If the misbehavior rears its head during these attempts, interrupt with feedback and guide the dog away again. You might even move closer to the temptation (assuming it’s safe and won’t be harmed by your dog) to show him that his behavior was the issue rather than the temptation itself. Instead of simply walking away from the temptation/perceived threat, you can invite your dog to remain in place or near the temptation while maintaining composed behavior. A go-to redirection (post feedback) for more challenging situations is to get the dog to simply walk away* from the temptation or perceived threat without constantly looking back*.Īdvanced Redirection Guidance : As your dog improves and can manage his behavior in closer proximity and longer duration without messy moments you’ll want to provide more sophisticated redirection guidance. The more determined the dog is to commit the misbehavior, the stronger the feedback will need to be to break through that determination. Should you fail to interrupt the misbehavior in real-time, see our messy moment example below. The goal is for the feedback to be at a sufficient level to interrupt the misbehavior in the moment, allowing you to redirect your dog’s behavior appropriately.

The form of feedback that works best for your dog will have been discovered and discussed during your session (leash pop, finger snap, foot touch, air-tool, e-collar stim, etc.). The idea is that we communicate that bratty or hostile mindsets themselves should be avoided, and as an added benefit we will cut off most, if not all, of the misbehavior that is born from those attitudes. hard staring, tall or creeping posture, closed mouth, prowling gate) on a known temptation or perceived threat, immediately provide feedback without stopping your walk to do so. If the dog is beginning to place his focus (ie. You’ll also notice some similarities to The Walk which you should be implementing with all reactive dogs as well.

That said, the dog is likely to be more persistent in the behavior should it be based on a perceived threat. The protocol to address the behavior, regardless of the motivation for it, is the same. Reactivity is either due to frustration from not getting to engage or the dog is perceiving a threat from the thing it’s reacting to and attempting to ward it off with a big display.

Leash reactivity