What you might be doing wrong with your dogs reactivity.

When owning a reactive dog, walks can be stressful. Every corner can feel make you fill with dread as you are on edge waiting to see if there is another dog, or bike, or anything for your dog will react to. And I get its hard not to, so you start to walk earlier, go places where your less likely to see other people, and you have never welcome a rainy walk so much. But it doesn't have to be this way. We can help our dogs through their reactivity, and it requires a bit of work from both sides, us and them. As with anything with dog training, we are training the dog, the dog is being a dog and trying to fit in with a human world. We need to show them and teach them what behaviours we would want and how to help them when their emotions are high.

So what is it that you might be doing wrong with your dogs reactivity? Well there can be a few things...

1. Avoiding all triggers that might set off your dog.

   If you dog is 2 years old, realistically you cant avoid every single thing your dog will bark at for the rest of their life. In order to help our dogs we need to introduce the stress of that trigger slowly so they can work around them.

2. Getting your dog to sit and stare at insert what your dog barks at here that may be going past.

   In reality what is happening here is our dog is getting constantly more wound up by watching and staring at it. And then when they are really close they are at boiling point and spill over which looks like barking, lunging growling etc.

3. Getting advice from your friend/neighbour/ relative who isn't qualified. It can be really easy to reinforce a behaviour that we dont want to happen with our reactive dogs. So getting professional advice from someone who can do a tailored plan to you and your dog.

4. Not seeing professional help sooner.

   A dog trainers work and your work is easier when the dog hasn't had a chance to rehearse the behaviour, and in turn self reinforcing the behaviour. This means that the longer your dog gets to practice barking at the other dog/person etc, they other dog then walks away as they are on their walk, so your dog now learns I bark, they go away, perfect I'll keep doing it.

5. Understanding what reactivity is.

   Reactivity is a build up of emotions from dogs. Are they reacting because they want to get closer to the other dog to say hello, are they reacting to try and get the dog away or not to spark a interaction, you can start to learn this and understand this when working with a dog trainer/behaviourist.

There is just a few ways that we could be making our dogs reactivity worse, and not helping them. But now you know... so if you are not seeking help already from a dog professional, pop it on your to do list!

I am launching an online reactivity training programme soon called the reactive reset. If you would like to join the waiting list you can do so here. Did you know that the dog training industry is unregulated. Anyone who just owns a dog can call themselves a dog trainer, or even a dog behaviourist! When it comes to something like reactivity you want to make sure you are getting the best of the best, thats why there are organisations out there where you can search for trainers and behaviourists near you, knowing they have undergone training and requirements to become a member. Take a look at reputable organisations such The Association of Pet Dog Trainers, or APDT for short, or The Animal Behaviour Council or ABTC for short, to find a dog trainer near you.

Thanks for reading

Rachel