Bark 2 Basics

Check out the summer 90 Minute session we are having this month.

I don't know how many times I get calls from clients that need help with the 'Red Zone' who have already had 1 or more run ins with reactivity. When I really wish they would contact a trainer in the beginning to help with self control and knowing their threshold.

There IS a missing link here ➡️Frustration

Yet we’re still so laser focused on the actual reaction.
The barks, the lunges, the spins.
The behaviour that makes us wish the earth would just open and swallow us up when others are around.

Frustrated dogs can tumble into reacting very, very quickly.
Frustration IS a major driver of unwanted behaviour.

Imagine it for a minute.

You want to get somewhere and you’re prevented.
You want to get closer to something interesting, but can’t.
You’re trying to have some fun, and you’re stopped.

Look, I do get it.
Some dogs are an absolute challenge, especially reactive dogs.

But what if that frustration is the actual starting point?

Can you trust them more in certain areas?
Give them more choice and agency?

Frustration is often reduced by giving them more appropriate choices.
Yet we hold on tighter because we feel we have to.

Living with a reactive dog can be scary.
So we add safety. We add rules.
But are we taking away too much and causing more of what tips them into reacting?

What if that behaviour is, at least in part, shaped by how much control we’re actually trying to grasp onto?