04/05/2026
Piggles remembers every house where a dog has barked at him.
To walk out from home we have to pass a house with multiple Belgian shepherds (show not working).
In the early days with piggles, passing these dogs became a THING. He’d get ready to bark / lunge a couple of houses in advance… stiffened gait / heckles / grumbles. Even if the Belgians weren’t visible he’d be tense and if things (bikes, horses, motorbikes) he could ignore in a different location passed by they became his substitute target.
Anyway, at some point I decided to NOT walk past this house anymore until I could make some progress with training… focussing on reinforcing behaviours specifically incompatible with barking, eg head against leg “CLOSE”, paw on foot “ZIG” Also, pouring love and reps into heeling, spins, backwards, positions, position transitions, building a positive response / association to “SHHH” and clarity to “YES” and “NO”. Thanks to my job Piggles gets a tonne of play, sniffs, new places and outings … in his prime his skill was jumping. Basically, I feel confident all his needs are more than met in every department… and there’s no chance his reactivity is due to lack of exercise / experience / training etc.
This video happened just because I had my daughter for company to capture it. I didn’t feel confident posting it because I was conflicted by how he’s not perfect and people expect him to be perfect because of what I do… but also because I still cringe about posting anything. Ultimately, I’ve shared this as this is the reality of life with a dog who actually LIKES a bark.
In my opinion his “reactivity” isn’t purely fear based… I think he is fearful of some things but with others he’s just proactively up for it.
In my most positive frame of mind this clip is good… his outburst at seeing one of the Belgians wasn’t off the scale and he did re-focus pretty quickly. Of course I’d love for him to feel great about the Belgians but I honestly don’t think that’s going to happen 🖤
