How to stop dog reactive barking?

Stopping a dog from lunging at people is all about making sure the dog feels comfortable and confident. If the dog’s handler manages the situation by helping the dog move away from things before it gets startled or fearful, it is essentially practicing not reacting to strangers. This is a version of something called BAT or Behavior Adjustment Training and its a great way to help a dog who lunges at people. You can preemptively stop your dog from barking or lunging at people by tossing the treats away from whatever it is you know your dog’s going to react to. If you wait too long, the find it wont work. If you spot a dog offering any of these indicators that they are uncomfortable, immediately play the find it game or call them away from whatever it is they are looking at. Tossing the treats on the ground is a great way to stop dog from acting aggressive to people because they often sniff for other things that they detect on the ground when they’re looking for the treat. I recommended that Boba‘s guardian practice this exercise a couple of times a week in 20 to 30 minute practice sessions. It’s also important to teach your dog to find things before you start trying to do this kind of dog behavior modification, teaching your dog to “find it” is easy to do, simply show your dog a treat and say “find it” as you toss it into the ground right in front of the dog.

To start with, help them with their headspace. The pace, the intensity and the sound of modern day life can be difficult enough to deal with. By giving them L-theanine in my Calm + Collected treats at least an hour before you need the effect, it’s proven to help your dog be less irritable and responsive to annoying sounds. It’s Doggy Diplomacy time, get them out to Meet the Supposed Threat, on a lead, take them outside of the gate at the time when the object of their frustration is going past and let them see or even sniff it. But if you stay calm, make them sit and reward them with a treat the moment they turn to you and BEFORE the barking starts, then you’ll teach them that their fear of that ‘thing’ is unfounded and being calm around that object is a much bigger win for them. The third tip is taking that Turn and Respond technique into the home, put some small chopped up treats into a small container and each time they start to seem distressed or annoyed at a sound, shake the container, this encourages them to turn to you and distracts them from something worrying to a sound they learn to love. Exercise will help lower their baseline anxiety level while background sound from relaxing music, TV, cooling fans or even white noise generators work brilliantly to just block out the outside world’s not so wonderful sounds.