What do I do when my dog is reacting?
While it’s rarely enjoyable to observe your dog barking, lunging, or growling on the end of their leash, the reality is, reactions happen.
While we put a lot of emphasis on proactive management to reduce the rehearsal of reactivity, we need to know what to do should a reaction happen. Knowing how to respond prevent a reaction from escalating out of control and is imperative for safety in the moment.
Get out of there!
When your dog is in over their head, this is not the time to try and train or otherwise modify their behavior. When a dog is actively reacting, their parasympathetic nervous system has likely switched on, meaning they are utilizing the emotional portion of their brain, and their logical one is checked out completely.
Just like you wouldn’t start quizzing your partner on multiplication during a bank robbery, we cannot expect our dogs to respond to new cues or directions while they are in a conflict situation - this is setting them up to fail.
Get out of there! This is your best option in this situation. This may not look pretty or be simple to accomplish, but try to increase your dog’s distance from the trigger as calmly and quickly as possible. Often times we will have to utilize leash pressure in this situation in order to get the dog moving away from the trigger. When this is unavoidable, try to use a steady leash pressure instead of jerking or snapping on the leash in a way that might hurt the dog or scare them.
Utilize a visual barrier. If possible, seek out a barrier to block your dog’s view of the trigger to help them disengage from it - vehicles, fences, garbage cans, and trees can be useful for this.
Redirect. You are likely going to need ample distance from the trigger to be able to successfully redirect your dog, but if possible, try to shift their attention away from the trigger and towards something else - a treat scatter, sniffing, performing a known, well-liked behavior, etc.
Time to go home?
After you have removed your dog from the trigger so they are no longer over-threshold or reacting, it is important to check in with them. Is your dog able to recover from the incident well enough that you can continue your walk, or are they heightened and hypervigilant as a result?
Gauging your dog’s recovery will influence your decision to either carry on with your walk (away from the trigger, ideally) or whether it’s best to call it and head home.
After a stressful encounter such as this, your dog’s stress hormones will be high, and will remain high for a while. This leaves your dog at a much higher risk of trigger stacking, which could result in bigger, unexpected reactions towards other stimuli encountered during your outing.
If you are unsure if your dog has successfully recovered from the incident, I would recommend playing it safe and heading home to prevent further trouble from brewing.
Decompress.
After a reactive episode is not the time to stew over the event - no, this will happen later. Once you are safe at home, I want you to put the incident out of your mind (to the best of your ability) and focus on decompressing.
Stress hormones can remain elevated in our body for several hours following an event, so it will be important that we do our best to acknowledge this stress (and how it will effect us and our behavior moving forward), and proactively seek ways to negate it.
For our dogs, I recommend finding chewing, sniffing, or licking outlets that they enjoy. These activities to dogs are like reading a good book (or sinking into a Netflix series) for humans - they help them to relax. In addition to calming activities, it will be important to prioritize rest to help your dog get back to baseline.
Makes sense right?
Now the tricky part - you need to focus on your own rest and recovery as well.
You are no good to your dog if you are exhausted, stressed out, and riddled with guilt over a dog walk gone ‘wrong.’
It is important that you take the time to address your own stress and work to alleviate it. Read a book, take a bath, scream into a pillow, go chop wood to blow off some steam - whatever it is, find an outlet for your own emotions and make yourself an equal priority to your dog.
Take time to reflect.
The time for reflection is after the incident has passed, and you feel that you have had a chance to recover from it. We want to ensure your logical brain is attending this reflection period, not your emotional one (although, if you’re like me, this side of the brain always comes along for the ride.)
Reflection should not be about laying blame, pointing fingers, or ridiculing yourself. Instead, try to look at the facts:
what happened?
what went wrong?
what did I do well? (Yes, you may have to dig deep, but trust me, you did something well.)
what could I have done differently to avoid this outcome (or, could I have done anything differently?)
where do we need to focus our training efforts to prevent a repeat incident in the future?
It can be helpful to talk these things through with a trusted friend or your dog trainer, if you have one, so that they can help you look at things objectively.
preventative training and management.
Now that you’ve recovered and have an idea of what went sideways during this walk, what are you going to do about it?
Is there something you need to focus on extra during your dog’s training sessions - perhaps their emergency U-turn in order to avoid run-ins like this in the future?
Maybe you’ve determined that this location or time of day is not ideal for walking your dog, so you may need to scout out other spots to safely walk your dog.
If you are seeing a pattern in your dog’s reactions, or are experiencing reactions on a regular basis, now might be the time to re-evaluate your training plan. Is this plan the best fit for your dog and your goals? Now might be the time to bring on the help of a certified dog trainer who is experienced in dog reactivity.
Reactions are going to happen at some point. That doesn’t mean you’re failing.
While it can be difficult, try not to look at these reactions as failures for yourself and your dog; instead, look at them as information.
These incidents can give us insight into gaps in our training or management plans, and can guide us in our efforts to help our dog’s navigate triggers in the world with more success in the future.
At the end of the day remember, you are doing your best, and your best is enough.
I see you, I see your hard work, and your struggle, and I applaud you. Keep going!
Stay awesome,
Vanessa
Vanessa Charbonneau, is the author of Dog Care for Puppies: A guide to Feeding, Playing, Grooming and Behavior. She owns Sit Pretty Behavior & Training, employing force-free training techniques to work with companion dogs and their owners. Charbonneau lives in Prince George, BC with her husband, two daughters, and one dog.
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