Top Tips For Helping Reactivity

Here are some of my top tips for helping to manage your dog's reactivity, and help you on your way with your training:

1. Don't Avoid The Problem

   It's difficult - it can feel isolating when your dog is having a big reaction, and our natural instinct might be to completely avoid the trigger that causes this behaviour from our dogs. However, this will not help to manage the behaviour - only avoid the problem. I often hear of people that switch to walking their dogs at 5am so there aren't any other dog walkers about!

   While I would suggest considering where you choose to walk your dog and at slightly quieter times at first, we don't have to go to the extremes.

2. Space and Distance

   This links in with the point above - choose walks where there's plenty of open space, over walks with strict pathways. This way we can add more distance between us and the trigger to help our dog manage by not pushing them too far past their threshold. Further on in the training, we look to reduce the distance so that you're able to enjoy any and all walks with your dog.

   
   
   
   
   
   

3. Take a Break From Training

   Whilst practice and consistency are key to helping this behaviour, consider having a 'day off' from the training too. This might be something such as booking a private secure field so that your dog can enjoy a run without triggers being present, a rural quiet walk, or maybe even skipping your walk and focusing on training and exercise in the garden.

   
   

4. Distraction Isn't the Answer

   While I certainly use food and toys throughout this training, we have to be careful how we implement them and what we are using them for. If we distract our dog by holding a treat in front of them so they don't look at any dogs, our dog isn't really learning anything in the way of reducing their reactions. Our rewards should be that - a reward, not a distraction technique.

   
   

5. Reinforce the Good

   Capturing and reinforcing all of the good behaviours we do want to see from our dog is important in any kind of training you do - and especially important with reactivity. We need to let our dog know that they're making great choices and to continue to do that in future, and build their confidence around their triggers. Even if this might be a quick look over at a dog, looking at you instead of fixating on a dog, or even walking straight past another dog! The more we capture and reinforce, the more progress you'll make towards you goal of stress-free walks.

If you have a question about reactivity, feel free to get in touch!

Emma, Elmtree Dogs (BSc, MSc Animal Behaviour & Training)