Are you disheartened by your dog’s barking, lunging and overall difficult behavior on walks? If so, you are in good company. Judging by the number of dogs that morph into maniacs when they see me walking or jogging by with my terrier, Jonesy, it seems like over 50% of the dog population must suffer from this behavioral affliction.
How can this situation be turned around? The trick is not some vague recommendation to be more confident or to be a leader, rather the solution is in specific techniques and skills. Skills that can be practiced in drills like a sport, such as appropriate walking pace using well-timed bursts of speed, footwork for providing clear information during direction changes, correct posture, quick treat delivery speed, methods for gaining good focus on walks and for improving overall impulse control.
If you already have the DVD, Skills for Handling Your Reactive or Hyperactive Dog—A Workshop for Developing Focus and Impulse Control PART 1: Essential Exercises, you know how critical correct technique is, and how a split second of slow walking pace or poor treat delivery speed can allow the loss of focus that lets your dog to go ballistic when with improved skill you could have kept him happy and calm.
We’re pleased to announce the release of Part 2 of the live-recorded DVD Reactive Dog Workshop. This DVD builds upon the Part 1 exercises and helps you take your reactive dogs on walks while dealing with the emergency situations that may rise.
What are people saying about the workshop, DVD, and techniques and how might it help you? Here’s what one reactive dog owner, Natalie Karst said,
“We learned the techniques a couple of years before this DVD came out, through one-on-one consults and Sophia’s classes, and have used them constantly since then. Five years later, we still use them whenever we encounter stressful situations such as a lunging aggressive leashed dog encountered on a walk. Thanks to Sophia’s training, our dog rarely reacts to things these days, but it is still nice to have ways to manage his behavior and sense of security when something does worry him. The DVD would have been great to have when we were learning. It not only explains and teaches the techniques but fills in around the edges of the techniques – why the technique is used, how it works to calm and focus a reactive dog. And the fine points of the technique that can seem trivial to someone new to training but, as the DVD demonstrates, are actually critical. The training isn’t rote exercises to be memorized. It is skills to learn that are then adaptable to your dog’s particular situation.
Learning Dr. Yin’s techniques for managing your reactive dog opens up the world to your dog. Where once we could hardly walk our dog through the neighborhood, we now take him on walks to many far more challenging places, including the home improvement store on weekdays when there is room for us to use Sophia’s techniques if something worries him (like scary talking Halloween decorations!).”
Cindy Dean, who also owns reactive dogs that appears to the public as just well-behaved dogs on walks, states,
“The techniques covered in the workshop about how to get away from a difficult situation and then how to make it a positive experience has made such a difference with both of our dogs. Without the techniques it would have been very difficult to take my two large dogs to as many places as we do now. It would have been more scary to take our dogs out, especially since I was fearful myself of the situation. With the techniques that Dr. Yin has provided I’ve become much more confident, much calmer, which has an impact on how our dogs behave and react. We still have [some training to complete] but it’s made a huge difference as far as how responsive the dogs are and in turning negative situations or possible fearful situations for them into positive experiences. I think that everyone needs to become more in tune with dogs and how they learn so that we can become better leaders and help them be confident in any situation so that they always have a positive experience. [That way] we can give them the best life that they deserve.”
What Will You Learn in this PART 2 DVD?
In this continuation of Part 1, you’ll learn: to apply quick and precise treat delivery technique to heeling exercises; to provide body language that gives clear direction on walks; how to guide your dog from one exercise to the next fluidly and in rapid succession the way a dancer leads his partner through a series of different moves. Step-by-step exercises are demonstrated, such as flash-lure drills, speed, posture, movement and situational reaction drills, first with humans-only and then with handlers working with their reactive dogs. For more details, download the DVD’s cover and insert here.
What’s On the DVD?
- Walking Speed, About-turns and U-turns (humans only)
- Focused Walking Using Repeat Sits on the Left or Right Side (humans only)
- Using Targeting to Keep Dogs Engaged
- Methods for Getting Dogs to Focus when Heeling on Walks: Repeat Sits on Left Side versus Targeting
- Impulse Control: “Leave-it” by Blocking
- Highly Distracting or Emergency Situations: Combining the Repeat Sit Backward and Heeling at Attention Exercises
Get CE Units and Free Discussion Questions
All of Dr. Yin’s DVD/online courses are approved by RACE, CCPDT, and IAABC for required CE credits. Learn more, take CE tests, and get your credits at lowstresshandling.com. Download free discussion questions here to help ensure you have learned the take-home points.
About Dr. Yin
Dr. Sophia Yin, a 1993 graduate of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, is the author of numerous books and DVDs including The Small Animal Veterinary Nerdbook® and Low Stress Handling, Restraint, and Behavior Modification of Dogs & Cats. She earned her Master’s in Animal Science with a behavior emphasis in 2001 from UC Davis. She currently lectures and teaches workshops internationally, sees behavior consults, and creates educational DVDs and products.
