The second class definitely sounds better for him than the first. I’ll share a few things I learned. For the scared reactive dog the function of the behavior is to make the scary thing go away so when the dog is removed from the situation or the other dog goes away while your dog is reacting the behavior is “rewarded”. If your dog “freaks out” in class and you remove him back to the room the “freaking out” behavior is rewarded. I’m not saying don’t remove him, I think it is the right thing to do in that emergency situation but do realize that it is reinforcing the behavior. This is why you want to stay “under threshold”. If sees the other dog and he doesn’t react than “mark” that non reactive behavior and take him back in the room (which reinforces the non reactive behavior) and reinforce with food/play. BAT is effective as it uses both a functional and operent R+ when the dog disengages.
I found that a calming cap, now called thunder cap, helped facilitate learning by dampening the visual stimuli. I still use this on Jack when I have to take him to the vet for example. I know he will be over threshold in that situation.
Other authors I can rec are Emma Parsons Click to Calm which shares her journey with her reactive dog Ben and Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt.
watch the videos found here http://dogmantics.com/free-video-list/reactivity-and-barking/
and scope you tube for stuff by Sophia Yin and Jean Donaldson and Patricia McConnell
Best of Luck
1 month, 2 weeks ago
