Understanding Leash Reactivity and How to Improve Walks

When your dog reacts to another dog or a person on leash, it can become very stressful, embarrassing, and exhausting. Many of the people I work with have leash-reactive dogs, and I have extensive experience addressing leash reactivity. It does take a long time to improve leash reactivity. It's not an overnight process. There's no quick fix for this. If your dog barks, lunges, freezes, growls, or completely loses their mind when they see another dog or a person, that is considered leash reactivity.

Many dogs are great indoors, but when they go outside, they become leash-reactive. It doesn't mean your dog is bad and you have to get rid of them. It means we have to start over, improve the dog's social skills, help them become calmer, and teach them better leash and public manners. The reactivity is not about disobedience. Most reactive dogs know how to sit, lie down, and stay. They know how to respond to their name. They know how to go in the crate. They're potty-trained. 

Reactivity is an emotional response. It is a lack of impulse control. It is frustration tolerance. It's your dog saying, I don't know what to do in this situation. Either I'm fearful, or I'm excited. They don't know how to act when a trigger is near. They were never taught how to act. A leash-reactive dog loses the ability to move away, create space, or make choices. They get in a fight or flight mode, and they can't think. 

Our job is to get them to slow down and start thinking. We don't want the pressure that can turn a manageable situation into a full-blown meltdown. And this is what happens. A lot of people who have reactive dogs, the dog starts reacting, and they start giving too many commands or start doing the wrong thing, and they reinforce the reactivity, and then, over about 10 months or a year, they call me, and they want me to fix it, and this is where the information in this article comes in handy.

Some dogs are fine off-leash. I know a lot of reactive dogs who go to doggy daycare, and they're great in their backyard off-leash. When the leash gets put on them, they have a barrier. It's called barrier frustration. There are a couple of types of barrier frustrations, and one is the leash. Another one is a fence. You see a dog in the yard behind a fence, and it's barking at something on the other side of the fence because it wants to get to it. Once you let it out and it gets to that trigger, then all of a sudden, they're calm. 

Why leash reactivity happens

This is the part most people skip. It's important to know why it happens so that you can prevent it in the future. 

1. Fear: Some dogs are genuinely worried about what other dogs are doing or what other people are doing. They bark or lunge to make the scary thing go away because they are afraid.

2. Frustration: These dogs want to greet, play, or move toward the other dog, but they can't because the owner is holding them back and applying pressure on the leash. This builds up, and they explode. They go crazy; that pressure radiates outward. The owner becomes increasingly frustrated, and the dog becomes more tense, starting to bark and lunge more. Then it just becomes complete chaos. 

3. Lack of social skills: Some dogs were never taught to calmly coexist with other dogs. Socialization is not playing with other dogs or jumping on people; it’s learning not to react to external triggers such as sights and sounds across various locations. 

4. Over arousal:  These are dogs who are already running hot before they even walk out of the house or apartment. You add a trigger to that, and everything goes berserk. You want to start the over arousal phase in the house before they even go outside. Put the leash on the dog. If they're whining and crying and they're anxious to get out the door, don't go outside. Give them something to do to calm down inside the house. A dog puzzle, target training, obedience training, a licki mat, and a Kong. Then bring them outside. 

5. Past experiences: A bad encounter with being rushed by another dog or being corrected harshly on leash can leave a lasting impression.

Many dogs never learn how to be calm in public situations. This is the most important thing. Puppy socialization at an early age is the most important thing for every dog. Every behavior that you don't want after a dog goes through adolescence, which is from six to nine months old, goes back to what happened to them before 16 weeks old. The exception is if another dog scared your dog or a similar situation happened. 

Calm is a skill that your dog needs to learn. You, as the dogs owner, needs to teach your dog that calmness, At an early age with Dixie, I started teaching her these skills At 10 weeks old, the first day that I got her, I taught her how not to respond to things in public and how to walk on a loose leash and how to stay calm in all social situations, and she's six now, and she does it very well. 

