Navigating the world with a reactive dog can be difficult and stressful. You never know when a car will go zipping by or the neighbor's dog will come racing towards the street only to stop seconds before hitting the edge of their property. It’s startling for you and for your dog and, as a result, creates a lot of anxiety for those of us just trying to enjoy life with your sensitive canines. Today we’re talking about ways you can safely navigate the world with your dog. Managing your dog’s reactivity will help reduce their stress and improve their behavior overall. These skills will help you do just that.
Firstly, Read your dog.
Watch your dog when you’re out on a walk. They are usually more keyed into their environment than we are. Observe the changes in their ears, their pace, breathing, or posture. If your dog recognizes a trigger (dog for example) they may slow down or speed up. Their ears may move forward and become tense. Your dog’s posture may become very tense and their tail position may change. When you recognize these changes first, you can intervene and move your dog to safety before they react and go over their threshold.
Second, Run away.
You and your dog do not need to face every difficult thing together. Moving away from conflict is a wonderful choice! When things are too difficult, asking your dog to run away into the sunset with you helps you advocate for your dog’s needs and avoid increasing your dog’s stress. Train your dog the emergency U-turn. This is a highly reinforcing super fun game to play with your dog outside of situations like this, so that when they are in a situation where you are both in need of rescue, you can cue your dog, “Let’s Go!” and move away together. You see distance helps your dog process and assess their environment. By moving away from a trigger it becomes less intense. (If you want help teaching the emergency U-turn you can get the lesson plan and more in our free mini-course, The Distracted Dog. Sign up for free here)
Third, Pullover
Similar to the emergency U-turn when things get difficult you need to put distance between your dog and their trigger. Sometimes there is no place to run to so pulling over is your next best chance for reducing stress. Tell your dog you’re going to pull over and move as far off the trail or path as you can go. Feel free to move into the woods as well! Now if you only pull over when there is a trigger present your dog will not want to do it! Practice this randomly on walks to keep it a fun game for your dog that doesn’t always mean there is a trigger nearby.
Fourth, Take a breath.
When your dog does encounter a trigger, once you are safely away or the trigger has moved on, try not to jump right back into a walk. Take a moment to engage with your dog. Ask for cues your dog likes to do like Touch, Sit, or Spin. You can also offer a scatter feed to your dog by sprinkling some treats on the ground in a safe spot. Taking a moment to take a breath with your dog will help them work through some of their stress and be more mindful about the rest of your walk together.
Lastly, Be proactive.
Before you bring your dog to a new trail, go ahead and walk yourself to make sure your dog will be successful there. Are there lots of children? Off-leash dogs? Can training be heard in the distance? Small things like this can make a big difference to your dog’s success. Be prepared, if your dog is reactive to other dogs, for how to hand an off-leash dog should you run into one. Learn more about what we recommend here.
Managing your dog on walks can be challenging especially if they are barking at everything. Our free course, The Distracted Dog, will help you learn 3 essential skills to help your dog be more successful on walks and offer you more attention. It’s completely free to join! Sign up here to get started.
Finally, I’ll leave you with this, your measure of success with your dog is not whether or not they react to a trigger, it’s how quickly they recover when they do. Your dog has feelings and that’s okay. The more work you do with them to help them feel better, the more resilient they will become, and soon, you’ll be confidently taking field trips to new places.
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