Reddit mentions of Fired Up, Frantic, and Freaked Out: Training Crazy Dogs from Over the Top to Under Control

So it sounds like your dog might be barrier reactive or leash reactive. This is a pretty common thing - dogs get super worried if they feel like they're not free to move, but are perfectly fine off leash.

I also want to introduce you to the concept of "trigger stacking" - it's a concept I'm sure you're familiar with in your life all the time! Let's say you're late for work so you're stressed. And then once you get to work, you go to the bathroom and there's no toilet paper. And then Janice accuses you of not doing your job, and by the time you get to the end of the day, one of your nice coworkers comes by with an innocent question and you chew them out.

Trigger stacking - basically, when you get stressed, and another stressful thing happens on top of that, you act way more strongly, and continue to be super, super stressed.

I think this might be happening with your pup.

Here are a few things I might try. Note: not a professional

• First try and make the apartment as stress-free as possible. Try to drown out outside noises with things like running the radio and running a box-fan. The idea for this is to keep the stress levels for her as much as possible. This may not at all be a factor, but given that you said this happened after you moved into an apartment, it's worth a try.
  
• Try a 2-week shutdown. This is generally done for new rescue dogs but I think it could be beneficial for your dog as well. (this helps reduce the trigger stacking) As for potty, try as hard as you can to find a place where you won't have to deal with other dogs.
  
• To deal with the two week shutdown, play a lot of mind games. So train a new trick! Give or make puzzle toys (you can make puzzle toys out of a lot of things! Make sure you start easy and work your way up if your dog isn't used to them. My pup has a really long history of puzzle toys before she could kinda manage this), hide treats around the apartment and have her sniff them out (I LOVE nosework - it's fantastic for reactive dogs). Frozen kongs are another great option.
  
• When you're done with the shutdown, no more walks in the neighborhood if possible. Instead, try and find a big open field and get yourself a long-line (I find 20-30 ft to be manageable) and harness (never attach a long-line to a collar - very dangerous). I say go to a large field so that you can see when/if other dogs are approaching and you can avoid them. But on this walk, just let her do her thing. Follow her around and let her lead you. Hopefully the long-line gives her freedom, but also has the bonus of making her hopefully feel less restricted, so that leash frustration doesn't come over. Do this for like, an 1-2 hours if possible. These are referred to as "decompression walks" and are great for just letting a dog be a dog. If you do see a dog coming, or a person, then you should manage the situation by getting her to go the other way. This plus some ball play and occasional trips to the dog park should be enough physical exercise for most dogs. (Not all - but most!)
  
• Keep up the mental stimulation!
  
• Consider training your dog to relax. It sounds like she gets a LOT of stimulation. It's actually really healthy for a dog to learn to relax. Trust me, I know it's really hard! I highly suggest checking out the book "Fired Up, Frantic, and Freaked Out" - you can get it as an e-book for $6. This helped me a lot with learning how to train my dog to relax.
  
• Work on counter-conditioning other people and dogs. At this point, I think it would be really good to try and work with a trainer if you can. But my general advice would be to look up BAT training and to always start from a much larger distance than you think is necessary.
  
• You might want to look into this class from fenzi dog sports academy. Fenzi is an online dog training school where you can do a few different levels of participation. The auditing level is $65, and generally well worth it.
  The class doesn't start until August 1st, but I've heard really good things!
  
  Hopefully that gives you a few ideas on what to try - I think you need to start from a "lets get her calmed down" before you can really work on walks.

CARE for reactive dogs. Keep her under threshold. That (for most dogs) means increasing distance - you want her to notice them, but not be building to the reaction. At that point, you can do a couple of things - look at that (dog looks at the trigger, you mark and reward - you want to transition this very quickly where you mark the dog looking at the trigger, then you and marking for looking back at you, and then eventually just marking ignoring the trigger), look and dismiss (dog looks at the trigger and dismisses to do something else - sniff, play with you, etc), BAT 2.0, or any other protocol.

