Reactivity Continued
As promised, if you have a reactive dog - these are our top tips to provide ‘first aid’ behavioural support whilst you find a reward based behaviourist to help you work through this issue.
Management Examples
1) Give your dog a cortisol break. Cortisol is the stress hormone that will course through your dogs body after they experience a trigger, and long term can have harmful effects on your dogs body and mind. It is important we give our dogs the opportunity to have a break from this holiday and provide opportunities to relax and recover. Try avoiding going on walks where you will see any triggers (book secure fields; provide enrichment at home; go to areas you know are very quiet and at quieter times etc.)
2) Avoid using aversive or forceful training approaches (such as slip leads, choke chains, check collars, verbal corrections, e-collars etc.) as this will not teach your dog what to do, and instead will most likely teach them that yes, the trigger is something to be worried about OR that you are not safe to be around when these triggering events happen. Sometimes it can even lead the dog to associate the aversive with the triggers (i.e., every time I pull towards dogs something painful tightens around my throat, therefore the unfamiliar dog is causing the pain)
3) Provide daily opportunities for your dogs to meet their emotional and physical needs in fun, safe ways that avoid the trigger. For example, can you give them enrichment such as snuffle mats, lick-i-mats, Kongs stuffed with meat and peanut butter etc. that provide an outlet for sniffing, licking and chewing. All three of these behaviours are pivotal to good doggy mental health and promote calm, relaxed emotions. But also can you provide exercise that meets your dog’s needs such as Canicross (if you have a high energy dog that likes to run) or parkour/obstacle courses in the garden (for agile dogs) or sniffari (for your slower, less active dogs that enjoy walking).
4) Long lines and secure fields are a must! We need to ensure everyone is kept safe but our dogs are provided with physical freedom and the opportunity to move as they see fit. Choice and control is so important for our dog’s mental wellbeing - these options allow this without putting anyone else at risk.
5) Positive social interactions with people and dogs they like (even if that is just you) including off lead mixing, on lead parallel walks, play time at home, training etc. This is so specific to your dog and their social requirements, please do not go and mix them with other dogs or people if they are not known friends whilst working on your reactivity issues unless under the supervision/guidance of a qualified behaviorist.
6) Muzzle training! Muzzles are a fantastic tool to keep everyone feeling safe and to signal that your dog needs space
Training Support
For some people management is enough. Either they may not enjoy training, may not have the time or just may struggle with it (training should be simple but is not always easy!). However, where we are able to we can reintroduce the trigger in a controlled way and teach our dogs a more appropriate emotional and behavioural response.
Habituation and Counter Conditioning
When working with fear or negative emotions, our first port of call is to change your dog’s emotional state from something unpleasant to something pleasant.
This can include presenting the trigger at a big enough distance that the dog is able to look at it without reacting and take on board that oh, no harm comes to me when I see it... I feel safe... this is okay. With gradual decreases in distance, we can habituate the dog to the presence of the trigger. This should be done VERY SLOWLY and carefully, always working at your dog’s pace.
For most dogs we will also add in a bit of counter conditioning through this systematic desensitization process. In this case, every time the dog looks at the trigger, we will provide them with something they enjoy (usually this is food - cheese, chicken, ham – something high value to the dog, something they really like). This helps to teach the dog that oh, not only is the trigger safe and no harm comes to me BUT even better - GOOD THINGS happen. The trigger starts to predict good things.
Operant Conditioning
Often, we will also introduce some operant conditioning to help teach the dog more desirable behaviours to perform when they see the trigger.
This could look like:
1) Teach the dog to orient towards the owner (i.e., look at them, orient away from the trigger)
2) Follow the owner in another direction, away from the trigger (i.e., “this way” training)
3) Moving behind the owner to add a visual barrier
4) Look towards the trigger, breathe and remain calm/neutral
5) Look towards the trigger and then sniff the ground
With operant conditioning there needs to be a specific goal for your dog and what this looks like will be very individualized to the dog, their reactivity issue and your long-term outcomes.
Further support
If you are struggling with your reactive dog, it is so important to receive help from a qualified, force free professional who will help you to work through these issues. At Trustydog Training we have highly experienced trainers and a qualified behaviourist (MRes, BSc and IAABC ADT) that are highly experienced with reactive dog behaviour. Get in touch today to find out how we can help you.
