What is a Reactive Dog?

[CloudClan]

What is a Reactive Dog?

Reactivity can be defined as an over-the-top reaction to common stimuli.

Dogs communicate their discomfort and try to send messages by using threat displays such as barking, growling. These are normal reactions to show that someone is too close, too pushy, too scary. All of these behaviors are meant to help avoid escalating a situation (i.e. into a fight). As such dogs should not be punished for these displays. You want this communication to indicate to you that your dog is uncomfortable and needs space.

However, a reactive dog resorts to these behavior displays at inappropriate times, too quickly and generally can create problems rather than help avoid them.

Typically, we think of the dog who barks and lunges when presented with something that "upsets" him. The key is that this is a more extreme reaction than normal. All dogs bark, and many bark at specific stimuli, but when that reaction is seemingly uncontrollable and extreme you have a reactive dog. Reactivity can also display in extreme shyness. This would include dogs that cower and shake when presented with stimuli.

How do dogs become reactive?

• Medical causes (pain, poor eyesight, improper thyroid levels)
• Fear (timid nature, prior negative experiences)
• Arousal/Frustration (lack of exercise, leashed or fenced and unable to escape)
• Genetics (herding instincts, resource guarding, prey drive)
• Lack of Socialization (not enough new or positive experiences in critical periods)
• Learned Behavior (threat displays have "worked" in the past)
• Stress Hormones (which can stay in the body from previous episodes)

What are stressors?

Whatever in your dogs life causes him or her stress can add up. It is important to identify stressors because they add up. Imagine you are driving on the road and someone cuts you off. It is annoying. But you move on with your day.

However, what if that morning you slept through your alarm. You jump in the shower, but the hot water heater broke and you end up standing under ice cold water. You try to quickly grab some cereal, but find your kid left the milk out on the counter and it has spoiled. You get in the car and find you are almost out of gas and the check engine light is on. Now imagine that same guy cuts you off again. Now you may well be on your way to a full blown Road Rage episode.

One of the tasks we should do with our reactive dogs is to try to discover the things that stress them. Make a list. Maybe it is getting his nails trimmed, maybe it is the mailman ringing the doorbell with packages, maybe it is your own stress. Now you want to minimize them as much as possible. There are a few ways we can do this:

• Get rid of it
  (i.e. maybe your dog hates his head halter collar--try a front clip harness instead)
• Change the association
  (feed the dog yummy treats while you cut his toenails)
• Teach a new incompatible behavior
  (dogs stressed by the doorbell, try teaching them to do something different when it rings)
• Manage the dog's exposure
  (get enough distance, limit experiences with those things that cause the most stress)

Now those are just the things that stress your dog. Now consider the things that make him or her have a reactive episode. What are the "triggers"? Make a list of those triggers. Maybe your dog reacts more strongly to big dogs, black dogs, dogs with wagging tails, maybe it is running children or skateboarders, or something as simple as the jingling of a collar.

The Need for Mangagement

Once you identify those triggers it is VERY important to manage your dogs exposure to them. Every time your dog has an episode where he or she is scared or stressed by a dog the more it reinforces that bad things happen around other dogs. If your dog has been punished in the past for reacting to other dogs by barking or lunging or growling then that punishment is also reinforcing that negative things happen in the presence of other dogs.

(strange dog appears) (your dog is unsure) (situation becomes stressful) (your dog explodes)

The thing is that this becomes a conditioned pattern. In fact, the more it happens and the more stress is added to the dog (i.e. punishment for the threat displays) the more likely it is to move directly from point a-b:

(strange dog appears) (your dog explodes)

Classical Conditioning
So the mechanism currently used by positive trainers who understand reactive behavior is similar to what we are familiar with in the Pavlov's dog experiments. It is classical conditioning.

Management and the careful use of classical conditioning breaks this cycle.
The more often we can make the senario look like this:

(strange dog appears) (your dog is unsure) (your dog gets YUMMY reward) (your dog is feeling fine)

And ultimately this:

(strange dog appears) (your dog is feeling fine)

This is a situation where positive reinforcement is critical. Negative reinforcement can have disastrous effects and make your dog worse.

