Every reactive dog parent knows the challenge of teaching their dog not to react to triggers while staying under their dog's threshold so learning can happen.

How do you work with your dog's triggers and at the same time keep your dog calm and safe in the process? Here's how you can practice no-stress training with your reactive dog.

Understanding reactive dogs and trigger stacking

Reactive dogs are generally defined as dogs who overreact to certain stimuli, such as other dogs, people, or environmental factors. These reactions can range from barking, growling, and lunging to more severe behaviors like biting.

One of the biggest challenges with reactive dogs is learning how to avoid trigger stacking. It's called trigger stacking because it happens when one stressful event is followed by multiple stressful events building on each other, compounding stress hormones to put your dog over threshold when separate events would not.

For example, if your reactive dog is already anxious due to loud noises and then sees another dog out walking, your dog may be more likely to overreact. Or if a reactive dog is stressed from a previous encounter with a new dog and then comes across a strange person, this can also result in an overreaction.

Trigger stacking can be challenging and stressful to manage, which is why it's crucial to practice no-stress training with your reactive dog. This type of training focuses on keeping your dog calm and safe while working with your dog's triggers so learning can happen successfully.

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Create a safe, stress-free environment for your dog

The first step in practicing no-stress training with your reactive dog is to create a safe and stress-free environment. This may mean avoiding certain places or situations that trigger your dog, at least until you have built up your dog's confidence and trust.

You can also create a safe space at home for your dog to retreat to when they are feeling overwhelmed. This could be a quiet room or your dog's crate, where they can relax and decompress.

The importance of staying under your dog's threshold

To effectively train a reactive dog, it's important to keep your dog under their threshold. This means that you want to work with your dog at a distance where they can still see the trigger but not become overwhelmed or triggered by it. This is a delicate balance and may require some trial and error to find the right distance for your dog.

Use positive reinforcement techniques

Positive reinforcement is a training technique that rewards good behavior with treats, toys, or praise. This method works well with reactive dogs because it focuses on rewarding desired behaviors rather than punishing undesirable ones. When working with your reactive dog, make sure to use plenty of treats and praise when they exhibit calm behavior. This will help your dog associate the trigger with something positive and build your dog's confidence.

Using harsh corrections or punishment, can be especially stressful for reactive dogs. These methods not only fail to address the root cause of reactivity, but they also create an environment of fear and anxiety for your dog. This can make it even more challenging to train your reactive dog and may actually make their reactivity worse.

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Be patient and consistent

Training a reactive dog takes time, patience, and consistency. It's important to be patient with your dog and understand that progress may be slow. Each dog is different, so what works for one may not work for another. Stay consistent with your training techniques and give your dog plenty of time to learn and adjust.

A dog trainer secret to share with you...

I almost always start my reactive dog clients with a "Burt session" (or one of my many other stuffed dogs). Beginning reactivity training with a lifelike but not real dog as our trigger sets us both up for success from the start.

Using a stuffed dog as a stand-in is helpful in many ways:

1) Makes it easier for you to learn to read your dog's body language & reactions

For novice handlers/trainers it gives a low-pressure opportunity to learn how your dog will react to a trigger. For each individual dog, threshold is different, so the more experience you have with observing your dog's signs around triggers, the better you'll know where your dog's threshold point is and be able to anticipate.

With a fake dog, you'll get that experience around a trigger but within a comfort zone for you that allows you both to learn.

2) Puts you in control of your always-top concern: safety

Our first priority above all else is to protect our dogs in every situation. Without the threat of an actual dog in the environment, you're controlling the situation to make it predictable and safe in your set-up with your choice of location and your fake other dog.

3) Takes advantage of the beauty of the dog that never barks back

It's hard to overestimate the beautiful predictability of a dog that never barks back. You're reducing stress on your dog and yourself - even if your dog reacts to seeing the dog, there is zero threat that the other (fake) dog will bark back. You've edited out the risk of the usual escalation that can come with real dog encounters.

With real-life other dogs, when your dog barks or whatever your dog does at the sight of another dog, you have no way of knowing what the other dog will do in return. With a "Burt," you're in total control of at least half of the interaction, knowing your fake dog won't make a move or sound and you can totally focus on your dog. You're much more likely to be preventing trigger stacking.