I like to also do mat work and then take the mat on the road. The mat acts as a high value, known source of confidence which can help with other training. I wouldn't let anyone touch her, be her advocate. Beyond that, it's just time and patience.

Books you may want to read:

• A Guide to Living with and Training a Fearful Dog
  
• The Cautious Canine-How to Help Dogs Conquer Their Fears
  
• Fired Up, Frantic, and Freaked Out: Training Crazy Dogs from Over the Top to Under Control
  
• BAT 2.0
  
• On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals
  
• The Other end of the Leash

Yep. Barrier reactivity. You're not alone! It's common with rescues especially because shelter environments tend to cause it. (I don't know if yours is a rescue or not but I'm guessing there's a chance based on his breed.) My rescue bully also has a bit of barrier reactivity that partially developed from the shelter environment he was in, partially developed because of the time we spent at the dog park. Yeah, unfortunately, a dog park can make it worse.

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Let me try to basically explain what's going on. Barrier reactivity happens a lot with dogs that LIKE to play with other dogs because they 1: see a dog they want to say hi to 2: don't get to say hi to dog because of the barrier 3: become frustrated they don't get to go say hi to the dog.

The frustration builds, and in many ways it can make the dog feel fearful because they feel out of control in that situation. And so their brain goes into overload and what started out as a friendly, "I want to go say hi!" turns into fence running, then barking, growling, snarling, snapping at the fence, as the frustration develops into something pretty ugly.

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TLDR: Doggo is frustrated.

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How to fix? Well, it's not an easy fix. Reactivity is HARD, because the dogs develop a pattern of behavior, and you have to retrain that pattern. The big thing with reactivity is being consistent and being patient. Remember the law of reactivity: "He's not giving me a hard time, he's having a hard time."

STEP 1: management. You cannot let this dog practice this behavior any more if you want to stop it. So that means for you, that every time doggy needs to go outside, you leash him and walk him in your backyard. You can't risk him getting that chance to see another dog, run to the fence, and practice that reaction. The more he practices it, the more ingrained the pattern becomes.

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STEP 2: Recondition. You need to recondition your dog's brain to react differently to the same triggers. So, if you're walking your dog in the backyard, and you see a dog at the fence, you back your dog up to the point where he still SEES the other dog, but he hasn't started freaking out yet. It'll be hard to find that sweet spot-- as close as possible but still not freaking out. Once you've learned where that is, you can practice the LAT game, where you give him treats for looking at the dog. That way you retrain his brain to think of the scary thing (the dog on the other side of the fence) as instead as a treat dispenser. "I see dog on other side of fence, I get treats!" With practice and time, he can definitely stop thinking of the fence as a battleground, and instead as a happy thing.

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I also recommend hiring a force free trainer to help you work through this, and reading my favorite book on dealing with dog reactivity, Fired Up, Frantic, and Freaked Out.

You may want to check out and try the exercises in this book: Fired Up Frantic and Freaked Out. I've had some success with it (and I'm still actively working on using the technique to improve Maizy's behavior), but it hasn't been as fast as I'd have hoped. More than the barking, this has given me a tool to take Maizy from super crazy and freaking out to, if not calm, feigning calm. According to the book being in a relaxed/calm position and body posture will eventually turn into true calm down the road. I'm crossing my fingers ;).

I've decided to wait a bit and see if a book helps at all: Fired Up, Frantic and Freaked out by Laura VanArendonk Baugh. I picked it up yesterday and I'll give it a week to see how it goes.... $7 is a little nicer on the wallet than a bronze course and has the same amount of input lol.

It starts off with touch targeting (which she could do asleep) and shaping mat work. Since we didn't have any luck with the Fenzi shaping course.... well we'll see.

Pretty excited about it though... because of this book, I at least have a good way to explain why my dog turns her brain off if nothing else!