We stumbled across your content online and are curious to learn more how to manage arousal. Penny is generally a manageable dog but when she runs into her triggers like barking dogs or anxiety about one us getting into the car, she’s so strong and excited we can’t reliably handle her. We’ve learned that we can’t really “reach” her when she’s in that over aroused state (7-10).

For the “toss the cookies” exercise, is it important to just use the food your dog normally eats with meals? Hereunto we’ve worked using treats and some higher value stuff like cheese, bread or tortillas.