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Sudden onset reactivity... Need some ideas


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I have taken Rievaulx to group agility classes for the last three weeks and he is horrendously motion reactive. He barked as a puppy but I have not had the lunging, and yelling before. The group I am with is a bunch of very intense border collies, and he is feeding off that energy.

Last week I tried working out of the car, worked for the first sequence by the last I should have just quit.

This is a dog who would lay beside me off leash and not move, yes he would watch and give an occasional bark, had no issues in USDAA pairs....

 

Normally I would take a crate and cover him, but right now I don't have that option. The crate I flew him here in is far to large to fit in my mothers car, and I don't want to buy a soft crate as we are still traveling.

 

Looking for ideas, as I am starting to think it is a bad idea to go back, as it's not really fun and he is learning to be a shit.

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I know, I am just in a rather awkward position of being invited to join an advanced group class at a club for the short time I am in the area and not really able to work on those type of exercises in that environment. Basically he is over threshold from the moment we approach the barn doors, the intense energy of the other dogs has really done him in.

As an example when I set him up to start the first sequence, silence, but intense concentration from the peanut gallery of 4 other border collies, as soon as I said ok they erupted in a chorus.

The irony is that this happened at a time his social skills have improved amazingly, no reacting on leash to strange dogs, I have taken him to pubs, he meets new dogs everyday, he can be asked to pass strange dogs without engaging, as I have been able to expose him to more and more new things he has just gone with the flow, today I took him to a local horse show, and he handled himself like a pro... Take him to agility an environment he has been in since a puppy and he loses it.

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it might be just too much change for him right now. You're traveling, there's all these new stimuli - smells, people, new kinds of sounds, a brand new environment. With all that's new in his world, and keeps changing, it sounds to me like he's just over the edge. And he might be that way until you're settled in one place for a while.

 

I don't have any suggestions beyond working to keep as much stable as you can.

 

Ruth and Agent Gibbs, and in memory of Shoshone, who thought all change meant doom.

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I am so sorry to hear this. From your previous descriptions of Rievaulx, I was quite jealous of how calm and well-adjusted he was. You had done such good work with him.

 

I (like Ruth) think that he may be more reactive because his life is not consistent right now. Not that he is not happy, but he may just be a bit more on edge, so it will take less to send him over threshold.

 

I am really surprised to hear your description of how the BCs in class react. From reading about the agility community as posted by mum24dog, I got the idea (mistakenly?) that all events (trials, classes, etc) were much calmer across the pond. I hope that she reads your post and chimes in.

 

Personally, my experience has been that if a dog misbehaves such as you describe for the BCs in class (and yes, I would call that misbehaving), the owner/handler (not you, the other handlers) would walk the dog away, and in the future, work to prevent that rude behavior.

 

I would be curious to know how these same dogs act at a trial.

 

I don't have any advice you probably haven't thought of already. Bring him back to foundation training for calmness. Unfortunately, if you don't get some cooperation in class, you may have to stop going so R doesn't get worse.

 

Good Luck.

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I was wondering the same thing, if maybe this was just to straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. He's been through so many changes recently -- and overall done so well with them -- that the excitement from the other dogs just set him off.

 

I'm curious . . . how did the handlers of the other dogs who went ballistic react? Did they allow their dogs to continue acting like that? If so, while I do think it could be helpful to enlist them in helping you with this, if their dogs can't behave, then I don't think it's a good idea to continue putting him in situations where he's so far over threshold. Either giving him a break from agility training for a while and/or going to a quieter foundations class where you can work with him would be my thoughts, too.

 

Best wishes figuring this out.

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I know, I am just in a rather awkward position of being invited to join an advanced group class at a club for the short time I am in the area and not really able to work on those type of exercises in that environment. Basically he is over threshold from the moment we approach the barn doors, the intense energy of the other dogs has really done him in.

As an example when I set him up to start the first sequence, silence, but intense concentration from the peanut gallery of 4 other border collies, as soon as I said ok they erupted in a chorus.

