Why your reactivity training isn’t working for your dog

Walking and hiking in the Snoqualmie Valley can be fun and relaxing, or it can be stressful if you have a reactive dog.  Maybe you have worked with a dog trainer or tried some techniques on your own and feel like it hasn’t worked.

Reactivity training, touted as a solution for managing reactive behavior in dogs, has gained popularity in recent years. The idea is that techniques like desensitization and counterconditioning can help dogs overcome their reactive tendencies.

Here is some possible reasons your training is not working:

You haven’t addressed the root causes: Reactivity training typically focuses on modifying the dog's behavior in specific situations, such as when encountering other dogs or stimuli that trigger reactivity.  If your dog has fear, anxiety or aggressive behavior, likely you need a holistic approach that addresses the causes of these issues and makes sure their needs for mental and physical exercise are met.  Without addressing the root cause, the reactive behavior is likely to persist or pop up in other areas. If your dog is unsocialized or has had severe trauma, those issues must be addressed in order for you to be successful.

You haven’t practiced techniques at home without distraction: Dogs, like people, have a hard time learning while under stress.  In order for distraction and desensitization techniques to work, you should practice them at home until they are muscle memory for you and your dog, and your dog can rely on them while under stress.

You have unrealistic expectations: Reactivity treatment is not a linear process. You should see improvement if you are being consistent, but you will have good and bad days and you will be surprised with a trigger at times despite your planning.  Dog training takes time and consistency to unravel bad habits!

You are not being a calm leader: We get it.  Its stressful, embarrassing and sometimes scary when your dog barks and lunges.  But your stress contributes to a cycle of stress for your dog as well.  They think “so there IS something to worry about!”.  Its important to have the mindset that you are prepared, you can move your dog away from concerning things and you are proactive. Breathe. Your dog will feed off of your confidence instead. So many times it is not WHAT your doing but HOW you are doing it.  Be strong for your dog.

You aren’t engaging enough to compete with the environment.  If you want to keep your dog engaged, you must be engaging yourself to compete with the other people, dogs, bikes and smells.  Reserve your highest value rewards for these outings and be interesting to your dog. Keep them engaged with confident leash handling, training, games and movement.

You are doing too much.  Dogs in a constant state of stress will have a hard time making progress. Dog training sessions for reactivity must be short and strategic. Your dog can only learn if they are under threshold; that is they not reacting to the scary thing. Sometimes it makes sense to do less in order to give your dog time to decompress, and then introduce the training back in slowly.

Reactivity training techniques do work for most dogs if you treat your dog holistically, stay the course and have patience.  Lead Dog offers private dog training for families in North Bend, Snoqualmie and Fall City.