Meet Lotti the Munsterlander

Lotti's owners contacted us to help with Lotti due to her dog reactivity. Lotti was showing nice social dog behaviours with some dogs but extreme reactivity with other dogs. This seemed to be very random as to when she would react.

Assessment

During his assessment, it was found that Lotti has had a negative experience with another dog when a puppy. Lotti also was very alert to outside spaces, being overly observant of small details. This can be breed related as sensitivity to the environment is very important to the musterlander working requirements. Her reactions were found to be due to fear but also a dislike of unknown or potentially worrying dogs in her immediate environment. To protect herself she would then react in the hope the dog would move away.

Treatment plan

Lotti was already doing a lot of training and work with her owners. We introduced and adapted some self-control tasks for Lotti to help her with impulse control. We then looked at a process of Good watch to allow Lotti to see other dogs but choose to remain calm. Lotti's owners were very committed to her training and have started the beginning stages of her plan.

Ongoing

Lotti is still working on her reactivity. At times she can show some lovely improvement, however, this can still be dependent on her arousal level at the time. Her owners are still very much committed and we hope that she continues her journey alongside her amazing work in her gundog sessions and mantrailling.