Reactive dogs want to play but get overstimulated. Adam outlines four essentials: daily off-leash exercise, regular tug sessions, clear yes/no cues, and controlled play windows. Strategic boredom builds stronger play motivation and redirects high arousal away from reactivity.
Chapters
Because nearly every reactive dog owner I speak to says to me, Adam, my dog doesn't play. And I say, bullshit. If you're having a German Shepherd, I can almost guarantee you, we train so many of them, they want to play tug and they want to be off the leash every single day. If you can tick those two boxes, which can be done in a very short amount of time, then we can start to hold your dog accountable for bad behavior. We want to be able to say to our dogs, I'm going to give you the best life. Ever. I'm gonna take you out every day, I'm gonna get you off the leash, I'm gonna play with you, and then I need you to scratch my back because I've scratched yours. You can't be being a knobhead all the time. You can't be lunging at the dog, lunging at the person, lunging at the car. That's not good, and it's also dangerous. So I need to be able to say to you in a fair and consistent way, that's bloody unacceptable.. And also when they make the good decisions, to say, that's amazing, well done. So as well as fulfillment, we need a clear communication system, a good yes and a good no. And those 4 things will literally change your life because nearly every reactive dog owner I speak to says to me, Adam, my dog doesn't play. And I say, bullshit, they do play. They just, they will play. They just have a better hobby at the moment. Because they're getting a very high level of arousal through being stupid and being reactive. So what we want to do is sometimes cultivate motivation through deprivation. A big way of saying, hey, here's a window of opportunity for you. Open the window. Would you like to play? And they go, not really. And you go, okay, no worries. And then we close that window. The opportunity is now finished. So we move on to our next day and the dog goes, "God, that was a bit boring yesterday. Didn't get to do much." But then we come back again and we go, window open, "Hey, do you want to play?" "Mm, I'll play a little bit." They have a little bit of tug and they check out and we close the window. By only allowing our dogs a certain outlet at certain times, we create a little bit of boredom, which in turn builds motivation to then have a better hobby instead of being reactive.
