I have a 15 month old mixed breed dog (Lab/golden retriever/German shepherd/Dutch shepherd) He's never been reactive other than getting excited and wanting to play with other dogs he sees if we're not in a position to let the dogs say hi I just tell him "let's go" and keep walkling.
He has severe seperation anxiety (being worked on with a behaviourist) so if I have no one to watch him he has to come into town with me.
About a week ago we were going into Costa (A coffee shop in the UK) and I didn't see a small dog sitting under a table. It started barking at my dog, who for the first time started barking back. I took him out, calmed him down and tried again. Same thing so I took him out and one of the baristas came out, told me it wasn't my fault they knew the other dog had been reactive first (to reassure me I'm guessing, I'm autistic and was visably flustered) took my order and then brought it out to me.
Today I had to go back into town and we stopped into a charity shop (for a cat and dog rescue so they're happy to have pets in the shop) because I had a couple of things to donate and I like to get his treats in there.
I don't know which dog barked first, mine or the other dog in the store, but either way, my dog was reacting and I couldn't just instantly leave because it's a VERY small shop and there were people blocking the only way out.
The other dog left so I quickly grabbed his treats and went to the till to pay when the same dog came back into the shop and started barking, so mine again reacted. I paid quickly and left.
I AM looking for a trainer to help me, but in the meantime does anyone have any advice on how to handle this situation?
The only thing I can think of is to just really try and solidify a focus command and just get him to focus on me until we can get out of the situation.
Sorry this is so long winded I was just trying to make sure I got all the relevent information in.
Thank you
submitted by /u/wilderaura
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