The irony is that this happened at a time his social skills have improved amazingly, no reacting on leash to strange dogs, I have taken him to pubs, he meets new dogs everyday, he can be asked to pass strange dogs without engaging, as I have been able to expose him to more and more new things he has just gone with the flow, today I took him to a local horse show, and he handled himself like a pro... Take him to agility an environment he has been in since a puppy and he loses it.

 

Ah, I see. I didn't realize the circumstances. In your shoes I might just not take the class to not have to deal with the headache.

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Looks like you are all thinking along the same lines I am... It is a shame as the club is a great group of people and it has been fun for me to watch them train and chat with them about their dogs, so I was hoping that someone would have a great idea I had not thought of :).... Other than a crate, I am at a loss. When he was young I spent a lot of time working on this as he hated it when I ran Brody, but that was jealousy this is hard core reactivity.

He will work for me when another dog is running: I used Michael Ellis capping drive concept when he was young to try and teach him to think while excited, I able to play those type of tug games while the other dogs are running, but he is then to amped up to be able really concentrate on the finer points of an agility course.

I have never revved him up before a run, I found that by staying calm I had a thinking dog, tug is a reward.

 

I was hoping that agility would offer him some fun that was familiar to him, we have often trained in new environments and with different dogs so I was not expecting such an extreme response.

 

Regarding the local dogs, there are 4 border collies and one working cocker spaniel, the 4 collies lie there vibrating and although Rievaulx is by the far the most over the top, the others are all right on the edge. The owners really don't seemed bothered by Rievaulxs antics, even though they horrify me.

 

What I have noticed is how calm "regular" dogs are, everyday we go for a walk down the seafront, it is about 50/50 dogs on leash or off, most dogs just trot by each other, greetings are simple affairs a quick sniff and onwards, sometimes it's obvious they want to play so I will let Rievaulx play and then we move on. Over the last couple of weeks I have met a lot of very well socialized dogs and the ones who aren't are kept on leash and away from others dogs.

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I have many friends in Europe. I find it always interesting too to see how much more part of life the dogs are. I don't know if better behaved is the word. Maybe it is the expectations of society if the dog is to be an active part of it. The access and everyday life.

 

Either way, to me, it sounds like your boy is just maybe a bit overwhelmed as well. I can read some surprise and confusion in your posts. So I suppose it is fair enough for him to feel it too.

A soft crate that you can fold up would not work?

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It sounds like a challenge. If I were in your position I might try mat work and just generally increasing distance. I might try a head halter as well depending on the situation.

 

I would work loads on Overall's Relaxation Protocol: http://www.dogdaysnw.com/doc/OverallRelaxationProtocol.pdf

 

I would also suggest trying to track down a travel/collapsible crate if at all possible. You may be able to pick one up second hand, use it briefly then turn around and sell it again. Or buy one new and turn around and sell it.

 

My girl also has a few issues watching some of the 'flashier' BCs running in agility and flyball. She's probably a great deal calmer than your boy, but I manage it by working very closely with her working on targeting and other simple, fun tricks while turned away from the ring while I wait my turn.

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Soft crate would be the answer but I just don't want to buy anything right now and add to the absurd amount of stuff we have. Do you know how small European cars are!!

Sekah, thanks for the link but our problem is very specific and without a crate, I think I am up the creek, Rievaulxs self control is pretty impressive, we have been working on it endlessly since he was a puppy, but it does not translate well to another dog running agility in this barn.

The barn is small, I thought about using a mat but it does not get away from the yelling as there is no way to prevent him from seeing. As he is a dog that throws his entire being into everything he does, there is no such thing as low key trick training even touch becomes should we say dynamic which is why I have always worked on staying calm before runs, so he is not over excited.

Thanks for the input guys.

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Dear Ms. Alligande,

 

I don't know how often your Rievaulx travels nor where but travel is stressful for dogs under the best circumstances. While I am willing to increase my dog's travel stress with trial stress, I am cautious and attentive and it may be that sheep and sheepwork are more (dog) universal/familiar than agility training classes.

 

If you enjoy the class and he does not, why not leave him behind?

 

Donald McCaig

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Soft crate would be the answer but I just don't want to buy anything right now and add to the absurd amount of stuff we have. Do you know how small European cars are!!

 

There are some nylon pop-up crates that pack down to about the size of a frisbee if that would work with your space constraints.

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