Reactive dogs within the home environment.

Why are dogs reactive in the home environment?

This can be

• barking at strangers going past your window
• barking at people when they enter your house
• attacking or barking at visitors in your home
• not allowing other dogs to enter your home
• guarding items of furniture bones, toys, children
• or any item within your home environment that your dog decides to possess with aggression
• reactivity within the garden

What causes this behaviour?

A lot of this behaviour can start during the development stage of your dog, we as humans communicate very differently.

We are developed very differently to dogs, therefore without realising, we are quite often butting heads with our dogs. Life does not need to be like this between you and your dog, just simple changes in routine and the way that you approach your dog, can make the difference between a large problem and no problem. Getting them desensitised to potentially volatile situations is key.

The Crate

I totally agree your dog needs a safe space, but it doesn’t mean that they have the right to guard this space. This is called “resource guarding”. I hear of people who use the practice of shaking pebbles in a tin, spraying water in a dog’s face. This is very Neanderthal behaviour, anybody using these tactics lacks education. The problem with these tactics is often the pitch, if you have frightened the living daylights out of your dog with that pitch, the next time you’re out in everyday life and that pitch goes into your dog’s ears your dog is going to jump with fear. This DOES NOT get rid of problems. It seeks to create more problems.

If you ask you dog in the correct way to relinquish item’s they will happily give them to you.