12/10/2024
Know the signs and walk away.
Wisdom Wednesday! This week is about trigger stacking and encouraging you to be observant of your dog’s behaviors. Many people tell me that their dog’s problematic behaviors occurred “out of the blue”, “no rhyme or reason”, etc. Let’s begin by saying that there are many things going on in your dog’s environment that may be of little to zero significance to you, but a lot to him or her.
A trigger is any addition to your dog’s environment that can cause your dog becoming more alert, fearful, increased noise sensitivity, lowered emotional threshold resulting in increased bouts of reactivity. The compiling of triggers is called trigger stacking. An example of trigger stacking is this:
1. Dog expresses emotional discomfort with putting on their harness at home.
2. Dog presents bout(s) of reactivity on the way to doggy daycare.
3. Hearing dogs barking in the building upon arrival at doggy daycare.
4. Doggy daycare employee directly approaches the dog and putting the slip lead on before walking into the building.
All of these occurrences are multiple triggers occurring that result in trigger stacking. The dog in this scenario has experienced being on emotional overload presenting fearfulness, barking, and growling then ends up being shut down that the person thinks everything is “fine”. This dog has not been heard and is likely to be overstimulated for the remainder of the day, if not multiple days.
How do you help your dog when he or she is experiencing trigger stacking? Be kind as in many cases it is close to impossible to prevent trigger stacking from occurring. One human example that I use is you are driving to work, you are already running late, and you hit multiple red lights along the way. You are stressed out and more prone to snapping at someone when you arrive at work. Think of this example when your dog is stressed out from multiple triggers, whether it be delivery trucks arriving at your home, doorbell ringing, loud vehicles outside, children playing, etc.
This week’s wisdom is to be a detective and identify the triggers in your dog’s environment that can be making them emotionally uncomfortable. Remember that something of zero to minimal significance to you can be intensely significant to your dog especially if there are multiple triggers occurring.
As always, take care of each other, be your dog’s teammate, and work together.
