Vinny & Maggie the Reactive Daschund

Meet Vinny the Daschund, Maggie the crossbreed, and Marley the 13-year-old Lab.

This was a bit of an odd session.

From what I was told, I was expecting some crazy reactivity towards other dogs outside from quite far away, and Vinny was the instigator.

We started by taking Vinny out to see what was going on. There were loads of dogs, however, he paid very little attention until they one ran up and got right in his face, at which point he reacted.

We then mixed and matched, Vinny with Marley, and Marley started whining at dogs as soon as he saw them, clearly excited, but that set Vinny off.

Then we tried Vinny with Maggie, who is just crazy. Like a little whirlwind spinning around your feet as cute as she is, her constant over-arousal is causing some stress and anxiety.

Maggie is also reactive, but frustration-based, so she wants to get closer - again this sets Vinny off.

There is a 4th dog, Flos the Shih Tzu, that we ran out of time to get out.

We started teaching Vinny and Marley that other dogs predict good things from their guardian and to look back when they see dogs.

For Maggie, we need to slow her down and get her thinking. So we have left some training tasks to do with her.

These are a fun group and I’m excited to see their transformation!