right we definitely could have corrected him here I just didn't see it so right here sees the dog there right there right you might not even see it but his motor starts going a little bit gets a little excited gets a little aroused because the other dog is running right there we could have punished that and we would have created even more clarity for him right any amount of that arousal there when he starts generating walking a little fast right that we can punish good let go there you go good let go let go CH let go Place good CH good like like good good we're going to challengeing some more just like this and then if he can Master it then we'll start playing with him right but he has to master this first ah no there you go good think keep going good no good correction good now come back that go good so that is just frust frust ation right he's like that dog is making me frustrated and I'm here like good now we build the clarity don't bark at dogs when you get frustrated that go good there you go there you go he's starting to put the pieces together now right good good there you go good okay now he's really starting to get it let go he's starting to understand what we want from him right let go good job buddy good job buddy who good job let go let go let go please I'm going to do a few little small tosses okay the running will really get them going okay so just be ready yep good job let go good around no right there like that even even yeah that too oh was it a cough like on treat oh go I thought it was a woof come around good here we go on this next one I'll call it out Echo come around no there you go good perfect over here what did we correct there we corrected his intent his mindset he saw the dog running and his motor start to get going no punish him come back down right you are not allowed to generate arousal towards things in the environment right let go come around good and now we must build the clarity [Music] good good cool come around good job buddy nice job there you go let go come around good there there you go there you go now he's starting to figure it out right good job go good come around good there you go good work good work go come around nice good job good job buddy okay good and now you can come towards us and and you can play tug with him right good arousal is something that you have between you and him right good look at that oh yeah oh yeah there you go so after all of that training and after all of that good impulse control that Zeke was showing we finally give him an outlet and you see how happy he is to have that outlet right so all of this is happening guys just because Zeke gets frustrated like he wants to go and engage with the dog he can't do it he doesn't have any impulse control we're now teaching him some impulse control and he's like he's he's like oh this is so difficult right I want to go to engage with a dog but I can't right and then you see what happens when we give him an outlet he just explodes into it and he's like finally like this is what I've been waiting for right and so what we need to do with Zeke is we need to teach him like okay buddy arousal is generated to the Handler through play right and we're going to control the arousal in the structured play right so we're going to have some rules on the play right and this is how you satisfy it this is how you release all of that drive this is where you get that drive satisfaction it's through the Handler it's not by reacting at dogs and lunging at them and barking at them that's not productive okay this is productive this is how it happens and this is the picture that we're going to create for Zeke good now go ahead and just keep the toy don't give it to him right I'm going to have him chase the ball okay you can release him though get him out of the down don't let him have the toy though if he goes after the toy you just correct him you can leave the toy leave the toy out leave it in your hand if he goes after it correct him on the leash just pull up say give and then make pressure up ah good nice good so you build some respect in the play okay now what I'm going to do is I'm going to toss the ball okay he's going to look he's not going to go probably and then you're going to reward him okay you can say chirp and then reward him with the toy okay ready come around nice very good nice one come around nice very good all right tell them to give take pressure good okay here we go again ready this is going to be a tough one nice good there you go good good good there you go good job good boy nice one very good okay now we're channeling his arousal his drive towards you right that's where it's directed towards not towards the environment okay if you start doing that bad things happen Okay you can't can't do that especially dog like him all right there you go nice nice very good yes yes yes good job man good job oh yeah good good there you go nice you can see he's giving him the side eye a little bit right he's still a little concerned about him that's okay that'll fit out over time [Music] like nice nice and your award nice good one good timing there good timing you waited till he re-engaged with you good like good down down please nice nice nice one yeah very good nice one all right so this is the second session with Zeke and in this session what we're doing is we're continuing on the obedience training all right so remember how I said that reactivity is not solved in isolation right you got to fix the relationship you got to do The Obedience you got to do the play to in addition to in the reactivity all those things are important so this is about a week later and she's been working really hard on the reactivity she's been going out she's been passing dogs she's really been working hard on it right and now it's time to get that obedience foundation in there right reliable obedience in there that way we can create an even clearer picture for the dog and Advance him mentally right so that's what we're doing in this session here I also bring my dog