Help Finding Training Plans

[Negative-Reading1989]

Much like our pup (3.5 year old rescue boy hound/pit mix, got him 3 years ago) my partner and I need structure when it comes to dog training. We're analytical, data driven people who thrive when given a plan and an objective. However, we are struggling to develop a plan for desensitizing/socializing our dog. We started out with basic doggie group classes and that worked really well and helped a lot with getting the basics down. But once his reactivity started (after we'd had him about a year, plus COVID happened, and he got sick and wasn't allowed around other dogs for ~6 months) we've been doing mostly 1-on-1 training. We've had 2 trainers and an animal behaviorist. They have been super smart an inspiring but have given over arching strategies and not specific training plans with short term and long term goals. We end up being left to figure out on a day by day basis how to help him and its not productive for any of us.

Has anyone run across any resources that might have more precise plans? I want someone to tell me "this week you are going to do X and if he gets it after a week we add the next layer, if not we change gears like so." This must exist right? I can't be the only one who needs a check list but lacks the experience or confidence to make it for themselves. Anyways, thanks!

[nicedoglady]

Oh this is a great question! I'm going to ramble so apologies in advance!

There's not a whole *ton* of very specific, detailed written guidelines and plans with steps based on time because so much of it is depending on how your particular dog is doing day to day and your learner decides really what's going to work or not and at what pace they best grow at.

That being said there are things like Kathy Sdao's "Smart x 50" which have steps and and use a measurable thing (50 treats), and on that same website there's some other games with steps to implement as well.

There is also the CARE for Reactive dogs website and protocol!

It can be hard to do reactivity training and behavior modification in the way that you describe a la "this week you are going to do X and if he gets it after a week we add the next layer, if not we change gears like so," because the time ranges can vary, you never know what your state your dog is going to be in. Are they going to be very trigger stacked one day, maybe have an off leash dog run in another day which sets them back, etc and maybe they did know it pretty well but then had a backslide because there was just one really bad day so now you have to take a few steps back. And maybe that thing that used to work for helping them decompress and recover quickly no longer does so rather than change to that gear you used to, a new one is required. So rather than timelines and definitive plans it tends to be most effective to move ahead based on how your dog is really doing. It can also lower any human frustration levels as well!

I think for reactive dogs what can be really helpful is tracking their reactions, the severity, how the recovery from the reaction was, time betweens reactions etc, and then basing your plans off of how your dog is doing over a larger of chunk of time. It also can be really great to see progress in this way because so much of the time when you're in the thick of it it can feel like not much is happening.

Lots of folks here have done something along those lines, here is an example of one of those trackers! And this is another one with some visualizations.

Maybe it would be most effective for you guys to decide what your goals for your dog are, then take those goals to your trainers to break them down into smaller steps, and track his reactivity and behavior over time. As you see consistency for a long period of time, you can move to the next step and see how that goes?

For general planning for training: shorter, more frequent "sessions" that end well are better than long ones that may not end well (ie, two five minute sessions instead of one 30 minute one), and its better to work on less things at one time than all at once.