Randomly reactive

[EdwardBateman]

Hi, my 4 yo dog Cali (Lab/Cocker), male, castrated, is good 90% of the time but occassionaly for certain triggers becomes extremely reactive and starts barking and lunging at anything that moves (cars etc included). I have him on a lead with a collar and so when he gets like this all i can do is hold him back which obviously is choking him and is not nice for either of us.

These are a list of the triggers, but they dont always trigger, sometimes he will ignore them completely.

• Skateboards/scooters
• Dogs barking somewhere that he cant see
• Certain neighbourhood dogs
• Dogs on the other side of the road that he cant say hi to.
• Dogs where the owner pulls them aside so they cant say hello.

I list them because they may not all trigger for the same reason, but the result is the same. Cali will start lunging and barking at them, and once they pass he continues to lunge and bark at everything nearby. 

Signs that it is about to happen include whining, or just his head turning and once it has his attention it seems impossible to snap him out of it.

Once it has happened, i need to restrain him on his lead and collar, which is choking him as he lunges, and i try to get his attention, lead him to the side of the path and get him to sit and eventually lie down. But even when he does this he is still looking over his shoulder constantnly in apparent fear and anxious. We continue once he gets to a certain level of calmness again.

He is very good on pack walks, he is a bit barky in the garden or when visitors come, but he is never agressiven just excited.

He is food driven and any advice you can offer would be appreciated, thanks. 🙂

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there, 

Welcome the forums!

To better understand your situation, I have a few questions.

• How long have you had Cali? 
• You mention Cali is 4 years old, has he always been reactive this way or is this a rather new behavior?
• When you state he is good 90 percent of the time, do you mean on a particular walk (like he does well 90 percent of the walk)? Or across a specific span of time (like he's OK for like a month and then one day out of the blue starts reacting? ) How often would you say these episodes happen in a week if he is walked daily?
• So he is reacting to a particular trigger and then right afterward he starts acting reactive as well to other things that move? What is the original trigger in most cases?
• Have you noticed any common denominator when it comes to his triggers causing him to bark and lunge? Like, for instance, he reacts to them when they are too close? Or on days when he has been around kids more? Or these triggers just pop up unexpectedly out the blue, like behind a corner?
• Is he very friendly with other dogs? Do you take him to dog parks? Does he play well with dogs off leash? Would you say he's a social butterfly? Sometime dogs who bark and lunge at other dogs on walks are actually friendly social butterflies who are frustrated because they can't say hello due to the leash holding them back. 
• How long does it take him to return to baseline/calmer behavior after he reacts to a trigger? 
• You mention noticing signs of anxiety and fear once you get him to sit and lie down. Do these signs also show when he can't meet a dog or only with the other triggers (skateboards, scooters)?
• When you mention pack walks, do you mean him walking with other dogs? If so, is he on leash or off leash? 
• Any noise phobias? Exposure in the home to things that stress him out? Recent changes in his life? Medical issues?

It's good to hear that Cali is food driven, although we need to consider that a dog's ability to take food considerably lowers when they're feeling under pressure and exhibiting reactivity.

If he's choking himself when pulling, I would suggest using a front-attachment harness (harness with a leash that attaches to a front ring), or even possibly a head halter, although the ultimate goal should be preventing him from getting so close to his triggers to cause such strong, over threshold reactions. 

Thanks!

