Pet Centrics Dog Training

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

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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

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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

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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

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Reactivity Counterconditioning

• Goals of counterconditioning exercises
  • Changing the dog’s emotional response
  • Teaching alternative behavior responses to the trigger
• Ideal conditions for counterconditioning
  • Handler skills
    • Leash handling
    • Environmental/Situational Awareness
    • Basic knowledge on dog body language, behavior and learning
  • Dog is acclimated to the training location
  • Dog is actively engaged and attentive to the owner
  • Dog knows basic obedience behaviors
  • Dog responds well to leash handling
  • In the presence of reactivity triggers, the dog must be BELOW THRESHOLD (i.e. not reacting, and able to engage with owner)
    • The dog is aware of the trigger but the trigger is at a tolerable distance and/or intensity
    • If the trigger is beyond the handler’s control, the handler should use their learned management skills to redirect the dog’s attention away from the trigger, and to move the dog to a better location or to where conditions are more ideal for training and counterconditioning.
• How to conduct counterconditioning exercises
  • When conditions are ideal the dog can be engaged in exercises that:
    • Condition a new and desirable emotional response towards the trigger
    • Condition a new and desirable behavior response in the presence of the trigger
  • Examples of exercises:
    • Attention redirection: In the presence of the trigger, the dog is taught to turn attention back to the owner
    • Alternative behavior: The dog can be taught to run into his/her crate at the sound of the doorbell.
• Outcomes of training and counterconditioning of the reactive dog:
  • Tolerance threshold for triggers is raised
  • The dog is given alternatives for how to respond to and resolve emotional triggering.