Meet Winston the Bearded Collie Cross

Winston's owners contacted us for help with his dog reactivity. Winston has a lot of dog friends but struggled with some dogs during his walks. Winston also showed some stranger reactivity to unknown people.

Assessment

During his assessment, it was found that Winston had lovely dog-dog social skills when allowed off the lead and given choices. However, when walking on the lead would cause frustration as Winston wanted so desperately to greet and meet other dogs. This led to a big outburst of barking and lunging. In addition, there was some anxiety as due to his size some dogs would react to Winston. With strangers the incidents were isolated to strangers touching Winston when he was not ready for social contact, thus panicking about them touching.

Treatment plan

We introduced a lot of self-control tasks for Winston to help him with his impulse control. This also included muzzle work. This worked in combination with redirection training with other dogs and strangers being around him. Winston loved his training with the extra food and his owners were amazingly committed to his new training plan.

Ongoing

Winston has been really successful with his treatment plan. Winston rarely reacts to any dogs on walks. He has also made new walking dog friends with his owners and recently welcomed a new puppy into his family successfully. With strangers, Winston has a nice plan in place to give him confidence and options to move away. Therefore, Winston is also much more comfortable with strangers being around him and his home.