We train hundreds of reactive dogs each year and this is how we do dog introductions with them. Keep in mind that you should never do a dog intro if your dog is still lunging and acting aggressively towards other dogs. You need to get a handle on that behavior first. This video is for when you are at the point in your dog’s training where they can pass other dogs and are doing fairly well, but you still don’t trust them fully around other dogs.
Before starting this process make sure that you teach your dog heel. Once your dog has learned the foundational heel, we will use it to condition them to be calmer around other animals. Make sure you start from a far distance away and eventually work your way closer. If you do not feel comfortable passing another dog on the sidewalk, they are not ready for intros.
We started off this video today by having each dog walk past each other and side-by-side. This is always a good way to start if you have concerns just to make sure the dogs are comfortable being close to each other without actually getting to sniff each other.
Once this goes well, we work on butt sniffs. We start here as there is less likely to be issues than if you go directly face-to-face too fast. Walking them in the heel command during this process helps keep everyone calm and less edgy.
It is important to not rush this process, especially if your dog has a ton of behavioral issues. In this video everything went very well, but sometimes it might take multiple sessions in order to trust your dog. Once they have received sniffing well, we will flip the roles and have the other dog sniff.
Once we see everything that we’re looking for, we will then progress the face-to-face sniffs. Even if the other steps went well it is not guaranteed that there will be no issues here. So please make sure you are working on small baby steps before moving on. It is important to pay attention to the dogs’ body language, and of course, keep the leashes on at all times until you fully trust them.
This last step that we mention can take place immediately or could take days if you are unsure. Once you are ready, take off the leashes and let them play!
If you have any questions regarding leash reactivity, or how to do dog intros, please drop a comment below!
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20 дек 2023