[EdwardBateman]

Hi Andriene, thanks for the response, here are the (sorry very long) answers to your questions: 
 

• How long have you had Cali? we had him since he was 8 months (he was castrated just before we received him)
• You mention Cali is 4 years old, has he always been reactive this way or is this a rather new behavior? I would say we have noticed it for at least 2 years, i dont remember him being that way when he was younger than that.
• When you state he is good 90 percent of the time, do you mean on a particular walk (like he does well 90 percent of the walk)? Or across a specific span of time (like he's OK for like a month and then one day out of the blue starts reacting? ) How often would you say these episodes happen in a week if he is walked daily? I mean that he is generally calm - he doesnt spend the day barking or wrecking things - so if you were to meet him you would think he is a calm dog. But we walk him 3 times a day on average and i would say he would have 1 or 2 reactive episodes during those walks. Not every walk has an episode, and not every trigger causes one, sometimes he will look at a scooter and ignore it, other times he will see it and react so its hard to prepare. 
• So he is reacting to a particular trigger and then right afterward he starts acting reactive as well to other things that move? What is the original trigger in most cases? The triggers vary, but the most common is a dog barking which he cannot see (for example from a car, an appartment or a garden in the distance), second is a dog across the road (not barking, just walking and ignoring Cali), and third would be things like electric scooters/skateboards. But again, he doesnt react every time to a trigger, it appears to be random, but the reaction is always the same: stares, starts whimpering, then lunges and barks towards trigger, then lunges and barks at everything moving. (there are certain dogs who cause a reaction by being within 100m, one of my theories is that they pee outside my gate and that Cali gets it as soon as he leaves which puts him on alert)
• Have you noticed any common denominator when it comes to his triggers causing him to bark and lunge? Like, for instance, he reacts to them when they are too close? Or on days when he has been around kids more? Or these triggers just pop up unexpectedly out the blue, like behind a corner? I have tried to understand the common denominator but have not been able. Sometimes i think that he is worse if he hasnt pooped, or other times i think if it has rained (he doesnt really like water/wet ground) but i cant say with any certainty. In fact, just thinking about it now, it has only ever happened on the lead, if we walk in the woods off lead there has never been a similar reaction. Yesterday as another example we went out, i brought some treats and we walked down the road slowly and trying to keep him by my side with treats, he was quite pully. But after 100m he was more anxious, 200m more again, and after 300m he just lost it and was lunging and barking at nothing that i could see/hear. We waited until he calmed and continued on our walk 25 mins later and no more episodes on the walk. Strange.
• Is he very friendly with other dogs? Do you take him to dog parks? Does he play well with dogs off leash? Would you say he's a social butterfly? Sometime dogs who bark and lunge at other dogs on walks are actually friendly social butterflies who are frustrated because they can't say hello due to the leash holding them back. We definitely think this is a factor for the dogs across the road, i believe he just wants to say hello. He used to be more social, now he is hesitant to go and say hello (but i believe he wants to) and then he might freeze while the other dog sniffs and bounces around him, or he says a quick hello and suddenly does a play bow and runs away (once) and this is when he is on the lead, it is hard to know if it is really 'play' because it looks like a mix of 'play' and 'flee'
• How long does it take him to return to baseline/calmer behavior after he reacts to a trigger? Back to normal anywhere between 10 about 30 seconds
• You mention noticing signs of anxiety and fear once you get him to sit and lie down. Do these signs also show when he can't meet a dog or only with the other triggers (skateboards, scooters)? Sometimes when we walk it might be worse than others, and he might be very jumpy to any noise like cars driving over grates, delivery men dropping boxes, slamming doors etc. But this would be the case even without having a trigger, and again sometimes he is fine, other times very nervous.
• When you mention pack walks, do you mean him walking with other dogs? If so, is he on leash or off leash? Yes with other dogs off leash. He tends to walk ahead on his own, but doesnt seem uncomfortable at all when other dogs come over to him he seems happy but just not that interested in them. We try to do these once a week and there could be up to ten dogs on it.
• Any noise phobias? Exposure in the home to things that stress him out? Recent changes in his life? Medical issues? He barks back if he hears dogs barking outside, or on the TV, it starts with him getting alert and then whining and then barking but never reaches the same reactivity level that he would on the street. Sometimes he goes a bit crazy barking at birds on the telephone wire, there are squirrels/hedgehogs in the garden that i think he smells and might cause him to be a bit barky too. We have changed bedrooms and recently built an extension which may have mixed him up a bit. 

