02/10/2024
🛑 “Just stop right there – dogs having reactions is normal. Even the most placid well-behaved dog can have an excessive reaction if the environment and circumstances fit. We must remember that our dogs are not robots, and we can’t expect them to behave like one.” 🚫🤖
❓“WHY DO DOGS REACT? — It’s a really good question – and we can’t ask our dogs because they don’t speak human, and we don’t speak dog. But after lots of studies, professional opinion is that on the whole, when a dog is outwardly reacting to a human or other dog, it’s not because they are being ‘aggressive’ and want to show the world who is boss, it’s because they are scared. They are trying to tell the other thing to go away.”
‼️ “All dogs are reactive. They all react to situations around them. It’s HOW they react that counts. And when that reaction is excessive,
or it’s not seen as ‘acceptable’ behaviour to us humans, dogs are labelled as reactive.”
👎🏼 “The problem with the label of reactivity is that we’ve found a lot of owners that come through us have been told their dog is reactive for many years and so that label sticks. They are even told by other trainers that their dog will be reactive for the rest of their lives and the only hope they have is to manage that reactivity.”
🥺 “Does that sound sad to you? Because we think it does! We’ve owned dogs that react excessively to things in their environment (dogs, people, cars etc) and we can tell you and ASSURE you that your dog’s brain is mouldable. It’s called neuroplasticity. It’s the same in humans. We can reshape the brain to think differently and react differently. For some dogs that journey is a little longer than others. And the training does have to be very specific.”
LINK TO FULL ARTICLE:
👉🏼 https://absolute-dogs.com/dog-reactivity-what-is-it/ 👈🏼
We’ve owned dogs that react excessively to things in their environment (dogs, people, cars etc) and we can tell you and ASSURE you that your dog’s brain is mouldable. It’s called neuroplasticity. It’s the same in humans. We can reshape the brain to think differently and react differently.
