08/23/2025
For my Loose Leash Walkers in training! Sometimes reactivity can pop up in adolescence. Or perhaps your pup already had some bad feels about stranger people and other dogs or animals/objects you may encounter.
We all communicate to our dogs in ways we don’t notice.
With reactive dogs especially.... it’s important to be aware of the signals we’re sending.
The beauty of having a dog trainer work with you is we can see them ....clearly.
These are some of the more common ones which can alert your dog to the presence of their triggers.
Winding the leash around a wrist.
That's a classic example of "priming" a dog for a possible reaction.
We have made the lead shorter and tighter....on a leash reactive dog.
Always an issue.
Verbally announcing to others.
We may mean well, but dogs quickly pick up on the phrases and tones we use. What you say can become part of their trigger chain
Scanning
We need to do it with reactive dogs...but we need to be less obvious about it.
You scan. ➡️They scan.➡️Reactivity follows
Tightening the leash/lead.
As humans we want to limit issues that could occur.
Unfortunately adding tension and pulling a dog in closer at the sight of their trigger can make everything worse.
With a reactive dog....we need to be careful with what we are saying.
