Reactivity series: How reactivity starts

Okay, so we're gonna start our series on reactive behavior, what causes it. And you get to see my amazing handwriting, believe it or not, I actually put care into this. So bear with me, I'll read things so you can hopefully sort out what it is that I've written. So we're starting with things that we cannot change, right? These will influence behavior, they will lead to behavior, and in some cases, it's just gonna be what it is, and I'll explain that. But we can have some influence over it from most likely to least likely. So most likely to least likely. And in some cases, this could also be things that we can use to influence the program. So I'm starting with breed, and you're gonna have certain breeds that are just more likely to be frustrated or what we would call reactive. So fearful might be your herding dogs, maybe your terriers, certainly some shepherds. I mean, you could have fear with all of these breeds. Mm-hmm.— but these are the most likely classes or breed groupings that are going to be reactive. And we can think about it when we've got our German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, Dutch Shepherds, other types of Shepherds. We're not going to see many— anything other than those 4 out here in the Sacramento area. But these dogs are supposed to be frustrated by barriers, right? We've actually kind of intentionally bred some barrier frustration into likelihood of barrier frustration into the dog. Doesn't mean they're stuck with it, just means that it's more likely to be something that we do need to address and learn how to work with. We have our herding breeds, our Border Collies, our cattle dogs, our McNabs, our Corgis, our Kelpies, Aussies, right? The typical herding breeds that we will see in this area. If the— sure, if the sheep start to split and the herd's going somewhere else, we're going to have to get control of that if we're the dog, which means lunging, barking, growling, staring down. Guardian dogs, yes and no. I've seen a number of guardian dogs that have some reactive behaviors. A lot of times this starts when they're allowed to start doing guardian dog things in the yard or like the front window. And then your terriers, they are fiercely independent. Typically, if it's got fur, it's got to be dealt with. So if we think about the historic genetic traits that we look for for these dogs to do their jobs that kind of adds up to what we would call reactivity in today's terms. Again, none of these dogs need to stay reactive just because of their history, but remember, all of these dogs, all of our dogs, probably came from— there's a few exceptions, but they mostly came from a breed that did something that the humans needed done for them that they couldn't or would not do. So I'm not about to go— No. Trudge through the thicket to pick up like a downed goose, but my retriever gladly will. And I cannot keep a herd of sheep, a flock of sheep, or a herd of cattle under control the way that a couple of Border Collies could. Border Collies. Age and maturity. We could have just an old and crotchety dog. There's not much we can do on the age part if it's just an old thing. Occasionally we do get these dogs I don't get called for them often, but we do get dogs that are just, their tolerance is low, they're maybe getting kind of achy. They don't wanna deal with it. So they start to act out. This can be certainly mitigated to some extent, not by getting rid of your dog or putting your dog to sleep before they are ready for it, but by just the way that we live with the dog, that can help to keep the reactivity at bay. The dog knows they don't have to do anything. Lifestyle's gonna be a big factor anyway. But young and immature dogs, we can certainly influence how they mature by raising them correctly, giving them the proper training and outlets, fulfilling their needs. And then we're gonna have some periods though where dogs go through fear periods, just like humans, little kids get stranger danger or they're more easily frustrated, same with our dogs. We don't know how to handle with and deal with frustration when we're young. And so we need some experience, some guidance. We also need some discipline at certain times, which is going to be a whole other topic. The history of the dog— this can be— this could certainly include training, even though I didn't include it here. But have they been jumped by another dog, right? So were they attacked by an off-leash dog, or what did an on-leash greeting— which I don't recommend anyway— but did that go poorly? How do they have experience at dog parks and daycares where maybe they'd gotten into a fight, felt like they had to defend themselves. Or with these two, we're also going to end up with a little bit of— with some dogs, we're going to end up with some dogs that get very dog-centric. They get very used to— they're pulling towards the, towards the dog park. Typically the owners aren't really doing much to control the dogs. They certainly don't know the dog behavior when they're in the dog park or the daycare because most daycares are just a high school or college student, well-meaning, but they don't really know exactly what they're doing. It's a job. And so the dogs are then frustrated because they see dogs as fun. This is what I wanna do. The owner doesn't really matter. And I'll get