My Journey with a Reactive Dog & Natural Dog Training

Ty is my fourth GSD, I was pretty sure I knew what I was doing when it came to raising another pup, oh how wrong I was.

Ty had a rough start in his litter, turns out he got beaten up by another pup and did not socialise, it sounded like little was done to fix this problem. I was asked to pick him up a week earlier than normal because of him getting 'picked' on but was told it would not be an issue for the pup as I had Zeke for Ty to play with.Yeah RIGHT!

Well it did turn into a big problem, when Ty was only 8 weeks old and my folks turned up to see the new addition with their 10 yr old Aussie Terrier, the reaction of this 8 week old pup to this dog was a worry, he barked and snapped. Then came pre-puppy classes run by vet nurses, the only word for it was Ty charged at every pup and would not let any pups near the water bowl, then he and a Siberian pup started to fight. We got told that the pups would sort themselves out but it was more than that and alarm bells were starting to ring for me but I didn't know what to do. Puppy classes came and when all the pups were let off for a run Ty just couldn't cope, he could not deal with all these pups running around and coming from behind him, in the end I had to keep him leashed.

As we started to venture out into the big wide world Ty's behavior to other dogs showed up more and more, he'd bark and lunge at dogs as far away as 300m. I didn't deal with it well, hey I knew how to raise a well behaved pup this must be a BAD pup so I growled, I yelled, the more upset I got the more upset Ty got. By about 5 months I was starting to look for quiet no doggie spots to walk him, always on the look out for other dogs to try and avoid a situation. Ty was fine with people but would chase anything that moved, folks on bikes, cats, cows, rabbits you name it. This pup was SO different from any of the others.

And so began the journey to find answers, the hours on the internet, the piles and piles of books & DVD's, every book or DVD I'd think yes this is it, this will tell me were I went wrong but no!

Over time and a few situations with other dogs I learnt that Ty feared other dogs but instead of running away from them his reaction was this big act of I'm big and tough (bark bark), stay away from me (lunge lunge). I will be forever grateful to Jo with her dear Tess and Mike with Jesse who saw past this act and were happy to walk with us. As soon as Ty learnt that these dogs would not attack him then he relaxed and was always so happy to play with them. Sadly very few owners saw through his act and the comments about keeping that aggressive GSD away from their dogs etc etc. So often I could see that their dog were not fussed by Ty's reaction but the owners would get so upset we'd have to leave the area. Yes there were times when I didn't manage him well enough and he rushed a strange dog, he's manners are far from great and he'd run at a dog and bowl them over and stand over them but he has never bitten, but every time this happened a screaming owner would makes things worse and I'd have to get Ty out of there before it got out of hand.

When owning a reactive dog you learn very quickly to 'manage' things better, find quiet places to walk, don't open the back of the car until you've done a 360 degree scan of the area, keep all gates and doors closed at all times, be ready to move with lightening speed should someone arrive that may set off a reaction.

After a year of searching for answers I was luckily enough to meet Geoff Bowers through the K9 Natural Food, after a number of talks with Geoff he mentioned I should be training Ty using his prey drive. After several months I was able to meet Geoff and spent the afternoon with him, his first comment that gave me hope was Ty was not an aggressive dog. I then spent the afternoon learning a lot more about body language and the all important tugging with your dog and letting him WIN every time. We made a big improvement after this time with Geoff but sadly due to work and distance I was not able to do any more training with him.

I started to then search for more information of training using prey drive. I came across two web site's Kevin Behan's at Natural Dog Training and Neil Sattin's at Natural Dog Blog. I spent hours reading these sites and slowly realised there was something to this and it was going to take a lot of re-thinking on how I saw and thought about my dogs from now on. Another great web site on NDT is Lee Charlies Kelly with heaps of great articles.

