Why loose dogs can be a problem

It happened again the other day.

I was talking to someone about my dogs and was interrupted with the statement ‘You need to get that reactive dog trained.’ Obviously the scales fell from my eyes immediately. If only I’d thought of that before. Some magical training and my dog would no longer be reactive!

Yes, that’s sarcasm. I’m sorry, it’s sort of what I do some of the time. Sometimes when you live with a reactive dog you have to find ways to laugh as otherwise you would spend half of your life in tears.

Anyone that has read my blog in the past has met Finn, but just in case anyone is new,

I’ll introduce him again. Finn is an eighteen month old tri blue merle border collie. I have had border collies and their crosses for more than thirty years, so I am not a novice with the breed. I used to farm sheep and had working sheepdogs, and bred a couple of litters. Finn, however, is the first dog I have had that has been reactive. We did the very best we could with socialisation, but an unfortunately timed illness meant that most of his critical learning period had to be spent at home, unable to be introduced to other dogs and people.

He is a very handsome boy 💖

I tried so, so hard to catch up when he was better and seemed to be making real progress – he made friends with a pair of dogs belonging to a lovely lady that walked in the same fields and played beautifully with them. Another nice man with three dogs offered to walk with us to introduce Finn to more dogs and he was having a lovely time playing with the little terrier in the group. And then it happened. The largest of the three dogs jumped into the middle of them and bit him. That was it. That was all it took. Finn loves my other dog and follows him wherever he goes, and mostly likes my Mum’s dog but all others are viewed with terror and big shouty fear aggression. Even worse, he started being scared of people as well. I tried to get him meeting people but he would just hide behind me and try to run away. At this point, he was six months old.

I did a lot of research and discovered that Finn was this thing called ‘reactive’. Essentially, even though he looks aggressive towards other dogs and people he does not know, he’s terrified of them and is trying to scare them away before they can get close enough to hurt him. I found a Facebook group all about reactive dogs and joined to educate myself. Through that group, I am fortunate enough to have access to a bunch of absolutely amazing trainers and behaviourists, and a huge library of articles, training tips and behavioural modification techniques. That was a year ago, and this journey is still ongoing, so just telling me to ‘train that dog’ is clearly not going to work.

Let me explain why loose dogs are a problem. One of the most effective methods of working to make life better for a reactive (scared) dog is counter conditioning. The aim of counter conditioning is to change a dog’s emotional response to the trigger (thing that he is scared of and makes him react) by teaching him to associate the trigger with something good. Finn has a number of things that he is scared of but for this blog I’m going to concentrate on the issue with dogs. How counter conditioning works is with controlled exposure to triggers, at a distance far enough away that your dog can see them but isn’t reacting to them. For your dog not to be reacting means no barking, growling or lunging. For learning to be effective, your dog needs to be relaxed enough to listen to your commands, and to take treats if they are your chosen method of reward. If this is not the case, increase the distance. If ever in doubt, increase the distance as distance is your friend. It should already be becoming clear why loose, out of control dogs can be a problem. I have zero issue with dogs being off lead so long as the owner can recall them away before they interfere with my dog and scare him.

You have worked and worked and worked for weeks, possibly months on getting your dog comfortable with seeing other dogs at very slowly decreasing distances. When he sees a dog now, he looks at you for a treat because seeing dogs means good things. This does not mean that the reactivity is ‘fixed’. It is a progressive process, and any one day’s success can depend on a whole number of things that have come beforehand. (I shall write on another day about trigger stacking and what to look for.) The important thing is that, at this time, your dog is comfortable with other dogs AT THAT DISTANCE.

Along comes a loose dog – and it really does not matter what the other dog’s intentions are, play, fight, or just say hi – as soon as they step inside the reactive dog’s safety zone they are scary for the reactive dog. And just like that, weeks or months of work has been ruined and it is back a whole bunch of steps in the process. But equally, we cannot work on the issue without being out where we can see other dogs. We are truly caught in the middle. If I want a peaceful walk with my dog, I go out at 4 a.m. to try and avoid everyone else. That is the only way I can try and relax while walking my dog as I do not have to watch what sometimes feels like every single other person’s dog as well.

The point is, if you see a dog on lead - as someone that writes far better than I do put it - don’t be a dick.