Helping a Terrier Mix Overcome His Leash Reactivity

In this Omaha dog training session we worked with Bigs, a five-year-old terrier mix who needed help to stop leash reactivity and overcome his fear of people.

After I arrived I chatted with Bigs’s guardians about their main dog behavior concerns. They told me that they were worried about him nipping new people that came to the house or around their property. When I assessed Bigs it seemed likely that any nipping behavior was coming from him being fearful of new people. To help him overcome his fear I introduced the Behavior Adjustment Training method or BAT, which you can see below.

The reason why BAT is so effective is because it allows the dog to direct the pace of the interaction between himself and the new person. This allows him to build up his confidence to go and greet people when he is ready. Remember that the first time he goes up to someone new he is most likely smelling them to learn more about them and is not yet ready to receive pets and attention back from the person.

To keep up with this good behavior the guardians will want to intentionally set up training sessions with people who will be willing to be patient with Bigs and allow him to approach them first. When Bigs is being calm and comfortable around new people don’t forget to pet him to reward him for his good behavior! We wrapped up this dog behavior session with Bigs’s Roadmap to Success video, which you can watch below.