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Resource guarding green spaces?

1K views 13 replies 5 participants last post by  kikis_retrieving_service 
#1 ·
Apologies for the long post...

Our 1 yr old has always had issues with dogs, I suspect due to a combination of issues (us being novices with puppy raising, a bad experience when she was a young puppy, and temperament). When she was younger, this manifested itself in her being fearful of other dogs we would see on walks. She would dart away, try to hide behind us, refuse to walk past a house with a barking dog in the yard etc.) Throughout all this, her primary exercise has been going to open parks where we play fetch, work on recall and just generally let her be a dog. When other dogs would walk past or into the park, she would recall to us on her own to hide until they passed.

We've been working on getting her to be more confident walking past other dogs and she has made huge improvements and now can mostly walk past a dog at pace without reacting. However all of a sudden a different issue has shown up. If another dog walks past the park, she stops whatever she's doing, runs over and starts barking aggressively in the other dogs face. I've never seen her do this until yesterday...she did it again today and I'm just horrified really. Her recall went out the window. Offleash time is now on hold at the park until we can resolve this. I'm thinking of getting her a long line so we can intervene faster, but how should we go about addressing this? She loves the park as well and I feel so sorry for her having to cut this out or stick her on a long line:(
 
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#2 ·
Are you enrolled in obedience classes with her? If not, I urge you to do so. Having an instructor or trusted trainer work with you hands on would be the ideal situation here. This needs to be handled sooner rather than later and by an experienced person. Living 10 -12 years with a dog who behaves this way will be miserable for her and for you. I hope you are not allowing her off leash at all unless she is in a fenced private yard.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for replying - yes as mentioned above, her offleash privileges are totally revoked. We will be switching back to a long line. We are not currently enrolled. She was until recently enrolled in obedience classes, and then more specifically we worked individually with trainers on the leash reactivity with dogs and loose leash walking generally. It's worth saying that she has always done great in obedience class working around other dogs. It's as though she knows class is a controlled environment where owners have a good handle on dogs and she need not worry.

Are you referring to a more general obedience class? Or engaging with trainers again to address the specific issue?
 
#4 ·
I would also suggest finding a sport that she can be involved in to engage her mind. We are in a big Nosework class with dogs that are reactive. They are blossoming with the fun work and pay no attention to the other dogs while they search. It's the same in our agility class. These pups are very intelligent and need a job. You may find that you'll become hooked with a sport too and see how great it is to be a team. Just my 2 cents :)
 
#6 ·
Her last obedience trainer thought she would excel in agility, and I've been keen to try as well, so will see if there is an opening in a class nearby. Would love to continue to build her confidence.

We already try to avoid other dogs generally by going at off peak times and to quieter parks so it's been disheartening to not be able to take her out to the park at all. We are based in Chicago and it's been hard to find green spaces where you won't see another dog in the city, and I don't drive.

I do appreciate the book recommendation as well, and will look into getting it. I worry as it seems like a switch has completely flipped in her where before she was fearful, and now she's aggressively fearful it seems. I thought we were making progress with her being able to walk past dogs without darting away 😔
 
#7 ·
You've gotten great advice above. My one golden just got his Novice Tricks Title and is in a CGC class now. My other golden already has his CGC and we do agility. My next goal for both of them is Nosework. Being in group activities and/or classes with her will help you both. I also recommend Leslie McDevitt's books.

I only want to add not to let this setback get you discouraged. It's not bad for her to be on leash for the time being while you work on a solution. You are motivated and will get it under control. You'll see. And you will learn a lot in the process.
Don't feel discouraged!
 
#8 ·
Thank you for your kind words and encouragement. I couldn't help but feel down, as she is our first puppy as adults, and I feel like we wronged her big time. I'd love to try agility, and I think Kiki would too. Perhaps I just need to look more creatively into options to exercise her too...as she is not a retriever who really loves to retrieve and hates water 🤦🏻‍♀️ We have so far gotten through obedience 1 and 2 classes at a local trainer, but they didn't offer any other obedience after. I'd love for her to get her CGC but she is ridiculously in love with all humans. I guess something for us to work on!!!
 