• Punishment adds to stress
• Punishment makes learning more difficult
• Punishment in the form of aggression can cause aggression
• Punishment can take away warning signs (threat displays) but may move them to sudden aggression

Much of the above information comes from a course packet handed out by my instructor at my Canine Social Skills class at Canine Character with trainer Kim Yocklin.

In addition, I have also added information I learned through Pat Miller's Reactive Rover Workshop at PeacablePaws.

I created this post because I went through some old threads on this forum with folks who have said they were at their wits end due to their dogs barking, lunging, and general inappropriate behaviors that could all be labeled reactive. I hope this thread can be a resource for us. If you have a reactive dog, it can help others understand that they are not alone in dealing with this issue, so please post your thoughts and your experiences here.

[Nikki's Mom]

Thanks, very interesting. I pet-sat for a couple of reactive dogs and they were a handful.

I would also have to add that vaccinations sometimes can cause a non-reactive dog to be reactive. Even Patricia McConnell seems to think so.

[michik08]

This was very interesting - and makes a lot of sense. So when I'm outside and faced with large dogs coming towards me and I hear him starting to growl, that's when I should make him sit and reward him with a treat. If he doesn't sit, I guess I lead him away from the dog?

I'm guessing the same applies to someone knocking at the door - but that's a bit tougher b/c you can't prepare for the "explosion" in the same way. I saw in a previous old post, someone suggested doing the same (make a loud noise, sit then reward w/ treat) while someone else ignored him, then called out at word and used a 5-min time out. I'm guessing either one works? This may prove challenging as I have 2 that go nuts w/ the door knocker.

[CloudClan]

Honestly, he probably won't be able to focus on the command to sit. I would not ask it of him.

Classical conditioning does not require him to perform a behavior. In classical conditioning the treat is not a reward for the behavior performed it is meant to create a new emotional reaction to the stimuli. Idealy, you want to begin classical conditioning in a somewhat controlled setup. If you cannot get assistants to help you do this, you might want to at least find a comfortable spot with sufficient distance where you can watch dogs pass by. For example, go to PetSmart, but sit a fair distance away from the door. Every time he sees another dog you treat him. The goal is for him to begin to recognize that the sight of another dog will give him rewards.

If you think that he is going to go over the edge, then get him out of dodge as soon as you can. This is where some operant conditioning training can come in handy. Work on U-turns with your dog, excited happy u-turns. That way when you see something ahead that you know is going to cause him trouble you have a command you can use to get him out of dodge before he has the reaction.

As for the door, just like the U-turns, you want to practice the behaviors before the real-life situation occurs. You teach the dog what you want before the doorbell rings. Get someone in your family to be the doorbell ringer, so that when the doorbell does ring you have practiced several times the expected behavior.

[mom2bijou]

GREAT info Carina!!!!!!!! I'm gonna print this one out and keep reading it and working w/Benny.

I'm off to read your other thread right now!

[Maglily]

Originally Posted by CloudClan

Honestly, he probably won't be able to focus on the command to sit. I would not ask it of him.

Classical conditioning does not require him to perform a behavior. In classical conditioning the treat is not a reward for the behavior performed it is meant to create a new emotional reaction to the stimuli. Idealy, you want to begin classical conditioning in a somewhat controlled setup. If you cannot get assistants to help you do this, you might want to at least find a comfortable spot with sufficient distance where you can watch dogs pass by. For example, go to PetSmart, but sit a fair distance away from the door. Every time he sees another dog you treat him. The goal is for him to begin to recognize that the sight of another dog will give him rewards.

If you think that he is going to go over the edge, then get him out of dodge as soon as you can. This is where some operant conditioning training can come in handy. Work on U-turns with your dog, excited happy u-turns. That way when you see something ahead that you know is going to cause him trouble you have a command you can use to get him out of dodge before he has the reaction.

As for the door, just like the U-turns, you want to practice the behaviors before the real-life situation occurs. You teach the dog what you want before the doorbell rings. Get someone in your family to be the doorbell ringer, so that when the doorbell does ring you have practiced several times the expected behavior.

