for some background: Abbie is leash reactive and a super high, over the top anxiety dog. Her anxiety is so high that whenever we go any place new, she is constantly scanning the environment around her for possible threats. She whines and whimpers and has a hair trigger during these times. She's not a meek - go cower in the corner kind of a dog. She meets "threats" head on - the best defense is a good offense, type of thing. Off leash, when she can control the situation, she is typically more relaxed, however, she still has a threshold that I have to be aware of.
I've tried a number of different trainers (and classes) from the time she was about 6 months old. Lately, we have been using Control Unleashed techniques along with seeing a vet behaviorist. My one-on-one trainer decided not too long ago that there was enough interest between her students and our agility club members that she would hold a class. Now that the class is over (she has since had 2 other CU classes too with other students), us "graduates" meet every 2 weeks to a month at various places around town to practice and reinforce the behaviors we need. We're really pretty lucky imo!
Anyway, Abbie is currently on prozac and L-theanine. She had a DAP collar but that didn't last long since she goes swimming practically every other day. I may order some DAP spray but haven't totally decided yet.
So, since Abbie is super high anxiety, she doesn't make the same progress as the other dogs. The other dogs that were in my class have all improved by leaps and bounds - leaving us in the dust. I have to go super slow with Abbie but we have still made a lot of progress imo.
Today we started out in a parking lot at MSU. No distractions for the most part and 3 dogs total - Abbie, our trainers Dobe and another dog that I can't think of the breed atm! I sat in the shade with Abbie's blanket and just did mat work while the other 2 dogs worked off some distance away doing "there's a dog in your face", "Parallel walking" and so forth.
Before leaving the parking lot, Abbie and I worked on standing in the shade while 1 dog (and then the other) walked toward us, stopped, then walked away. Abbie got jackpot treats while the dogs were walking toward us, and while they were stopped, then I didn't give any treats while the dogs were walking away. After doing this a few times, Abbie started to give a look like "hey, why are they walking away?" Exactly what we want. We did this 3x per dog, shortening the distance where the dog stopped near us - but always at least 2 leash lengths away.
Next we drove in to campus further to walk the river trail - which is a paved trail that goes through campus along the river. It's used by a lot of walkers, bike riders, roller bladers, joggers and students. The location we picked has a little waterfall rapid area where people tend to congregate. The 2 other dogs walked ahead of us (parallel walking) and Abbie and I walked some distance behind. She did really good and earned some attention from passing families - which she loves.
Up a ways, the other dogs would practice spinning and I just stood there with abbie watching the action, feeding her treats as a reward for staying calm. After all of this I let her go for a swim in the river, again as a reward. (actually she got a bigger reward by way of herding ducks in the river but that's another story). On our way back, Abbie and I were able to parallel walk with both other dogs! We practiced turning, coming at each other then walking away, changing our paces, letting one dog walk ahead then fall back and so forth. It was amazing. She really did fantastic. By the end (and after the duck herding) she was prancing around on the leash without a care in the world. What a difference! This is a dog who before this would lunge, bark, snap and just go crazy in general at the sight or sound of another dog while she was on leash. So, to have her so relaxed was just huge.
Just before we got back to the car, a family with a border collie was coming our way. I pulled Abbie to the side and fed her jackpot treats while they approached. They even stopped right in front of us (not 6 ft away) and Abbie didn't react. She was paying attention to the other dog for sure, but she never left her sit position and never reacted. When the family moved on I stopped feeding treats. Whew!!
What an awesome day.
This program really seems to be working for her (along with the medication of course). I've seen it work for a number of other dogs too that are much less reactive and anxious than she is. I highly recommend buying the DVD and reading the book for those with similar issues!