5 Tips for Leash Reactivity

About 95% of the dogs I work with are reactive. Reactivity is when a dog is visibly reacting on leash, in the home, in the car - barking, lunging, pulling, whining and overall excitement when a dog sees another dog or whatever their trigger is. Sometimes it's humans, cars or anything that moves.

Here are the things that have helped me the most when working with reactive dogs:

1. You're using the wrong tools. Maybe it's the "easy" walk harness or a flat buckle collar - your current tools are not helping with the reactivity. A harness is the perfect tool to encourage pulling on walks - I've never heard an owner say they wanted their dog to pull more.

I recommend switching out your tools - my favorites are Slip Leads, Prong Collars and E Collar.

Think of the E Collar as your interruptor. You know when your dog barks at something and nothing you say or do can snap them out of it? The E Collar helps you interrupt the barking and set clear boundaries in the busiest of situations.

2. Stop with the food. When working with your reactive dog, food rewards can make things worse. Most owners end up rewarding things that make their dogs more reactive without realizing it. You think you're rewarding for walking nicely by another dog, but you're actually rewarding an excited state of mind - not helpful when trying to work through your dog’s leash reactivity.

Remember this: an excited state of mind is the breeding ground for reactivity. And the more you reward the excited mindset on a walk, the more excited your dog will get.

Bad decisions usually happen when your dog is amped up, so the more you can help your dog practice a calmer mindset (the heel command is so helpful for this - giving your dog a job on walks instead of sniffing or being extra pushy) the easier it will be for them to make better decisions.

Giving your dog a job (heel, place, down) helps them be at their best.

If you're using food on walks with your reactive dog and you feel like it's not helping things, I would encourage you to stop for the next week. Cold turkey. Stop and start to notice how your dog does. You can always reward with a calm “GOOD” to let your dog know they are doing a good job.

Using food on walks isn't bad, but all dogs are so different. Some thrive with food while others get too amped up and that's the last thing we want when working through reactivity.

I find that a lot of owners feel guilty when the food isn't working - like it's their fault. That's why I want to point out that it's not YOU - your dog is just the kind of dog that gets more excited when food is around.

3. Your dog is practicing excitement more than calmness. This might look like your dog having a lot of freedom in your home and can walk around doing whatever they want. Your dog going to doggy daycare. You talk in a high pitch voice or baby talk before leaving and/or when you arrive home. If your dog lays on the couch staring out your front window when you leave and barks at things as they pass by.

Dogs usually make bad decisions when they are living with an excited mindset. It’s ok to visit the excited stuff (fetch, backyard zooms), but living with an excited mindset is not helpful for reactivity.

This is why you need to give your dog a job like heel on the walk, recall and having a good sit command. When your reactive dog doesn't have a job to focus on, it's much easier for them to get excited on walks - pulling you all over the place and barking at other dogs. When your dog has to focus on the job of heel and walk next to you, it helps them relax more - nurturing a calmer mindset. Better decisions are made when your dog is calm and has clear direction, so it's essential that we help them practice it daily.

4. You talk to your dog too much. I'm not going to tell you that you can't talk to your dog anymore, but I do want you to notice when you're talking to them, you might be unintentionally rewarding bad behavior when loving on your dog.

Side note - please don't try to pet your dog during a reactive moment. It doesn't work. You're pretty much saying, I love what you're doing, sweetie! Keep barking! Mommy loves it.

Dogs are such physical beings. You can't talk them out of things with words unless the words actually mean something.

Any time your dog starts barking or getting reactive on a walk, whatever you're saying just adds more noise to an already chaotic moment. With reactivity we want to deescalate the situation as much as possible. You shouting at your dog is doing the opposite. It's important to understand this, because any time I tell you to practice place or add in some calm kennel time during the day, it will be helpful to fall back on this idea and why it's so important.

This is one of the many reasons why I love using the slip lead, prong collars and/or e collars on the walk. You can let the tools do the talking and they help to deescalate your dog in those worked up moments. Something no amount of talking can do.

5. You only address reactivity on walks. The majority of owners I talk with are mostly concerned with reactivity on the walk. Dogs have reactivity to many different stimuli and if all areas arent being addressed, you won't have success.

If your dog gets reactive anytime someone walks by your house, what was your dog doing right before that? Walking around with too much freedom. Start to swap free time for place time and see how your dog does. Then you can go even further - your dog pops off of place to bark at the window. Much like the car reactivity, make some time to solidify down on place so your dog knows they can't pop off anytime.

If you are only focusing on the reactivity when on walks, you're probably missing key moments during the day when your dog is practicing reactive behavior. If you address reactivity inside, it will make a difference on your walks. It all adds up.

I hope these things are helpful! Let me know if you have any questions.

-Kristina Reed

Dog Trainer