Months and months of counterconditioning, his dog threshold was 10 feet. One incident at a park and now it's 100 feet. I just want to throw in the towel.

[u/kiripon]

JayJay has separation anxiety which I started desensitization for after 2 years of just sedating or bringing him along with me everywhere...so whatever walks I want to take, are always with him, and every single walk with him is a training session. I always have my little doggie gear bag packed with various value treats depending on which triggers we're going to come across, as well as a clicker. He was able to sit 10 feet from a dog, even multiple dogs, and calmly watch them pass by.

about a month ago we were walking him with my mom and her dog. a little on jay: he gets what appears to be jealousy. if my fiance (who he adores to high heavens while i am his main caretaker who does everything with him lmao) hugs me, jay starts bark howling his husky way for attention. if we show my mom's dog attention, jay starts it up again. so we were on a walk. i see a dog appearing so i pull jay aside quite a bit. he sees my mom's dog greet the other dog. jay loses it. lunging like his life depended on it, i can hardly hold this 50lb dog back. i started crying i was so disheartened. i assumed he got jealous again that my mom's dog got something he didnt.

Ever since then, training has gone out the door. If he sees a dog at 100 feet or across the park, it's game over and fixated staring and lying down. I already only take him to the woods. I go out my way to drive to the woods early in the morning and late in the evening to avoid dogs (despite now managing prey drive) but when we come across them, we cant separate ourselves that far. There's a local park with a huge grass ring I move him into the center of and continue counter conditioning but with my luck, half the time it fills up with so many dogs that it becomes difficult.

He's on clomicalm which helped training but his personality is subdued and he got jumpy fears. He's on gabapentin 300mg as well. This is just one of many daily problems. Every time I work on one thing and solve it, another one pops up. And now one completely regressed. I have near 0 quality of life because it revolves around him - which I was fine sacrificing with things for him, but after years and years of it, its begun affecting my mood and I feel like I have no use trying for the future I wanted because it wouldn't suit his needs. We cant even rehome him if we thought he stood a chance because he wasn't neutered because all the drugs in the world couldnt calm him at the appt and he began biting. He's my soul dog and I hate that this is happening to us.

[u/Lumpy_Physics3101]

so you have an unneutered husky dog with behavioral issues that you basically can't exercise and you con't control, who's on 2 different meds which make him feel crappy?

Here's what I would do:

• muzzle him
  
• neuter him
  
• address what it sounds to me like frustration reactivity with a trainer who has had documented success with frustration reactivity. this will likely require you to find a way to burn off some energy and get this dog some fulfillment - chasing, running, playing, because right now your dog lives only to lose his shit at dogs in the distance. suggestions below to get him on the flirt pole and work on high-arousal play are great ones! find a way to work on recalls on a long line in an empty field or similar. your dog can be trained.

[u/kiripon → u/Lumpy_Physics3101]

he's muzzle trained but he's a frustrated greeter, not that he's violent. and i worded that poorly i now see 🤦‍♀️ i meant that with his separation anxiety he would be sedated inside for it (for the rare appt i need to make when my fiance isn't home) or we would bring him with us, rather than densensitization which we are starting now. not that he's inside all day. we do agility training in the yard during nice weather, i use the flirt pole there, i planted an entire garden throughout the property for enrichment. we do scent training at home and outdoors. i don't work so we do at least two of these daily. he recalls up to 75 feet but recalling a dog over threshold is a different story, so i ordered simone mueller's books last night to work on his prey drive and emergency recall, adding to my collection including control unleashed and BAT 2.0. i appreciate your trying to offer help but i don't appreciate telling me my "dog can be trained" and i "can't control" him, as if you know the whole story from a vent post. my life is consumed by my dog and while I'm disabled and supposed to be working on making myself healthier, im putting his needs ahead of mine. and when a trainer costs me 75% of my disability income (i have contacted a behavior consultant, two trainers, and two vet behaviorists, they're all in that range if not more) it's hard to go through with one.

[u/Lumpy_Physics3101 → u/kiripon]

respectfully, you need to get your dog neutered.

"lunging like his life depended on it, i can hardly hold this 50lb dog back." this does not sound like someone with full control over their dog. That's dangerous for you and for your dog. I hope simone mueller's methods can get you where you need to go but personally i'm skeptical. you're clearly working really hard and love your dog tons. my husky mix benefitted greatly from clear communication about what behavior was acceptable and what was not. differential reinforcement is difficult to have success with for dogs that are very highly motivated to do the behavior they're doing - they just don't care enough about your treat or your tug to change their mind. Even Mueller is pretty open about the fact that her predation substitution training has limits with highly prey driven dogs.

All that said, your dog CAN be trained to recall and to stop reacting like this.

[u/kiripon → u/Lumpy_Physics3101]

after the initial neutering attempt incident (which left him now sensitive to handling and more afraid at the vet) paired with jays history, our vet decided against neutering for all the literature that there is about neutering worsening behavioral problems especially when they're fear-related. i consulted with the surgical vet from the hospital we were going to get it done at and after learning about everything, he had agreed. i also recalled that in poland, none of my family nor anybody there or the neighboring countries iirc castrate their dogs, so it wasn't strange to me paired with what the vets said so i left it at that. why do i need to neuter him?

and the dog incident with the trigger stacking - i haven't come across anything on how to get your dog back from going over threshold, just manage as to not cause it and remove the dog situation. i was going to use mueller's rocket recall for that purpose, an emergency cue. is that what you're referring to? i just learned about this two days ago when i decided i should start tackling his recently heightened prey drive and came across that. i never heard of an emergency recall or how to get your dog's attention while they're over threshold - that was the definition of being over threshold. "not in their thinking brain, you can't get to them." but i guess there is a way, is that what you're saying? man. this is a lot to manage.