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Kennedy

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Everything posted by Kennedy

  1. I am betting there was some small signs that the children and you missed. I know with my BC hers are tiny and I have learned to read them, Ears back, licking of lips, pulling away. As far as the biting I would say don't allow children to pet her or interact for long periods, with mine she puts up with it for a bit but she was not tolerate most kids roughly petting her and will rely on me to keep her comfortable.
  2. Thanks everyone! I have been taking her over to the new area there is a nice park over there, which is quite busy but she does super well there cause we are able to keep some distance and leash law is super enforced so no random dogs running up! I am thinking due to her reactiveness I might put her in with her doggie daycare people those days of actually move just to help her run out some extra energy before coming to a new place. They work with me and keep her in a small group training style pay group and she loves them
  3. Hi Everyone, So Ellie has been doing so well in all of her trainings and we haven't had any huge reactive outburst lately, but I am moving out of my apartment complex soon for a lot of different reasons. I was hoping to find a rental house with a back yard but nothing is available with in my budget, so it is looking like we are going to end up in another apartment complex. Any tips, tricks, advice on how to make the moving process easier on her?
  4. Hi @dallasbc, Was thinking about you guys today and my walk and realized some other helpful things I have done for ellie that might help dallas. I always read Ellie level of excitement before walks and if i put the leash on and she is going bonkers and whining and to excited we sit on the couch and I don't look at her and look at my phone until she is calm enough then we calmly walk to the door in a heel position and then I make her sit while I open the door and look for triggers then I tell her good to release her. This helps start the walk on a calm tone and also showing that you are leading. And then two other things I keep in my back pocket which are super helpful for redirecting her focus is "Find it " and" touch". I taught Ellie find it by throwing treats (2-3) on the ground and saying find it! in a happy voice. Eventually they will associate this with a good thing and you can use it when dallas is starting to get worked up. I use it sometimes when I dont have treats now and there is a trigger and I need a second to get more. But it is a good way to get her focus off the trigger and back to you or atleast to the ground. The last one touch is a favorites too. It is super simple tell her to touch your closed fist and then she gets a treat. This works as a second recall if needed, the key is to never use this in a negative way. Sometimes ellie doesn't respond to her recall because I use her name when I am upset with her. Touch is always happy and she is always super stoked when I say it !
  5. @Lenie I found a place that does group day training! she goes with 5 other dogs in like a day care setting but they work with all the dogs on different things. Ellies trainer works with her on her confidence in new settings and helps her learn to interact with other dogs with out going over threshold. They describe it better then I do ! Group Day Training - This enrichment program for dogs provides a controlled group for your dog to learn and play in. Offered Mon – Thus and ran by one of Noble Beast professional trainers, your dog will be able to practice proper dog/dog social skills, work on confidence building, body awareness, and basic obedience commands. Great for all kinds of dogs, but especially those impressionable puppies and teenage dogs!
  6. Oh advice on what we have done for corners and doors or other things like this where I can’t see I have taught Ellie to sit and wait while I take a few steps ahead to see and then tell her good and then she continues to walk with me. It just helps to make sure we aren’t running face to face with a trigger! If there is a trigger I have taught her “place” which is where I step back away from the trigger to a safe distance and then have Ellie sit in front of me with my body between her and the trigger and treat until the trigger is gone. My trainer explained when they get to that triggered point we need to hyper keep her attention and treat every good decision even if it is just sitting in front of me. We are the point with this now when we do place I just treat when she gets into it, when the trigger is at a prime point, and when the trigger if gone if she has not reacted. Now she knows any door, corner, any thing we can’t see she has to sit and wait for the okay to walk through
  7. @GentleLake I use Petreleaf the highest dosage and give .25 mgs 2 times a day. I am lucky I live in CO so it is pretty easy to get in almost every pet store. @dallasbc To give you some hope, when I got Ellington it was a whirlwind of a day. I had recently lost my Jack russell foster fail right when I moved to denver and I was heartbroken. I grew up raising german shepards and pretty much have always had a dog in my life. I went to the shelter to donate his things and there was Ellie literally in a kennel going to be put down for the same reasons as Dallas she was labeled as aggressive and has had 3 different homes before she even turned a year old. The shelter thought I was crazy but after explaining to them the experience I had had with dogs let me take a look at her to see if I could even get a leash on her. And for some reason she did and they let me take her home on a trial. Now I took this reactive dog and moved her downtown in the middle of the city so we really had no choice but to get u( yes I know I am stupid). In the beginning it was a lot of management, muzzles, waking up at 4am for walks, hell I even bought a doggie treadmill so she could run in my apt. And it was gaining a lot of trust. We just worked to build trust and structure I first made Ellie sit for everything ( doors opening, food, Toys) just to help her fear and teach her good ways to respond to things. I reached out to a behavioralist right away who started to work with me using a lot of the similar techniques you are using. Lots of treats. We worked at a distance and just every time she looked at something "scary" she got a treat. And slowly started to close the distance with short training sessions and let me tell you this took so much time and was a rollercoaster. She also goes to a "doggie daycare" for problem dogs. She goes with her trainer and 5 other dogs in a small group and works on building confidence and I think this training has helped so much! She gets to watch the other dogs and learn from them and really grow in a way I could never teach her. She has graduated 2 group classes with flying colors and we are working towards her good citizen. But my advice don't take Dallas for long walks where he has a long period to stress out. Take him out in short sessions and train and keep it fun and look for other times to exercise when you know you aren't going to encounter anything that will push him over the threshold. All these training should be short and fun and always end on a good note. I can tell you it gets better. And the meds make a world of difference! You don't know how many nights I cried my eyes out thinking my dog was going to hurt someone and we were going to have to put her down. It isn't going to be a straight line of progress and days like this will shake you. I have had many days like this where I was holding ellie in a corner of the hallway to keep her from lunging at someone cause she was scared. And how embarrassed I was to admit I have a horrible dog that is possibly dangerous. She isnt perfect now we still have our days where she is scared we just take it day by day and problem by problem . P.s she does go off leash in certain areas where I make sure I can see all around
  8. @dallasbc, I really recommend CBD or some type of anxiety meds to help with training. I had to do it with my ellie my rescue and have seen some really good results, she never got the chance to bite someone but we have been close. It just helps her think straight while we work on the behavior stuff she came from a shelter was completely shut down and it took me weeks to just get her to look at me without trying to eat me, and now she is able to walk in a downtown city area and pass other dogs and people, take puppy classes and go on hike, but I have been working with a behavioralist for about 5 months.
