If you’re struggling to train your reactive dog, rest assured that you’re not alone. Responsiveness is one of the biggest challenges dog owners face and it can leave you trapped in your own home.
Learning how to calm a reactive dog is one of the most important skills you can acquire if you have a canine companion who is easily triggered by certain stimuli in their environment.
However, if you’re anything like us, you might not know that training shouldn’t be the first step with a reactive dog. Instead, we need to take a broader view so that we can better understand our dogs.
To help you, expert trainer and behaviorist Nikki Mather came to the rescue with a handy Instagram post in which she shares five things every pet parent should be aware of before training their reactive dog. We’ll take a look…
1. Triggers: “Anything that causes your dog to feel stressed, excited (can also be excitement), pain or fear. Triggers can be both good and bad! A good trigger can be the tennis ball, while a bad trigger might be other dogs. Make sure you understand your dog’s main triggers, so you understand what you’re working with,” says Mather.
2. Adaptation threshold: “How much can your dog tolerate before reaching the ‘breaking point’ i.e. they can no longer cope with the level of stress/fear etc. We need to know this threshold to avoid putting our dogs in situations they can’t handle, thus preventing them from going into fight/flight/freeze mode and repeating unwanted behaviors,” advises Mather.
3. Stress Relief: “Do they have enough outlets to relieve stress, such as sleep, sniffle opportunities, decompression walks, chewing, exercise, mental activities, etc.,” Mather explains. It’s important to learn how to play with a dog so you can be sure to provide them with all the mental and physical enrichment they need to thrive. Take your dog to sniff can also be a great way to help them reduce stress and fatigue.
4. Emotional needs: “Before any type of training, we need to prioritize the emotional well-being of our dog,” says Mather. “This may include stress management, daily exercise, medical wellness, quality nutrition, breed-specific needs, social opportunities, etc.”
5. Lifestyle: “For you and your dog, what do your daily routines look like?” asks Mather. “Consider sleep patterns, walks, type of walk, level of exercise, diet, feeding times, social interactions, rewarding activities, etc.”
Remember that when it comes to responsiveness, your dog needs you to stand up for him and help him feel calmer and more confident in triggering situations.
This can be a difficult problem to manage, so if you think you and your pup would benefit from some extra support, we recommend you hire a professional trainer.