08/31/2026
Behavior Has Layers
Dog trainers receive a lot of emails that say:
“My dog lashed out completely out of nowhere.”
“My dog never gave us any warning.”
“My dogs have always gotten along, and suddenly they got into a fight.”
Although a behavior may appear to come out of nowhere, it rarely stands alone. Behavior is multilayered and influenced by everything happening in and around the dog.
Maybe the dog is itchy or uncomfortable. Earlier that day, they almost got into a fight during a walk. The night before, the little girl in the house had a sleepover filled with excited, loud kids.
Each experience adds another layer of stress.
When we sit down with a client, we often look closely at what happened during the 24–48 hours surrounding an incident. We start peeling back the onion to uncover possible triggers, stressors and instigators.
Once we better understand those layers, we can work to reduce or eliminate triggers, lower the dog’s overall stress and create a plan to help change the behavior.
What looks like “out of nowhere” may make much more sense once we start peeling back the layers.
