07/02/2025
Hey everyone!
For those of you who don't know me I'm Gemma O'Leary the face behind Canine Reactive - Behaviour Therapy and Training for Reactive Dogs. I have worked in the animal industry all my life, from the moment I was old enough to volunteer at my local vets after school, all the way up to the present day.
The journey in my animal career has changed and shifted along the way. From vet receptionist to puppy party organiser to self-employed dog trainer and behaviourist. During my transition to training and behaviour I became extremely interested and driven by the reactive cases.
It was fitting then that my first dog was a rescue German Shepherd that was ‘wild’. He was nine months old when I homed him. Clearly hadn't been trained or socialised. It is thought, that given the state of him, he had escaped a farm. He hated men and dogs. So naturally I wanted him.
He led me on the best educational journey of experiencing what it is like to live day-to-day with a reactive dog. It led me on an investigative journey to try and find new methods to help him from a training and behaviour mod perspective. My studies and CPD from then on all centred around reactive behaviour.
As a canine behaviourist, it is my job to investigate and get to the bottom of why your dog feels the need to react in certain situations or around certain stimuli. This helps us to develop a training and behaviour modification plan to help make positive changes. Up until two years ago, I was working a traditional approach to behaviour, which was fine, but, there would be the odd case where regardless of the amount of behaviour modification and training we would implement, we were not making progress as I would have expected. I would ask my clients to take their dogs to see their vet for a health check to rule out any potential medical causes for behaviour change or potential pain, and they would all come back clear. YET, I was still doubting everything. I knew in my gut something else had to be going on for these dogs, what was it?
It was not until 2023 that I started to find out what it was, and the missing piece of the puzzle was illuminated. These dogs were in pain. HOWEVER, they didn't show typical pain signs like limping or yelping. They still chased balls, ran around like crazy doing zoomies after walks, jumping off furniture, going up onto their back legs to greet people, etc.
So how can you seek professional, medical help for your dog who potentially is in pain when they do not display it as traditional teachings suggest?
How can you be sure that your dog's reactivity is not just learned or down to pure environmental factors and experiences?
You need a behaviourist who is also a Dynamic Dog practitioner.
When I was studying to become a Dynamic Dog practitioner I had to do several case studies, one of them was my own dog. I sadly no longer had Rocky, But I had another German Shepherd, which I have had since a pup, Nessa. Nessa was not showing any signs of pain and was young. She came from good breeding so I had no reason to question anything until I carried out a Dynamic Dog assessment on her. WOW, what I found was incredible.
Nessa didn't tell me there was anything wrong in any obvious way, however, Dynamic Dog enabled me to note behaviours and postural adaptions that were screaming out potential issues. A lot of the behaviours I assumed were quirks, and the postural stuff I thought was "normal" as I would see it in SO many other dogs.
Nessa was doing some of the following:
🐾Cocking a leg to p*e despite being female
🐾 Walks with an ass swagger, like a catwalk model.
🐾 Has a distinctive coat pattern disturbance over her shoulders and hindquarters - I thought this was just her coat.
🐾 Twitches when you touch her in a certain part of her hind.
🐾 Is a messy drinker
🐾 Is noise sensitive
🐾 Does not like dogs that rush up to her or move quickly.
🐾 Leans against me when i towel-dry her.
🐾 Appeared lazy, and had no stamina, yet could bolt after a deer if she saw one.
I emailed my Dynamic Dog report of Nessa to my vet and she agreed it required looking into further. I had Nessa booked in for X-rays of her hips, shoulder, forelimbs and hind limbs.
The morning came for me to take her in, I saw a different vet who has not convinced the findings warranted putting Nessa under anaesthetic to X-ray her as she looked fine and in his opinion the gait/postural adaptations were common in German Shepherds. To quote my mentor Gemma Hodson "just because it is common, does not mean it's normal". I now hear this a lot - "Oh, it's a terrier skip", "collies are ball obsessed", "All Labradors walk with a swagger".
I pushed and said I wanted her X-rayed. Long story short, I got her X-rays done. She has elbow dysplasia and arthritis in her elbows and knees.
She is now on anti-inflammatory/pain meds and I have made several environmental adjustments to support her. She will also be starting hydrotherapy soon.
Two years on and Nessa still does not show typical signs of pain, it is only knowing what I now know, things such as her noise sensitivity increasing, her whining in the car, or how she holds herself to sit, that I know when she is experiencing a spike in pain.
You see, Dynamic Dog was the missing puzzle piece all along for all those cases where I knew something else had to be going on for these dogs.
Reactivity cases are complex and usually have several contributing factors. PAIN is a big part of that for SO many of them, yet it gets missed.
Not every Dynamic Dog story is straight forward. Often X-rays do not show much, or the owner is faced with a vet who does not truly understand the pian - behaviour link. I have worked with some fascinating cases since becoming a practisioner, and those cases are now getting the answers they need. I am going to be sharing some of these stories with you in written posts and will also be inviting these owners to come on video with me to talk about their journey.
Stay tuned!
Gemma
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