The emotional toll of reactivity

Get a dog, they said. It'll be fun, they said. Think of all those great, social dog walks, they said.

So why am I stumbling around a field at 4.30 in the morning?

I've had a number of dogs over the years. All have had their distinct personalities, but all were fairly easy going, and liked meeting people and going to places. Owning a dog meant that people would sometimes smile as we walked past them in the street, children would come up and ask if they could fuss them, and our dogs loved all of the attention.

And then along came Finn.

Crash, boom, bang!

One of the things that I find hard about having dogs is the fact that there are so many potentially scary or upsetting situations that our dogs can encounter and we have no easy way of explaining to them that they are safe, as we could with another human.

It's that time of year again in the UK. I come from near a town in the south east of England called Lewes, and Bonfire Night is a HUGE deal around here. Bonfire season starts in my local area on the last weekend in September and goes on until the weekend or so after Bonfire Night itself on 5th November. With bonfires come the real potential issue - fireworks.

'But he always does it at home!'

It's a scenario that many of us have been in. Your dog is a rockstar in training at home. The cue 'sit' has his back end on the ground before you can blink. Down sees him flat on the ground, looking at you attentively. 'Stay' results in a motionless dog, concentrating entirely on you as he waits to be released.

Okay, so maybe those might be a little exaggerated - most of our dogs are, after all, works in progress - but let us say that your dog has got a good handle on basic cues in the house and garden.

You take him out for a walk and meet up with some other people in the local off lead dog friendly fields. You see something up ahead and think that you'd like to keep your dog back for a few moments while you have a chance to make sure of what's going on. Confidently, you instruct your off lead dog to sit. Your dog, meanwhile, has also seen something up ahead and is merrily frolicking off to discover what it is. You turn to your friends and say 'I don't understand, he does it every single time at home!'

Socialisation matters.

Socialisation is a word that is seen everywhere in regard to dog training. One of the first things we are told when first contemplating getting a puppy is that they must be socialised. This is of course true and very important. What a lot of sources of information fail to tell us however is that there is a difference between socialisation and good socialisation.

The first socialisation Finn had on coming home - meeting his new big brother (and stealing his tennis ball!)

'We're stuck at home and the dog is bored!'

In my last entry I looked at a couple of ways to exercise your dog's brain if you are restricted to home for any reason. Today, I am going to go through a few training exercises and games that Finn and I do in the house or garden on days when we don't get out for a long walk, or we are on a 'cortisol break' following a difficult encounter with one of his triggers.

A half blown up football has always been a favoured toy

With a big enough garden, a game of fetch or frisbee is possible, but there are more constructive and interactive things that you can do. Being restricted to home for whatever reason gives a great opportunity to come up with new ways to have some interactive fun with your dog and to build and strengthen your bond.

Mental exercise matters too!

One of the first things that everyone learns about dogs is that they need walking. We all come into our dog owning lives envisioning wonderful relaxed walks, watching our dogs joyously gambolling around green spaces, playing with other dogs and having a marvellous time once or twice a day.

For some of us, those visions come to a screeching halt. For those of us with reactive dogs, the very act of going out for a walk becomes an experience potentially filled with stress that cannot be imagined if you have not experienced it. I speak from experience - my old dog is one I can take anywhere, he's incredibly easy to have around as he loves all people and gets along merrily with all dogs.

My young dog, on the other hand, is not easy. I would love to be able to take him rambling around the countryside but he's reactive to both people and other dogs, so the only way we get a relaxed walk where he can run loose and both of us get home having enjoyed ourselves is to go out at four in the morning. Yawn inducing but pleasant enough in summer, but it becomes rather more of a chore the further into autumn we progress.

Quadrants of what now?

“Oh, I don’t want to use FOOD to train my dog. They should obey me because they WANT to.”

I have no idea how many times I have heard something like the above statement, and it puzzles me every single time. Why should your dog want to obey you? What is in it for them? (Disclaimer – I do realise that some dogs are not as motivated by food as other forms of reward, but food does work for the majority.