The Reactivity Management & Counterconditioning Course Curriculum and other online resources are still under development.

In the meantime, please see below an overview of the Course Content. The points below will be covered in greater detail by your instructor.

Your instructor may choose to switch up the order of and focus on specific lessons more than others depending on you and your dog’s specific training needs and your progress in training. Therefore, expect that your sessions with your instructor may not follow the outline exactly as listed below.

Orientation

Understanding Reactivity

What is Reactivity?

  • Reactivity Stimulus / Trigger
    • What is a stimulus (plural: stimuli)? Anything that can be perceived by the dog’s senses
    • Trigger: internal or external stimuli that may provoke an overblown emotional response in the dog
  • Reactivity Threshold
    • This is the point at which the dog exhibits an overblown emotional response once a reactivity stimuli or trigger is perceived by the dog.
    • Factors that affect Threshold
      • Intensity of stimulus
      • Distance of stimulus
      • Location of stimulus
      • Presentation of stimulus
      • Response Suppression due to fear of pain or punishment
  • Emotional Response
    • What is the purpose of the dog’s emotional response?
      • To defend against things that the dog perceives as threats
      • To acquire or protect resources that are perceived as valuable by the dog

What is Aggression?

  • Aggression is a more extreme presentation of reactivity
  • Overblown emotional response usually quickly presents as potentially harmful behavior towards the stimulus or trigger such as the dog biting

Why is it important to manage and address reactivity?

  • To improve the quality of life of the dog and his/her owner
  • To prevent reactivity from potentially escalating to more intense and dangerous dog aggression
  • To prevent injury to the owner and other people that may handle or approach the dog
  • To prevent injury to other dogs or animals that may come in contact with the reactive dog
  • To prevent injury to the reactive/aggressive dog

Reactivity Management

  • Importance of Management
    • It is important to prevent the dog from engaging in the overblown emotional response to prevent behavior escalation
    • In the presence of the trigger, maintaining the dog below his reactivity threshold allows for better learning/training and counterconditioning
  • Management Strategies
    • Management Strategies are primarily utilized
      • to prevent the dog from going over threshold,
      • to control the dog and to quickly and calmly bring him/her back to below threshold in case of a reaction
      • to keep people and animals in contact with the dog safe especially in the case of aggressive dogs
    • Strategies that can be implemented immediately
      • Owner Awareness and Vigilance
        • Owner responsibilities in Reactivity Management
          • Manage yourself
          • Educate yourself
          • Know your dog
          • Lead your dog
      • Physical Separation
        • Sound Proofing / Sound Dampening
        • Doors, Gates and other Barriers (non-conditioned confinement)
        • Visual Blocking
    • Strategies that require equipment and equipment conditioning
      • Management through leash handling
      • Management through confinement
        • Crate conditioning
    • Strategies to prevent injury to people handling the dog
      • Muzzle
        • Choosing the right muzzle
        • Muzzle conditioning
        • Muzzle may need to be utilized even without pre-conditioning in case reactivity provocation is unavoidable such as in the case of veterinary handling
      • Sedation / Anesthesia
        • Use with veterinary supervision
      • Strategies that require training
        • Owner Leash Handling Skills
        • Dog Skills
          • Magnet Hand
          • Target Hand
          • Lure Following
          • Paws Up / Hop Up
          • Place Training / Station
          • Heel and On-leash Walking

Reactivity Counterconditioning

  • Goals of counterconditioning exercises
    • Changing the dog’s emotional response
    • Teaching alternative behavior responses to the trigger