out again just to proof him because why not but we also really want to test his impulse control as you can see here right his his ball is like a big big big reinforcer for him so just the fact that he can hold it around the ball is a really big deal for him okay so that's what we're doing here making sure he's got the obedience then we bring out my dog again and we just work on the reactivity some more okay so you see how the obedience and the reactivity training are going hand in hand now so here I bring orbit out and you see Zeke's like a little curious he's like wait I think I don't think I remember that dog from the last session right and he's just a little curious and so we don't correct curiosity right if the dog's like kind of curious and like checking it out we're not going to punish that like you're not going to yell no and then come down on them like a freaking Hammer okay like he's just a little curious he's like oh what the heck is that dog oh I think I remember that dog and he's trying to get some air sniffs and stuff so that stuff is fine like yeah he's a little aroused like could you correct it I guess you could correct it but personally I wouldn't correct it just because I don't know it would created kind of a weird Association in his mind like you know I want him to know that this dog is fine and it's fine if he's looking at the dog it's just he can't be reacting and lunging at it you know what I mean so that's what we're doing there if he looks if he's like excessively looking you can give a couple big right there you go y down nice get down good job buddy there you go good good nice there you go good good good job buddy good job down good there you go I know this is hard good now reward him here good and release him okay get ready get ready nice yeah where you where you at where you at let go let go job buddy yeah [Music] yeah nice there you go there you go down Center Center Center good there you go good job oh oh oh God let go let go good good you see how it's just it's the arousal other dog gets him arous he starts to starts to build up and then he starts to make mistakes and the reactivity starts coming into play right it's the arousal we just have to work on keeping him in a low state of arousal these dogs here these two reactive dogs here maybe CH step off in the grass this will be good good good just let him decide what to do good nice SW that good come around whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa who good job let go come here yeah oh yeah yes let's go ahead and put him in the down right here le le good down come around good job buddy good job buddy go nice one nice one you think so there you go there you go hold that down [Music] good good [Music] good punish The Barking on the next one if he does it again just mark it with no and then just correct him you can grab the leash and then correct him [Music] good who wowd wow buddy wow budy bu let down good good oh yeah good there you go good job down we go got a dog right here good good take him out of the heel take him out of the the heal just release him the sense the sense he gets queued in on what you can do if he when he gets like into the sense like that the sense will also build up his arousal like as the dog walk P after the dog was passed he released him and he started catching the S just all over the place you can correct that it's like managing his arousal Y come up good job buddy good job buddy you bring that ball closer and you reward him good job there good good so we need to teach him that his arousal is generated towards you right not towards these things in the environment if you generate towards things in the environment consequence right we're going to cap it but we're going to give him an outlet to generate their arousal towards you for him it needs to be like there are times when we're just doing obedience like in the street and that's like service dog energy I need you to be very calm and I'm going to be very calm and you're just using food and all that stuff and there's also times where we're doing like more play obedience type stuff which is a whole different energy it's a different Dynamic but they don't mix they're separate right um yeah we need to give them both so this is Zeke a few weeks later and the Handler has really been working hard going through all of the obedience training she's been working through core training which is our a and Leash training program and she's been taking them out around lots of distractions lots of competing motivators around other dogs she's been doing all the obedience she's been playing with him she's been managing his arousal she's been working on the reactivity all of this stuff happens together all at once right if you want to fix your reactive dog that's what's required it's all of these things that come to together to form this complete picture you don't just have one reactivity session and then all of a sudden the reactivity goes away like for some dogs that's the case but for most dogs that's not the case for most dogs you have to show them a variety of contexts lots of different situations to teach them that these new rules apply everywhere all of the time around every dog always right so that's what she's been doing she's really been putting in the work this session that you're seeing is our very first Arcanine session with Zeke so Arcanine are offleash train training program we're just doing some basic e-caller conditioning we're doing some e-caller recalls and we're just teaching what the e-caller means basically because now that he's already trained completely on a leash now we can level up The Obedience and start training him off leash so here's Zeke a few weeks later we've been through Arcanine this is his final Arcanine session which is our off leash training program right this is his last session and at this session what we do is we just take him to a high distraction spot we take the leash off and we fine-tune anything that needs fixing right any issues that pop up any