- Hey everybody, how are you?
Jeff Gellman, Solid K9 Training,
with my What Would Jeff Do Dog? Training Tip of the Day,
tip number 187.
I was taking a morning walk this morning.
And I'm thinking about leash reactivity.
And I'm thinking about some of the phone calls
that I did this week.
And it's a major problem for so many people.
And let me just give a couple of helpful hints here
and tips for some folks that,
like how did it start and what can you do?
I was just thinking that I feel really strongly about,
everything I say obviously,
when you've got a young dog, pre-one years old,
or even if you've just got a dog that's older,
you just get the dog,
and you allow this dog to go up and greet people
and go up and greet other dogs,
which is normal by the way,
like you want your dog to be friendly,
you want your dog to be social,
you wanna show people that you have a dog,
I mean I get it.
I get the whole concept.
The issue is a lot of times
between nine and 12 months of age,
a lot of these dogs that all of the sudden
just like flip a switch.
And they go from the excitement of seeing people
to now more audible and more pulling,
and what might look aggressive.
Or when they finally see people,
they, they exhibit some aggressive behavior.
That doesn't mean it's aggression.
But I'm just, a lot of people misinterpret it.
But either way it doesn't matter.
It's not acceptable behavior and it freaks you out.
So what started out as cute,
ends up turning maybe not so cute.
We see that a lot of times.
Same thing with a dog that maybe you just get,
it's older, that for the first couple of weeks
it seems social, but then all of the sudden,
it's not as social.
Now, socialization of your dog with humans
and dogs is obviously important.
But this is a different category.
And I'm not saying don't socialize.
But on the streets, on the walk,
having your dog meet all of these people
is not what our idea of socialization is.
And the issue for most of the leash reactivity
that we see, a lot of the time, it's just excitement.
So,
but you don't want that either.
You don't want this once 20 to 30 to 40 pound dog
that's now bigger to be excited on a leash.
Or if you have a small breed dog you don't want it.
They get more audible, they pull more.
They're more dramatic.
They get, they get more, you know,
theatrical if you wanna say that.
So from the very beginning,
we're huge advocates of just teaching your dog
how to properly walk next to you on a leash,
quietly, and, when I say focused on the handler,
that doesn't mean competition heel focus.
Because you can't do that for long periods of time.
And it's not practical for most dogs or people.
What I mean by that is,
is sort of become everything to your dog
and tune everything out.
Now if you want your dog to meet other dogs and people
that would be a separate time to do that.
But the walk is not for that.
The walk is actually for, for work.
So just think about that on the walk about
which one do you want.
And then some folks are like,
well I'm struggling with massive leash reactivity now.
But I just want to be able to walk up to other dogs
and it be polite, or walk up to people and be polite.
In concepts, that's, that's a good idea, right.
And there's so many dogs out there
that probably can do it.
Remember, all my information is skewed
on the clients that we get.
The issue is,
when you meet the people they might do something
that might get your dog too excited.
Or maybe they might make a bad choice.
Sticking their face in your dog's face.
Or when you meet the other dog,
that dog might start getting really really rambunctious.
Next thing you know you've got
leashes wrapped around your legs.
And then dogs can't properly greet.
And it looks like, it looks like aggression.
So just be super careful.
Let's turn the walk into like, a job.
Jeff Gellman, Solid K9 Training.
Madly in love with you.