Is this leash reactivity and if so how to proceed
I’ve adopted my dog from a shelter around 6 months ago and I didn’t know she was reactive to dogs at the time.
After adopting we’ve taken her to our vet for a check up and found out she has a bullet still inside her and a 2cm deep scar on the back of her neck that looks like it was done by a sharp object wedged in there.
We got the bullet out and her blood work etc came clean so no health issues but she clearly has been abused in the past.
Coming back to the present day, I’ve been doing the best I can to help her with her reactivity and we’ve been doing good progress but recently I’ve noticed something interesting.
We live in an apartment so I take her to dog parks at odd hours when it’s empty so she can run around and sniff and one of these times another person with a dog came to the other side of the dog park which is side by side with our side only separated with metal fence.
So I got ready to get my dog and leave but she only went a little closer and looked at the other dog and moved away so I waited and rest of the time she was just doing her own thing ignoring the other dog. This happened one more time and this time she didn’t even acknowledge the other dog this time just continued sniffing around.
I would NEVER risk her being in the same area with another dog as I’m like 90% sure it would escalate into an attack if the other dog approaches her and she is reactive to other dogs during walks although we’ve been making progress. (she started to look towards the dogs and come to me for a treat and her threshold is getting better too).
But I was wondering if this is leash reactivity and should I continue to take her to the dog parks and let her be there when there is an another dog on the other side. Do you think would that be helpful or do more harm somehow?