The Reactivity Label

If another person called your dog reactive how would you feel about it?  I want to challenge the current environment that exists around reactive dogs and their owners.  Why? I have a reactive dog and labeling his behaviour is helping our progress.

The current attitude that people have towards him is similar to when Elsa grew to be over 16 inches tall.  People would attempt to empathize with me, how sad, how unfortunate.  I didn’t feel that way – there was no sadness for me. Like Elsa’s situation I’ve been forced to adjust my path.  At first, a puppy that wasn’t interested in visiting with people.  Then a puppy that barked at people.  Hopefully soon a puppy that can accept people in his space without fear.

At first it did feel unfortunate for me that I needed to adjust my training path to accommodate a puppy that has a very large bubble around people and dogs.  I felt sad about labeling him reactive.  I thought about the label and what it meant to everyone on the outside.

Although Momo’s training time has been adjusted significantly to first help him find confidence in new situations, I believe it accomplishes the same foundation as puppy agility.  He learns to trust me and to be my partner.  He learns to experience the world that he’ll someday compete in.  For now instead of focusing on wrapping a jump he is first learning how to settle on a bed instead of obsessively focusing on other dog’s movement.

Momo has taught me a new level of listening to dog language and all about his consent to being around people.  Where I failed to listen, Momo became louder to get the desired result.  Now we get comfortable again doing normal things and feeling good about it.