Today I learned just how reactive my dog is. Buckle in this is a long one.

Any helpful advice is 100% needed.

Okay, I have a 1 year old lab/Ridgeback mix that I rescued as a puppy from a shelter. She was separated from her mom at a young age.

I wanted to try taking her to the nature preserve out here in the middle of nowhere basically. It’s out in the farm land area so I assumed there was a good chance it would be empty.

I pulled up and waited about 20 minute with her until she calmed down, she doesn’t get out of the car until she is calm. It was a new place so I was expecting some screaming from her. During that time a guy walks out of the nature preserve hops on his phone and leaves in his little red car. I think nothing of it.

The moment I get her out of the car finally and close the door a local sheriff pull up to me. (I’m assuming the guy called them because she was screaming).

She. Goes. Nuts.

She’s the kind of reactive that wiggles her butt and tail so hard she typically splits her tail open from the impact, and she makes this high pitch scream/bark that makes your ears ring to let you know she expects you to come see her (lucky for me she didn’t hurt herself this time). Also lucky for me, the sheriff was incredibly kind and fosters rescue dogs so he 100% understood her body language. He spent some time talking to her and petting her and did not care when she immediately tried jumping into his arms. He smiled and chatted and went on his way wishing her a happy walk.

Now she’s hyped, she wants to go go go and never stop. I would have stood there with her until she calmed down but a car was pulling up behind us and I had to get her at a good distance from them. I make it to a pavilion and sit with her. She’s whining and crying there for about a half hour before her best doggy friend shows up! How popular is this nature preserve in the middle of nowhere??? So her intensity goes over 9000 real quick. She’s wiggling pulling and doing her scream bark. After her best friend passes by she starts screaming these really loud and long howls because she’s so upset she can’t wrestle with her. It’s the kind of scream that breaks your heart with sadness.

I stay under the pavilion for another hour waiting for her to calm down and sit on her own I let her try to walk into the preserve, but she starts pulling everywhere. At this point it’s been 2 hours and I’m tired, she’s still over stimulated so I walk her calmly to the car and we go home.

She passed out next to me on the couch right after we got inside.

What am I doing wrong? What could I do better? We’ve been training for months on her reactivity and she was doing so much better. She was doing good enough I thought she could handle the quiet nature preserve.