#10 ·
I also encourage you to attend the CGC classes. Archie is 13 months and we have 1 more training class before the test. My 2 concerns are Accepting a Friendly Stranger and Sitting Politely for Petting because the term "stranger" is not in Archie's vocabulary 😂! He wants to bear-hug everyone.
Something I've been doing to prepare is:
I take him downtown in his little training harness and ask all the people who stop to ewww and awww at him if they have a minute to help him pass his upcoming CGC test. I quickly explain CGC and the friendly stranger/polite petting tasks and not one person has answered no! This has been a tremendous benefit since COVID put the kibosh on inviting friends over to the house during his puppy period, so he wasn't conditioned early on to lots of different people.

When visitors come over to the house, I've been doing this:
Now that our world is opening up and friends are coming over to the house, we let them know ahead of time what the "Archie drill" will be. When they arrive, Archie is in the kitchen. This gives folks a chance to come in, hang up coats, yes it is still freezing in MA, and get settled. Then my husband takes them into the living room and they stand and chat while I let Archie out of the kitchen. I follow the No touch, No talk, No eye contact protocol (basically totally ignoring him). He gets super excited and wiggles around while bringing numerous toys to our guests. If he jumps, they immediately turn their back but continue to ignore him. We then casually move into our big kitchen and continue chatting while totally ignoring him. This whole process now takes about 10-minutes (initially took longer), but it is so worth it because he goes from waaaayyyy over threshold to a calm, enjoyable dog without us saying 1 word to him. Prior to this technique I tried leashing him, so he would get used to the person being in the house and I also tried giving visitors treats, so that they could give him a treat when he was calm and not jumpy. Neither of those techniques worked for Archie because he was still over threshold the entire time. I discovered that what Archie needs are those few initial minutes to regroup and ignoring him seems to give him the clear headspace to do that. Since these are our friends and family, they all want Archie to succeed, so they happily play along!
 
#14 ·
I also encourage you to attend the CGC classes. Archie is 13 months and we have 1 more training class before the test. My 2 concerns are Accepting a Friendly Stranger and Sitting Politely for Petting because the term "stranger" is not in Archie's vocabulary 😂! He wants to bear-hug everyone.
Something I've been doing to prepare is:
I take him downtown in his little training harness and ask all the people who stop to ewww and awww at him if they have a minute to help him pass his upcoming CGC test. I quickly explain CGC and the friendly stranger/polite petting tasks and not one person has answered no! This has been a tremendous benefit since COVID put the kibosh on inviting friends over to the house during his puppy period, so he wasn't conditioned early on to lots of different people.

When visitors come over to the house, I've been doing this:
Now that our world is opening up and friends are coming over to the house, we let them know ahead of time what the "Archie drill" will be. When they arrive, Archie is in the kitchen. This gives folks a chance to come in, hang up coats, yes it is still freezing in MA, and get settled. Then my husband takes them into the living room and they stand and chat while I let Archie out of the kitchen. I follow the No touch, No talk, No eye contact protocol (basically totally ignoring him). He gets super excited and wiggles around while bringing numerous toys to our guests. If he jumps, they immediately turn their back but continue to ignore him. We then casually move into our big kitchen and continue chatting while totally ignoring him. This whole process now takes about 10-minutes (initially took longer), but it is so worth it because he goes from waaaayyyy over threshold to a calm, enjoyable dog without us saying 1 word to him. Prior to this technique I tried leashing him, so he would get used to the person being in the house and I also tried giving visitors treats, so that they could give him a treat when he was calm and not jumpy. Neither of those techniques worked for Archie because he was still over threshold the entire time. I discovered that what Archie needs are those few initial minutes to regroup and ignoring him seems to give him the clear headspace to do that. Since these are our friends and family, they all want Archie to succeed, so they happily play along!
Good luck Archie!

We also had the same issue with greetings in the home. On a leash she would get herself so worked up that there was no way she'd be 4 on the floor. We do the same approach as you now and she's so much better. We've avoided letting her meet other people on leash during walks as she'd keep trying to approach them and we'd never get anywhere!! If we are waiting at a store or cafe, she's good with people giving her a few pats on the head and some scritches but then starts getting worked up as she wants more....so we could definitely stand to be back in obedience classes!
 
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