schistad; wrote: its a problem with every single person he sees. you can be a mile away with your back facing him and not doing a thing. he barks and growls.
One thing I would recommend starting with is teaching "let's go" and giving into leash pressure so that you can redirect him when he becomes reactive. Then you'll have to work on counter conditioning. You want to try and keep him under threshold (not reacting) and reward him for not reacting to the approaching stimulus (person). If he reacts to someone a mile away that may be that you have to be a mile and six feet away. Reward him for succeeding at that distance and slowly approach. This will take time so don't rush it. You want to build up a positive association between him and what he is reacting to. Remember to stay calm, you want him to see you acting like the stimulus is nothing to react to. If you freak out because you know he's going to react he'll only react more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4vEayrRyB0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo-L2qtD7MQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR0au_e0Cnohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM2xyrQ-414https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PhqFdaNduohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMLrYaoxNOsSome dogs can benefit from calming products like Thundershirts, spirit essences, etc. They are not solutions in their own right, but can sometimes help. Some dogs have such bad anxiety that it is necessary to involve medications, but that is something you'd need to discuss with your vet.
Remember only to use positive methods of training, never punishment, which can make the problem worse.
@Xtra - You may need to up the value of your treats, and try an entirely new brush if his old one has such a bad association.
Rewarding him with treats when he's calm and extending the time slowly is exactly right. You just need to up the amount of time slowly. If he'll let you brush him for 30 seconds then do that and reward. Do that for awhile before moving to 31 seconds. If he becomes anxious you may have to go back to the 30 second mark or even less.
The idea is to keep him under threshold as much as possible. Distracting him with a toy is perfectly fine (you can still reward him with extra treats) for when you just need to get it done. Try to only give him that toy when you're grooming him to up it's value.
Use small training sessions often. Also train in different places, not just the living room for example. Counter conditioning can take time, it may seem like your not making progress for awhile then suddenly make a break through, then may even go backwards a bit. Stay calm and keep at it.