Herbal dog calmers

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samlf

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One of my dogs is very highly strung. This is relatively easily manageable in most aspects - she gets stressy around walk times if you are running a few minutes late, upset about washing machine etc. As I said this is easily manageable with good routine and training.

The only thing we haven't been able to crack is agility. She is a fantastic agility dog, or should be. She is great, attentive, focused, listening, when on her own. However, if there are any other dogs she will go for them when running, she has never actually had a fight or bitten or anything like that. But she will run at them and bark very aggressively.

I have tried a lot of methods to try to prevent/alter this behaviour. When running at them she would be sprayed with water, this didn't help and she actually became quite upset at this (even now if she hears the sound of a water bottle she will be quite worried). Have tried having people stood by the dogs and shouting/shooing her, this wasn't too bad but being a dog she would just dart round them and it will wasn't addressing the main problem. Taking her to dog classes didn't work, it was purely when she was running so she would happily work with other dogs sat around doing not much. Getting fierce myself didn't work, she was again just very upset by this.

Her past is not great - we have had her 3 years now, but she was 18 months when I got her. She was rescued from a gypsy site with a litter of pups, very underweight, mange, terrified of people. This doesn't affect how she is treated now.

She is ok with dogs normally. I say ok, because she is a very dominant dog. She likes to be chaser rather than chasee! She gets on well with medium/big dogs that are normal dogs if allowed to be introduced and she stays on lead for 10 minutes or so to chill. She does not get on well with dogs that are 'babied' and fussed over, that don't understand how to tell her they have had enough or whose owners get scared as soon as they growl and play. She does not get on well with dogs that are nervous. Anyway, the reason I included this information is to give an idea of her personality.

She is currently being run on a flexi lead in group classes, which she is doing very well on. I think it gives her a safety net, and I can correct before she reinforces the behaviour. It will probably only be maybe once every other lesson she will run at the dogs, and it is much less ferocious than before. Still pretty ingrained though.

My instructor believes she is stressed rather than just naughty, which I agree with. The reason we believe this is because when being told off she does get quite upset and worried and then doesn't want to carry on with the agility. Also I think it was just being naughty and not some type of worried behaviour, then she would have stopped with the aversive tactics mentioned.

So, this rather longwinded post leads me on to the title!

Does anyone have any suggestion of 'calmers' that I can use with her? Doesn't really matter about competition legality because she isn't going to compete if she behaves like this.

I have used zylkene with my other dog, who is terrified of fireworks. It worked pretty well so considering using that with her.

Any other ideas appreciated.
 
My spaniel (working gundog) gets TopSpec (VetSpec) Calm and Focussed. It just let's him concentrate and relax enough to be a bit more confident and work better without nervousness about "getting it right". He's an over achiever and worries if he thinks it's going wrong.
 
I had a female who sounds very similar, she didn't have a bad upbringing, she was just genetically weak nerved.

To be honest, if she was mine, if this situation was so stressful for her I would think about whether I would continue subjecting her to it. It's not a MUST that she does agility in the presence of other dogs - it's not like going to the vet or stopping chasing traffic or something.
You have then applied aversives to an already stressed dog in a situation that she finds stressful.

She does not sound dominant in the slightest, she sounds like she is behaving in a way which she believes will make the stress stop. She does not like the other dogs being around her when she is loose and free and not connected to you, so she is running at them and telling them to go away.
What have you done? Have you removed her from the situation? Have you made the 'bad thing' go away? Have you unwittingly rewarded the behaviour?

My little female just couldn't cope with the world. Her tactic was to run around and around in circles screaming. She was very nice to look at, nice construction for both the showring and agility and also had a great pop on her but if she perceived any pressure whatsoever, she would run. Even jumping a fence or gate in the forest, she would start yelping and getting panicked.

I am not having a go - my last male dog was also not suited to the sport that I wanted to do with him, he just was not mentally strong enough and did not have the genetic aptitude for it and I had to face up to that. I got him as far as I could, I retired him and I bought a sports dog.
If you really want to do competitive agility, I would get a horse for the course.
There are always going to be other dogs there and she may always feel stressed by them, and you have to question whether it is important enough to keep subjecting her to it.
There are plenty of other things you can do with her.

JMO though, from the reading of your post and obvs can't see the dog in front of me!
 
That's a good point Cavecanem. I used to do agility with my older dog but one day, as I was walking her into the event field, she simply turned around and was desperate to get back to the car. I listened to her and though I was obviously disappointed, I simply took her back to the car and then home. My younger dog loves the agility training, but if I take her to a show, she goes flat and very reluctant, her ears are down and she really isn't a happy bunny. I only do agility to give her an interest and some stimulation, so now I'm happy to do the training, but won't ever put the pressure on her to compete.
Strange creatures aren't they????
 
Hi,

thanks for the suggestions, will look into them.

CC - I completely understand your opinion, and I have questioned it myself. However, she really does enjoy going and doing agility, she is pretty good at it too. She also has improved an awful lot since moving into a different class (with, as my instructor calls them, dog people not pet people!), and is much more relaxed and less worried. This is why I don't want to give up with her, she also needs a job.

I do agree about the aversive techniques, I didn't have much choice though if I wanted to run my dog at this club (the others use far worse techniques), and couldn't see any other option to be honest. All we can do is learn, and it certainly wont be happening in future.

I'm not sure if I've been clear enough about her and other dogs. She loves playing with other dogs!! But she doesn't get on with all dogs. If she doesn't like them she ignores them, unless they pester then she will give several warnings and tell them to ****** off. I don't reward bad behaviour (and yes I am aware that reward is touch/speech/eye contact). She will generally be reactive rather than instigator if that makes sense.

Please don't think I am completely dismissing your points. I am not, I appreciate all input and it is a difficult situation. All I can do is try the calmers, and continue working with her. I am very aware not to push her and upset her, as another bad experience will keep setting her back.
 
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