u/txrrxs01

TLDR: Reactive dog is especially reactive at home and when outside on our property. Any advice to work on it besides management?

So I’ve been working on my dog’s (7Y, F/S, Border Collie mix) dog reactivity for a while now. It’s a ton better on walks and very rarely will she react unless we get spooked and charged at by an unleashed dog or a dog in close proximity. Outside our home she is NOT reactive to people.

The only thing I haven’t been able to kick is her increased reactions when we’re at home or just outside of home (on porch, front/back yard, etc). It’s like her threshold is so much smaller and begins to include people. In any other situation she does not care about people. Just mainly dogs. We live in a close neighborhood and our property size is pretty small, so creating distance while still being considered “at home” is difficult.

Besides management options like covering windows with film, what can I try?

If it matters, in the past there was an incident where I attached the leash to the wrong ring (the ring that holds her tags and not the actual collar D-ring) and it ripped off when she reacted. She charged at the person walking by and sniffed them and ran back. So I am unsure if it is really “protecting her territory” (as many people have told me in the past) more than just fear and insecurity. Or maybe I’m wrong.

Any ideas to try? (We do not use e-collars)

Delete if not allowed, and sorry for the long post

I just want to start off that I’m highly emotional right now and going through a lot of things including full medication withdrawal, so I am probably being harsher than I normally would, but I just need somewhere to vent.

I’m an aspiring dog trainer. I’m almost done with a reputable online dog training school. I have a mentor and have passed all my evaluations with flying colors. I read behavior books on my off time. I have shadowed multiple trainers from all over the spectrum (balanced to force free). I volunteer with a search and rescue team and I also travel almost 3 hours to volunteer with a shutzhund club so I can gain experience. I have worked in shelters, doggy daycares, grooming, and vet clinics. I participate in as many seminars/webinars as I can just for knowledge. I want to eventually get my CBCC

But I don’t feel good enough. And I partially blame my reactive dog.

To make her history short, I was 17 and bought her from a lady on Facebook for $100 at 12 weeks old. Turns out her COI is 39%. Her dam and sire are littermates. She has Lupus and can’t be in direct sun for more than 15 minutes without flaring up within 24 hours. Flair ups last 1-2 weeks. Shes on immunosuppressants. She’s a mix of herding breeds but basically Border Collie. From the beginning she was an extremely fearful pup. Would shut down on walks and not move. I socialized her wrong and essentially flooded her the entire time. She got attacked at puppy class between 5-6 months and went from fearful to full on reactive.

I tried a lot over the years. Many trainers. One was a 2 week board and train that e-collar “conditioned” her. When she came home it was so obvious she was shut down. She didn’t look at me or wag her tail even when the trainer released her to greet me. It was like she was in a trance. She came back fearful of men as well and bit my dad multiple times after. I followed their training strictly and was convinced her was so much better even though she would run, hide, and roll over when I would try to but the collar on. To this day she is collar shy. The trainer ended up being exposed for being abusive (video of hanging a dog by its leash and collar for 20 seconds because it was biting the leash). I sought out another trainer who convinced me to ditch the collar (I did). Then another that convinced me to try again (I did). I couldn’t stand seeing her cower when I put the collar on despite trying my hardest at counter conditioning it, so I ditched it in the end.

Shes 7 years old now and is still a lot better than she was, but she’s still so scared of the world. It took weeks of walking the same route and same side of the street for her to be comfortable enough to untuck her tail during walks. The minute we turn a corner, tail tucked and she pulls. Only the past two years have I reached a point where I can trust her unsupervised around the other dog in the house she grew up with. She’s otherwise great at leash walking and has great obedience and engagement when no trigger is present. She has no prey or toy drive, but good enough food drive besides kibble. She doesn’t always react to other dogs in public places because by that time she’s over threshold and shuts down, but I try not to put her in those situations. I’ve tried mentioning medication to at least raise her stress threshold, but our vet always shuts it down.

That being said, I feel like I can’t learn and get more hands on training because of her. I want to learn more about dog sports, but she not only has no drive for sports, but she’s too scared and reactive to even participate. The most we’ve done is get some online trick training titles and at home scent work. I can’t foster dogs to work with them because it’s not fair to her either. She also can’t be a demo dog. I don’t have access to a stable/neutral dog that could help in a B.A.T set up for her.

It’s selfish to say because she IS the reason I decided to try the professional training route. I want to help dogs like her, but I’m devastated because if I can’t help her how can I help others? I know a lot can be genetic, but I don’t know how much truly is and how much is my shitty handling.

I’ve applied for multiple apprenticeships and the one question they always ask is “do you have a dog that is confidence in new places and good with other dogs?” I don’t. And “have you trained dogs other than your own?” I haven’t. And I get rejected. None of my close friends own dogs. I’m waiting on a response from a new shelter after asking if I could volunteer and help out training wise. The shelter I used to work at shot down my training ideas and offers to help out as well. They preferred to medicate and adopt out asap versus work with them.

I don’t feel confident in myself to offer classes because of my lack of experience. I feel like I shouldn’t have shelled out my savings to follow my dreams. I’m afraid it’s gonna be years until I can essentially start over with a new dog. I refuse to surrender her to a shelter. I truly believe she would become a genuinely dangerous dog in that environment and be put down. I also don’t think many people are willing to take on such a project dog especially at her age. But it’s not fair to put her down because she’s inconvenient.

I know I’m selfish. I’m insecure. I wanna say I have imposter syndrome, but that’s typically for people who are qualified but feel as if they’re not. But I genuinely don’t think I’m qualified to become a dog trainer anymore.

Everything hurts. I’m in job limbo while i wait to figure out some health related issues, so naturally I’ve begun spiraling about my future

I don’t know what I’m looking for by posting this. Maybe just genuine advice especially if anyone has been in a similar situation. I just needed to write it out..

thank you