What is trigger stacking?

Not trigger stacked!

Imagine a scenario for me. You are in the supermarket and get into a queue to pay for your shopping. You may not have much, and anticipate getting out of there smoothly, without hassle. Someone cuts in line in front of you. It’s annoying, but they only have a couple of items and give you a big friendly smile. It really is not that big a deal, so although it could be considered annoying, you leave it and avoid the aggravation.

Let us rewind now to earlier in the day…

• You walk out of the house to see that you have a flat tyre. How annoying!
• Someone cuts you up at the roundabout. Clearly they are an idiot but no damage done.
• Every traffic light seems to go red as you are on your way. This ‘quick trip’ to the shop is taking forever.
• In the car park, the only space left is on the far side of the car park, next to someone that can’t park their car so it is hanging over into your space and you have to squeeze in very carefully and just hope you will be able to get back in when you come to leave.
• You start making your way around the shop and it becomes clear that you have ‘that’ trolley – the one with a mind of its own and absolutely no intention of being steered anywhere meaning your back and shoulders are getting really sore.
• Then, to cap it all off, someone cuts you up in line and gives you this big over cheerful smug grin as they do so. That is just the last straw and you explode at them.

I bet you anyone looking on would say ‘They just went off on one out of nowhere!’

Welcome to the concept of trigger stacking. Any one of the things that happened on the way to the store or during your shopping trip is annoying to have happen, but add them all together and it is just too much.

Dogs are no different.

Trigger stacking is the reason why your dog may ignore that yapping terrier at the end of the road on one day, but not on another. Stress is cumulative. Your dog might cope well with the strange man that walks past as you leave the house. He might have a bit of a look at the laughing child on the skateboard coming out of the local play area right on front of you. He stops for a moment and stares at the dog playing with a ball on the other side of the fence, but when you speak to him he breaks his attention and comes with you. Then the terrier starts jumping up and down on the other side of the garden hedge and yapping and your dog just explodes. Out of nowhere, he’s barking and lunging at the hedge. Except if you go back through the previous steps it is not out of nowhere. Each thing your dog could cope with in isolation, even two in a row without being too stressed. The third encounter took him to the limits of what he could tolerate, and the fourth pushed him way over threshold.

This is why it is important to learn to read your dog’s body language and discover how to tell when he is approaching threshold. Turn round and go home before there is a chance of him being pushed over, and spend some time relaxing and playing games at home. That is a much more constructive way to deal with the issue than trying to push through and have an upset dog full of adrenaline and cortisol and likely to be jumpy when going for a walk for the next few days.