How would you handle this?

[whiskers]

When Juno and I got back from our walk this afternoon, my brother was at my house with his 2 boxers and they were hanging out in the front yard. Now Juno gets really excited around all dogs, but there is something about my brother's dogs that just sends her over the moon. I mean we were still like 2 houses away, but the moment she saw them her whole body started wiggling and she jumped to the end of the leash.... all the wonderful LLW and attention work we had just been practicing went out the window. :rolleyes: Any other dogs and I would have been able to refocus her, but she just can't control herself around these two.

So after a bunch of u-turns and hoping we could walk to them with a loose leash--at this point I didn't care about her energy level or where she was walking, I just didn't want to be dragged across the street--I put her in a sit/stay and had them walk over to us. She does "fine" with this, I mean her body was still wiggling with excitement and she was ready to launch herself at any moment, but she is capable of holding the stay.

What would you do in that situation? I obviously couldn't avoid my own house. But they just get her too riled up, I don't think there was any way I could have trained my way through that situation, no way was she in a state of mind to learn anything. I wonder if I should have just let her off and accepted that she might always be that way around them--she doesn't see them very often so not a huge deal. She's never that bad with other dogs so I suppose it might not have screwed up our training in that regard. I don't know. It felt like a losing battle and was a horrible end to such a great walk.

 

[hanley]

Sorry, I don't see this as a horrible end to a good walk. I would be happy & let her play with them, its obvious the way you described her behavior she was happy to see them. It could always be worse, let her have a little fun.

 

[Sansal]

I think you handled it well I am amazed you were able to put her in sit stay! When something like that happens while I'm on a walk with Happy and Sky I usually just say "okay let's run", or "chase me" to make it seem like I want to run with them! If it's a situation where you can let the dog off leash I would have probably just done that, what a great reward for a great walk!

 

[larrygs]

I agree, you did really good! Juno is still pretty young, and oh so hard to control those impulses to play. Keep at it.

If you had treats at the time perhaps the following may help. You might try to just stand still rather than u-turns and wait. She will eventually look back at you. If she is like Layla, probably with a look of impatience. When she does, offer a treat for her to return to you, then proceed walking again. She probably will lunge right away, so repeat,... and repeat.

I also provide treats at random times when she walks nicely with me. I also do the u-turns you mentioned, however when she is certain about where we are going it becomes less effective.

We go through something similar with Layla at her three favorite places: dog parks, day care, and agility center. Sure takes a while to get somewhere, but she is definitely getting better. We are nearly loose leash all the time, in spite of her excitement.

 

[TwoDogs]

From a training perspective what you did was absolutely excellent! In the face of sudden and extreme distractions, you modified the exercise to a level that Juno could still be successful. Additionally, you were able to reinforce a nice sit-stay with a highly meaningful "life reward". Good job for you!

 

[whiskers]

If you had treats at the time perhaps the following may help. You might try to just stand still rather than u-turns and wait. She will eventually look back at you. If she is like Layla, probably with a look of impatience. When she does, offer a treat for her to return to you, then proceed walking again. She probably will lunge right away, so repeat,... and repeat.

I had treats with me, that I had been giving her throughout the walk and that she is normally quite fond of... but she wanted noooo part of those treats when she saw Darby and Brodie! Her mind was just gone. She actually got into a play bow in the middle of the street and started whining and whining, and she actually LUNGED... she has a history of pulling towards other dogs but that was the first time she's launched herself to the end of the leash!

I just don't know what it is about those two that makes her so ballistic . They really don't even play with her, they're so bonded with each other that they will play together, but Juno is usually the 3rd wheel and she just chases them around trying to get in the middle. And for some reason, 5 minutes in the backyard with them wears her out more than 2 hours at the dog park does. It baffles me!!

Thanks for the input! If we're in the situation again in the future, I'll just let her go... even though we were still down the street she undoubtedly would have ran right to them. You're right, that reward is definitely much more meaningful to her than any treats in the world, and any amount of "go sniff" time! I'm impressed she obeyed the sit/stay as well . Admittedly that's the command I've put the least amount of work into, and yet I think it's actually the most solid one.