Heat and Reactivness

[Mrs.K]

Indra seems to have some serious mood-swings and I just got confirmed that she can't be trusted. It took one second of me not being aware that another dog was walked by while I was doing off leash heeling. She didn't break the heeling, I just outed her from the reward, I put the reward into position behind my back, her head turned around and she ran barking, with hackles up, towards the dog and ran him over.

Nothing happened but this gives me enough info that I did not have her engagement and focus at that second and that she is still reactive.

However, I am not sure if I should/can blame it on the heat.
Thankfully the owner let Indra meet her dog after the incident.

So back to leash heeling we go, also signed up for advanced AKC Obedience classes and already filled them in about her reactivness.

[DFrost]

Originally Posted by Mrs.K

Nothing happened but this gives me enough info that I did not have her engagement and focus at that second and that she is still reactive.

However, I am not sure if I should/can blame it on the heat.
Thankfully the owner let Indra meet her dog after the incident.

.

I don't think it had anything to do with the heat. You gave the answer to your problem in saying; "I did not have her engagement and focus". Don't allow the "heat" to become an excuse.

DFrost

[Jax08]

Heat as in weather? Or "heat" as in cycle? I thought she was currently in heat? If that is the case then is she truly reactive? Or just hormonal?

and where were you while off leash healing? On a field training? Or on the street?

[Mrs.K]

Originally Posted by DFrost

I don't think it had anything to do with the heat. You gave the answer to your problem in saying; "I did not have her engagement and focus". Don't allow the "heat" to become an excuse.

DFrost

Yeah, at that moment I really didn't have it and I didn't even notice the dog because I was paying attention to the ball and not on my surroundings. She did not focus on me as she usually does. The last time, the same dog was walked by, she was in a downstay and focused on me, she knew the dog was there but her focus was so good that she didn't care whether he was there or not.

But all that says is that we have to keep working with distractions, distractions and more distractions, especially around dogs... (on leash)

[selzer]

She is in heat, and she is reactive. How come someone is walking her dog in your fenced and secure back yard?

[Mrs.K]

Originally Posted by Jax08

Heat as in weather? Or "heat" as in cycle? I thought she was currently in heat? If that is the case then is she truly reactive? Or just hormonal?

and where were you while off leash healing? On a field training? Or on the street?

It doesn't really matter where we were working. She completely ignored the re-call and therefor me.

With the SAR Team we primarily work off leash and she is working out of sight already. She's never went after another dog off leash (while we worked) before. So maybe it is hormonal, maybe it's not but even if it is hormonal, it's unacceptable and needs to be addressed.

They have to be rock solid, especially when they are hormonal...so I can't ignore that. So no more off leash/short lead heeling for now and back to the basics. We are obviously not good enough. "Poop" happens but I am not taking things lightly.

[Jax08]

okies...sorry for trying to participate in your conversation. Please carry on. You obviously have it all under control.

[Mrs.K]

At that moment I obviously didn't have her under control. If I did she would have listened. I did not have her engagement, focus, she turned her head, saw the dog and was gone.
I don't know what your problem is. I know the issue and addressed it and know what needs to be done. The other dog owner is not the one to blame....

[selzer]

Actually, bitches will go after inquisitive dogs during the heat cycle if they are not in their receptive stage. I do not see this as unacceptable behavior, I see it as hormonal behavior. I do not let bitches in heat run around where there are dogs, because they will most likely be inquisitive, and they may get their face rearranged if she is not in the mood.

A bitch charging at a dog being walked by on leash, I don't know. I haven't experienced that.

Determining whether or not it is hormonal, does have merit though. I mean, if it is not hormonal and she is reactive to other dogs, why not spay her, I mean you wouldn't want to breed a dog-reactive dog, and by spaying her she will not go into these cycles and that will mean she will be more available for SAR work.

If it is hormonal, then you can decide whether or not you might want to breed her and if not, spay, and that takes care of the hormonal stuff, making it easier to do SAR work with her.

[Mrs.K]

Originally Posted by selzer

Actually, bitches will go after inquisitive dogs during the heat cycle if they are not in their receptive stage. I do not see this as unacceptable behavior, I see it as hormonal behavior. I do not let bitches in heat run around where there are dogs, because they will most likely be inquisitive, and they may get their face rearranged if she is not in the mood.

A bitch charging at a dog being walked by on leash, I don't know. I haven't experienced that.

Determining whether or not it is hormonal, does have merit though. I mean, if it is not hormonal and she is reactive to other dogs, why not spay her, I mean you wouldn't want to breed a dog-reactive dog, and by spaying her she will not go into these cycles and that will mean she will be more available for SAR work.

If it is hormonal, then you can decide whether or not you might want to breed her and if not, spay, and that takes care of the hormonal stuff, making it easier to do SAR work with her.

Yes, I do know about the receptive, standing heat, etc. stage and that she will charge at inquisitive dogs, which is why she is kept separated.

However, about the bolded part... you are kidding, right?
Do you know how many of the best working dogs/lines are not only reactive but fully blown aggressive towards other dogs?

Those dogs are living for one reason, to work, trial, re-produce and not to play in a dog park. Socialization is not that big of a deal as it is over here or for me. I don't know any breeder in Germany that cares if the dog is reactive/aggressive towards other dogs or not...

Plus, most of the time it's a handler issue anyways.

Off leash, she's never been reactive before. On leash, the first couple of seconds she can be reactive. We never had any issues at the dog park before, nor did she have issues with the many dogs at our place.

The team also lets the dogs run and play together after the training, no issues there either.

As for getting her spayed, I don't know. I am still thinking about it. If I do it, I can't revert it and what happened with Zenzy sits deep...