into it, but we're restraining the dog when we have not done any actual training. And the last one is genetics, which obviously can be breed, but I'm really thinking more temperament. So some dogs come out and they just don't have a sound temperament. Just like with human beings, you know, if there's human beings that just really are not fit to live in the world, they never would be. There's not much that anybody could do about it. Mom and Dad could be professionals with, you know, model citizens. They've never been arrested. They've never gotten any real trouble. And they've got a kid that came out just a little odd. Mm-hmm. And it happens. It's really unfortunate. This is usually gonna be more of a management situation. This is gonna be a combination of management and training as we let the dog mature, because we don't want to force maturity and we can't. And then this one, we can use these tendencies, right? So we know, especially with Shepherds, herding dogs, and Terriers, we usually have good, healthy, productive outlets that are not going to get us in any trouble. I know people are thinking Terriers because they tend to be ratters and small, small animal fighters and hunters. That's what they're there for, going to ground and fighting the badger. But we don't need to do that. We can simply find something that ticks that genetic box, get the training done, and then, um, you know, so we tick the box genetically as an outlet, get the training done, and those things usually go away pretty quickly if we do the rest of our job really well. So these are the things that we cannot change, but we can influence and/or make use of. So I'm going to pause the video, put another board up, and then we'll get into what the humans do and and then we'll get onto another topic in another video. Okay, so now we're into things humans do. So we have a tendency to create a reactive dog where there previously was not one. So this would be things where the dog is at a point of maturity or they're approaching maturity potentially. Certainly this starts with puppies too, by the way. A lot of times this stuff actually starts with puppies when we start to see it as a dog starts to approach adolescence. So they get past that year, year and a half mark where puppyhood genuinely truly ends. Because believe it or not, most dogs remain some form of a puppy till that 1 to 1.5 year mark. So free everything would be like free access to the couch, bed, outside, the rest of the house, right? They're roaming and going where they like so they can go to the window and bark at the delivery guy, and in the dog's mind they're saying, "You better watch out, it would be good for you to keep going." The delivery guy drops his package off and leaves, and the dog thinks, "I got that done, so barking works." Couch. That's a point of value. It's comfortable. It's communal. We're indicating that it has value because we spend time there, as well as in our bed. And then outside, obviously the dog rewards themselves but it's also interesting. My dogs are very lazy indoors. They will start to settle and sleep outdoors, but I've got a 4, 5, and a 9-year-old, so they're, they're not overly kind of enthused or necessarily stimulated by being outside. But dogs that go outside, a lot of times people use a dog door, and those are bad. And the reason that they are bad— is any of these things the dog is claiming for themselves and/or does not need you. Free toys also. That's a big one. People think they need their toys. They need to be able to play on their own. Wrong. If we give our dogs too much access, or in some cases, any access to things that they find valuable and/or stimulating outside in toys, It, one, tends to not be very productive for training purposes and bonding, even if you don't use toys in a training situation. Playing with your dog with toys, so ball, a Frisbee, a tug, anything that is interactive, or even just one-on-one with you, that's a great way to play with your dog with no toys involved. But the dog is not gonna see the same value. But if we create this where we go, okay, the toys come out when you and I are doing something, then the dog does see that as valuable. It also adds value to our interactions. It allows us a chance to bond. When we give this for free, the dog doesn't bond the same way in most cases. This is always a most case because, as we know, dog trainers, we have a tendency to say, "It depends." I've got a dog here that will gladly play with anybody and also play with a toy on her own. But the other dogs also like the toys, and I'm not interested in having conflict over toys in my house. So I just prevent it. I also don't want them overly stimulated, because a dog that's overly stimulated, just like a kid at Disneyland, is going to be more likely to have a meltdown. Spoiling would be treats and affection. And especially with affection, our dogs have a tendency to tell us, "Give me affection. Give me scratches. Give me pets. Give me hugs." if the dog likes hugs. A lot of dogs don't. Again, a lot, not every. So, if the dog is coming up saying, "Hey," and paws at you, "Give me affection," the dog just told you what to do. But remember that people— everybody likes being spoiled, right? Almost everybody. I actually don't. It makes me uncomfortable. But spoil is synonymous with rotten. It is spoiled rotten. And we