Scout is a 2-year old Border Collie/Staffordshire mix from Discovery Bay California who attended our 3-Week Behavior Modification Training Camp.

Scout was very fear reactive towards other dogs. Recently she was at a dog park and was attacked by another dog. This lead to some very serious fear reactivity in her. She would bark and lunge at dogs on leash. At home, she would fence fight with surrounding neighbor’s dogs. She also rushed the tv and her owner’s had to mount it on the wall since she had crashed into it and knocked it over several times. She also rushed the front door barking frantically and aggressively when her owner’s had guests come over.

We started training by teaching Scout: heel, loose leash walk, sit stay, down stay, and place. We also worked on managing her on leash on walks in neighborhoods and parks with other dogs around. Everything she learned was taught with positive reinforcement first. Scout really preferred praise and petting to reinforce positive behavior as opposed to snacks. Once the commands were understood, we began to introduce a prong collar into her training. She learned the e-collar to reinforce her obedience once leash pressure was understood. The e-collar was used to manage her reactivity with other dogs and distractions.

With Scout’s reactivity towards dogs, we discovered the best way to manage it was through obedience. When she was feeling anxious we would give her something else to do to occupy her thoughts. Steering her thoughts from being reactive towards dogs through obedience made her reactivity more manageable.

When Scout first came to us she was very nervous. She would participate in training but was not very engaged. After week one she began to develop more of a relation ship with us and seemed more and more eager to train especially once we discovered she preferred verbal/physical praise as opposed to snacks.