Understanding the Reactive Dog
Human misunderstanding of canine communication and social signals is responsible for a large percentage of reactive behavior. Dogs have rituals for nearly every situation that rely on body language and energy to communicate their emotional state to other dogs at any particular time. Most human behavior to a dog is not polite. Owners who walk their dog up to another dog on a leash without regard to what signals either dog is putting out is in for a shock.
A reactive dog in public is a problem, spinning around, barking, snapping, and other anxious/excited behavior can get you in lots of trouble, not to mention disqualified from agility trials. But often forcing them not to sniff, and look about will make them more reactive because they can feel vulnerable. Something’s out there, and it might get me, but I can’t look or I’ll get in trouble.
Dogs are peaceable animals and most of their intial communication with a strange dog is to prevent conflict. If these initial signals fail, the dogs may stare or growl and bare teeth. While owners tend to tense up and correct dogs for growling, they should really only take the growl as a signal that it’s time to soothe their dog. Growling is a communication that says your dog is uncomfortable and rather than punishing it for expressing itself take the time to find out what is making it uncomfortable and correct that. Most time you can do this by simply staying calm yourself and taking your dog away from the situation.
Staying calm yourself is key. Tightening the leash and tensing up is one of the most frequent mistakes made by dog owners. Your dog should be confident that you will handle things for them. They react because they feel they are on their own or because they think it's their job to confront the world and protect their owner. If they see their owner as confident and proactive instead of reactive, they’ll feel a lot better.
Handling the reactive dog
No one in their right mind ever wants to own an aggressive dog. A reactive dog is an aggressive dog. Not for the same reasons as a truely aggresive dog, they are aggressive out of fear and uncertainty, but they are still aggressive. Since the advent of TV shows where aggressive dogs are rehabilitated, many more people are now willing to work with their dogs rather than deciding on euthanasia. Even some trainers are now willing to either work with the reactive dog or have a business friend that knows how. The problem is that because the TV shows make it look so easy, most of these people want their dog to stop aggressing in one afternoon, and there are those out there who have styled themselves as dog psychologists or behavior specialists that will attempt to fulfill that dream of an afternoon's work will cure your dog.
Taking the time to slowly and carefully teach the dog other behaviors is often neglected, because "I just want my dog to stop aggressing." (now, dammit!) It's one thing to use corrections with a dog that is reactiing inappropriatly to get them to stop, to snap them out of it and redirect their attention - I do this myself - but that is only half the equation. Without a concrete plan of action, the naive owner then continues to expose his dog to situations she can’t handle, with no alternate behaviors, focus building, confidence building or other "training" done to assure that both the owner and the dog know what to do when in a tense situation. These "dog psychologists" and "expert behavior specialists" may get an aggressive or reactive dog to stop aggressing while they are there, but the owners are not being educated in how to keep the dog in that state or how to stop the dog from escalating in the future.
No matter what the dog’s issues/triggers are, I start with teaching the same set of core behaviors before starting the desensitization process that will provide a lasting cure. Why before? Most of the dogs I come in contact with possess little or no basic training. They may have learned that sit, stay, come, walk on a loose leash are optional behaviors because their owners don't insist that they do these things every single time a command is given. They may have been traumatized, perhaps through harsh punishment methods. Often trust needs to be re-established or they (dog and owner) must learn what the rules of the game are.
What a reactie dog, and his owner, needs to learn
For the aggressive/reactive dogs that I work with, it is a prerequisite that all of them and their owner know certain behaviors and know them to a certain degree of fluency before handling the actual aggression. In most cases, having the humans and dogs actually learn these prerequites provides the cure. It is probably more important to teach the human half of the team the proper responses if their dog does react and how to regain the dog's focus and attention.
During those first six weeks of lessons, we work on some basic and some not-so-basic behaviors—for the dogs and the people. We discuss the pitfalls of using punishment or negative reinforcement, how the owners emotions and actions affect the dog, how to properly read signs of stress, how to know when your dog is stressed and what is just curiosity, how to communicate with your dog in his language, how dog’s learn and how to reclaim a better relationship with your dog.
The basics include:
- eye contact
- instant name response and instant recall
- attention and focus on the owner
- target training to focus the dog on the owners commands and to refocus the dog on something other then his reactive triggers
- sit, down, wait, stay
- take it, give it, drop it, leave it - especially leave it
- a few Rally moves, such as front, back and all types of turns
Once the basic core behaviors are learned both in a quiet place and with distractions, then I can teach the owners problem solving and how to play with their dog. When working with aggressive dogs, it is important to add that fun element—otherwise the entire process becomes too stressful. Learning to fetch, play soccer, find your keys or just weaving between traffic cones is not only fun for both you and the dog, but it also builds the dog's confidence and your trust and confidence that your dog will do as you ask no matter how excited he gets.
This may seem like a huge amount of behaviors to teach the dog in only six weeks, but most of the dogs actually learn them quite well. Sometimes I run into a dog that needs more handling than the six lessons—their owners haven’t practiced enough or their trigger point is just too high. My aggressive/reactive dog classes are held in local parks or on trails in a very controlled situation, so if the dog can’t learn to focus outside, they will need some one-on-one training with me.
For the human half of the team, we work on calming techniques, visualization and actually practicing scenarios that may happen in the real world. In addition, we work on building up the confidence, timing and "muscle memory" of responses, so when presented with a reactive moment, they will know what to do and still remain clam.
The dogs that make the most progress are the dogs that have a large repertoire of obedience commands that they will actually respond to instead of reacting to a situation. This dogs owner practices these commands and behaviors diligently and makes these behaviors fun for the dog. The more their dogs learn new things the less the owners tense up in reactive moments and the better they feel about handling their dog’s aggression.
I encourage all my reactive dog clients to at least come and observe the behavior training class. When they see how the core behaviors and others are utilized within the class, and how supportive every one is and that there is rarely any aggression happening in the class, this oftentimes rejuvenates their dedication to help their dog.