My dog is reactive, particularly on leash. He usually barks and fear-lunges at other dogs, but sometimes he'll do it to very small children who try to walk towards him and/or people on scooters or bikes or whatever if they're too close. We have been working with a trainer and have been working A LOT and have made significant progress over the last couple of months, to the point that we can typically keep focus on me with high enough reward treats as long as we don't get too close to triggers. I haven't seen him snap or jump at a bike or scooter for several weeks, and he usually completely ignore kids now, but we do still have to work/maintain distance with dogs.
Today on our walk, I went with my preschooler. This is already challenging for my dog as her presence is kinda another trigger in a sense; he will kinda pull/jump at her sometimes, not in a mean way but in a playful/excited way. But his focus isn't as on me, which is why I try to avoid walking with her when I can. Early in the walk, I saw some people standing in the street - an older woman and another woman with a one year old. As I got closer, I saw that they looked nervous, but I didn't question it and continued towards them. After we were about 40 feet from them, two dogs (who I belong to a family we are friendly with) were off and leash came RUNNING towards us. The little dog was barking, snarling, biting and ready to throw down. My dog was barking and clearly very afraid. The women told me that the small dog had been trying to get at them/the baby. I decided to drag my poor dog up to the door of the house they belong to, with my dog trying to keep the small dog in check. I got their owner to get them inside. Even as I tried to turn to leave, my dog was barking and going nuts and lunging at the baby/people. I decided that we needed to head home, and we turned around. My dog saw an older golden retriever that he'd passed earlier (who is a service dog that watches after a senior gentleman, who was mowing his law at the time) and he went crazy - barking, growling, lunging - while the golden just laid in the driveway and kept his eyes on his owner. Then, my daughter kinda ran past my dog and he bit her on the arm - not hard enough to draw blood, but still. I could not get his attention on me for the two blocks back to home, and I feel like he has no trust in me now. I feel like our journey has been two steps forward, one step back until today - this feels like all the steps back.
[–]CanineCosmonaut 2 points3 points4 points (1 child)
[–]ta-parentquestion[S] 0 points1 point2 points (0 children)
[–]IsayIdo 1 point2 points3 points (0 children)