About Natural Dog Training

The founding principles of Natural Dog Training is that what is most natural about the dog, its wildest essence, is good, and that dogs are social by nature. Even with the most troubling ‘problem behaviors’, nothing is “broken” and so nothing needs to be “fixed”. This is because dogs perceive the world and respond to it according to its laws, rather than according to human reason. By appealing to this fundamental aspect of a dog’s mind and centering our training models around this idea, a dog’s cooperative and loving nature can become the most pronounced aspect of its character.

While one may come to Natural Dog Training with questions about behavior, or help with obedience, Natural Dog Training’s methods are successful because it is all about working with this aspect, – with your dog’s energy, rather than fighting against it.

The difference in Natural Dog Training is the recognition that energy itself is a form of information: not only does it animate a dog, but it actually informs him how to behave. This means that a dog already knows how to heel, sit, down, stay, come when called, – no matter what! Our actual job in training then, is not to teach him these things, but simply to elicit them and create situations where he can naturally express them. The Natural Dog Training difference is the goal for our pets to feel good when they are expressing these commands.

Finally, NDT contends that the alpha doesn’t teach wolves or dogs to be ‘obedient’, or even to hunt,- they automatically know how to do it because the properties of energy are always informing the dog how to behave, but also because of exposure in a supportive environment. This is what we have to recreate with our dog: an emotional group climate which our dogs intuitively synchronizes his actions to, in order to be in harmony with his group.

Based on these groundbreaking principles, Natural Dog Training will teach you how to build a relationship between your dog and its training program, leaving your pet calm, balanced and in 100% accord with you, its owner. You will learn how to become a part of your dog’s nature, – and what will lead you away from it. Whether you are training a young pup, or are trying to solve problem behavior resistant to other approaches, Natural Dog Training will hand you the tools necessary to handle the wolf in your dog.

I've now been doing NDT for 7-8 months and the improvement in Ty is out of this world, we still have a lot of work to do re his dislike of other dogs but we mange so much better these days. Ty has come alive with tugging and the most important one "PUSHING" within two weeks of pushing there was a big change in Ty's overall behavior, so many things that upset him don't now, when he gets stressed we push and he relaxes. When friends ask "Is that really Ty" I know it's working. The coolest change was Ty and our cats, we have 7 ex-wild or ex-SPCA cats and Ty caused them all grief, he chased, he harassed, now to see him asleep with a cat lying between his legs is the best.

What is pushing, this description from Sang Koh gives you a very good idea and it's so easy to do-

"Dogs are descended from wolves, and though they aren't wolves, they are still group hunters and predators.  So what that means is that they are genetically designed to work together to overcome huge amounts of resistance to bring down their prey.  And hunting as a group is the very thing that makes them social, cooperative and "friendly".  If they don't get to experience the feeling of overcoming that resistance, then they start to store up all this energy that has no place to go.  Then the dog starts to find ways to express that stored up energy on his own, and it's usually by doing things we don't want him to do.  But if you can replicate the same feeling they get of overcoming all that resistance, by pushing into you to get their meal, playing games like push of war, then they get the feeling of satisfaction they need and crave, and they give you all the credit for helping them resolve their energy problem.  So essentially, pushing replicates the feeling of hunting big prey."   

For me I've had to spend a lot of time trying to get rid of my 'old' ideas, re-thinking and learning to understand what Ty is telling me and he's always saying "What do I do with my energy" and it's up to me help him with that. I still have a long way to go but wow what a journey, thank you Ty for showing me I wasn't doing it right and making me look for a new way to understand dogs. Thank you to Geoff for putting me on the path of prey drive, for Kevin, Sang,Neil  and Lee for the articles, forums and work that goes into helping pet owners like myself have a wonderful relationship with our dog.

Getting Started with NDT

The three things most needed to get started with NDT are

I keep a small supply of these books and DVD for sale some please contact me for a price

To see more on Neil's wonderful DVD

If you'd like to know a bit more about my journey with Ty or to purchase the Natural Dog Training books or DVD please contact me