last questions right we're just fine-tuning everything to make sure the Handler knows what to do going forward at this point the dog is completely trained and they're able to enjoy a lot more freedom right the dog's able to be a dog they're able to explore they're able to sniff around we give them commands and they listen and they've earned this Freedom right we've taken them through the entire training program and they've proved to us that they can handle this freedom and now we give it to them right and so that's what it's all about now before I stop this video I need to tell you guys about the most common mistakes that people make with their leash reactive dogs okay because chances are you will make one of these mistakes at some point when you go to train this orbit heel good if you want to be able to walk your dog off leash while maintaining complete control just like this check out our online training program it's the first link in the description so let's go through them there are seven common mistakes so the first most common mistake is not actually punishing the behavior all right the behavior of reactivity people will not actually punish it they'll maybe they think they're punishing it or maybe their intent is to punish it but it matter it doesn't matter what your intent or what you think is are you actually punishing it right when you punish the behavior does your dog show immediate suppression in the behavior do they immediately stop the behavior and show that visible suppression in their body language if not you're not punishing anything if your dog keeps on reacting and they don't stop Rea like they don't if if you don't see the reactivity decreasing in frequency you're not punishing anything okay it doesn't matter what you think you were doing you're not punishing it appropriately okay your dog tells you everything you need to know dog doesn't lie so actually punish the behavior so many people people they foot around the corrections and they half acid what happens if you go halfway the reactivity will never resolve itself right you've got to go all the way actually punish the behavior so that's the first thing the second most common mistake I see people make is not reinforcing the desired Behavior so the exact opposite right some people they'll Focus so heavily on the corrections and the punishment and the no and you know like and they'll Focus too much on that and not enough of on reinforcing the desired behavior and you have to realize that if you only punish the reactivity the reactivity is going to keep coming back cuz that's the only thing your dog knows how to do and it's going to come back even worse right so you've got to fill it with the desired Behavior response you can't just punish the reactivity into Oblivion you've got to give the dog an alternative all right so make sure you're reinforcing desire Behavior don't get lazy with it the next most common mistake I see people make is not marking the behaviors properly okay so this goes for the rewards and for the corrections all right when you go to correct your dog you need to Mark the behavior with no right make make it loud make it firm make it timely okay put the social pressure on the dog a lot of people what they'll do is they'll well some people will not even Mark right they their dog will just react and they just suddenly just start correcting the dog out of nowhere with no Mark at all that creates no Clarity for the dog and it may create a suspicious association with the other dog because it's like okay they see the other dog and then all of a sudden they just get corrected right like what is that happening for where did that come from you need the dog to know when you mark that behavior you are marking their reactive Behavior and the punishment is coming from you directly you are not okay with them exhibiting that behavior and it needs to be very clear from the dog's perspective okay so make sure you're marking the behaviors properly no then correction right Mark comes first then the consequence follows right if you're doing it right you should start to see your dog you know automatically stop the behavior right they hear no and even if they do that it's still important to follow up with a correction right because the no is loaded every time they hear the no a punishment event is occurring pressure is coming that they cannot Escape okay so make sure you mark the behaviors same with the rewards all right make sure you're marking the exact Behavior you're trying to reinforce so your dog looks at the dog looks away CH Mark that exact Behavior right be very clear in your communication the next most common mistake I see people make is not being consistent right what they'll do is some people they'll get lazy you know they they like sometimes they reward sometimes they don't sometimes they punish the dog sometimes they don't sometimes they go out walking and the dog is like on their flat collar instead of the prong collar just you got to be consistent all right when you're setting expectations for the dog and you're holding them accountable you've got to be consistent with the rules right otherwise your dog isn't going to trust you because how confusing would that be for the dog if like sometimes they bark and they get punished and then sometimes they bark and nothing happens that's weird that's so confusing from the doc's perspective you cannot do that all right that is how to damage your dog's trust 101 punishing the dog for reacting is not going to damage their trust what is is you being inconsistent with everything all right that is going to damage your relationship and your trust with the dog so so make sure you be consistent with everything the next most common mistake that people make is not being black and white in their communication all right so what this looks like is you know the dog is reactive and they're like no correction right these little half ass Corrections this half ass no correction right don't do that okay and then their rewards are like