Thank you!
Yes great info. I've been getting Jodi to sit and reward with a treat when he sees a dog...and it's working, it's a big improvement. But what an eye opener to know that the sit is not necessary.

it is a little frustrating if I am with someone who says...you just rewarded him for barking....I think the goal is to treat before he gets to the barking stage. So if he starts to bark just do a U turn and get out of there? has the opportunity passed by then? ie don't bother to try and give a treat at all until there is another opportunity and he sees another dog?

[CloudClan]

Asking for an incompatible behavior like sitting or lying down isn't exactly wrong but it is turning the moment into operant conditioning rather than classical conditioning and as such you are teaching the dog the command, but you may be in fact distracting the dog from the ultimate goal of:

see the dog be fine with the dog

I don't know about your dogs...but if Cadeau is in full blown reactive mode he is not ready to take treats anyway. If he can take treats then he is not lost yet. You need to understand the degree to which your dog is agitated. If they have gone over threshold then you have contributed to the dog going from:

to to

When working with the dogs, Pat told us to continue feeding even if they were barking. There was little MinPin in the group who was highly food motivated. She would bark, little barks every time she saw the dog, but not barking and lunging. Pat told her to continue to feed. She was able to point out to the group that the dog's barking was not increasing as she saw the dog approach, if it was then we would know we were rewarding the barking, but in fact as she grew more comfortable the barking faded.

I know exactly what you mean about how others say that you are rewarding your dog for bad behavior when they are like this. I had trainers at the club I was at tell me that, too. So here I am reading this info, but being told by "more experienced" trainers that I am doing it wrong. Faced with that, I lacked the confidence to know what was right.

[The A Team]

Carina. Can you help me what to do with Tinker? As you know he grew up in a puppy mill with zero socialization. I've had him 3 1/2 years and he is still scared to death of EVERYONE except me.

He has become very protective of our home. Whenever anyone enters the house, he bites them

if he has a toy in his mouth, it helps relieve the stress and he'll run around the sofa with the toy in his mouth. He'll look at the person entering ..take his toy and shake it fiercely, almost as if to say...this is what I'd like to do to you!!!!!

He is not food motivated at all. and I find my self usually yelling and chasing him around saying "get a toy"...."gat a toy, hurry up!"

He doesn't bite to drawl blood, he just runs up and tries to grab pant legs or shoes.

I HATE this behavior. But, alas, Tink isn't a normal boy.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

And it's funny that he does this because if you walked in and tried to pet him, he'd run in the other direction.

[CloudClan]

Originally Posted by The A Team

Carina. Can you help me what to do with Tinker? As you know he grew up in a puppy mill with zero socialization. I've had him 3 1/2 years and he is still scared to death of EVERYONE except me.

He has become very protective of our home. Whenever anyone enters the house, he bites them

if he has a toy in his mouth, it helps relieve the stress and he'll run around the sofa with the toy in his mouth. He'll look at the person entering ..take his toy and shake it fiercely, almost as if to say...this is what I'd like to do to you!!!!!

He is not food motivated at all. and I find my self usually yelling and chasing him around saying "get a toy"...."gat a toy, hurry up!"

He doesn't bite to drawl blood, he just runs up and tries to grab pant legs or shoes.

I HATE this behavior. But, alas, Tink isn't a normal boy.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

And it's funny that he does this because if you walked in and tried to pet him, he'd run in the other direction.

Pat,

Lack of food motivation is a tough one. The procedure Pat demonstrated at Camp was the classical conditioning and requires food motivation. Cadeau was not food motivated at all this weekend (Cadie was in heat), but I feel like I can do the procedures when his brain and his appetite come back because the should once Cadie comes out of heat.

Pat did share with us an article (and I bought a video) of another technique that is a little more controversial (still positive) that uses operant conditioning. It was called the CAT procedure. She wrote an article about it in the Whole Dog Journal May 2008. It is not based on treats, but on keeping the dogs in the presence of the stimuli.

Honestly, if I had a dog like Tink, I would keep a seabreeze pen handy and plop him into it with his toy when people arrive at the door. So he has a safe place to go when they first come in. How does he do once they have been there a while?

[revakb2]

Thank you so much, Carina. I have had the same experience with the trainers at my club. Most of them work with big dogs, and I don't think they understand the little dog mind at all. The information you provided is very helpful, and I'm going to try some of the suggestions.