Helping a Reactive Dog

Does your dog bark and lunge at dogs, people, or other things? Reactivity is a common challenge fosters and adopters face, but it’s one with a high success rate in resolving it. And, OPH has a new video about it.

What is reactivity and why does it happen?

Reactivity is an over-the-top response to everyday things: growling, barking, lunging, or spinning at the end of the leash. For many dogs, the trigger is other dogs, especially on leash. Reactivity is not aggression. It's a dog having a big emotional reaction — usually fear or frustration.  Why does reactivity happen? Anxiety and fear are the biggest drivers, and barking and lunging almost always work, because the scary thing moves away!

Leash frustration is the opposite. A friendly dog desperately wants to greet, the leash says no, and frustration boils over. Almost every reactive dog is worse on leash, because the leash removes the option to move away . . . or move toward the dog. These emotions of fear or frustration may be due to missed socialization as puppies. Or, the dog has had genuinely scary experiences. Genetics can matter too; some dogs are just more sensitive.

What can you do about it?

Resolving reactivity requires “behavior modification”, in other words, changing the dog’s emotions about triggers. The single most important concept is threshold. Threshold is the point or distance at which your dog notices a trigger but can still think, listen, and take treats. For some dogs, the threshold is 20 ft from the trigger; for others, it’s 100 ft. Whatever it is, distance is your friend, and all training must happen under threshold.

Working below threshold, the foundation of reactivity work is two techniques that operate as a team. First, desensitization means exposing your dog to the trigger so gently that they stay calm, then gradually working closer.

Second, counter-conditioning changes what the trigger means: every time the other dog appears, wonderful food also appears; when the trigger disappears, the food does too. With counter-conditioning, other dogs stop predicting danger and start predicting something delicious. When the emotion changes, the barking fades on its own.