  9. Hi Everyone! I just thought I would do a quick update since all your advice about Ellie has really helped and it has been a little over a month. In this month Ellie's socialization/desensitization is going well we still have our moments but overall the fear of everything is getting better slowly every day. We ended up putting her on a low dosage of CBD oil to help with the anxiety in new situations to help aid her training. So much so that she has been able to enjoy watching sunday football games at friend's house and going on longer busy hikes with us on the weekends. Things I would never have been able to do the first 2 months I owned her. She also is still working with a trainer on building her confidence, but she was able to join a regular group puppy class and actually won all the little graduation challenges we have had and got many compliments on how great of a puppy she was and how much trust she has built with me. She also has been learning a lot of cute tricks like walk on two legs, sit pretty, smile, find my phone,weave between my legs, and my favorite nap time. So overall my little impulsive border collie mix is growing up to be a pretty solid stable dog.
  10. I taught mine how to sit pretty first and then taught her to stand from there! Then she learned how to walk on her two hind legs and spin around, it is pretty cute realized after i posted this you were talking about stand on four legs not two lol, i taught her that by having a front clip harness on and when she was sitting take a step back and apply a little pressure to the leash until she stood up then slowly worked to just the leash pressure then to just the command.
  11. Thanks everyone! I am reducing her exercise and am just gonna keep trucking on with the training and confidence building. Hopefully in a couple months, a year, however long we will see a big difference
  12. @Caesg I will give updates cause I think it might help me mentally through this! I talked to her trainer and actually ended up buying her a doggie treadmill, which she adores. That way she can work off some energy indoors in a less stressful environment and when we are outside we can really focus on her reactivity and begin to address it in shorter spans of time.
  13. @Rush Fan I will maybe try a couple days not running her as much and see what happens! @Hooper2 . I hope she grows out of it and is maybe just an angsty teen!
  14. Hi Everyone, About 2 1/2 months ago I accidentally adopted a 50% border collie mix ( peep that pic she is really cute) Ellington woods or Ellie for short. I say accidentally because I really just went to the shelter to donate items and saw that they were going to put her down. So I left with her and didn't have time to think my actions through all the way, emotions took over. I grew up fostering/ raising German shepherds so thought I could handle a dog with some drive. I was told she was about 4-5 years old at the time, while that was a lie my vet thinks she is more along the lines of 12-18 months. He thinks she was so shut down at the shelter she didn't show her true age, I wasn't really prepared for a puppy but I knew I wasn't giving her back now! Over the past 2 months, we have gone to a professional for leash reactivity and I am wondering if it gets any better with age or time. We are really having our ups and downs with this and she gets worked up and barks and lunges at some people and most dogs if I am not careful and managing her behavior. I have seen so much progress but she is still having outbursts( mostly strangers and other dogs) and I am wondering if this will ever go away? To give you an idea of Ellies lifestyle/ routine /what we do to manage. We currently live in an apt a little outside a major city but still a busy area( working on moving just waiting for my lease to be up). I take her out every morning for an hour of fetch with a chuck-it in an off-leash dog area right in front of my apt. She does great off leash there and doesn't go after other dogs. I go to work Monday Tuesday( she goes to a doggie daycare/group day training class from 7am-5pm on Tuesdays) Thursday and for a couple hours on Friday. When I get home from work we normally do a quick potty break, it is just to busy outside for her to not react at this time for a long walk. I then take her upstairs where we do some training for about an hour ( mostly basics right now and impulse control). Then after it calms down outside we go outside for another 1-2 to run/play fetch/bike. When we do walk though she is pretty reactive and I work a lot on watch me and always reward with hotdogs with she walks by calmly. We do a lot of engage and disengage where if she looks and somthing and calmly looks back to be she gets treats. And if it is not another dog of person scaring her (example those bird scooters) I ask her what is it and when she smells it and comes back gets treats. We try to keep the walks short and just focus on training and trying to keep it fun. Am I missing any that I could be doing more to help her along? Or is she a dog that just should not live in the city ?She is such a sweet dog to me and the people that know her I would just love for everyone to see the smart sweet side of her. ( or at least for her to not try to eat them)
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