Boom! Your dog just exploded. Reactivity Much?
Reactivity is that nasty “stuff” you see from your dog under specific situations. Your dog seems to be okay with people, and even with dogs at daycare. Your dog may be lunging, barking at humans, dogs, or at fast-moving things while on a leash or confined by a kennel or fence. Those reactions can seem very “aggressive.” In dog training, we call that reactivity.
Where Does Barking on Leash Come From?
The confinement, insecurity, frustration or arousal will show up in the explosion and in your dog’s everyday life. It is common to see insecure dogs or highly aroused dogs with reactivity. Your dog’s reactivity is influenced immensely by your overall lifestyle with it. How you stop reactivity has a lifestyle and a correction piece that you may be missing.
I hope that by now, you’re using tools. Reactivity can be challenging, and it’s sometimes a work in progress. You will have good days and bad. If you’re utilizing a dog training device like a prong or an E-collar to train your dog obedience, you can use the tool as a corrective or aversive.
How to Stop Reactivity
Yes! You can punish reactivity. I only talk about things I have tried and proven right. Match the Boxer dog I trained in Orlando, had severe leash aggression. Reactivity and leash aggression are mostly the same things. Some dogs only display reactivity under leash confinement.
When you use training tools as correctives come in early! So, correct soon and correct at a valuable level. How do you know if the correction is useful? The dog’s behavior changed. Don’t ask the dog to do an obedience command when you think it is going to explode. Correct or tap the E-collar at the thought of reacting to the trigger. Your dog has cues both subtle and apparent right before an explosion. You may notice hard side-eye staring, crinkle forehead, nose in the air sniffing for the trigger, or breathing changes. It may be helpful to record it with the help of a second person so you can study what occurs before the explosions.
Again, your relationship with your dog is a significant contributor, but, I suggest not talking to your dog while you gear it up to go out. Ensure relaxed movements from your self and watch your breathing. In the past, you’ve most likely been on edge. Reactivity can be embarrassing. So focus. Get your dogs dressed in their gear while they’re in the crate or while on place command. Enforce quiet behavior or even a down in the kennel or place command before leaving. No panting or whining should be happening from your dog. Stop the dog’s arousal at all thresholds by correcting firmly. The most significant threshold is at the door you use for walks.
Correct Where it Counts
By the time your dog reaches the front door with you, it’s probably going to have it’s nose in the air so correct that. The micro-managing and perhaps emotional moments might subside over time if you do your work. Correcting your dog may pull those heartstrings a bit, but, get it together, You’ve got this! You can’t reward your way out of unwanted behaviors that are hardwired in the dog’s memory.
If I were you, I’d start from scratch. Start with obedience training. I have a do it yourself video gallery. Make sure you have a relaxed dog inside the house and not roaming the home consistently. Punish reactive or nervous behaviors that your dog displays indoors before you tackle a walk etc. Start with low distractions first. Learn the distance it takes to trigger your dog and decrease it over time.
Nagging the dog with underwhelming corrections may do the opposite of you’re trying to accomplish. A nagging example, the dog is reacting, you then use ineffective taps on an E-collar and say “leave it” repeatedly. Finally, alongside those underwhelming corrections and the frustrated verbal communication =BOOM!