 And it's very easy to say oh it's leash reactivity and it's commonly called that but at the same time if you go one step further and dive a little bit deeper it's actually just because you're on the other end of it. Hey what's going on guys? Tom Davis here. I'm here at the Upstate Canine Academy. We are about to start a session with a golden retriever with reactivity issues. This dog is great with other dogs off leash, likes other dogs off leash, but on leash this dog does not like other dogs. A lot of you out there probably deal with the same thing. So on this episode we're going to break down leash reactivity, why it's created and some exercises on how to figure out if your dog is leash reactive or actually aggressive. So we're going to go in, we're going to get started, hope you guys enjoy it. Man that's a wicked growl. Watch his back up just a little bit. Good. So he protects? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whenever he gets into a situation like that, yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. I want you to correct him for that, because just from now on we'll just correct him for that. Here, let me see the leash for a second. So we're just, obviously there's a variable of like, you have to try to figure out the stem of why he feels that way. I mean, obviously he loves you. You have a great relationship with him. He wants to protect you. A couple of things about his behavior that we're watching is when he is doing that, it's low and then his bark is very like a fear-based, good heal buddy. Now he's like, now I protect you human. With him being reactive to other dogs, it's on the leash. With him being reactive to people, it's on the leash. And it's very easy to say, oh, it's leash reactivity and it's commonly called that. But at the same time, if you go one step further and dive a little bit deeper, it's actually just because you're on the other end of it. It's good because you know, like, oh, he's capable easily of disengaging, disarming and not being reactive. It's just trying to figure out what do you guys do to stop him from being reactive and what do you guys do to stop him from being possessive of you. And that's what we're going to talk about right now. It's very pretty, very pretty. The why. You know, we got to figure out the why. Because ultimately, if we correct them and we tell them to stop, yeah, it's going to be a suppression. It's going to be a band-aid. He's still going to feel the need to want to bark, but he won't. Which is better than him barking, to be honest, but in this case, we want to eliminate the external like, hey, I'm looking really mean because I want you to get away. When you're handling him, I want you to be a little bit more, have a little bit more momentum of like what you're doing. What I want you to do is when you're handling a lot of people, including what you were doing with legend is, as we go, let's go. And then we're doing this, we're doing this, we're doing this, and we're just, he's doing actually really good, but we're looking a lot. But it's not really so much about what he's doing in the leashes, about what you're, the information you're presenting and how you're presenting it. What you're doing is you're really just waiting for him to, you know, basically mess up or you're watching for him to see if he messes up. And what happens is when you're here and he's looking up at me and I'm looking at him, then who's driving the ship? Which then he'll go, okay, I don't really feel that confident here, which will then make him feel like he has to protect you or he should protect you. Or you're giving him an opportunity to protect you, because you're not as in charge as you should be. Things to better your handling and to get more confident with him and to raise his confidence levels, use your momentum. So when you're doing this, legend heal, I want you to just really pay attention to where you're going and what you're doing. Heal, good, we're going this way. But you see how like my body language is, it's clear of where I'm going, what we're doing. So my shoulders are straight, I'm not looking at him. The only time I'm saying anything to him is if I ask him to heal or I want him to sit or something. But this is where I want you guys to be. So slow down a little bit, because he's gonna do that. So what you wanna do is proof out your healing and proof out your engagement to make sure he's paying attention to you. So the slower you go, the more he'll understand that. So, see how you're, yeah. I'm holding it in two places. Yeah, darn it. You already know. So take the leash and what I would do is hold it just like this. Like that one? Yeah, and the reason why is because that if you have two separate locations of information, because the leash is your information, it's gonna get diluted. So if I wanted you to say something to Eddie, I'd give you information and you'd relay it to him. And then at some point it's gonna get diluted pretty much immediately. So you wanna make sure that, and I understand, like more control, we feel more confident, but then your brain, and I micro it down as much as I can. Your brain is like