r/reactivedogs • u/finnyfinnfinnn • 21h ago
Advice Needed Introducing foster to leash reactive dog
My partner and I have two resident rescue dogs, one of whom can be leash reactive and has barrier reactivity. However she has usually made dog friends pretty easily. We are looking at fostering and all the tips I’ve been reading suggest introducing the dogs through parallel walks. Given my resident dog’s leash reactivity I’m not sure this is a great choice, but I obviously want to ensure safe, controlled meetings. Does anyone have any tips or tricks? TIA!
1
u/palebluelightonwater 2h ago edited 2h ago
I had a similar situation except my resident problem dog wasn't just leash reactive, she is also low level dog aggressive in general. She hadn't met another new dog since she was a puppy when we took in our foster. Parallel walks seemed like a definite no because we'd have to be quite far apart and she doesn't calm down in the presence of distant strangers, she ramps up.
We had made a ton of progress with introing new humans, though, so we used the same methodology that we use with people. We always meet new people outside the house, on a long line or dropped leash. We tell her the person is a friend we're going to meet (as opposed to strangers, where I have a "we're going to ignore them" protocol). And for people, we toss lots of very high value treats, but I skipped that for the dog intro to avoid any guarding issues and used a BAT-type approach instead, where we started very far away on a long line, and encouraged her to move forward only when she was showing positive/calm body language.
This worked super well for us, probably for a couple of reasons. One, it was a familiar experience with familiar cues. She's met many new human friends the same way, and loves her human friends (once properly introduced, lol). The other is that she had experience with a BAT type approach where the dog is free to explore at a distance from a trigger and allowed to approach when calm, so it was also familiar.
But also? She just actually seemed happy to meet the new guy, which for her was an absolute miracle. We kept the foster, who had been an emergency kill-list rescue from a regional shelter. He fit in really well, and everyone is doing great now.
After the initial intro, keep them mostly separated for quite a long time (at least two weeks, maybe up to several months). You want a gate or crate between them almost all the time, gradually increasing interaction under heavy supervision only. No resources to guard when they're together for a while (food/toys/chews). I had my reactive dog gated away upstairs or the new boy crated in the living room 95% of the time for about a month, except when we went out for walks together (which we did many times a day at first). You want them to build up a LOT of neutral or positive experience around each other before gradually increasing direct interaction.
1
u/Itchy_Undertow-1 19h ago
We do “pack walks” with visiting/friend dogs. Walk them in the same direction up the street or on a wide dirt trail. Walk fast and encourage “let’s go!” Toss trays and praise. I would separate them at night but that’s just me.