What causes Reactivity?

Reactivity in dogs is really influenced mostly by a couple of factors. The first is how your dog feels about the environment it’s in and the second is how your relationship influences their thoughts and actions.

Let me explain, if your dog is not confident around other dogs, people or traffic they will start to overthink what’s going on. Over thinking creates emotion, this is usually insecurity, maybe a little anxiety. Once the emotion rises to a point where your dog reacts it’s essentially breaching their emotional threshold, in other words the point at which they can control their feelings and emotion.

If you look closely at your dog before they react you will see the signs, alert ears and tail, stiff posture and staring are all signs that overthinking is happening. If you do not have a solid leadership relationship with your dog it’s very likely that they will act out, more from a preservation perspective, it’s not usually protective, which is a common misunderstanding.

Therefore if you are not able to provide the right leadership in the right moment your dog will not be able to control their feelings and will likely react. This is not only stressful for your dog, but probably you as well…