Trigger stacking and going over threshold overtakes your dog's emotions (and likely yours) and puts an end to any more good learning happening in that session.

When you and your dog do graduate to expanding your dog's world to real-world, real dogs, you'll both have a good foundation of practice, experience with positive reinforcement timing, and confidence.

4) Makes it easier to gauge & control distance

For me, the professional trainer (and any handler of a reactive dog), I can establish distance parameters. It is very important to understand how far your dog needs to be from another dog and still be able to think and learn. This means your dog will know the dog is there, but still be able to disengage.

The use of a decoy creates a valuable middle step for confidence-building using desensitization and counter-conditioning. Using decoy dogs we can gradually introduce controlled exposure where the dog believes the decoy is real, however, the handlers have full control over the “behaviors” that the decoy dog displays.

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Pro tips on managing your dog decoy for best effect:

• Find a lifelike decoy dog that is in a standing position so it can be positioned in your training practice to represent a real dog you would encounter on a walk. If you're working with another person as your fake dog's handler, a standing dog can appear to be on a walk with a leash or other scenarios your dog finds stressful and possibly triggering.

• Store your "Burt" where your dog won't see it or have access to it. You don’t want your dog to suddenly discover that "Burt" lives with you and become frightened or figure out he's a toy, blowing his cover as a trigger for training.

• When positioning the decoy dog for training, keep it within your dog's line of sight but far enough away that it appears real and isn't within your dog's trigger threshold distance.

Teach the "look at that" game

I teach the "look at that" game to get reactive dogs to be able to note their trigger (for example, other dogs) and learn to associate it with really good things like high-value treats and stay calm.

If you haven't already, you can check out my full guide + video on this game and learn to teach "look at that" in my step-by-step guide here.

Try this

Essentially, "look at that" is a simple positive reinforcement lesson/game:

1) First, set yourselves up for success. Choose a location outside and time of day that avoids any real triggers that might surprise you (the opposite of a dog park or even a semi-busy sidewalk), position your "Burt" as described above, and have plenty of high-value treats on hand you can access quickly, easily.

2) Walk close enough for your dog to see "Burt," and any time your dog looks at the trigger (your fake dog)...

3) You mark (say "yes!"/click) and immediately reward!

That's the sequence; you want your dog to see the trigger, then get the mark and treat.

Why "look at that" works

This is teaching your dog that looking at the thing your pup finds scary or exciting leads to good things as long as he or she is calm. It also teaches your dog to look away and disengage to look at you and receive the reinforcement.

Practice & troubleshooting

Keep practicing this sequence as long as your dog is enjoying it and learning to connect the trigger with good things and staying calm. Watch your dog's body language to judge how you can gradually decrease the distance between you and the fake dog.

What to do when it's not working...

What if your dog can't look away from the trigger or is too interested in the fake dog? That means you're too close. You can witness this in the accompanying video with my client Edison and Burt below.

In that case, take a break, put some distance between you and the fake dog, and give your dog a little recovery time and a chance to relax. When you try again, you'll have new information to work with, knowing what is a good distance to keep your dog under threshold and still be able to see the trigger and learn.

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Our dogs, ourselves

As dog parents, it's hard not to feel the same stress levels our dogs feel when encountering dogs on a walk - and challenging not to send our own stress hormone levels through the leash to our pups. Using a fake dog gives both you and your dog a predictable window where you control the variables and you can practice in an environment where you feel safe and comfortable, building automatic responses to help you manage surprises in real life.

Ultimately, using a fake dog - that most dogs think is real, or at least mostly real - is a wonderful way to start communicating and learning about your dog's behavior.

Next up in the Reactivity Channel on Dogly

Now that you know how to get started with low-stress training and manage your dog's trigger stacking, stay tuned for more reactivity training with counter-conditioning and desensitization.

If you have any questions on reactivity and your dog, just ask us in our Community Discussion. Continue in our Reactivity Channel where you'll learn everything you need to know for your dog from our community of Dogly Training Advocates.

If you ever need more individualized guidance, get started in your dog's training plan here.