Hope For Dog Reactivity

Breaking the Cycle of Reactivity

When dogs become defensive, reactive, and aggressive, we can ratinalize that this behavior has roots in ethology for their success and survival but it still sucks to have “that dog” in the neighborhood. People often talk about fight-or-flight behavior, and once a dog shows reactive behaviors frequently he can be labeled "aggressive" toward whatever the stimulus might be. It could be people, other dogs, or something novel like a vacuum cleaner or street sweeper. I am here to tell you there is hope for healing dogs with reactive behaviors and creating new beginnings.

One thing that is damn near impossible for people is to stop labeling normal dog behavior as “good and bad”. I can't tell you how many wonderful, therapy dogs I've worked with over the years through the Institute for Human-Animal Connection who all had their nemesis or Achilles heel. Years ago, one of the heads of my program pulled me aside to share an embarrassing story. He was walking with faculty members and important leaders who were coming to collaborate on a project with the Institute when his truly wonderful English Labrador—usually the bubbly, lighthearted calm center of the universe—burst out in what looked like rage. A student on campus had come roaring by on a skateboard. The sight and sound sent this pup into a frenzy of fury. She was completely distressed by the event, but the head of our program was absolutely mortified by the social discomfort he experienced.

Photo: Michael Wright

I've helped countless dogs who were thought to be dog-aggressive by simply removing the contact nature of their exposure to dogs and creating frequent buddy walks. This is where I would bring a neutral dog who is non-reactive—no matter what the other dog presents—and we just go for a walk at a very safe distance in parallel. It starts with me and the neutral dog walking ahead of them, and slowly over time, they catch up and we get closer together, walking 8 to 10 feet apart in the same direction. We go for quite a while frequently, and over time the reactive dog becomes... curious.

Curiosity has a link to another survival mechanism. Dogs, as a species, need exploratory instincts as well as defensive instincts to survive.

Here's my caveat: I have never used this technique with dogs with bite histories. For me, the big difference lies in the intent to do harm. If I see on the client's history form that the dog was previously socialized with dogs—they've participated in group activities or lived with another dog and have no history of an actual dog fight, just reactivity, barking, lunging, and growling—I'm calling the dog's bluff. I reject the idea that there's a large population of dogs who by "nature" just hate other dogs. I don't buy it.

I think we have messed dogs up so much with our human environment, our socialization practices, and letting dogs greet face-to-face on a leash while tied tightly to their most valuable resource—their people. Not to mention socializing them intensely right up until the age of six or seven months and then cutting them off from the world. I think dogs are frustrated, freaked out, and frantic. Let me show you another way.