It’s Working

Our guy has been reactive from day 1 when we adopted him. We have had issues with dogs approaching us and had to do so so so much training.

The other day we were walking on a path along the river which has one section that borders a dog park. As we get into that section three dogs start charging toward the fence and I practiced just walking confidently and not tensing up or reacting myself either.

One poodle type dog, a golden retriever, and a husky mix are all charging and barking and growling and lunging and what does my reactive staffy do? Looks right at me and keeps trotting along. Such a gangster move, and even marked the fence while they were still reacting.

I couldn’t believe it! I was prepared to have to manage him and pull him away and do the whole dance were so used to doing. But thanks to all the exposure training and the calm management and reinforcement of looking at me for direction, he has grown in confidence and we’ve had a lot of wins lately which has been so encouraging.

For those who are discouraged and seeing slow or little progress, keep going! It takes a long time and make sure to celebrate the little wins.

Edit: Dog Tax