![]() ![]() The reactive dog doesn’t just get excited he spins out of control to a degree that can harm himself or others around him. Overall’s definition is the word “abnormal.” Lots of dogs get excited when their owners come home, when they see other dogs, when a cat walks by the window, when someone knocks at the door, and so on. Changes in content or quantity of solicitous behaviors.Displacement or stereotypic behaviors (spinning, tail- or shadow-chasing).Systemic effects (vomiting, urination, defecation).Vocalization (whining, barking, howling).The behaviors she uses to ascertain reactivity (or arousal) are: “Reactive” is a term gaining popularity in dog training circles – but what is it, exactly? In her book Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Small Animals, Applied Animal Behaviorist Karen Overall, M.A., V.M.D., Ph.D., uses the term to describe animals who respond to normal stimuli with an abnormal (higher-than-normal) level of intensity. Yikes! Overnight, seemingly without warning, Dubhy had turned into a reactive dog. When I reached down and touched my dog’s hip in an attempt to interrupt his attack, he whirled around and punctured my hand with his teeth in a classic display of redirected aggression. ![]() As we came near the big black dog, Dubhy redoubled his hostilities. I mistook his controlled behavior for calm behavior. ![]() As Dubhy and I approached Pete on a loose leash, Dubhy did, indeed, seem to settle down. “Once Dubhy gets to say hi to his pal, he should be okay.”įat chance. “Let’s have them meet on loose leashes,” I suggested to Claire. Dubhy was excited to see Pete, and his frustration at not being able to greet his friend was manifested in a display of aggression. Here was a dog that Dubhy knew from prior positive play experiences. My trainer brain immediately leaped to the obvious “restraint frustration-aggression” conclusion. Dubhy knew Pete well they had played happily together at my training center on several occasions.ĭubhy looked up as Claire and Pete entered, then went nuclear, raging and snarling at the end of his leash. I arrived early at the Knoxville location, and was sitting on the far side of the training room when fellow trainer Claire Moxim entered with her Labrador Retriever, Pete. Thus his behavior at a Tennessee trainers’ meeting some 16 months later came as a complete shock to me. His uneventful introduction to the rest of our pack sealed his fate, and Dubhy joined the Miller family. Residents said he had been roaming the area for at least six weeks a search for his owners proved fruitless. His low-key approach to life won our hearts and earned him a permanent home after we found him running loose in a Chattanooga neighborhood in January of 2001 at the tender age of six months. He methodically solves every training challenge I give him (although I don’t expect him to break any speed records on the agility course). About 85 percent of the time, my Scottish Terrier, Dubhy (pronounced Duffy) is laid-back and phlegmatic. ![]()
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