13/01/2024
“If your dog was trained, you could just tell them to sit and be quiet!”
This is not how reactivity works. It’s a fundamental misconception that a well-trained dog is not a reactive dog … or that a reactive dog is not well-trained.
Whether or not a dog is reactive tells you nothing about the amount of skill training they have received. A dog can *both* be able to perform challenging and complex behaviors … and have intense responses towards certain triggers.
Skill training cannot always overwrite a dog’s emotional state. A dog may be able to “sit and be quiet” with food distractions, while you’re throwing a toy or even in the presence of wildlife … but not be able to do this at all in close proximity to a trigger.
This is really important to understand for both owners of reactive and non-reactive dogs:
If you own a reactive dog, your dog is not missing “obedience training”, as reactivity is not a lack of obedience … it’s a surplus of stress.
If you do not own a reactive dog and think that reactive dog owners just don’t know how to train their dogs to behave … that is also not true. The dogs are *not* poorly *trained*. The dogs are *feeling* poorly near triggers.
Reactivity (or lack thereof) and skills (or lack thereof) are not inherently linked.
There are …
💙 Reactive and very well-trained dogs
🩵 Non-reactive and very well-trained dogs
💚 Non-reactive and poorly trained dogs
💛 Reactive and poorly trained dogs
Don’t discount a reactive dog as one who just didn’t get trained … the topic is much more complex than this.
