Does your dog occasionally behave strangely or out of control? Does his behaviour frighten you, or does he appear scared? If so, your dog may be reactive. Learn the characteristics of a reactive dog and what to do if your dog becomes agitated.
What are reactive dog behaviours?
What are reactive dog behaviours?
Reactivity in canines can be a challenging and perhaps deadly issue that requires persistence and patience to resolve. Reactivity can occur in any dog for a variety of reasons, including medical, environmental, and developmental ones. However, certain breeds of dogs, such as shepherding and terrier mixes, are predisposed to developing reactive behaviours. While behavioural conditioning and training can help manage many reactive dogs, other dogs may require further support to control their behaviour and fulfill their potential, such as antidepressants or anxiety drugs.
Dogs classified as reactive are those that overreact to specific stimuli. With training, the majority of reactive dogs can become slightly calmer and happier pets, yet in certain situations, prescription drugs might also be advised.
Dogs' Reactive Behaviour Symptoms
There are a number of behaviours that could indicate to you that the dog is agitated or experiencing anxiety. A few examples of these actions could be:
1: Snarling
2: Tight, low, and forward in the body
3: Closing up
4: Snarling
5: Intense gaze
6: Lip or muzzle licking
7: Turning away
8: Plunging
9: Snapping abruptly
10: The tail between the legs
11: Bare teeth
12: Urinating when someone is close by
13: Eye whites are either pink or red.
14: Whites of eyes displaying yawning patterns
Any object or situation can cause a dog to react, but some triggers happen more frequently than others. Reactivity categories that are somewhat typical include:
1 - Canine Reactive
Dogs may react negatively only to other dogs of the same breed. These dogs may react to all other dogs in some situations, or they may just react to a particular type of dog, like little dogs against large dogs or canines with long hair versus short hair.
2 - Reactive Leash
The most prevalent kind of reactivity is leash reactivity, which can be quite upsetting for both yourself and your dog. Given that the dog can't escape because of the leash and that the normal reaction to panic is either fight or flight, this could lead to the dog starting to fight instead of run.
3 - Insensitive to men or kids
While mistreatment or abuse can cause reactivity towards men or children, it is far more likely that a lack of contact occurred during the animal's socialization phase.
Reasons for Dogs' Reactive Behaviours
Dogs' reactive behaviours are often triggered by a mix of environmental and innate factors. The following elements could be used to encourage reactive behaviours:
1 - Developmental factors: Dogs might become more scared if they are subjected to maltreatment or traumatic experiences during their puppy years or if they are not socialized properly from an early age.
2 - Environmental factors: Canines may become fearful and reactive if they are raised in an excessively sheltered environment and/or if they are exposed to a violent environment. In certain cases, these factors may cause anxiety disorders and PTSD to develop, which may raise the likelihood of a reactive episode.
3 - Genetic predisposition: Some dog breeds, such as terriers, are more likely to exhibit reactive personalities than other types; shepherding breeds, on the other hand, are more likely to respond negatively to motion, especially forward motion.
4 - Physical illnesses: illnesses affecting the thyroid might make your dog more nervous, which increases the likelihood of reactivity. Certain physical disorders, especially those that cause chronic discomfort, can also produce reactive behaviours.
Dogs' Reactive Behaviour Diagnosis
A thorough behavioural history will be taken when your pet visits your veterinarian with behavioural concerns like reactivity. Information on the patient's age and sex, in addition to any additional details that could be known regarding the dog's breed and medical background, is usually required for a thorough behavioural history. Diagnosis of any underlying disorders can be made with great assistance from facts regarding the circumstances leading up to reactive episodes and about your dog's behaviour following the incident.
It will be necessary to provide the veterinarian with information about the patient's daily diet, any recently prescribed drugs, and the specifics of any attempted corrective measures, including the outcome of those attempts. A comprehensive physical examination will additionally be carried out, including routine diagnostic tests such as a full blood count, biochemical profile, or urine, since certain cases of reactivity may also have a physical and medical component.
Therapy for Dogs' Reactive Behaviours
The intensity of the behaviour as well as its underlying cause will determine how reactive issues are treated. A veterinarian should be consulted for the treatment of some persistent reactivity problems, as they may develop into harmful situations. The person in charge of a dog and a professional trainer and behaviourist should work together to handle the pet's reactivity issues. It's important to remember not to correct or discipline a dog for acting out. Reprimanding your dog for acts driven by fear tends to reinforce their emotions and raises the possibility that their fear-based behaviour will escalate into more violent responses. Desensitisation is a frequently used training technique to address fear and reactivity. It involves using praise and treats in addition to the feared object's presence to help the object become more amiable and familiar, which in turn reduces any associated reactivity.
In a method known as counter-conditioning, obedience training can also be utilised to alleviate anxieties and fears, which lowers the possibility of a reactive reaction, and to serve as a diversion from unpleasant stimuli. Anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications can be suggested to calm someone else in severe circumstances where behavioural training and therapy are unable to calm the patient.
Can reactivity in dogs improve?
Reactive dogs can frequently get better with extremely constant work and training. But once a fear-based behaviour sets in, it might not completely disappear in a dog. If so, you can lessen their reactivity, but you will need to control that for the remainder of their lives." In order to control your dog's reactive behaviour, you must continue to give rewards and limit your dog's exposure to triggers.
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