It's good to hear that Cali is food driven, although we need to consider that a dog's ability to take food considerably lowers when they're feeling under pressure and exhibiting reactivity. Sometimes before we leave for a walk i might offer him a croquette (kibble? i am in france and not sure of the word) and he either doesnt take it, or takes it and spits it out.

If he's choking himself when pulling, I would suggest using a front-attachment harness (harness with a leash that attaches to a front ring), or even possibly a head halter, although the ultimate goal should be preventing him from getting so close to his triggers to cause such strong, over threshold reactions. This is the harness we have but we only use the back clip, if we used the front clip would it work the way you would recommend? https://kyflie.com/boutique/momentum/harnais-momentum/

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there, thank you for all the details, the more the better! 

So let's start with the harness. Harnesses are better than collars as the force is distributed over a larger area, whereas in collars it's more localized. On top of that, harnesses prevent the choking effect which may increase a dog's anxiety on walks. Not to mention, potential negative associations with whatever they are barking at, which can have an aggravating effect. It can go something like this: "When I see a skateboard, I feel anxious, and bark and try to send it away (lunging), and then my collar strangles me-skateboards are therefore bad!" This can lead to a vicious cycle. 

Where the leash is attached a harness can make quite a difference. 

When we attach the leash to the back ring, there is an increased effect in the pulling. This can encourage untrained dogs to throw their full body weight into pulling on the lead. If you watch huskies pulling sleds, indeed, you'll see how they wear harnesses hooked at the back so to allow more pulling power.

When we attach the leash to the front, when the dog pulls, the dog will pivot around, but this time towards us. This gives us the advantage of reinforcing the dog with food.

I personally prefer to attach the leash to the front ring and also the dog's collar. I do this as an extra layer of safety in case of equipment failure. The collar is worn any way as it carries the dog's tags, so why not put it to good use too? 

The model you have posted has a video and if you watch it, you can see midway that the person places the leash to the front ring, so the good news is that it's purposely designed for that. 

It's important to point out though, the the harness itself, won't stop the dog from pulling. It will reduce the pulling force as it's designed to distribute force over a larger area, but an untrained dog (especially is overly excited/anxious) will still want to pull. 

I highly recommend working on training a good heel from the day the harness is first placed. If an untrained dog starts wearing a harness, he may learn to pull with it while we want the dog to associated it with good leash manners, sort of how a good service dogs associates his mobility harness or vest with "going to work. "

However, good training can begin even "before" that harness is placed on the dog. I like to train dogs to heel in a quiet hallway with the dog *naked* meaning wearing no collar or leash. We can train them to make eye contact using our smacking sound and walking next to us as we carry a treat at eye level. 

As our dogs get good at this, we can the gradually progress practicing in other areas of the house, like a garage, fenced yard, before going on actual walks. 

Here is a guide on how to train the smacking sound: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/the-airplane-game/the-smacking-sound/

And here is the guide for heeling and attention heeling: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/heeling-attention-heeling/

However, this is only a piece of the puzzle. Cali is showing high levels of emotional arousal, possibly mixed with anxiety, and therefore to tackle the barking and lunging at triggers, that emotional response needs to be changed. Going to the root cause is needed to make progress. When dogs bark and lunge, it's an external manifestation of in internal turmoil, so behavior modification will be required for that. 

I will discuss about this in the next post. 

 

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

So based on the below details, I feel that your dog has been/is rehearsing a lot of stress behaviors, and these are keeping on sending him over the edge, causing him to be frequently over threshold.

• He has been rehearsing this behavior for at least 2 years. 
• He has 1 to 2 reactive episodes during the three walks a day (although not every one) 
• He is reactive towards a variety of triggers and sometimes no trigger may be seen
• His reactivity remains sustained and generalizes to other stimuli
• He is jumpy to certain noises 
• He is showing some reactive behaviors even inside the home/yard

Here's the thing: in people and dogs, there is a phenomenon known as 'trigger stacking' where when one trigger happens after another, it puts the dog or person more and more on edge, sort of like the game "Tetris" or the more modern game "Candy Crush saga." At some point, one can only handle so much, so at one point, they may then "explode" with a reaction. 

