04/28/2019
Do you struggle with your dog's reactivity on walks? Chances are, he or she may be practicing that behavior all day long from home.
One of the first changes I make in the home of a reactive dog is to eliminate their visual access to the street. Am I just a mean person who wants to deprive the dog of patrolling for cats and squirrels? No, I want to reduce the times that the dog practices reactive behavior. Management is the first step in an effective training program.
Each time someone passes your house and your dog barks at them, the barking works. From your dog's perspective, he chased them off. He doesn't know that they were just continuing on their walk, ride, or mail delivery route. He knows that when he barked, they went away.
Say it with me, "DOGS DO WHAT WORKS." If the barking works from your front window, it must work on walks. Hey, look at that! It DOES work on walks! Your dog just made that person with the stroller turn the corner and leave!
Now, instead of covering your windows, you could put a sign in your front yard that says "PLEASE STAND STILL AND WAIT UNTIL THE DOG STOPS BARKING," but we all know that most people don't follow instructions very well, so you might find yourself frustrated by their stubborn lack of compliance. Jerks.
Instead, reduce your dog's visual access to the front of your house (and side, if you live on a corner or along an alley). In our house, we used a frosted glass insert, which still allows light in through the window, but creates enough of a visual barrier that Parker can't see through. It also gives us more privacy.
Other products include adhesive films sold at your local hardware store, which is a temporary and low-cost option. Blinds and drapes may work, but be sure your dog isn't clever enough to push them aside (I once worked with a dog who learned to work the rod of the plantation shutters with her nose)...or worse, persistent enough to just tear right through them.
If your dog is reactive on walks or is aggressive towards visitors, you're still going to have more work to do. But by eliminating visual access to passersby, you are going to reduce opportunities for your dog to practice the unwanted behavior, which is going to make the behavior modification program go more smoothly outside the house.
BUTS
"But, I want my dog to have something to do during the day when I'm gone!" Imagine that you are home alone at night. Suddenly, you hear a would-be intruder rattling the door. You run to the door, large knife in hand, and yell "Get out of here before I call the cops!" Now, repeat this a dozen times through the evening. Relaxed? Feel like you had a full day of fun activities? Not really? Yeah, that's what it's like for your dog. You're better off giving your dog a frozen Kong stuffed with noms to work on for 45 minutes after you leave than to subject him to repeated stress.
There's also the consideration of sleep-deprivation. Dogs suffer from it, too. Your dog needs a considerable amount of sleep during the day - I've read anywhere from 12-14 hours per day. If your dog is only getting 8 hours of sleep at night with you, but the rest of his sleep is constantly interrupted to bark out the window, that is going to have an effect on his overall behavior...and health.
"But, he barks as soon as he hears the noise!" Yes, that's because he's associated the sound with the visual of the perceived intruder. But behavior is driven by consequences, not triggers (antecedents). For a week or two, your dog may hear the delivery truck and run to the window...but, he will no longer see the consequence of his barking. Every single client who had this concern reported that their dog's barking significantly decreased within a short time.
"But, we don't have a solid fence in our yard, I can't cover the whole thing!" I see this a lot with people who have wrought iron or other see-through fences. In such cases, the best course is to not give the dog unsupervised access to the yard. This may mean gating off an area on the side of the house where the fence is solid, or keeping the dog inside, if possible. Given the increase in dogs being stolen from yards lately, it might not be a bad idea to keep your dog inside when you're gone, anyway.
"But, I want my dog to alert me when someone is breaking into my house." Trust me, you are not going to train that away if your dog already has that tendency. Preventing him from barking at the mail carrier is not going to turn him into a burglar's accomplice.
"But, my dog likes to look out the window and never barks." That's great and if you don't have any problems with reactivity on walks, aggressive behavior towards guests who enter your home, your dog may be able to handle that access without any problems.
Just keep an eye on his/her behavior and watch for any signs of change. I once had a dog who didn't have problems for years, but gradually got worse and worse, until one day when he was 7 years-old, I came home to a cracked window and a note from the mail carrier that I was welcome to get a P.O. box if I wished to continue receiving mail.
There's no such thing as always or never in behavior. Like most things in life, prevention is always easier than modification!
"But that's not going to fix reactivity on walks."
No, this step, alone, won't fix reactivity. But it will stop the practice of it when you're not home, which is an important step in the behavior modification process.
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