say, "Oh, we spoiled 'em rotten." We spoiled our granddaughter or our kid or whatever rotten. And now they're not very nice. So it doesn't mean you shouldn't ever give your dog a treat. And it doesn't mean that you shouldn't give affection, but these should be on your terms. And if you notice this going sideways, then your terms need to get tighter. I'm gonna skip ahead to structure, which can be read as consistency. In our rules, boundaries, and general expectations. I'm gonna abbreviate this so I'm not writing forever. So we just have a consistent way of doing things. A rule is gonna be something that is the same all the time. It's backed with a consequence. So jumping, taking things off the counter. Nipping at you when you go to take something. Not good. These should be backed with a consequence that the dog respects, that the dog finds effective. Some dogs, it could be a strong no, just your tone changing. Other dogs, you are gonna have to investigate other forms of consequence. That consequence will have a punishing effect. Punishment has been conflated with abuse. It's not abuse. It means anything that makes a behavior less likely to happen and/or potentially cease altogether, but also with less intensity. That's an important part. Intensity should be dropping to the point that it is effectively extinguished. Boundaries have a conversation. There is potentially, there may be some room, right? These could move around a little bit. It's not a huge deal. So the couch and the bed may be a boundaries issue. By the way, these are remediated. By teaching your dog to go to a crate and relax. Crates are good. That's a whole other topic. But the last one is that we tend to restrain. So dogs pull on leashes, and then we go to a harness or some other goofy setup rather than a leash and a collar and teach the dog how to walk on the leash properly. So if that leash is loose and they don't feel tension and neither do we, it's more comfortable for both of us. But it also helps to deal with the overarousal, which will be in the next video. And then we're gonna cut this one and we're gonna make a whole other video on how we start to fix this. All right, so in 2 minutes or less, all of the things that we talked about over the course of the last 12 and a half minutes or so, they add up to reactivity. So when we have a dog that is pulling on the leash, So they're being restrained instead of being trained. The dog is gonna go into what we would call, they have an opposition reflex. Humans have it too, right? I call it the "hold me back, bro" dynamic. So when young men, especially when we're young, we're out at social events, parties or bars, somebody bumps somebody, the guy goes, "Hey, what's your problem?" They start to jaw back and forth at each other a little bit, and somebody says, "Hold me back, bro." If somebody holds that guy back, even though he probably doesn't want to fight, he's just trying to make a display— sound familiar? If you pull him back enough, he's gonna start straining more and his arousal will go up. So we have an over-aroused dog because they are satisfying their own needs. They are not looking to us for any sort of form of authority. We're teaching the dog to look out and away from us rather than to readily and want to look at us. For guidance. So we've got a very autonomous dog. We have a dog that's probably already over-aroused, and then they're on a walk and they're pulling and they see the other dog. I'm not going to draw one because I can't. And now all of a sudden these two go together and we get reactivity. So how do we fix this? We address lifestyle issues as needed. Some dogs need a stricter approach, other dogs need less. The big thing is that we want to be on a more permission-based lifestyle. We would go with something called Nothing in Life is Free in most cases. Great to train the dog. Get the dog onto a little bit more of a routine, just a little bit, because too much routine will play against you in a way that you don't want. And then we actually train the dog. So we find good productive outlets. We make play and obedience feel like the same thing. We'll talk about obedience on another video. And we set fair nos. Okay. Obedience comes from where the nos are. When the dog knows what they're not allowed to do, they will default to the stuff that they like to do that we've also told them is good. They look for more yeses. So you'll hear dog trainers say that whatever you're not saying no to, you are effectively saying yes to, and that's mostly correct. So we're going to do another video here. We're actually going to do a series, but things that we do, things that we can't— or that we don't do, they go together. We can handle the stuff that we can influence. We can handle the stuff that we have just simply done wrong. And then if we do that right with a couple of careful protocols, maybe— sometimes we don't even need them— this goes away in the vast majority of dogs. The longer it takes to get into training, the longer it is to get out of training. That's an important topic on its own. But if you're thinking about, I have this issue with my dog, The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that this stays an issue and you're never gonna get to here. Or what no reactivity looks like is gonna be a little bit different. You're gonna have to do some other things. Okay.