It sounds like the leash may be aggravating things and this is not unusual because it takes away a dog's possibility to get closer or get farther from things they would like to approach or get away from. However, leashes are needed in modern society, and that leaves our dogs with not many options than learning to better cope with their emotions. 

What complicates things though in your situation is not knowing exactly what and when the triggers will cause Cali to react. We are therefore lacking that predictability that gives us more control over the situation. In these cases, a stress reduction program and then working around the triggers that are known so far can be a starting approach.

I will provide more general details on how a behavior modification program may look like for a case like yours in the post below, although a disclaimer is needed as every case is different and therefore will need an individualized approach. 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

So in most cases, leash reactivity in dogs doesn't just happen on a whim. Rather, the behavior of barking and lunging has some specific underlying function that fuels and maintains the behavior alive.

It can be said that in general, dog leash-reactivity behaviors can be classified into two main categories: escape and access. 

-Escape

Escape, as implied, involves dogs attempting to escape from some stimulus or circumstance that they perceive as unpleasant or aversive.

When dogs are on a leash, they become more vulnerable as their choice to flee is removed and often this puts them into the situation to choose "fight" versus flight. These dogs are therefore trying to put distance between themselves and the trigger, but since they are prevented from fleeing, they are forced to put up a threatening display in hopes of scaring the trigger away.

For sake of an example, imaging a person being terrified of mice. A mouse makes its way in the home and is approaching the person. The person cornered, will stomp her feet in hopes of scaring the rodent away. The mouse perceives the threat and rushes back to its original hiding spot, a crack of a wall.

Since this behavior "works," this person will repeat this behavior in the future should a similar circumstance happen again.

Among dogs, we see rehearsal of this behavior quite often in the case of dogs barking at the mailman. Bark, after bark, the dog soon realizes that the mailman eventually leaves and therefore his barking ultimately "works."

Of course, this is from the dog's perspective, us humans know for a fact that the mailman isn't really escaping from the dog but just going on with his postal duties!

Cases of leash reactivity where the dog feels threatened, require changing the dog's emotional response so that manifesting all the associated stress/anxiety/fear-related behavioral manifestations becomes redundant. 

-Access

Access, as the name implies, access-driven behaviors involves dogs trying to access some stimulus that they find appealing.

At a first glance, it may seem odd for a dog to bark, growl and lunge when they want to reach something appealing, but in reality those angry vocalizations are triggered by frustration. 

These are typically dogs who are social butterflies and have a history of playing well with other dogs at the off leash dog park, but put them on leash and they will throw the canine equivalent of a "temper tantrum" when they can't go to greet and meet dogs on walks.

This type of leash-reactivity is quite different than the one elicited by fear and therefore requires a slightly different approach. Rather than changing the dog's emotions, we give them something else to do. In other words, If you think your dog is barking out of frustration because he can't go meet people or other dogs, check out the guide on barrier frustration in dogs: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/barrier-frustration/

However, you mentioned: "I believe he just wants to say hello. He used to be more social, now he is hesitant to go and say hello (but i believe he wants to) and then he might freeze while the other dog sniffs and bounces around him, or he says a quick hello and suddenly does a play bow and runs away (once) and this is when he is on the lead, it is hard to know if it is really 'play' because it looks like a mix of 'play' and 'flee'"

It sounds like Cali may have mixed feelings. He is reaching an age where play and interacting with other dogs may no longer be at the very top of their priorities, and when they try to play and flee, I call it the "approach/'avoidance dance."

In other words, they are interested and approach, but when they approach they may come to realize they're not really that comfortable. However, it could also be a play tactic, where the dog play bows and then tries to engage the other dog in chasing him. So hard to say without seeing the behavior. 

