If your dog is dragging you around and barking at every dog in sight, kicking off at people, or chasing traffic – this post is for you.
For those who may not know us we’re Valorant K9 Academy and we’re behaviour specialists based in North East England. We work almost exclusively with reactivity and aggression, across all breeds, sizes and temperaments, and have clients nationwide. It’s what got us into training dogs, and it’s what we’ll be doing as long as there are dogs that need help.
Many owners find themselves in the situation where their dogs are showing reactive behaviour towards other dogs, people or traffic. Resulting in every walk becoming immensely stressful and embarrassing, with most either walking the dog late at night and early mornings, or not at all.
So what’s going on? Why do some dogs behave like this while others seem to have no issues?
Reactivity and aggression can be caused by multiple different factors from frustration, fear, stress, low confidence, genetic predispositions, nerve, learned behaviours and more. And some dogs may exhibit multiple of these traits simultaneously.
Ultimately, reactive dogs are identifying the other dog/person/traffic as something to be over-aroused by, apprehensive of, or a potential threat. And to ensure we can give them the right support and training moving forward, we need to first identify where the dog is emotively. Emotion drives behaviour, and without knowing the underlying emotion you’ll be forever trying to push a square peg through a round hole.
Additionally to this, 99% of reactive dogs pull on the leash and generally don’t pay addition to their owners. When they’re in a heightened state of mind and pulling, their heart rate and blood pressure is up, they’re scanning the environment, and hyper-vigilant. All it takes is the spark to ignite them into reactivity and aggression.
So your dog is reactive, you aren’t sure why, and you don’t know what to do about it. Unlike some other areas of training, reactivity can’t be assessed online, by following tips, or by watching videos. You need a professional pair of eyes to identify where it’s coming from and give you the tools you need to begin really tackling the problem moving forwards.
Many reactive dog owners suffer unnecessarily without seeking help, when in reality their dogs reactivity is a straight forward fix with the right knowledge, understanding and approach.
