lostforgottensoul
MyPTSD Pro
Also don’t disregard simply “hanging out” with doggo in busy public spaces, to normalise a lot of the things that doggo is getting over-stimulated by. Go to the markets and just sit with a coffee with doggo sitting around beside you. Bus stops, outside grocery stores. Literally just get doggo to hang out calmly in public places.
Yes, this! We did this first. We hung out outside of my apartment complex first with a ton of kids and lots of stuff going on. I got a mat for him to lay on and I put a chair out there for me and we did a downstay starting at 5 mins and worked on duration up to an hour before anything else.
While I did that, I also built engagement into our life at every turn. Anything he wanted, he only got by engaging with me or focusing on me first. And not the thing he wanted. We built this up during exercise when he was super excised about his toy. He got it by stopping focusing on it and focusing on me instead. Thats the only time I threw it. We still do that but we do off leash commands now.
Turn them into fun engagement games. Many videos out there about that.
And then we worked in parking lots, further way from the busy areas and worked our way into those busy areas slowly.
Usually, a bark is when the dog is over stimulated like what @Sideways said. It is too much. Back up. Before the bark, before even too much distraction.
So, as an example, aim for a 5-10 minute session where doggo finds it easy to totally nail his good behaviour, rather than trying to get doggo to last long sessions.
Yep. And would do a lot of focus and engagement activities. Rest, go back to it. So say ten 5 min sessions back to back with rest time in between is better then one 1 hr long session.
Reward fast and do jackpot reward when you have great focus. Reward back to back.
Learn great marker training and use a clicker if you can.
I need higher value treats,
Real meat. I use lunchmeat. Not the best idea but easier for me to get my hands on. Try cut up real small pieces of turkey or chicken. Boiled chicken is best but just harder for me to get.