Most puppies engage in play, movement, and constant activity. That's the opposite of what we need to do to prevent reactivity. 

How do owners accidentally reinforce leash reactivity? 

Most owners reinforce leash reactivity, and they don't even realize it until a professional coaches them and points it out. The first thing you have to do with a leash-reactive dog is stop reinforcing the behavior. Stop trying to control your dog. The goal is to teach the dog to do it independently. 

One of the biggest ways leash reactivity is reinforced is through leash tension. That's a bad thing to do. Once you have tension in the leash, you have tension in the dog because there's tension in your body, there's tension in your thoughts, everything's tense at that point. No wonder the dog can't relax. The second you spot another dog, your hand tightens and the leash shortens, and your body stiffens.  This is what happens with every client I work with at the beginning of our lease reactivation program. Your dog feels that right away; to them, that pressure says something's wrong. The dog thinks it has to defend their owner. They get in a fight or flight mode. They have to show the world what's going on by barking and lunging at other dogs.

Another common issue is vocal stress. Repeating your dog's name is the number one thing that people do wrong. This raises the dog's excitement from level 5 to level 10. The goal is to get the dog to a level 1. Dogs hear vocal tone before the actual words. When dogs are in fight or flight mode, they're not going hear the exact words you're saying, but they're going notice the stress in your voice. 

Comforting at the wrong time is another big one. When your dog is highly aroused, talking and touching them is most likely not going do anything. 

The dog rehearsing a behavior is not a good sign. Every time your dog rehearses a behavior, it's getting more conditioned into their brain that this is what they're allowed to do and this is what they're supposed to do. The first thing you want to do with a leash-reactive dog is avoid going anywhere with other dogs until the dog can get some professional help. You don't want them rehearsing that behavior anymore. Every time they bark, lunge, and react to another dog, it's getting worse. It's like compound interest. It just keeps growing. 

What not to do with a leash reactive dog. 

• Do not force interactions. Your dog does not need to say hi to every dog or person on the planet. If a dog's on the other side of the street and you're walking on one side, just say, “Let's go leave it alone.” I do this with Dixie all the time. She wants to say hi to everybody. The world revolves around Dixie, and she wants to give kisses and say hi to every person and dog. Her tail starts wagging. She gets excited. I say to her, “Dixie, they're not here to see you. Leave them alone. Let's go.” 

• Do not punish reactions. Don't get mad and say no, stop, and start yelling and getting frustrated. That’s going to make things a lot worse. 

• Do not train right next to the triggers. In other words, if your dog is leash reactive, you're not going to go two feet from another dog and expect your dog to behave. You gotta start from a bigger distance, like 50 feet or 25 feet, where your dog has a mild reaction, and you can redirect them back to you.

• Don't compare your dog to other dogs. Well, that dog does well. My dog doesn't do well. I feel bad, and you're miserable all day. Don't do that. That's not important right now. If your dog's having issues and struggling with reactivity, your job is to help them learn a new way, right? Help them find a way. Being a good leader is to take the dog to a place it's never been, which is calmness around other dogs, not to get frustrated over it, and not to compare your dog to other dogs. That's not important in this situation. 

What we want to do instead

1. Start with management. Distance is your best friend. Space lowers pressure. Determine the dog's threshold and work from that point. If you notice a dog at 25 feet and start to get a little tense with a few little soft barks, then back away another five feet, get the dog to sit and watch you, and calm down. As the dog gets better at that, you start closing the distance over time. You're not trying to put your dog in a situation where they're going to fail. You want them to succeed. Make sure you're always checking where the dogs are. If there's a dog to your right, you go to the left. If there's a dog straight ahead, do a U-turn.  You can still walk in your community with the other dogs. You just have to be smart about it. 

2. Watch your dog's body language. Timing is everything. You want to make sure the dog relaxes and doesn't react early in the walk. As soon as their ears go up, they're listening to something. As soon as their body tenses slightly, they stick their chest out and lean forward. Start creating distance and get the dog to refocus on you. Notice that I didn't say you have to provide corrections, because we're not at that point yet. Right now, we're just working on getting the dog to be less hyper and calmer. 

