Helping a Playa Vista Goldendoodle Stop Barking at Dogs on Walks

For this Playa Vista dog training session we used the engage disengage game to help 1 year-old Goldendoodle Rey get over her reactivity when she sees other dogs.

Rey was a little bit reserved when I first arrived for the session so I gave her a lot of space and for the most part ignored her until she started coming over to me. This is always a great strategy to adopt with shy, fearful or anxious dogs.

Being a Doodle, Rey has a lot of energy, so I shared some creative ways to exercise her as well as the importance of recognizing and rewarding desired actions through what I like to call celebrating.

However the main dog behavior problem her guardians wanted me to work on was her reactivity to other dogs on walks. When a dog barks at other dogs on walks, it’s trying to accomplish something. Sometimes they’re trying to get their attention but they could be trying to get them to move away, etc. In Rey’s case, she was trying to get the dogs to move away before they discovered she was a little bit insecure about meeting new dogs.

We headed outside so that I could show the guardians an easy way to stop the dog from barking or reacting to other dogs. There are a number of ways to stop your dog from barking at other dogs on walks, one of my favorites is something that is called the engage disengage game.

We headed outside for a short walk so that she could do some business but also so we could find another dog to practice with

Fortunately we were in Playa Vista and there were a lot of dogs available for me to demonstrate this secret way to stop dogs from barking at other dogs. If your dog is anxious and reactive to other dogs on walks, check out the free positive dog training video below to learn how to stop your dog from barking or freaking out at other dogs.

It was great to see how quickly Rey responded in a positive way to this exercise to stop dog reactivity. One of the great things about the engage disengage game to stop dog barking is it anyone can do it. You don’t have to be a professional mini Goldendoodle dog trainer to do so. Just an interest in helping a dog feel comfortable around other dogs. Its all about creating a positive association with other dogs; one step at a time.

I’d like to see the guardians practice this technique to stop dogs from feeling insecure around other dogs on walks a few times a day. They can also set her up for success by doing a little exercise ahead of time then give her 10 minutes to rest before they practice.

We covered a number of other dog behavior tips in this in-home Playa Vista dog training session. To help the guardians remember them all, we recorded the roadmap to success video that you can see below.