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Brandy reminded me of something today: Remember to scout out the lay of the land before proceeding with a reactive dog! I was getting ready to take Nico to his chiropractor (Anne Crawshaw), and decided I’d take Brandy for a quick walk/loose-leash-walking training session before we “abandoned” her (left her behind with a pig’s ear). Brandy has been doing so well on our practice walks that I haven’t been using the front-clip harness, just her buckle collar.
So out we go, nice pause and eye contact at the door and “Let’s go!” followed by a click and a treat for staying next to me down the steps. Clicks and treats for staying close down the driveway. Same for going along the front yard… … and then Brandy saw “Barney-’cross-the-street” (also known as “Sir Barks Alot”) outside of his front door, in between two cars (where I hadn’t seen him). We were just across the street from him, so less than 30′ away. She barked, and raced toward Barney, and I had just enough time to brace myself before she hit the end of the leash… … except she just barely pulled when she got to the end of the leash, then turned immediately toward me. Click and treat and reverse direction and praise while we took 2 steps back the way we came, so that the other dog was once again hidden behind a car. Seeing how attentive she was to me (although also obviously aroused), I turned our loose-leash-walking training session into a reactive-dog training session, walking back and forth along our front yard (in and out of view of Barney-’cross-the-street), and she didn’t react again (except with some glances and aroused body language) . Not even when one of Barney’s owners came out and gruffly talked to him and brought him back inside… (Barney had been barking a bit at Brandy.) All in all, although we did have obvious reactivity when Brandy first saw her arch rival, it was a very successful training session.  (Brandy’s been able to ignore Barney-’cross-the-street most of the time when we’re just going out the door to go around to our fenced back yard, but this is the first time in a while we’ve been that close when he’s been out.) While all’s well that ends well, it did remind me that I should be paying more attention to our surroundings, no matter how good Brandy’s been…. Better prepared than surprised. |
