confused about Stella's session w/ trainer

[LyonsFamily]

Stephanie I just looked at the link about Odin... WOW. He was so close to being put down! How is he now with small children? Im guessing by your picture that hes over his dog aggression! That's just amazing that you took this on, and have had so much success with him! We're so lucky that Stella came to us just as sweet and humble as she could be the only issue with her is other animals. If Odin can overcome what he did I know Stella can!

He's great with other dogs now. He's pretty indifferent to most dogs, and just ignores them, and we've done a few dog sports shows that have gone over well. He still has a bit of leash reactivity around really small dogs that aren't controlled (i.e. those awful flexi leashes), but we're working on exercises like sit, down, stand repetition patterns, etc. to change the focus to the handler.

Children are coming slowly. He can meet the neighbor's kids on the street if he's prepared and in a sit. He still gets a bit startled if they come running up, but it's improving everyday and I've worked on educating those around often on how to properly approach a dog. He lets them pass by no problem if they're on the side walk, so I prefer to just keep him indifferent, and not push for social.

His only big problem is with them in our house. We don't have any children and no one really visits with any anyway. If they do come over, I'd never want to risk a child's life, so I just prefer to keep him quiet in an xpen. Being a young, drivey herding dog, even if he doesn't react, he can still knock them over trying to herd or running around the house. I'm not sure how he'd react to crying or screaming, so for the benefit of everyone involved, we just avoid situations that might be an issue and it's working great for us.

You sound like you really lucked out with Stella! You're willing to put in the foundation work which is all it takes to get started.

[felixone123]

Stephanie, how did you work with Odin in regards to other dogs? Not sure if this was already discussed in a topic that I may have missed.
My Odin can be slightly dog aggressive on a leash (he is 90% better than what he was). We tell him to leave it and redirect his attention and he is excellent at this, but I was wondering if there is more I can do? I am hoping to get the other 10%, so when he meets a dog it's all good.

[LyonsFamily]

Stephanie, how did you work with Odin in regards to other dogs? Not sure if this was already discussed in a topic that I may have missed.
My Odin can be slightly dog aggressive on a leash (he is 90% better than what he was). We tell him to leave it and redirect his attention and he is excellent at this, but I was wondering if there is more I can do? I am hoping to get the other 10%, so when he meets a dog it's all good.

I enlisted the help of another trainer friend (Karin) for the majority of Odin's early training. I mainly have sport training experience (agility and competition obedience) and don't have any other dogs currently living with me, so I knew I couldn't handle it alone. She has 2 mals and a chihuahua. Our biggest problems are with little dogs, so that chihuahua was the best for helping Odin. She's very high-drive-dog savy and knows when to move out of the way and when to avoid running and not looking like prey.

I got one of the black rubber Baskerville muzzles. They also loop into the collar so a dog would literally have to destroy it to get it off. I also worked a lot on Odin's heel, and sit/down stays on my own in the house and then on the streets, in fields, etc before we did anything intense. He went on some leashed walks with another dog and handler (usually my mom and one of the setters ) to slowly introduce someone else near him. We started on different sides of the street. The closeness gradually increased over time.

With the group, we did sit/down stays with distractions and moved up to heeling with groups of moving dogs. The muzzle was added and removed as needed. To start, Odin was put into a down stay and dogs are walked in front of him from at least the distance of his leash, so he couldn't get them anyway. His time in the down stay was gradually increased, and dogs were allowed closer and closer. We got to the point where the older Mal could jump over him with him being neutral to the whole situation. That was pretty much the turning point. Complete uninterest in what was happening.

Karin's older mal is also trained in French Ring, so she was fired up into a defensive bark fest on command while Odin was in a down or sit stay. As with everything, we went almost to the breaking point and then stopped and rewarded him. His reward is usually a kong toy. The time got longer and longer until he didn't really notice.

We did a few drop in obedience classes as well. In those classes we'd do a lot of group heeling. One that really helped was everyone in a circle and the instructor called out 2 people that had to cross the diameter and switch spots. We did some mock CGC situations as well, approaching another handler/dog pair, Odin's leash being held while I left the room.

I hope that helps describe a little of our training. We address everything one day at a time here and we're getting there. New situations sometimes require a little bit of extra work. If we run across another animal and Odin goes crazy, I immediately call him into a heel and do heeling patterns in different directions. He also has a few exercise routines: burpees (down, then stand on 2 legs and jump, and back to down) and push-ups (down, sit, stand on 4 legs, repeat) so those help a lot to regain focus as well.

[katm4110]

Stephanie great info!!! I'm going to mention putting Stella in her platz stay position and having one of his dogs bark then rewarding her.... I have so much hope for her being able to pass other dogs with out incident now after hearing Odin's story!

[felixone123]

Thanks for the input Stephanie. Lots of good things for us to work on.