Reactive dog success story

This is really encourageming, thanks for sharing.

I finally caved to our trainer's advice and tried a prong collar on our reactive dog today and I'm feeling SO optimistic after our first walk.

We've been working hard on our dog's reactivity for almost 5 months using mainly counter conditioning and behavioral adjustment training and it didn't seem to be getting any better. We're exhausted.

Today after a 1hr session with our trainer we walked our dog using the prong & passed a dog politely with only a tiny lunge and one minor correction. I was able to get her focus much more easily and funnel some of her energy into watching me instead of all going toward the other dog. My dog is also not straining her neck or face like she did with flat collars or haltis. She doesn't seem to be in pain and acted like her happy self, just paid more attention to me and my gentle leash cues.

I know we still have work to do, but I was honestly so exhausted and almost ready to give up and this tool gives me hope.

/r/OpenDogTraining Thread