3. Keep the leash neutral.  You want a loose, steady, calm leash. Once the leash gets tight, your dog's getting overstimulated. Create distance or go back inside. Start over, working on loose leash walking 

Calming exercises start at home

Auto Check-In

Leash reactivity training actually starts at home with calming exercises. This part is critical. In my leash reactivity program, we do several sessions in the house with a skill called “auto check-in.” I hold treats up in each hand and have the dog look at the treats while sitting or lying down in front of me. They’re looking at the treats and wanting them so badly, but I don't say anything to the dog. When the dog makes eye contact with me and stops focusing on the treats, I say “yes,” and I give them the treat. This has to be done repeatedly, every day for weeks, to teach the dog calmness in the house. 

Calm is not something your dog can do on their own. They need you to teach them calm, and if you stay calm with them inside the house, they'll be calm. If you are anxious and worried and bothered by something inside the house, your dog's going be that way, and the leash reactivity is always going to get worse because they're starting off with a lot of tension and stress right from the get-go.

Place Training

Teach your dog how to do nothing. Teach your dog how to lie down and chew a bully stick or a deer antler for relaxation. This is emotional regulation, not obedience. I tell all my clients that the house is a yoga studio. The dog needs to always be relaxed and calm, like a meditation.

The backyard is their play area. They run around, they chase a ball, they act goofy, and they get a lot of enrichment. When you go for walks or you go anywhere in public, that's the training area. This is where the dog gets most of its training. When they return home from a walk, they decompress and return to a calm, relaxed state. 

Introducing triggers the right way

When you work around triggers, start farther away. Distance is important. Your dog should notice the trigger, but still be able to think and check in with you. The “auto check-in” that we did inside the house will begin to pay off here. We want the dog to voluntarily see the trigger and then look back at you. You don't have to tell them anything. You don't have to say “watch me,” or “leave it.” None of that stuff is important. It's okay to say that and start that at the beginning of the training, but long-term, you want the dog to do it on their own. Most inexperienced dog owners want to micromanage their dog outside, but that's not going to work long-term. 

Keep the training sessions short. A leash reactivity training session with me and my clients and their dog is five to 10 minutes at the most because it's very intense. It's very stressful for the dog to think that much, and it wears them out very fast. Usually, dogs sleep right after a session like that. Leash reactivity training is a slow process, so it can take months for a dog to move from leash reactive to calm, relaxed, and confident when triggers are present. This is a process, not a quick fix. 

Set realistic expectations

Remember that leash reactivity is emotional. It's not stubbornness. It doesn't mean that the dog hates you or that the dog is disobeying you. It means that they have an emotional response to a trigger. You're going to have good days and bad days. One bad walk doesn't mean that everything's over.  Just start over again later that day or the next day. Be as consistent as you can. Consistency is important in everything with dog training, especially leash reactivity, 

When to get help 

It's very important to understand that you have limitations when you have a leash-reactive dog. You need a professional as soon as you suspect a problem, because if the situation is escalating, it becomes a safety issue. They could fight with another dog or be run over by a car, making them a liability. 

You have to stay calm during intense situations, and if you notice yourself getting more frustrated and stressed, that stress radiates through the leash into the dog. You know things are getting worse. You need some help from a professional. 

I have to teach my clients how to relax in the presence of their dog when their dog wants to react to something. I have to teach my clients to stay calm in those moments by showing them how I stay calm, and the dog reacts less when I have the leash than when they do.

A good trainer will work with the owner and the dog, and, believe it or not, the training is mostly for the owner. The dog can pick up these things pretty quickly, but it has to be consistent, and the skills have to be practiced regularly. Leash reactivity can improve, but it starts with understanding, gentleness, and kindness toward the dog. It's not with force. We don’t harshly correct for leash reactivity training.

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