Hello, I've seen a few posts here about reactive dogs and a lot of helpful comments, but I felt like some advice were just not applicable to me so I want to share my story and if anyone has time to give advice it will be highly appreciated.
I got a Chihuahua as my first dog, we took him when he was about 12 weeks old. He was always fearful and I worked a lot on his confidence. He didn't want to leave our backyard, he was shaking after you put harness on him and he would not want to walk anywhere from home. He also never cared much about food.
When he became 7 month old he lifted the leg to pee and since this moment he started barking at other dogs. We did a lot to work on his reactivity, did socializing walks, rewarded for not reacting, tried to avoid triggers, trained with dog trainer.
When he was 2 years old he was attacked by a big dog. My fiance was riding a bike with him in the basket. Big dog broke off his harness and jumped on them. My Chihuahua was attached to the basket with safety belt and big dog tried to rip him out. It was a miracle that my dog survived this unwounded. He couldn't walk at first and he was in complete shock, he was blankly staring without reacting to anything. He started getting better at the vet after few hours, they gave him painkillers and next day I was taking him out in his bag to the grass so he can pee there without having to walk. It's been a year since he was attacked.
In this time he was castrated chemically twice. Once for half a year and now for a year, it did not help with his reactivity. It didn't make it worse either. He is never aggressive when he is reactive, he doesn't want to attack the other dog, he barks a lot. Sometimes when he sniffs another dog and doesn't like him he will go off in their face, but not actually bite or anything. In the park when dogs are loose he can bark at other dog but stops after he approaches them or sees no reaction.
Right now his reactivity is putting me under so much stress. He was the dog I always dreamed abou, small enough to take him everywhere with me, to be my best friend. Instead I avoid taking him anywhere in fear of his reaction. I stress and cry when he comes with us for vacation and I feel awful for doing so. I'm scares of neighbors complaining about us because of his behaviour. This makes me feel so depressed and like I have no power and I really f*** up by taking him. Even though I know this was all I ever wanted.
His reactivity at home: he has a few dogs that he hates on our block (we live now in apartment in big building). He can sniff when they come out for walk from air and immediately triggers, proceeds to bark and run out to the balcony or to the door to bark. We have only one balcony door and one window in our apartment, air circulation is really bad and we are just suffocating or dealing with him barking all day. There are some dogs that bark every morning when they arrive with their owner to work in building next to us and he triggers from the sound as well.
Outside of apartment on daily walks: this well known area is the worst, he is either protective of his terrain or anticipates the trigger. If he sees dog he freezes or immediately starts barking. All the world's I taught him (come, look, his name, turn away, making high pitch sounds) all of them now end up in him exploding. He used to be able to focus on me at certain distance from the trigger, now any word is a trigger for him in itself. Even when there is no dog outside, if I call his name he doesn't look at me, he starts looking around to see where is another dog because obviously that's why I'm calling him.
There is no snack of a high enough value for him, he doesn't want to accept food if he is even slightly triggered. He doesn't care for toys either. He is also allergic and his food options are limited.
When there are no other dogs a walk with him is like a dream, he is calm, knows how not to tangle a leash, sniffs and continues, doesn't eat anything from the ground.
When he sees other dog usually I have to pick him up otherwise we would be standing barking at people. Picking him up or limiting his visibility in any way triggers him even more, he starts panicking. If he sees a dog and it goes away he can sometimes choke himself on his harness pulling into the direction of said dog
Walks in unknown terrain: sometimes on unknown terrain he stops reacting to other dogs, I suspect this is mainly because he is so overwhelmed with unknown terrain. But I know he will have to react in some other way after. So sometimes I can see her had hard day of holding in and then at home he is barking at us.
In general it really seems to me like he is struggling with fear, a lot of anxiety and he is getting overstimulated easily. He doesn't have a day without a trigger because he is triggered at home and triggered outside. His nervous system is just all over the place.
How do I navigate that and train with him while he is completely ignoring me, outside he is acting deaf, he only anticipates triggers, can't rest at home for one day and he can sniff dogs just form the air? while he doesn't care for food or toys (he will take snacks outside the house but none of them are high value enough to forget he saw other dog).
Genuinely thank you for anyone sharing their experiences, I feel like I'm loosing hope
