04/09/2024
I've worked with hundreds of reactive dogs.
I've seen mild reactivity (barking) and extreme forms of reactivity (lunging, snapping, biting) but contrary to popular belief, this behaviour is not necessarily an indication of how they were raised or any fault of their current guardians.
ALL animals adapt their behaviours due to their experiences in life.
For a dog: this could be just one traumatic experience with another dog, person or sound.
Dog's don't understand our human orientated world so they won't rationalise the unexpected firework or a dog snapping at them as a "one-off" negative experience ... Instead they absorb everything connected to the event and actively avoid or become agitated when faced with those triggers again.
If you don't have a reactive dog, please keep in mind that when you meet another owner who's struggling with their dog's reactivity... It is not because they haven't trained them properly... It's way more likely that the breed and size of your dog, or simply the environment is triggering the reactive dog to protect itself due to unrelated past experiences.
Please show support, empathy and above all kindness to the guardians of reactive dog's.
These people are in the process of providing "therapy" for their traumatised dog's and that kind of dedication to dog ownership is deserving of your respect not criticism.
Cover the mouth on the picture below and you can see the real emotion in this dog's eyes.... Fear 😔
