314 @ddpowell 741 wrote:
[COLOR=”rgb(0, 0, 0)”]She’s fine with a muzzle, we got a basket muzzle similar to the one in the video straight away and she wears that all the time when we go to the park although i still don’t let her off the leash.[/COLOR]
Great Work!With de-sensitizing her, the difficulty is finding dogs who aren’t walking. I’ll keep working on phase 2 obedience but what is the best strategy to decondition her to small dogs? My in-laws have two Maltese X shitzu, should i work with them and ask that they simply use their dogs as a distraction? How do you de-condition dog aggressive dogs when you rehab them? Otherwise i can’t think of a way that i can find a dog, get a distance away and do obedience without the dog either constantly moving away or closer to us.
If she is in the learning phase of a command, we cannot expect her to perform when she is reacting to a trigger. For example, don’t ask her to sit when she is reacting to a dog, if she doesn’t already understand Phase 2 corrections for the complete sits. In addition, any training scenario you set up should be set up for success. It would be ok to use one of your in-laws dogs as a distraction, but remember the formula for success with counterconditioning and desensitizing….work just below threshold for reaction. Distance is your friend when setting up these scenarios. Definitely have Manny muzzled and on leash, and keep the other dog at a distance where Manny notices it, but is still willing to work for you. As she becomes more comfortable, and focuses more attention on you and the obedience that you are doing with her, then GRADUALLY decrease the distance between her and the other dog. Your goal is not to get all the way up to the other dog in one session, but to make any progress from your starting point. You may not decrease the distance at all during a training session, but rather work for more focus and less reactivity by the end of the session.The other difficulty is she refuses food when we step outside the house, she loves sticks and balls but that doesn’t work with the muzzle. Or should i keep the muzzle of when she’s training on-leash?
If she is refusing food, you can try training before feeding her breakfast or dinner, when she is most hungry and make sure to use high value treats (hot dogs, chicken, etc) I would keep the muzzle on her when training around or having the possibility for encountering other dogs right now. As you get further into the training, and she is more reliable you can determine whether or not to muzzle her.Keep us posted on your progress!
Best,
Teresa