focusing on two different things and it doesn't give you an opportunity to fully relax. And then that feeds to the leash and it just perpetuates into this thing. Anyway, good, I'll come back this way. Good, and just release your pressure, nice and relaxed. That's a habit too. It's gonna be really hard for you guys. I know, because you're gonna go with it. Your job is to present him with confidence and with leadership and give him a reason to not be protective and resource-guarding. Just show him that you're confident. There, that's much, much better from what I see. Yeah, he feels a lot calmer. Yeah, and how do you feel? Better, he's not pregnant. Right, the more like tense you get, like when you're just like you're kind of like holding and popping and looking and just moving really, like this is what you were doing basically is your leash up and you're just moving like this really fast with two hands. And of course he's gonna be like constantly because that's what we're putting on him. Let's get a dog out and just start with the problems. And that's what we wanna do is work on what your guys are having problems with, so let's get right to it. So make sure that you just pop when he does that. Yeah, go down a little bit. There you go. Now catch him like, so. Going forward. Yeah, cause he's forging forward. And then if he's forging forward, what'll happen is is that will make him react even more. So when he's doing that little growl, leave it to the side. Pop him side. Back into a sit. Sit. Sit. Leave it. Leave it. Leave it. Leave it. Leave it. Plats. Stay. Good. Heal. Good girl. Good touch. Good. Heal. Good. So you wanna create that engagement. Heal. So when you get into a situation like this, see that quick pop I did with the prong? Did you see it? Okay, so I just, hey, pay attention. So I call this proofing or calibrating or tune up. There's the distraction. You come out. Heal. Good heal. Heal. Sit. Good sit. Majority of the reason for the reactivity is probably lack of engagement. So the goal right now is to make sure that your dog is paying attention to you and not the other dog. Nothing else matters except for you. And you need to like tell him like, what are you doing? You're supposed to be paying attention to me. So you walk forward like this and you turn 180 back this way. Heal. I did it earlier. If he doesn't pay attention, hey, what are you doing? And then he runs back to you and he's like, oh, sorry. And then he's like this. So come back this way. Cause there's a dog coming through. Good. Turn. Pop. There you go. That's what I'm talking about. That was perfect. New dog entered the mix randomly. You turned and you said heal and he said, who's that? And you go, hey. And he goes, and he came back to you. So you're using your obedience to counter. Hey, it doesn't. What are we doing? It's just like with kids. You go to Disney world. All the rules go out the window. No, they look like they do, but you have to say, what's going on? Hold my hand. Yes, please. Thank you. Pay attention to me. Just because the environment changes doesn't mean everything goes out the window. That's the only way we can coexist with really stimulated, fun, exciting things and be able to enjoy them and actually do them. If we all just lost our mind all the times, it would be chaos. All right guys, so we're just finishing up with legend sessions doing really good, but there's just one last thing. We're gonna have him meet Tegan because he shows interest. And so we're just gonna go over and just walk through like a meet and greet on actually how to meet a dog because we realized over the last couple sessions that you guys saw the first session was he's really just vocal because he doesn't know what else to do. So we're gonna walk through like the introduction stages and read some body language and do some dog behavior stuff. Tegan's one of our board and trains, by the way. Quick. Good. And just make sure you don't put pressure on the leash again. Yep, good. Good job. Lots of golden tails wagging. Good job. Good job. So what you guys saw there at the end was actually us figuring out that the external reaction, the barking, the growling was actually coming from frustration. It was when we brought another board and train out, we actually realized that, hey, this dog actually just doesn't know how to play. This dog is frustrated. He just didn't know what to do. So he was growling, he was barking, and that's what we ended up seeing here at the end of the video, which you guys just saw. So it was a great video, great behavioral stuff for me to learn from, great for the owners to learn from. They went home back to New Jersey, happy knowing that their dog really isn't aggressive and their dog isn't mean. He just wears that frustration and wears that, I guess, hey, I wanna see you through growling and barking, which is just vocalization. So anyway, I hope you guys liked this video. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. I put videos out like this every single week. Like this video and as well, leave a comment in the comments below to support the channel. But anyway, I'll see you guys next time. Peace.