How to train a reactive dog

Living with a reactive dog can be overwhelming and stressful. Their reactive behaviour might prove restrictive and frustrating if it limits what you can do with your dog or makes your daily walks challenging. It’s very unlikely you had a reactive dog in mind when you thought about your ideal dog ... so how can you improve your dog's behaviour?

Involving a professional trainer or behaviourist is highly recommended when you’re working with your reactive dog, not only will they help you understand your dog’s behaviour, they can also coach you through the best ways to manage and improve their behaviour. Living with a reactive dog can feel lonely at times, so working alongside a professional can provide invaluable support and reassurance.

Reactive Dogs and Fear

Fear is a common factor in reactive behaviours, and this means choice is always key to helping a reactive dog cope. Forcing them into situations or making them ‘face their fears’ will only serve to reinforce those fears and increase their stress. You can still support your dog while letting them choose, but always encourage them to find more space if they need it. For a dog who is fearful of new people, pushing them to greet people or asking people to give them treats by hand can put the dog into a conflicting, scary situation, and if their signals are ignored, their behaviour may escalate to reflect their communication attempts.

The Canine Ladder of Aggression (Kendal Shepherd)

Looking at the canine ladder of aggression can help us understand why reactive behaviours can become increasingly extreme, and lead to aggressive behaviours. A dog may begin by communicating their fear with subtle signals, such as pulling their ears back or cowering, but if the human interaction continues, they may try to communicate more clearly, perhaps by freezing or staring, if they are still ignored then they may escalate to a growl or snap. If a dog has had their earlier signals repeatedly ignored, they may skip those signals and go straight to the most effective ones, like barking, growling or snapping.

If noticed before these signals have escalated, simply giving more choice to the dog may be enough to build their confidence around people. New people can be asked to ignore the dog completely, allowing them to explore and sniff in their own time. As an owner, you can support your dog and reward any choices to explore or move away. There should be importance placed on the dog choosing to have space, as well as choosing to interact, it should never be just about interacting with people, the dog should always be reminded that choosing not to interact is also a perfectly good thing to do.

If reactive behaviour towards people is displayed by barking and lunging at new people, choice is still important but additional training support like counterconditioning and desensitisation should be included in the training plan. Reactivity may never be ‘fixed’, many dogs will always be prone to reactive responses and careful management is needed for life, especially for dogs who have a history of practicing reactive behaviours or who have had their signals ignored repeatedly.

Stress Hormones

It's important to remember that when a dog experiences stress or perceives a threat, stress hormones are released and the sympathetic nervous system is activated, the dog is preparing for flight or fight. This internal response isn’t directly controlled by the dog, the response is started when a threat is perceived and then regulated by the internal systems. This means the dog isn’t deciding whether or not to react, he is instinctively doing so. When the brain determines that the threat has passed, then the response will stop and the body can begin to relax.

Helping a reactive dog cope isn’t just about understanding their signals and working through behavioural modification, it’s also about knowing their limits and respecting this. After stressful events, it has been suggested that it can take 72 hours for hormones to return to a baseline level, and for dogs who have been exposed to chronic stress, it could take 6 weeks. This is where it’s important to allow dogs to rest and recover after stressful events so their hormones can return to baseline levels.

Reactive dogs can benefit hugely from rest days, where they have minimal or no exposure to stressful stimuli. They can also benefit from activities which aid the reduction of stress, for example, enrichment, sniffing activities, training games, or simply sleeping peacefully and undisturbed! For reactive dogs, it’s not all about behaviour modification and training, sometimes less is more, and putting more emphasis on reducing exposure to triggers and allowing more time to enjoy activities without stress, can be hugely beneficial in building their confidence and resilience.

Reinforce and Reward

It is only natural to feel frustrated or embarrassed by your dog’s reactive behaviour and this can make it hard for us to control our own emotions. It’s important to remember that reactive behaviour typically involves fear, even if your dog looks bold and confident, so if you become angry or frustrated with your dog, you could increase their fear more. If your dog is reactive due to over-excitement, receiving a punishment from you may cause them to feel fearful or confused.

Keeping calm when your dog is reacting may be easier said than done, but it’s essential you avoid punishing your dog or doing anything which may scare or hurt them (this includes shouting, yanking their lead, or using tools like rattle bottles and bark collars). These methods are more likely to make reactive behaviours worse and risk your dog escalating their behaviour or redirecting their reaction towards you.

We must remember in a reactive moment, your dog is behaving instinctively and not thinking calmly, so your aim should be to increase the distance between your dog and the trigger and help them calm down quickly. Using food rewards or other forms of positive reinforcement, such as toys, will teach your dog to trust you and look to you for help instead of reacting instinctively.

Alongside increasing your dog’s choices and showing them how to move away from triggering situations, food rewards are an effective way to build positive, calm associations with things that trigger your dog to react.

At Hound Spot we have years of experience and up-to-date knowledge on the most effective methods and strategies to improve reactive behaviours. Not all reactive dogs can be ‘fixed’ but we can teach you how to improve and manage your dog’s behaviour in a way that allows you to enjoy your life together again!