WHAT IS REACTIVITY? ASK PABLO
It’s been a relatively slow week – I only had one private client, although here on the farm it never really seems slow. But more about that later…
My client this week was Pablo, a lovely, goofy, one-year-old, Great Pyrenees/American Pit Bull Terrier/American Bulldog mix who is becoming increasingly reactive to other dogs. But what, exactly, is reactivity? My favorite definition, provided by the amazing Veterinary Behaviorist, Dr. Karen Overall, is: “An abnormal level of arousal in response to a normal stimulus.”
It doesn’t necessarily mean aggression. While it can include aggressive behavior, reactivity is often simply an expression of frustration or excitement. By the way – I never call a dog a “reactive dog” (or an “aggressive dog” for that matter). Rather, they are dogs with reactive or aggressive behaviors - they do not need to be defined by a label. Most of my clients’ dogs are great dogs most of the time – which is why they are willing to invest in helping them through the difficult times when they are exhibiting those challenging behaviors and work to give their dogs a better quality of life.
But – back to Pablo. He greeted me with soft, warm affiliative behavior – clearly not reactive to humans! As I chatted with my client we allowed him to wander around the training center off-leash, as is my normal routine. Although he generally explored with moderate confidence, he was clearly disturbed by some random stimuli, especially the several dog statues we have sitting around the room and some sounds from my assistant working in the office next door.
My client had said she wasn’t sure if Pablo was being reactive to other dogs due to fear or frustration. She said he got along well with some dogs – and other dogs… not so much. I shared that we often see dogs who are somewhat cautious or fearful as puppies become increasingly reactive in adolescence as they become more confident about expressing their opinions and discover that their distance-increasing behaviors are effective in keeping them safe and alive. We also see increasing frustration reactivity with some dogs who have been allowed to greet other dogs when they are then sometimes restrained and not allowed to greet (which is one reason why I don’t recommend allowing dogs to greet on leash). The behavior I had observed already suggested to me that it was more likely fear-related reactivity, but I held off on my judgement until I saw more.
OPERANT PROTOCOLS
While Classical Counter Conditioning is often the mainstay for my client dogs with fear and aggression-related reactive behaviors (and we would get there with Pablo), I often begin by introducing several operant protocols that can help my clients manage their dogs’ behaviors. This also gives them opportunities for quick success while they work on the more challenging, longer-term counter conditioning. Additionally, while operant behaviors are the purview of the thinking part of the brain (the cortex), if we succeed in convincing the dogs that they love the operant protocols, they can get really happy when the human asks for them, which can also help move the emotional part of the brain (the amygdala) to a happier place, which moves them away from the stress threshold that can trigger reactive or aggressive behaviors.
For Pablo, I suggested (and we practiced):
· Find It (dropping treats and your feet) and Search (tossing treats away from you)
· Nose Games (having your dog find hidden treats – great, tiring enrichment and dogs love it!) https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/how-to-teach-your-dog-to-play-nose-games/
· 1-2-3 (One of Leslie McDevitt’s many marvelous Pattern Games for fearful dogs - https://www.dogcrazylady.com/post/pattern-games )
· We also practiced “Trade” to address what Pablo’s human had described as mild resource guarding: https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/protocol-for-teaching-a-safe-trade-with-your-dog/
COUNTER CONDITIONING AND DESENSITIZATION (CC&D)
Then we got to the challenging part – CC&D – working to change Pablo’s association with other dogs from negative or arousal-causing to calm and relaxed. My client had mentioned that he was worse with black dogs and small dogs, so I opted to bring out Sunny, our 25-pound Pomeranian.
She said she thought Pablo’s threshold distance was about 40 feet – so we started at 70 feet. At that distance he was initially very close to threshold – tense, staring hard and offering a very low growl. We did brief appearances, with my client feeding him a bit of chicken each time Pablo looked at Sunny. At first we disappeared behind a barrier after 10-15 seconds to give Pablo a chance to de-stress a bit, then reappeared with Sunny for more chicken delivery. (https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/counter-conditioning-and-desensitization-ccd/ )
By the end of our 15-minute CC&D practice session Pablo had noticeably relaxed. We were able to reduce the distance to 40 feet, and he was starting to offer CERs – glancing back at his human after taking a look at Sunny – the conditioned emotional response looks that let us know that his brain is starting to make the connection – “Hey, Sunny makes chicken happen, how cool is that?!”
I shared with my client that based on my observations of Pablo’s behavior, this definitely looks more like fear-related reactivity than frustration. A dog with frustration reactivity looks like, “Please, please, please I really want to go see that other dog!!!” Pablo was more like, “I don’t like you. I don’t trust you. Don’t you dare come any closer…”
His human was pleased with his progress. So was I. I did caution her that this would take time to generalize to the real world – that we have a saying in behavior modification: “If you think you’re going too slow… slow down.” Or… “Think crockpot, not microwave!” But it was a good start. I look forward to Pablo's progress report in two weeks.
COGNITION TESTS
Meanwhile, I promised to share the results of our student’s mini-cognition studies from our last academy:
1. Presented with two food bowls. When shaken, one makes noise (kibble rattling), the other doesn’t. Hypothesis: Dogs will more frequently move to the bowl that made noise. This hypothesis was not supported by the data.
2. Two humans are seated – one blindfolded, one not. Hypothesis: Dogs will be more attracted to the seated human with whom they can make eye contact (social acknowledgement) than the human who is blindfolded. This hypothesis was not supported by the data.
All of which serves to demonstrate to our students that conducting behavior studies is much more complicated than it might appear to be!
TOMORROW
Tomorrow starts our last academy for 2024 – this one is Behavior Modification – and for the first time in the history of Peaceable Paws we have more men than women attending the class! Details to come, next blog…
LAST BUT NOT LEAST: SLOW WEEK ON THE FARM
If you’ve ever lived on a farm, you know that there’s always plenty going on. If it’s not actual work (like mowing grass and moving hay) there’s always horses to feed and – even after 20 years here – fascinating wildlife to see. This week past week – after two weeks of solid rain, we had a variety of mushrooms, a handsome tiger slug, a sharp-shinned hawk trapped in the hay barn (we left the door open and he found his way out) several flocks of geese flying over (with some landing in the horse pastures) some lovely foggy mornings, and finally, the last two days, SUN!!!!!
Here's one of our many lovely sunsets... Until next time…
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
