Why you shouldn't wait to treat your dog's reactivity issues
”Reactivity” and “Aggression” are generally misunderstood and misused.Just because your dog is grumbly on leash, doesn’t mean she’s aggressive. There is an important difference between the two terms and it’s key to know this before labeling your dog.
Aggression is reactivity on a higher scale with the intent finally to injure if all the other communication fails.
Most troubled dogs in our fair city are not (and should not be) considered “aggressive” – reactivity is far more common in these close quarters. Unfortunately if we let reactivity go without treatment or we treat it with punitive methods, it can escalate into aggressive behaviour.
So often I see a simple leash-based reactivity case on the street – a dog who is friendly and confident in the dog park but fearful and obnoxious on leash, and the person at the other end of the leash, yanking, and yelling at the dog while dragging them away. What this tells the dog is that meeting dogs while on leash is painful, scary and never going to happen.
Of course, these dogs get worse and worse over time; even if to the average person it looks as though the behaviour disappears, it’s more likely that the dog has shut down to avoid the punishment but now is a ticking time-bomb.
Now and again, I’ll see a dog communicating discomfort by growling or snarling at another dog while passing on the street and their guardian stops and forces them into a ‘down’ position either verbally or physically. ‘Down’ is a very vulnerable position for a dog and while it looks like the dog calms down, we haven’t actually changed the dog’s emotional response to the other dog’s proximity; we’ve taught them that we can’t be trusted to read their warning signals and help them out of a scary or tense situation.
Many reactivity issues stem from fear, but the most common reason I’m given by guardians is “dominance- aggression”. I can’t wait for the day that the D-word is wiped clean from our vocabulary when talking about dogs. It’s such an unfair label to assign to a dog who is more than likely fearful, but it’s also counter-productive.
Whenever I’m working with a reactivity client, the first thing we work on is understanding why the dog is reacting this way and how we can start to change the emotional response to the stimulus.
Because reactivity is often fear-based, we use food to start. I never worry about reinforcing “bad behaviour” when trying to change an emotional response; you cannot feed fear in this situation.
As we work through the reactivity, we utilize functional or environmental rewards, like distance for the fearful dog or a visit with the other dog for the frustrated and impatient dog.
As you can see, turning a blind eye or treating reactivity with punitive methods will only end in disaster as it rarely goes away on its own. Sometimes it’s a quick fix and other times it takes months of hard work, but isn’t your pup worth it?
I think so.
Date: October 10th, 2011
Author: Caryn Charlie Liles
Copyright 2011, Whatta Pup!
Whatta Pup! and Mindful Behaviors have teamed up to bring you downtown Toronto's first and only reactive dog class, called "Cranky Canine". We work with four dogs at a time, with two trainers in a controlled and safe environment with the goal of teaching your reactive dog to safely pass other dogs and people on the sidewalk by the end of the four week series. Commitment includes two classes per week plus homework. For more information, please visit this page or call 647.893.5580.
