08/30/2025
Your reactive dog is not protecting you.
Your dog is actually feeling anxious, insecure and sensitive and lacks positive confidence. Dogs like this are trying to help themselves cope with stressful situations and end up doing so in forms of exhibits bad behaviors.
Let's face it. Living life with a reactive dog is never easy. It can be completely draining not only for you, but for your dog as well.
Too often owners find what they believe is a "protective natural instinct" over them from their dog is cute and makes owners laugh, make excuses for this behavior and brush it off.
They do this until the problem gets to be an overwhelming and consuming part of their lives and ends up getting out of control and out of hand. Pretty soon these dogs don't want to be out of sight from their owners. This leads to anxious behaviors and separation anxiety. The dog may constantly whine when crated or even as they follow their owner around and not having interaction or attention from them.
This often leads to stressful situations for both owner and dog. It's no longer cute, funny or enjoyable but a nuisance having dogs who constantly need and seek out attention. It makes daily house chores more exhausting because the dog is in the way or when crated paces, whines or barks the entire time. And if left alone unsupervised may even begin unwanted behaviors like soiling inside the house, chewing and destroying items and other destructive behaviors such as digging, counter surfing and dumpster diving. It's not because your dog is seeking out to be a bad dog, it is because they are trying to find a way to release the stress that is pent up and building.
It's not that your dog is giving you a hard time, your dog is HAVING a hard time.
Small dogs unfortunately get a really bad wrap for this so called "protective nature."
Owners tend to think that little dogs are not capable or able to, well be a dog and be well trained. They think these brilliant little dogs need to be babied and carried around and have the world brought to them on a platter.
Size has nothing to do with a dogs abilities and capabilities. Dogs will only be as well behaved and trained by how much time owners invest in them.
Dogs are not born understanding obedience or how to have good behavior and be well mannered. This is something we as owners must provide to training them.
Small dogs are not ornaments or decorations to be shown off in hand bags or just to have around because they are cute. They are animals with animal instincts and if left to their demise, will let those instincts take over because they don't know any better. If they are not trained to learn how to cope being alone, they will end up with anxiety that leads to separation anxiety. No matter how cute your tint pup is, it is still belongs to the animal kingdom. It's species is a dog and dogs have teeth. Nips and bites are never cute and should not be provoked to be cute. No matter what size a bite is a bite and it hurts! It can leave someone on the receiving end become fearful and anxious to be around the dog and if they are living in the same house, the dog picks up on this energy and learns that that person's fear can be used to keep them at a distance. A bite can also leave terrible marks and scars on the body. Aggressive behavior is never cute or something to be proud of.
Big dogs can be especially dangerous as they can do a lot more damage.
Did you know that in order to have a reliable protection dog you actually need years of training?
Some dogs can have that "natural ability" yes, however it needs to be a skill that is stable.
A good protection dog is actually a well behaved in society and public settings. They learn and understand basic obedience and commands the first time they are told to them. They have advanced obedience skillsets and amazing recall. They know how to release and leave items and are never anxious or pushy.
Dogs that tend to show the symptoms that I previously mentioned such as nervousness, anxiety and separation anxiety often begin with resource guarding food, toys and even their people. From there when left with no help and no training, the aggression gets worse.
Dogs do not want to be stuck in this mindset and trapped with all of these fears. They need help from their families to overcome the mental stresses they are facing. A dog would rather spend 10 minutes being taught hwo to properly manage and deal with stressor than live a lifetime living with them.
How much fun is it for your dog to suffer during thunderstorms or fireworks? How much fun is it for you? How much money is spent on medicating your dog from the vet or buying thundershirts or replacing toys on the daily because your dog had destroyed them due to trying to relieve their stress? These are all just bandaid solutions. Its a quick fix but doesn't solve the problem. And if storms pup up suddenly, you don't have enough warning and tike to medicate your dog in advance. And we all have those neighbors who no matter what day it is, like to light off fireworks.
Or how about big trucks that rumble down the streets?
Think about how you feel having to deal with daily fears of your own. Whether you are stressed financially and worrying about money, scares of spiders or bugs, have claustrophobia or other phobias.. The difference is, we as humans can work to try and talk ourselves down. We can process these things a little bit more mentally than our dogs can. Dogs don't premeditate. They live in the moment and react in that moment.
So our own personal phobias don't measure or compare to the way dogs suffer. Theirs is much worse. They are trapped.
If your dog is suffering, don't hesitate to get an evaluation scheduled for then. Message me today and get more information on how you can help your dog be the bestest boy or girl that they need to be and more importantly that they deserve.
*the picture provided is my chihuahua, Toula.
If you have been following me for some time, you may remember that in previous years I worked with an animal agency for roles in the entertainment world. Because of this I have had to train many commands and tricks and behaviors as well for some specific roles. One of these led to being able to show teeth and to look aggressive in order to play the part. Dogs on screen are not aggressive. It is a trained behavior that is treated like a game. In all reality these dogs are actually super friendly and understand that it is a part of their training.
Toula is 8 years old and knows so many tricks and obedience. This includes but is not limited to:
Sit, stay, place, jump up, down, give 5, sit pretty, smile, look, wave, long distance and duration work, hand signals and more.
Also teaching these specific things helps me to be able to create posts showing behaviors such as this. 🙂