good boy good what is that okay be really clear with your dog they do something bad no correction right they do something good good boy yes good job buddy right food praise affection everything good toys right super black and white you've got to be crystal clear with your dog and in your expectations okay so be black and white as black and white as you can possibly be all right next up the next mistake people make is allowing the precursors to reactivity to persist right so the pre precursors are the things like fixating stalking growling right all of this stuff you can't allow that stuff to process and then just punish the full-blown Outburst right you got to fix the precursors too so that's really important the next mistake people make then the last one is not addressing the underlying issue remember that reactivity is just a symptom of some underlying like root cause right so for Zeke his reactivity was is just rooted in frustration arousal drive right and he just gets frustrated when he can't get the thing okay and he like impulse control all that stuff so you fix the impulse control all that okay and then what you need to do is you need to give him an outlet all right he's got a he's got to have a way to get all that arousal out right and so what's that outlet for him it's play with the Handler right and so we give him that outlet and we under we address the underlying issue right you have a dog like Zeke like you can't just expect to fix the reactivity and then not give him an outlet you've got to give him an outlet right this guy needs to play he needs to work with the Handler he needs to bite stuff he needs that right he needs to chase stuff he needs it right and so you've got to give him that outlet okay so those are the most common mistakes that people make that I see action items here's what to do now that you finish watching this video okay so what I want you to do first I need you to go outside and record a video of your dog reacting okay I need you to just let them react and let's see it right let's see it firsthand Without You interfering or doing anything with it let's just see what it's actually like and then what I want you to do is go over to the community tab type click on the reactivity tab here and then post a video post that video of your dogs before reactivity and include a little description in there too like you know just say like okay before reactivity you know he usually reacts at this and this and sort of explain sort of the levels and what he usually reacts at and so on okay include a little description so it's helpful then what I want you to do is apply what you learned in this video so everything that you just learned in this video I need you to go and apply it put in the work now you probably don't have a control dog probably maybe you do but probably not so what you'll need to do is set up put yourself in an environment that's as controlled as possible where you can control the variables as much as you can right so the best place to do this in my opinion is outside of a dog park okay so find yourself a nice dog park drive around find a good one go on a busy day and then find one that has a nice fence that you can work on the other side of right so don't go in the dog park stay outside the dog park and just work along the fence line while the other dogs are running around and you know fighting each other and whatever they do in the dog parks right so that's what you want to do if you don't have a dog park near you you can go out outside of like a pet store or something like dogs coming in out of there you go outside of a grooming place you know dogs come in and out so just be creative find a spot where you can you know reasonably predict when dogs are going to be around so do that and apply everything that you learn in this video then after you do that for a couple days right you're implementing you're going on walks you're passing dogs you're implementing everything you learned in the video you're staying consistent and you come back revisit the video you rewatch it you say oh I think I need to do this a little differently you come back you you redo it you take action and then you come back to the video right and you look at the mistakes and you're like oh I think I'm making that mistake and you go and Implement again okay so you're implementing you're applying what you learned then after you've done that for a couple of days or a few days you should start to see results by now all right you either your dog's reactivity is completely fixed or it's a little better but not all the way yet okay whichever one it is make a post in the community go back over to the community Tab and update us on your progress right let us know how you're doing how's your dog doing what are you currently working on what are you struggling with is your your dog's reactivity completely fixed not quite yet what is it right what are you struggling with that way we can give you feedback all right remember everyone in this section has reactive dogs right so join in okay everybody's working through this together and we're all fixing it together okay so post your dog in here update us on their progress let us know how it's going and then we can help you out okay so that's what your next course of action is sound good all right so that's what we want you to do now so now that you know what to do go and do it I hope this video was helpful for you guys who have leash reactive dogs

Channel: Hamilton Dog Training

Views: 257,197

Keywords: hamilton dog training, balanced dog training, leash reactivity, dog reactivity, dog reactivity training, barking at dogs, ignore other dogs, reactivity training, how to stop barking at other dogs, how to fix dog reactivity, leash reactive dog, fix leash reactivity, hamilton dog training reactivity, leash reactivity training, fix leash reactivity towards other dogs, how to fix reactivity, how to fix

Id: wLwGuyZ_oxE

Length: 76min 32sec (4592 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 30 2023