Eddie is a eight-year-old Miniature Schnauzer who has some seaparation anxiety and gets anxious on the leash when he sees people and dogs.

While it took us longer to get outside for the walk today, spending this time conditioning the dog to remain in a calm state of mind and in the follower position will pay huge dividends down the road for any dog. As he gets more practiced at the new procedure, he will fall into line on his own. When you have a dog that is his reactive is Eddie can be, starting out in a calm and balanced mindset is a must.

As we started out on the walk, I started to get a little bit concerned as there was not another person or animal anywhere in sight. Fortunately a minute later, one of Eddie’s guardian’s neighbor’s let her children out of the apartment to feed some wild geese.

I quickly pulled out some high-value treats and we headed in their direction so that I could show Eddie’s guardian how she could counter condition him from reacting to children and animals simultaneously.

I apologize for the shotty camerawork at the start of the above video. It was hard to get Eddie, the geese and the children all in the same shot while we were at a distance.

By controlling the situation and not moving forward until Eddie was in a calm and balanced state, we were able to get him close to the children and geese without the dog reacting. Considering that Eddie’s past behavior always included his reacting strongly to the presence of unknown children as well as geese, I would call this a huge success.

I suggested that the guardian utilize this counterconditioning technique whenever she encounters other animals or people when on walks. If she is patient and persistent, practicing this counterconditioning exercise multiple times a week or more, Eddie will start to associate the approach of unknown people and animals as a good thing.

By the time we returned to Eddie’s apartment, he was looking up to his human for guidance and following her lead while in the great outdoors. This was the perfect mindset to re-create the door answering exercise to see how much Eddie had progressed since my arrival a few hours earlier.

Prior to the session, Eddie had done some machine gun barking any time there was a knock at the door. But this time, Eddie only barked twice and was pretty easily moved away from the door by his guardian.

I suggested that she repeat this exercise anytime she has friends come over to visit as well as legitimate visitors. This is one of my favorite exercises to run through because most dogs seem to pick it up between six and 12 repetitions.

Usually I say by the end of the session the dog was behaving better, but Eddie’s guardian had done such a great job of training him, his indoor behavior was not problematic.

It will take some time and practice, but based on how well Eddie’s guardian can read and interact with her dog, I suspect the counterconditioning exercise will help her eliminate his reactivity to unknown people and animals in no time.