However, the fact that you mention he is less social than before and he is hesitant to say hi, seem to point more towards mixed feelings. 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

So here is the "meaty section." An example of behavior modification for dogs who are leash reactive and their behavior stems from an underlying state of stress/anxiety/fear. 

It goes without saying that, to stop a dog from being reactive on leash, you'll need to take a multi-pronged approach, tackling the issue from a variety of angles. This because, behind the lunging and barking, there are underlying emotions at play. It's no more a simple matter of just training, but behavior modification is involved. 

As mentioned,, barking and lunging are simply the external manifestations of an internal turmoil, and therefore it's important getting to the root cause of the behavior, which is the underlying emotional response towards evoking triggers and situations.

Following is an example of steps to ameliorate the situation. 

-Ensure health

It's always good at a first step, ensuring the dog is feeling well and healthy.  There are certain medical conditions that can lower a dog's threshold for reactivity making them more likely to react showing signs of excess arousal, fear or aggression. A through vet visit can help rule these things out. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/medical-causes-aggressive-behavior-dogs/

-Prevent Rehearsal of Problematic Behavior
Just like actors get better and better in their recitals the more they practice, the more your dog's lunging and barking behaviors establish and become more and more habit-forming, the more he gets to repeat them. As the saying goes, "practice makes perfect."

It therefore goes without saying, that a fundamental part of the rehabilitation process will entail preventing your dog from engaging in barking and lunging behavior. 

Here's the thing: even if your dog gets to lunge and bark occasionally as he doesn't always encounter his triggers on walks, those occasional rehearsals maintain the behavior alive, because escaping from fearful or stress-inducing situations is an adaptive behavior that will persist because it's associated with survival.

Preventing rehearsal can therefore mean no more walks until your dog is better equipped with coping skills and has demonstrated the ability to tolerate very low intensity exposures towards triggers. Taking your dog off the reactivity fog will allow both of you to get some relief and destress.

No worries, this is not a permanent solution and there are many ways to keep your dog active, and happy in the meanwhile through brain games, food puzzles, clicker training, foraging opportunities, fun games in the yard (fetch, treasure hunts, use of herding balls for dogs), sniffing adventures, canine sports, possibly hikes in rural areas (where you are absolutely sure there are no dogs).

- Familiarize With Desensitization and Counterconditioning
These are two very powerful behavior modification techniques that are also used in humans to treat fears and phobias.

Desensitization is simply the process where you expose your dog to his triggers in a systematic manner so that they don't evoke his lunging and barking behavior. This often means presenting them at a distance if the trigger is visual or playing recordings at a low volume if the trigger is auditory. More about this is covered here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/

Counterconditioning is instead the process of creating positive associations with the trigger. The goal is eliciting what is known as a conditioned emotional response, where the dog goes from dreading the trigger to looking forward to it because it leads to wonderful things. The most common implementation of this is through the use of food. Basically, every time the trigger is seen, the dog is fed something high in value. More about this is covered here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/

When desensitization is combined with counterconditioning you therefore get the best of both worlds: low level, more tolerable exposures to the trigger and wonderful associations with food (remember to go very high value outdoors, I like to use baked liver strips, low sodium-organic beef hot dogs, chicken breast-the white meat only, no skin or bones-check with your vet if your dog has allergies/dietary intolerances/ a sensitive GI system).

- Become a Pro In Reading Your Dog
In order to implement behavior modification correctly, it's important to familiarize yourself with your dog's body language. Recognize when he is in an emotional baseline level and when he's starting to rev up.

If you have recordings of your dog's reactive behavior, watch them in slow motion and watch carefully the precursor signs. There may have been a quick lip lick, wrinkling of the skin on the forehead or he may stopped panting focusing on something in the distance. You mentioned whining, but what happens right prior to the whining or turning the head?

