Sorry for the length! I wanted to give enough details.
I am struggling so much with Watson lately. He has been through a lot of changes since May, including having my husband become primary caretaker while he's home, traveling with me to a new apartment some weeks, and dropping all training classes.
I am finding it so difficult to connect with him outdoors. Any place remotely resembling a field or forest (area around the apartment building, college campus, park, residential neighborhood, etc) can cause him to lose his little doggy mind. I've seen this behavior from him before, but not to this extent.
He goes way over threshold - his eyes glaze over, he pants like crazy, and he quarters frantically on the end of the leash. Usually he is sniffing for wildlife, but sometimes he gets so frantic that he's not even taking in scents or actually tracking anything. If he sees anything interesting, like a squirrel, he starts screaming.
He will actually listen to cues when he's like this, but I can tell he's still not there. He will sit when asked, and look vaguely at me, but not actually make eye contact, and his ability to hold any position is about 3 seconds before he's lunging and possibly shrieking again. He will take treats, but again he's obviously doing it because it's conditioned, not because he actually cares that I have treats. I can reward with a "go sniff" cue, but I wonder if this just amps him up more. I'm pretty sure it's overstimulation rather than anxiety, but I'm sure they are probably very similar in their physiological effects.
He's not like this all the time. I can still walk him around our house and he's normal (a bit overstimulated, but not on another planet), and in certain areas he's fine, but his moments of totally checking out are becoming more frequent and aren't getting better with continued exposure to the places that cause it. I can't just back away from the trigger to work under threshold, because the entire environment is the trigger.
I'm at a loss for what to do. The only thing that seems to help is stopping and waiting him out until he's able to make actual eye contact with me and relax a tiny bit (this can take 10min, and needs to be repeated over and over). I'm not sure if that's really the most effective thing, and it doesn't seem to be working well. Sometimes we can walk until he's too tired to be frantic, but there must be a better way.
I can try to get a video tonight or tomorrow.
I need help!
I am struggling so much with Watson lately. He has been through a lot of changes since May, including having my husband become primary caretaker while he's home, traveling with me to a new apartment some weeks, and dropping all training classes.
I am finding it so difficult to connect with him outdoors. Any place remotely resembling a field or forest (area around the apartment building, college campus, park, residential neighborhood, etc) can cause him to lose his little doggy mind. I've seen this behavior from him before, but not to this extent.
He goes way over threshold - his eyes glaze over, he pants like crazy, and he quarters frantically on the end of the leash. Usually he is sniffing for wildlife, but sometimes he gets so frantic that he's not even taking in scents or actually tracking anything. If he sees anything interesting, like a squirrel, he starts screaming.
He will actually listen to cues when he's like this, but I can tell he's still not there. He will sit when asked, and look vaguely at me, but not actually make eye contact, and his ability to hold any position is about 3 seconds before he's lunging and possibly shrieking again. He will take treats, but again he's obviously doing it because it's conditioned, not because he actually cares that I have treats. I can reward with a "go sniff" cue, but I wonder if this just amps him up more. I'm pretty sure it's overstimulation rather than anxiety, but I'm sure they are probably very similar in their physiological effects.
He's not like this all the time. I can still walk him around our house and he's normal (a bit overstimulated, but not on another planet), and in certain areas he's fine, but his moments of totally checking out are becoming more frequent and aren't getting better with continued exposure to the places that cause it. I can't just back away from the trigger to work under threshold, because the entire environment is the trigger.
I'm at a loss for what to do. The only thing that seems to help is stopping and waiting him out until he's able to make actual eye contact with me and relax a tiny bit (this can take 10min, and needs to be repeated over and over). I'm not sure if that's really the most effective thing, and it doesn't seem to be working well. Sometimes we can walk until he's too tired to be frantic, but there must be a better way.
I can try to get a video tonight or tomorrow.
I need help!