This is a guest post I wrote for Petminded.co back in May 2022. Petminded is a community of pet parents and guardians who’re interested in dog science and giving their dogs the best that life has to offer.
To avoid plagiarism, I’m sharing the first version of this post. See the final version on the Petminded blog.
I was about to head to bed when I chanced upon the word “reactivity” on Instagram.
I was browsing through dog-related content when I saw a photo of a large adolescent female wearing a muzzle. The caption detailed the guardian’s journey through managing and dealing with this dog’s triggers.
As they described what reactivity looks like, things began to “click” in my mind. What this dog was experiencing and how they responded were exactly how my dogs would experience and react to the elements in their environment.
That post moved me to dive deeper into reactivity. I no longer felt helpless about how I could best help my dogs get through their emotional moments.
Petminded Talk: Post-pandemic Reactivity with Maddie Messina
Last April 27th, Petminded invited certified professional dog trainer Maddie Messina, MA CPDT-KA, to talk about post-pandemic reactivity.
It was timely and valuable, knowing that many dog guardians struggle with fearful or reactive behavior displays during the pandemic (2020-2022).
I jumped at the opportunity to get a professional’s perspective on how reactivity occurs and how we, humans, can address it.
Here are 5 takeaways from her discussion:
01 Gaps in confidence and socialization
Socialization is safe exposure to sights, sounds, smells, and interactions with people and other animals. Unfortunately, lockdowns and safety protocols limited the opportunities for our dogs to safely socialize, train, and learn about the outside world.
Although there’s still no consensus to how reactivity occurs, there’s emerging evidence that this lack of socialization, activity, and training history paired with living in a busy, urban environment factor into why dogs develop insecurity and social fearfulness.
Knowing this, we can help our dogs cope with the various stimuli in their environment by filling these gaps.
02 Understand your dog’s threshold.
According to Mardi Richmond, CPDT-KA, “a behavior threshold is…when your dog crosses from one emotional state to another.” In behavior modification, there are three levels of thresholds:
- Under threshold
- At threshold
- Going over threshold
There are several factors that can impact your dog’s threshold levels, such as distance from triggers, having your dog’s needs met, stress levels, or how many triggers have stacked up in that moment.
Maddie shared some great illustrations of what crossing from one threshold to another looks like and how reactivity treatments or modification plans can help increase the dog’s ability to observe and process their environment without going over threshold.
Ultimately, your dog is the only one that can tell you how far they need to be to stay under or at threshold. Reading their body language and helping them move away from triggers are our best shot at teaching our dogs to calmly observe and process the information provided by their environment.
03 Watch out for trigger stacking
Triggers in the environment can easily stack up and against your dog. This can occur on walks (for example: seeing other dogs, squirrels, skateboarders, joggers) or in the home (for example: noisy garbage truck, the neighbor’s cat, leaf blower).
Before you know it, your dog is pacing, barking, panting, and struggling to calm down.
Watch out for trigger stacking and help your dog either move away from the trigger and let them decompress.
04 Management is your best friend
Management is setting up the environment so you prevent your dog from rehearsing the behaviors you want to change.
When working with reactivity, management is your best friend because you’re proactively making changes to the environment, so your dog remains successful.
Management can be teaching your dog an emergency U-turn should another dog rush towards you. It can also be a treat scatter to keep your dog’s nose to the ground and their brains busy while the trigger quietly passes by.
05 Add predictability through pattern games
I first learned about Leslie McDevitt’s pattern games when I joined Calm Canine Academy’s puppy classes a year ago.
These games were both easy for my puppies to be successful and was a great start to building their reinforcement history.
What I learned later was how pattern games, such as the 1-2-3, were useful with helping dogs struggling with reactivity. They add predictability to the situation where at the count of 3, my dogs will always receive a reward.
When done well and practiced consistently, your dog would instantly focus on your count instead of fixating on their triggers.
Embrace the journey
Working with reactivity is hard.
The sight of a trigger at a distance can send your heart racing. Listening to your dog barking and lunging leaves you feeling defeated and helpless.
The journey is arduous, but I feel assured knowing I’m not alone and there are humane solutions to help our dogs feel safe in this big and scary world. I’m thankful I got to learn from Maddie’s expertise and other guardians’ stories and experiences with reactivity.
Diwa Dogs 
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