A good behavior modification plan will have your dog orienting towards the trigger, but without causing him to react. You therefore need to pay extra attention that your dog doesn't go over threshold. Here is how to know when a dog is over or under threshold (hint, when your dog spits treats, he very over) https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/

-Train Replacement Behaviors
The goal is to gradually train an alternate behavior for your dog to engage in and obtain a fluid response so that it can be then eventually prompted in face of the trigger.

This training should be started in the comfort of the home away from distractions. With cases of reactivity, I have found more success in using dynamic behaviors than static behaviors (like sits, downs and stays) because I find that dogs struggle more staying still when they are concerned about their surroundings.

One of my favorite replacement behaviors is to train is attention heeling (where the dog looks at me while walking past distractions). Since your dog pulls, you'll want to work on this any way so there's a double whammy of benefits (tackling the pulling, giving the dog an alternate behavior to engage in rather than barking and pulling). 

As mentioned, you should training this starting in the hallway using kibble, then move to then garage and then fenced yard using high-value treats (since there are more distractions),as long as you are sure there are no triggers.

I would also recommend again working on conditioning your dog to respond to a smacking sound. Train this by making the sound and then tossing your dog immediately a treat. Smacking sound/treat, smacking sound/treat.

Practice in low distraction areas, gradually adding in distractions (not the actual trigger though). You want your dog to immediately orient towards you for his treat.

-Train The Emergency U-Turn
The emergency U-turn is an important skill to train considering that one day, you may find yourself stuck in a sticky situation where your dog's trigger is walking your way.

The emergency U-turn teaches your dog to turn on cue. If you practice often enough, your dog should quickly do an about-turn with you saving you from a potentially challenging situation. Here is a guide: how to train the emergency U-turn: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/emergency-u-turn/

- Keep Your Dog Under Better Control
As mentioned, just a plain buckle collar attached to a leash in general will give you poor control of your dog.

This can also personally cause us humans stress and anxiety when going on walks because we're concerned about falling, or our dogs dragging you too close to the trigger or tugging strong enough that the leash slips through our hands. Our dogs may sense this stress, and this can travel down the leash to the point where both you and your dog are feeding on each others' emotions.

By having a better sense of control, we can feel more confident.  We can gain some of that using a front-attachment harness where the leash attaches to the front ring of the harness.  For cases where I am particularly concerned about safety, or there's a struggle in walking the dog, I may even invest in a head halter.

Prong collars, choke collars or shock collars are a big no-no as these do the total opposite of what we are trying to achieve (create positive associations) since they cause discomfort/pain.

- Start With Easy Systematic Exposures
Once you have learned how to read your dog's body language, the basics of desensitization and counterconditioning, how to keep a dog under threshold, acclimatized your dog to wearing a harness (or muzzle training if necessary for safety) and practiced a replacement behavior, it is time to start working with systematic exposures.

These are again low-intensity exposures where you can control the intensity of the trigger through set-ups (like volunteers walking back and forth with a dog at a subthreshold distance).

You won't ask for trained replacement behaviors yet, because it's not easy for a dog to perform operant behaviors when they are concerned about a potential trigger (think about trying to focus when a big spider is about to crawl on your arm!), and on top of that, you want your dog to focus on the trigger so that you can pair it with good things.

There are several games and exercises that use desensitization and counterconditioning that come handy when working with reactive dogs.

These exercises/games are rather easy for the dog to perform since they don't involve much thinking but just looking at triggers and forming positive associations with them.

A great game to play to create positive associations with a trigger is the Look at That Exercise. In this exercise, you just feed treats when your dog sees the trigger, aiming for a positive conditioned emotional response. If I have a dog who isn't very territorial, I can even start this exercise indoors, by looking at the trigger from a window at a distance. Skipping the leash may help initially.  Here is the guide on that: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/

If you want to make things crystal clear, you can use the Open Bar/Close Bar method, taking advantage of visual obstructions. For example, if a dog is reactive towards other dogs, one can have a helper walk a dog parallel to parked cars. Feed treats when your dog sees the other dog, stop feeding treats when he no longer sees him (as the cars block the view). Here is the guide on this: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/open-bar-closed-bar/

Another helpful game that aims to provide positive associations is a "Treasure Hunt game" with a twist. Upon noticing the trigger at a distance, toss a handful of treats and and say "go get em!" in a happy tone as you point towards the treats.

