Reactive Dog Recovery Program

Week 6
(Class Information)

TTouch:

Continue to give your dog TTouch massages every day. You only need 2 – 10
minutes per day.

Trial Desensitization and Counterconditioning

As you start venturing outside into real life situations, continue to work on
desensitizing your dog to her triggers and having her become counterconditioned
to make a choice not to react with all the techniques you’ve learned in class.

To do this successfully out in the real world, you need to set her up with ‘Trials’.
In other words, ‘set up’ situations before hand where you are controlling the
environment.

Do not start practicing right away with unexpected triggers in uncontrolled, high
distraction environments

The most important aspect for trials is to keep your dog’s trigger at a great
distance away from your dog initially so she stays under threshold. You’ll need
to determine what the distance is before your dog typically reacts. All dogs are
different that way.

Be mindful that the ultimate goal isn’t to have your dog meet the other dog nose
to nose.

The ultimate goal is to have your dog ignore the other dog (Desensitization).
Then for her to make her own mind and decide not to react but look at you
instead to earn a treat reward. (Counterconditioning). This is established when
there is ample distance between the two dogs.

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When your dog is reliably remaining underthreshold at a distance, then you can
slowly start to decrease the distance between the two dogs. While doing this,
you always need to continue to be aware of your dog’s threshold. Watch for
signs that your dog is going in to a freeze and stare.

Example of a ‘Trial’ (Set up):

• Have a neighour standing at the far end of the street with their dog on
leash
• Ensure the dog is easy going, relaxed, and calm. Do not use another
reactive dog.

• Bring out your dog on leash practicing loose leash walking while doing
‘Look At Me’ (Checking In). Do this before your dog sees the neighbour’s
dog down the street.

 When your dog does see the other, you’ll be prepared to immediately
increase the rate of reinforcement and/or do a U-turn to keep your dog
under threshold.

• If your dog does stay under threshold, slowly walk toward the neighbour’s
dog again while doing ‘Look at me’.

• Slowly decrease the distance in increments so your dog stays under

threshold each time you get a little closer.

• Throw a few treats on the ground and say, “Find it”.

• Have your dog sit and do ‘Touch’

• The goal is not to get your dog right beside the other. The goal is to start
desensitizing your dog to her trigger (Ignoring the trigger) and for her to
make the decision on her own to remain calm rather then reacting
(Counterconditioning).

• Only practice for short periods of time initially.

• Do other trials with different calm and relaxed dogs

• Go to a quiet school yard or another location that has low distraction and
low chance of seeing other triggers

• By setting up ‘Trials’, you’ll have much better success when a trigger

appears in situations you haven’t previously set up

Parallel Walking:

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Parallel walking is a method to keep your dog at safe distance from another dog
while walking in same direction working on desensitization and
counterconditioning.

Only practice parallel walking if the other dog is calm and relaxed. It is best to
initially try Parallel Walking in Trials. Use a dog you know and trust. The other
dog cannot be reactive.

• Have the owner and the other dog on leash on the other side of the street

• You and your leashed dog are on the opposite side

• Start walking both dogs in the same direction while keeping a safe
distance apart to keep your dog under threshold

• Do ‘Look At Me’ with your dog to keep her focused on you

• If your dog is remaining under threshold, Slowly start decreasing the

distance between the two dogs while increasing the rate of reinforcement.
Do not approach too close, too fast

• Only practice for short periods of time

• Use different dogs but always ones that you know are not reactive

• When your dog is remaining under threshold reliably, then you’ll start to
feel comfortable doing parallel walking with dogs you don’t know.

• Never do parallel walking with a reactive dog. Instead, do an emergency

U-Turn and get your dog to a safer location

Going Forward From Here:

Now that you and your fur-child have completed the Reactive Dog Recovery
Program, you have tools to continue to practice with over the next many weeks
and months.

Remember not all dogs recover at the same speed or in the same way. Your
dog is unique and as long as you keep working with her, you’ll find success.

Don’t feel bad about set-backs. They ARE GOING to happen. It’s not a failure
when this happens. It’s normal.

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Be aware that not all reactive dogs become outgoing social dogs where they
easily meet and/or play with other dogs, on or off leash.

Some dogs are simply happy and content to be able to simply see another dog
while remaining calm.

Some dogs are okay to play with one dog in particular that they already know
and trust.

One of my favorite sayings is “Do the right thing. Not the easy thing!”

Having a reactive dog isn’t easy, but you are doing the right thing to help your
fur-baby learn to remain calm and have peace of mind. That’s what we do for
our wonderful fur-children as they give us so much love and joy in return.

Thank you so much for all the hard work you’re doing with your dogs. Your dogs
thank you too. They told me so!!!

Velvetanne 