Why is my dog reactive on leash, but not off?

Have you ever lost the TV remote to the black hole that is underneath your couch? You can see it, but you just can’t quite reach it with your fingers. The more you struggle to grab onto that remote (and can’t), the angrier you become.

Frustrating, right?

Our dogs can experience similar frustrations when they are blocked from reaching things in the environment that they want to access (not generally the TV remote, but you get the idea.) We call this “barrier frustration” and it can result in explosive - and often noisy - behavior from our dogs.

What is barrier frustration?

Why is it that our dog might be reactive towards stimuli in the environment, such as another dog, but off the leash is a perfect angel? This can be confusing and frustrating behavior for dog guardians to understand, and rightly so.

When talking about barrier frustration, these dogs are not reacting because they are scared or upset about the stimulus in front of them; quite the opposite. These dogs want to get to the stimulus in question, but they can’t.
Why? Because they’re being blocked by that pesky leash.
A dog who wants to go somewhere/access something that is constantly denied access to this thing is bound to become frustrated. They can’t move, behave, or interact the way they want to, which can result in strong feeling of annoyance.

A dog who is frustrated might lunge, growl, bark and whine.
Does this sound familiar?
It should - it’s the same behavior we might see from a dog who is upset or angry about a trigger in the environment.

While barrier frustration is something we commonly see on leash, we can also see it occurring from behind a fence/gate, at windows and doors.

Once that barrier is removed - you unclip the leash - voila! Your dog is finally able to move and behave how they wanted to all along, and the reactivity seems to magically disappear.

How do I know it’s barrier frustration?

A dog who is experiencing barrier frustration will have a a noticeable behavioral shift once that barrier has been removed.

These dogs generally become quite happy when they are finally able to access the stimulus in question. This might be the dog that is the social butterfly at the off-leash dog park, but as soon as you clip on the leash to walk home, boom - trouble!
Friendly dogs are often prime candidates to develop barrier frustration, as these dogs are so excited to greet dogs and people that the thought of being denied that privilege is incredibly insulting.

Frustration is going to mount quickly when your primary goal on a walk is to say hello to everyone, but you’re repeatedly denied this opportunity.

If, when the barrier in question is removed, your dog remains reactive (barking, lunging, growling) or is showing other signs of trepidation such as backing away, growling, cowering, tail tucked, or hiding - something else is likely going on here.
It’s helpful to utilize the trained eye of a professional to determine what exactly is causing your dog’s reactive behavior (and how best to address it moving forward.)

My dog can’t say hi to everybody!

When our dog is experiencing barrier frustration, we want to ensure we are addressing the underlying emotions - the excitement and the desire to greet.
This sounds simple, in theory, but our dog cannot be allowed to drag us down the sidewalk to greet every Jack, Sally, and Andy they come across just to prevent them from becoming frustrated.
A few things to consider when we look at addressing leash reactivity as a result of barrier frustration:

• Meet your dog’s needs: this dog likely has a large social bucket that is not being filled regularly, and this should be one of our primary objectives. Ensuring your dog receives ample off-leash social opportunities with other dogs and/or people (depending on the source of their reactivity) will be important for them. We cannot expect our dog to learn to behave differently around dogs, when they have an itch to interact with other dogs that we have yet to scratch.

• Set your dog up to succeed (management): when you come across distractions on walks, help your dog be successful by utilizing ample space when passing others. Initially, you may want to avoid triggers altogether, while you get training in place, to prevent your dog from rehearsing reactivity on a regular basis. This might require you to walk at a different time of day or in a different location where you are less likely to come across others.

• Teach your dog what to do: once we are meeting our dog’s social needs in a safe and appropriate manner, we can then get started training. We need to teach our dog to feel better around their triggers when they encounter them on-leash (reduce that frustration), and instruct them how we would like them to behave when encountering the trigger in the future. These dogs will need to learn how to approach and pass people and dogs in a way that is safe, and this can best be accomplished with a gradual training plan that builds off of your dog’s success at all times. Start training these new skills at home, in the absence of the distractions, before you ‘take it on the road.’ You can see how I taught my dog to pass people on walks here.

Off leash is the answer….or is it?

While removing the leash barrier is going to prevent the problem at hand (no barrier, no frustration), we cannot always walk our dogs off-leash. We need to consider and respect local leash laws, while also considering the safety and well-being of others around us.
Not everybody (dog or person) wants to be approached by a dog, no matter how friendly they are, so ensure that you are only utilizing off-leash opportunities in designated areas.

Your dog is going to benefit greatly from learning to manage their frustration and developing skills to handle the situations they are currently struggling in, so don’t shy away from the training piece of this puzzle!

Instead of just focusing on what you don’t want your dog to do, spend time teaching your dog what you do want them to do instead.

If you’re unsure where to start, reach out for help, so you are better able to show your dog how to be a respectable canine citizen in all scenarios!

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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