A Treat Toss game instead consists of the dog noticing the trigger at a distance, I then make the smacking sound tossing the treat a little ahead on the road for the dog to catch. I have found some dogs respond better to tossed treats rather than hand-feeding as it stimulates their prey drive and allows them to release some energy too.

For dogs worried about dogs and turning around repeatedly when worried about other dogs, I created a form of LAT on the go, you'll find a video in the case study section: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/03-homer-homers-reactivity/

Tip: If your dog has been exhibiting reactive behavior always on walks around the neighborhood, it may be worthy to start working on the issue in a new place so to establish new routines/habits.

- Progress to Actual Training
Once your dog has shown signs of associating the trigger with tasty treats and he is in a calmer state, you can start asking for the replacement behaviors.

Right upon passing by the trigger, make your smacking sound, hold the treat at eye level and ask your dog to do some steps of attention heeling, looking at you as you feed him treats every step. Once past the trigger, no more treats. Make it clear that the trigger is what starts all the fun!

-Have a Plan for Setbacks
If at any time, your dog becomes reactive, take that as a sign that you have progressed too fast or the trigger was at a too intense level.

If caught very early, if possible, interrupt the behavior at the earliest sign by making your smacking sound or tossing treats telling your dog to "get them" increasing distance from the trigger. If the trigger is approaching head-on, prompt the emergency turn immediately,

Always end the session on a positive note, feeding treats as your dog sees the trigger from a distance that doesn't evoke a reaction, and call it a day.

Once home, make a mental note of presenting the trigger at less intense levels. It could be the trigger was presented too close or for too long or was too animated. Each of these elements should be presented one at a time, as too many elements presented at once can easily push a dog at the edge.

It could also be that your dog has endured other stressful events at home (hence the importance of reducing stress at home too) and due to trigger stacking his threshold for feeling reactive has temporarily lowered. Maybe he is not feeling well, or the exposure was just too much incorporated various elements at once.

- Consider Calming Aids
For cases of reactivity that aren't too responsive, you may need to add some calming aids. Examples include calming supplements, DAP collars, calming sprays etc. These options can be discussed with a vet.

In certain cases, where the dog is a bite-risk or the reactivity occurs across various contexts, or when the triggers are difficult to manage and there is no improvement, the use of medications prescribed by the vet may be recommended along with behavior medication.

- Consider Professional Help
It goes without saying that ideally, reactivity in dogs should be tackled with the in-person help of a professional for safety and the correct implementation of behavior modification. It is important to seek help by professional committed to force-free training and behavior modification. Professionals to seek out include dog trainers specializing in reactivity, board-certified veterinary behaviorist and Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists.

-Importance of Improving the Dog's Emotional Wellbeing
On top of working around the reactivity, it's important to not forget to also tackle the dog's overall emotional wellbeing. Improvements can be made by decreasing the overall stress in the dog's life, promoting relaxation (relax on a mat), increasing the dog's confidence and helping the dog develop coping skills.

Particularly beneficial may be adding enrichment under the form of brain games and food puzzles, promoting positive experiences, shaping, clicker training, impulse control training, letting the dog explore the world at his own pace, building frustration tolerance, splitting exercises in easy steps, teaching the dog to relax.

Noise phobias should be tackled as well: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-noises/

I hope this helps! Please keep us posted and don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

Happy training!

