23/01/2025
Would you be able to recognize the signs? 
When NOT to train your reactive rascal.
🤓 I see waaaaaaay too many dog owners trying to chuck food at their reactive dogs, who are already over threshold and reacting. No point. Absolutely zero point. If your dog is already reacting to a trigger - you have missed the training opportunity. The best thing you can do now, for your dog and yourself, is to swiftly exit the situation and go home. And then allow your dog sufficient time to destress & decompress, ideally with the use of appropriate enrichment and minimising any exposure to more triggers for the rest of the day.
😳Why tossing food at your reactive dog, as they react, doesn’t bring the expected effect of “getting better” around the triggers?
🫨When a dog ‘reacts" to a trigger (such as another dog, a person, or loud noises), they can enter what is known as “survival mode.” This state is driven by the body’s stress response, which releases stress hormones and activates physiological and neurological changes in their bodies. Trying to teach a dog, who is in that state, anything, is virtually impossible, because they are no longer thinking logically or able to process new information. Here’s why.
🫥Stress response - adrenaline and cortisol🫥
😯When a dog perceives a threat, their brain activates the sympathetic nervous system, which initiates the “fight, flight, or freeze” response. This process involves:
1. Adrenal glands release stress hormones, primarily adrenaline and cortisol.
• Adrenaline increases the heart rate, breathing, and blood flow to muscles, preparing the dog to fight or flee.
• Cortisol maintains this state of alertness for a (potentially much) longer period by regulating glucose levels and energy.
2. Amygdala (the part of the brain responsible for detecting danger) gets activated and takes over. It essentially shuts down the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for logical thinking, learning, and decision-making.
🫤What about any “invisible” to the eye changes happen when a dog enters this emotional state -(physiological and neurological) ?
• Increased heart rate and breathing - oxygen is directed to the muscles instead of the brain, preparing the dog for immediate action, rather than thoughtful behavior.
• Tunnel vision - the dog focuses solely on the perceived threat, ignoring everything else in the environment.
• Impaired memory and learning - high levels of cortisol inhibit the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for forming new memories and learning.
👉Why learning is impossible in survival mode (and why any attempts of training, desensitising and counterconditioning will be ineffective here)?
✴️When a dog is over their “threshold”—the point at which they can no longer cope with a trigger—they are consumed by their stress response. Their brain is focused on survival and their own safety, not on absorbing or processing new information. At this point:
1. Cognitive function is impaired - the prefrontal cortex is effectively offline, so the dog cannot focus, follow commands, or learn.
2. Reinforcement is ineffective - positive reinforcement training, like food, often goes unnoticed because the dog is too overwhelmed to care about rewards. Some dogs MAY still eat the food, but this is in no way in a constructive training way.
3. Behavior is instinctive - the dog reacts based on instinct, on what they know or what has previously worked for them, rather than training or previous experiences.
⚠️REMEMBER:
✅You need to understand where your dog’s threshold (emotional safety distance) is. If your dog reacts to say other dogs at 10 meters, but doesn’t react at 15 meters - start there.
✅If your dog is already reacting - exit the situation calmly but quickly, removing your dog away from the trigger (do an emergency U turn) without getting any closer, as this would push them further above the threshold.
✅Don’t tell your dog off if they ‘react’ - it’s the normal body’s response to threat. Instead, praise any early signs that they are becoming worried, anxious, nervous. It’s good for your dog to understand that early communication means YOU take them away from trigger, as it will boost their confidence in communicating and being listened to, and it will do wonders for your bond with them.
✅Learn to scan the perimeter wherever you go - you are in charge of where you go with your dog, so make sure it’s safe, including emotionally safe.
✅Practice emergency cues, such as “this way”, “look at me”, “let’s go”, which can be used to calmly shift your dog’s attention onto you when triggers appear.
✅Work on systematic desensitisation and counter - conditioning of triggers, when your dog is BELOW threshold. It absolutely works IF done correctly.
✅Understand that your reactive dog doesn’t react for fun & giggles. They react because they are struggling with the environment. Review what environments work, and those that don’t, for your dog. And avoid the latter like the plague.
References
• Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.
• Overall, K. L. (2013). Manual of Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Dogs and Cats.
• Horwitz, D. F., & Mills, D. S. (2009). BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Behavioural Medicine.
Dynamic enrichment education and fear free, positive based dog training.
