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Your plan may include taking your dog on fewer walks and instead focusing on energetic activity in your yard.

This is going to be your Decompression Plan. This allows your dog to relax and unwind until training with a behavior specialist starts. The next step is to create a plan to avoid the triggers on your list. This can mean that you do not go on walks until you receive training. If you can’t figure out the specific triggers then your best option is a conservative approach that avoids all potential triggers. Keep this list handy so you will be prepared when you meet with your behavior specialist. Consider not only the sights your dog may have seen but also the sounds (dog tags, other barking dogs, construction noises, children playing, loud trucks). You will likely gather enough information by using your memory and writing down what you recall. Please note: It’s not necessary to take your dog on a walk and put your dog in stressful situations in order to create this list of triggers. You might come up with things like, 1) it was trash day and the neighbor was bringing in a trash container, 2) you were at the park and someone was walking a large dog within 20 feet, 3) several construction workers wearing hard hats were talking on the sidewalk. Now, list all the activities that were going on when your dog showed reactive behavior.

Start by thinking back to the 3 most recent walks you took with your dog. What is the dog responding to? This list is something you can prepare without the help of a professional. Reactivity can develop toward almost any trigger.Įven though there are several reasons a dog may show reactive behavior and there may be different triggers for each dog, all behavior modification training plans start with 2 requirements. Dogs may also show this reactive behavior towards people, cars going past and noisy lawn equipment. Lastly, if a dog was never socialized to other dogs, they will bark nervously at all they see. A second cause of reactivity may be that the dog gets frustrated because he is used to meeting lots of dogs or people and now he doesn’t understand that he can’t meet everyone all the time. An example of this is when a dog has been attacked and is now on the defensive when on walks, anticipating another attack and may bark and lunge if another dog is seen. Or they had their dog as a puppy and did all the right things, socializing their dog often with other dogs and people but their puppy turned into an adolescent who started lunging and barking on walks.Īs behavior professionals our first job is to determine the motivation and triggers for the dog’s behavior. They may have a rescue dog and know little information about the dog's past.

Others have no idea why their dog behaves this way. The dog may have had a terrible interaction with another dog or maybe was attacked by a loose dog while out on a walk. Sometimes clients have a clear idea why their dog is showing this reactivity. Occasionally clients are even knocked over or injured by their dog pulling the leash in a fit of reactivity. This means they bark, pull, sometimes lunge and growl, and can be very unpleasant to take on a walk. Many client dogs show some type of reactivity on leash.