Best,

Adrienne 

Disclaimer: behavior modification comes with risks. If your puppy or dog shows signs of potential aggression (lunging, barking, growling, snapping, biting) for safety, please consult with a dog behavior professional who uses force-free behavior modification techniques (no shock, prongs, or physical corrections) for direct in-person guidance. Articles, videos and general info found in the forums or course (or any online source) are not meant to replace in-person training/instruction. By using this course and forum, you are waiving any liability claims or other type of claims related to any dogs' behavior against you or others.

[EdwardBateman]

Thanks so much, there is a lot of information to digest and i will probably have to read it a few times to let it sink in fully. I have tried a lot of your exercises and Cali loves them, he is a genius when he wants to be and other times as stubborn as a mule. For example with the airplane game, before we even start he will sit and stare me in the eyes. I do the lip smacking on the walk too and usually he is good to stop, sit and look. Other times he is just lost in his own world sniffing and ignoring, lol. 

I have ordered a new harness to try and will start new training with it so that its a new feeling for him too and let you know how we get on. I also think that the rewards I am using are not high value enough for conditioning, i am only giving him his croquettes (dry food) as rewards so i will change that on our next walks and with the harness training too.

Thanks again for all your time and responses 🙂

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Thanks so much, there is a lot of information to digest and i will probably have to read it a few times to let it sink in fully.

 

You are very welcome! When we work with our dogs on behavior modification, it's a process we must go through as a team. The same therefore applies to us, we need to also take baby steps and not feel overwhelmed by the process. For instance, it's OK to focus at the moment on what needs worked on by priority and setting small goals each week. 

 

 I have tried a lot of your exercises and Cali loves them, he is a genius when he wants to be and other times as stubborn as a mule. For example with the airplane game, before we even start he will sit and stare me in the eyes.

 

In this case, he is likely attending to other cues and anticipating you. For instance, he may have learned that getting a cookie from a closet and then raising our arm up means "sit and look at me." In this case, we can try either:

 

1) Catching him unprepared by getting the cookie when he's in another room, placing it in our pocket while holding it with our hand, then as he's busy doing something else, calling him and as soon as he approaches (before he has a chance to sit) spread our arms. Or we can do something totally different than usual, such as maybe playing the game with us sitting on the couch or playing it in the yard. 

 

2) We can try increasing difficulty and have a helper bounce a ball nearby so to distract the dog and work around that distraction. 

 

I do the lip smacking on the walk too and usually he is good to stop, sit and look. Other times he is just lost in his own world sniffing and ignoring, lol. 

 

When dogs are sniffing, a large amount of their brain is concentrating on deciphering the information attained. It's quite fascinating actually. They have a special organ known as the vomeronasal organ which is meant to detect pheromones from which the information is relayed to the brain.

 

 On top of this, dogs who are nervous around their surroundings often are very into sniffing because it allows them to gain knowledge about their surroundings, similar to reading the headlines of a newspaper. I had noise-phobic dogs calm down fairly quickly on walks when I cued them to go sniff. 'Go sniff" can be easily put on cue by approaching a grassy area, dangling the leash and pointing to a specific area.

 

So it's important starting all training in very low distraction areas, and avoiding asking for cues when our dogs are distracted such as actively sniffing. We can certainly build up to that level-but the problem is, that right, now, if we ask for a behavior and the dog ignores us, we risk weakening our cue to the point of learned irrelevance. Where on the contrary, what powers up our cues is our dog's responsiveness, reinforced with a valuable reward. 

I have ordered a new harness to try and will start new training with it so that its a new feeling for him too and let you know how we get on.

I also think that the rewards I am using are not high value enough for conditioning, i am only giving him his croquettes (dry food) as rewards so i will change that on our next walks and with the harness training too.Thanks again for all your time and responses 🙂

Yes, going higher value can certainly help when moving the training to more distracting places. Many dog owners notice quite a difference in their dogs' responsiveness. Kibble though still has it place such as when we work indoors and for dogs who love it and are comfortable in their surroundings. 

You are very welcome! Keep us posted on how things go, 

Happy training!

Best,

Adrienne