In very general terms, reactivity is an inappropriate response to the environment. A dog barking, lunging, growling, or dragging towards others on a walk. Aggressive responses to someone walking through the door. Jumping, biting, or really anything that is considered “impolite”. I like to imagine what this might look like in people as a way to wrap my head around the behaviors. It might be that someone knocks on your front door, then you scream at them and slap them in the face. Not how a normal person would act, and not gonna win you a lot of friends.
Reactivity comes from a variety of underlying issues. I separate them into three categories, play based, fear based, and forward aggression.
The easiest to deal with is often play based. The dog really wants to go play and views other dogs as awesome friends. Unfortunately, it can’t always be playtime and we must teach our dogs when it is allowed and when it is time to enjoy a calm walk. To reduce reactivity in these cases, impulse control drills and strong obedience is necessary. A simple impulse control drill is to have your dog sit, hold a treat above their head, and slowly bring the treat towards their nose. If they jump, uh-uh, no start over. Only when the dog can stay sitting until the treat reaches them do they get it. The idea is, sit still and control yourself to get what you want.
Fear based reactivity looks like a dog who will attempt to run away from the situation if able. The issue is that while on a leash, they are unable to leave and feel that they must turn to aggression. A dog in this state of mind is concerned that it will be harmed by other dogs/people if they do not get away or defend themselves. Combating this type of reactivity involves changing a dog’s mindset around the triggers. Often, my advice is to spend a lot of time around the trigger, proving to the dog that it is safe. For example, your dog barks at every person walking past. Well now you are gonna learn to love the busy park near you. Your dog needs to see lots and lots of people and learn that these people are not here to hurt me. The important part is that your dog DOES NOT practice the reactive behaviors during this time.
Quick sidenote to dive into how a dog thinks. They firmly believe that everything they do controls the rest of the world. I do this, so that happens. I sit, so that man is forced to give me a treat. Appling this to our reactive dogs; I barked at the man, so he went away and this bad feeling left with him. I did this and that’s why the next thing happened.
Back to the park. If the dog believes he is driving every person away by barking, the behavior will get stronger and stronger. Instead, if he is not allowed to bark at people walking by and nothing bad happens, now the dog learns that barking is not necessary. Only once the reactive behaviors have stopped, can we start to change a dog’s mindset around these triggers.
The final type of reactivity is forward aggression. This looks like a dog who wants to injure or kill, but not out of fear. If you dropped the leash, they would not run away, but towards the trigger. Cases of true aggression are rare and often involve a lifetime of management. These types of dogs require a high level of obedience and careful control of the environment. Again, rare, but definitely require assistance from a professional.
Understanding the why behind behavior is important, take a moment to reflect on your own dog’s actions and responses. Which category would they fall in? How could you best help them?