I was observing reeva a lot past few weeks, when she's in the back yard, when I'm working with her, when she's inside etc...
I also remembered some article I've read, about how much 'bad' behavior originates from lack of exercise.
I realized that I always describe Reeva as full of energy hyperactive dog.
And it hit me: I have to enable her to be phisicaly tired, maybe it'll be easier for her to relax.
Can't find a place fit for trowing balls, Can't let her run loose because some other dog might come around. I'm far from being fit enopugh to run with her. And that leaves me with a bike.
I already did some biking with her so she's quite good at following it's speed, and more or less pays attention to the bike language - whether it's turning left or right. I was nervous though about going out with her on the bike, affraid dhe'll suddenly go in a wrong dirrection or even worse, try to run in front of me, buit I biked a lot with Brix and I hoped it would work well with Reeva, too.
We set out towards a small parking lot just up the street early one morning, hoped noone would be there and it went very well. The only problem was, it didn't seem like she was growing tired after 20 or 30 minutes (while Brix would be close to dead if I run him for that long at such a pace).
What was grwat though was her behaviour during our stops (I gave her short breaks when she could sniff around that served as a reinforcer for her good behavior while running by the bike ). She seemed really calm. She didn't pull much, and when she did, she would return back to my side, she didn't franticaly run around me or wanted to see and hear EVERYTHING.She seemed as agreat calm dog. I was really happy.
ON our way back, I remembered three more things. One was another article, this one about LLW-ing. It said something about a dog having problems to walk nicely just because his/her owner was walking too slowly compared to the dog's pace. And probably, the same was true withReeva, more or less.. I was walking rreally slowlyso she would sniff and look aorund more than she would if we moved faster (less time to do thet). When I let my dogs run loose, they mostly sniff around and follow the scents and soo, buit if they are going somewhere (towards another dog for example) they would just go towards the dog (count out the calming signals). So if we are going towards the dog park, then we are going somewhere and it's not sniff and go where you please walk (unless I stop and let my dog sniff). But I'm moving slowly enough for my dog to sniff and therefore, it becomes a sniff-walk. It's not that I have something against that, but then I move even slower to allow my dog to sniff out the nighbourhood properly. When I'm biking, I'm moving fast, my dog's moving in a trot and we're moving in one dirrection, she's not trying to sniff look too much and it's working great.
Second thing I remembered was this trick I used with Brix before. If I saw another dog for example,. and I knew Brix would react to it, and I had no means of going aorund it, I would run past it, with Brix following. He wopuld notice the dog, but wouldn't really focus on it. The same thing worked with Reeva when we wetre out biking. We went past this yard, and I noticed a cat in the yard. Reeva noticed it too,. but she just looked it with a lot of interest, while continuing to run. We passed the cat, she calmed down completely. Success. since The distracton was pressent for such a short time, she didn't go into a high state of arousal and had no problems returning to a calm state again. I was really happy with the outcome. When less thena minute after that, we stopped in front of my house, she was a bit tied, tounge out, but calm in every aspect.
Third thing I remembered was something about using barriers with reactive dogs, and I realized that my bike could be usefull here too. I't har from me too prevent my dog from lunging forward while stepping in fron of her and moving into her etc. But if I have a bike with me. I can turn it's from wheel in front of Reeva (of course, I would have to be riding the bike slowly at that moment) stopping and using the bike to help me prevent her from lunging forward. Also, since she's on my right side while we're biking, she cannot move left, meaning we could pass distracitons that are on our left with more ease. I used that advantage a few times with Brix, when there was some barking dog on the other side of the street and I was just pushing the bike up the hill. Brix was really calm and not very interested in the dog, and I know he would at least try to get closer to the dog, maybe whine a bit too, without the bike between him and the dog.
All in all, it seemes to me that this bike is working out for now, will see how it works in the future...
