Every day's a school day - how I learned about reactive dogs

Butter wouldn't melt?
©Harveywetdog

I've got to be honest, up until two weeks ago if you'd told me you had a reactive dog I would have said "so do I; don't all dogs react one way or another?" I'd never heard about reactive dogs as an official classification of a certain type(s) of dog behaviour.

All this changed at lunchtime on Saturday 27th February when the following incident occurred when I was out in my far field with the two pointers. This field does have a footpath coming diagonally across it and we do get the occasional walker coming through. 

I was walking down the far side of the field when I noticed a runner (shorts etc) coming across the adjacent field towards me with a dog, off lead, running alongside him and heading towards the stile into the field where we were. As my two dogs were loose in their exercise field, following scents, doing their own thing I thought they probably wouldn’t readily come back to me but wasn’t too worried as there was no sign of any aggression while they were the other side of the stile from the visiting dog (the fence line has secure horse netting installed). As the chap climbed over the stile and into the field I thought he looked in charge of the situation. One of my dogs did show slightly more interest than the other and I noticed the guy pushed him away quite abruptly a couple of times.

My basic plan was to get to the stile, hold my two dogs and let the runner and his dog get on their way. But as I approached the stile I was told that I was being ignorant and should have called my dogs back as his was a "reactive dog". Not appreciating the significance of his statement I simply said so's mine and as this was their exercise field I generally let them go where they want. He told me again I should have called them back but as I explained once he'd raised their interest by coming into the field I wasn’t confident they would come back. He repeatedly told me that I was ignorant as he was trying to manage a “reactive dog” and that my getting closer was agitating it. We had the usual debate about it being a public footpath, which I acknowledged it is, but I suggested that perhaps it wasn’t appropriate for him to have such an easily agitated animal loose on the footpath or on other people's land.

Ultimately I was easily able to hold my two dogs by their collars while he lifted his dog over the style and jogged on his way. I wished him good morning but his reply was lost on the breeze.

Suitably chastised I returned to the house and later Googled "reactive dog". Low and behold I discovered that reactive dogs, or dog reactivity, is a recognised condition, has papers written about it and of course is a money earner when it comes to people who can help you try and live with it. (Or sell you bits and pieces to show your dogs reactive). I read about barrier frustration and fear based reactivity. I suspect the little dog in my case was an example of fear based reactivity. One of our pointers will react differently if they are restrained on their leads. This is an example of barrier frustration. But it wasn't until I entered #reactivedog on Instagram that I realised that the expectation is that you will basically treat all dogs as reactive dogs and call your dogs back from other dogs to avoid confrontation.

Yummy! Gravy bones
©Harveywetdog

I put a Facebook post out to seek wider public opinion. People acknowledged they too had reactive dogs while others agreed that it was a growing concern. Most people seemed to accept that if they had a reactive dog they had a duty to get it under control and then advise other owners that they should get their dogs under control as well. It's a shame, because dogs are fundamentally pack animals, and there's a lot that can be learnt from a good bottom sniff. Furthermore, if I restrain my hound so that they can't say hello to another dog I guess I'm increasing their barrier frustration - difficult isn't it?

Since the incident I now make sure I always have their leads and treats with me when we're out and I've done a lot of recall training to make sure they will listen to me when I want them to come back. I've been very impressed by their recall even though as much as I sniff a gravy bone I'm puzzled to know what the attraction is. There have been a couple of times when they've been on a particular strong scent I've had to go and get them back but overall I think I'd be much more confident in recalling them next time. Interestingly we've been here 27 years and this is the first time we've had a problem so as long as we stick to once every 27 years I think we'll be okay.

Our recall is brilliant
©Harveywetdog

So why are we seeing this rise in "dog reactivity"? There is no doubt that dogs have suffered during the Covid crisis as they've lost out on chances to socialise, especially as puppies. We also know dog ownership has increased, presumably  with a proportionally greater increase amongst the undogly. The literature also told me that part of the problem is that the nature of dog ownership is changing such that a large number of dogs aren't allowed to be dogs anymore.

It feels to me to be just another example of victim culture we experience today which gives people the right to be rude to you just because you don't immediately appreciate they've got a problem. But regardless of the cause, we'll be giving all dogs more space in future.          

Keep off my land - the stile in question
©Harveywetdog