Finally took my reactive GSP on a proper trail hike and it actually went well??

Six months ago I genuinely could not walk my German Shorthaired Pointer Ruby past another dog without her losing her mind. We've been doing reactivity training consistently since January and yesterday we did a 6 mile trail hike at a state park and I almost cried happy tears when we finished.

What made the difference: I stopped trying to hide from other dogs and started doing lots of controlled "look at that" work where she just notices a dog, gets a treat, and we move on. No more crossing the street and making a whole production of avoiding triggers. Also got her on a longer leash for the trail (20ft), which gave her way more sniffing freedom and she was so much more focused on the environment than on other dogs.

We passed maybe 8 other dog-owner pairs on the trail and had exactly zero incidents. She barked once at a dog that charged up to us off leash (honestly fair), but the owner called it back and Ruby recovered in like 10 seconds. Six months ago that would have sent her into a 20 minute spiral. I'm so proud of her. If anyone is struggling with a reactive trail dog just wanted to say it can genuinely get better.