Can reactivity be trained out of dogs?
Charlene Dooley
2025-08-01 00:16:03
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Dogs are usually reactive if they don’t have very good social skills and feel worried by other dogs and people, or if they’ve had a bad experience in the past which frightened them. They’re telling the other dog or person to stay well away. In both cases, it’s a highly emotional state so you may find that your dog can’t listen to you or take treats while they’re trying to cope with the situation. If you reduce the opportunity for your dog to be reactive and increase their practice of alternative behaviours, it will become second nature. Teach them alternative behaviours For times when your dog is confronted by a stressful situation, teach them to sit down, sniff out some treats on the floor or turn away and walk in a different direction. The more practice your dog has, the more they will associate their triggers with positive outcomes rather than stressful ones. Have an open mind and be realistic about what your dog will be capable of. Fearful and long-term reactive dogs may never happily mix with groups of dogs – but you should be able to feel confident walking your dog calmly, without regular incidents. Training is not a straight-forward process, your dog will need time and patience to develop these new skills and habits.
Franco Gleason
2025-07-24 23:20:52
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Can a reactive dog be trained, Absolutely.
consistently use reward-based training methods and keep them on a lead when needed
choose quiet places and times for walks, when possible, to avoid triggers while you’re working on changing their emotions
if you encounter a trigger, calmly move your dog away, avoiding adding extra tension to the lead
reward calm behaviour
practice focus training to help them pay attention to you
learn to recognise your dog's body language.
This will help you understand when they're feeling worried or frustrated
speak to your vet to rule out any underlying medical conditions.
Danyka Dickens
2025-07-13 09:09:42
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Reactivity is a symptom, not the root issue. Dogs react because they feel the need to. This is generally related to fear, insecurity, over-excitement and frustration. Confidence building fixes 95% of my reactivity cases. Dogs just want to feel safe with their handler and they want to know what's coming next. If we're not working our dogs through things that stress them out, we're pretty useless to them in reactivity situations. You can condition dogs to only get what they want when they're more relaxed by doing that in every single situation. Reactivity is hard but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It comes from you addressing your day to day interactions with your dog and changing how you make them feel in the world around them.
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