Coping Strategies for Indoor Dog Reactivity

There are a lot of facets of reactive behavior in dogs. Barking, lunging, generally losing it at a number of things in a number of places. But today I want to talk specifically about reactive behaviors that are prevalent in your home. Maybe that’s barking at the mail person, constantly watching for neighbor dogs that dare to walk past your home or barking at seemingly nothing. If this sounds familiar, I’ve got several suggestions for you!

Before I jump into strategies you can try, we can't gloss over just generally meeting your dog's needs. A dog whose needs have been met for the day are going to be significantly less likely to display such frequent and over the top reactive behaviors in your home. Many times, just a sniff walk can meet the average dog's needs. I always encourage my clients to take their dogs on what I lovingly call a “Sniffari” which really isn’t about getting a lot of steps, it’s centered on the dog taking all the time they want to sniff all that they encounter on your walks. Smell is your dog's strongest sense, and allowing them to take in all the sniffs is like us taking a nice calm walk in nature. Being able to absorb the sights and sound while our heart rate is decreasing and bringing us into the present moment. In addition to a “sniffari”, oftentimes, licking, chewing and biting can go a long way in meeting your dogs needs. Products like a “licki mat”, frozen kong, marrow bone or bully stick can provide a species appropriate outlet to satiate our dogs needs. By doing our best to meet our dogs needs on a daily basis we are setting them up to be more successful and in turn less reactive.

Although meeting your dog's needs is important it is not always a guarantee that it will completely eliminate their reactive behaviors in your home. Before we move on I want to discuss whether your dog's reactive behavior is actually a problem or not. When I am looking at a dogs reactive behavior inside I am looking at two major factors, the frequency of the behavior and the duration of the behavior. For example, my dog Waylon will bark when a package is delivered but the barking lasts less than 30 seconds and he is perfectly content to go lay down after the fact. We typically don’t have more than one package delivered in a day so it doesn’t happen more than once. This is what I would categorize as normal and not something that I am going to work to change. In contrast, if your dog barks at people walking past your house and you live in a busy place where there is an endless stream of people walking by and the barking is intense and frequent this may be a scenario where intervention is needed. Something that frequently happens with frequent and intense reactive behaviors is that the dog becomes “trigger stacked”. This prevents the dog from being able to truly settle down and in turn they are constantly on edge. This can take a toll on both the dog and the human that has to endure the reactive behaviors. This example is when i think intervention is needed. 

Step 1 in addressing frequent and intense reactive behaviors in your home is to do your best to limit their access to the places that they rehearse these behaviors. This often involves limiting your dog's access to certain windows. Which when possible is advised, can you crate them while you are gone, can you have them in a certain room during the day to prevent the reactive behaviors. Sometimes these are easy changes, sometimes they are not. If you live in a beautiful home with loads of windows, you may consider installing some window film. The window film allows light to shine through but limits the physical images that the dogs can see. I have window film on our front window to decrease Waylon’s ability to see the mail person coming and it has reduced his barking tremendously. 

Here is the window film that I used: Frosted Window Film

Step 2 is doing your best to prevent your dog from listening for things to react too. Limiting your dogs visuals can help but oftentimes it is also noises that the dogs will react too. This is when white noise can be hugely helpful. By having white noise, music or the tv on it limits what the dog can hear and help your dog to settle down and rest without jumping up at any car door slamming or voices outside. There was research that found that dogs really enjoyed both classical and reggae music if you’d like ideas for what to play for them. "Dogs like variety in music"

Step 3 is using calming aids. For dogs who display really intense reactive behaviors in the home, limiting visual access and white noise can help but they may also need some extra help. There are loads of products on the market but in my experience, a thunder shirt as well as administering CBD have been the most effective. I would recommend utilizing these products before it is most likely that your dog will react. For example, if you know the time of day that most people and or dogs are going to be walking past your home, put the thundershirt on 10-15 minutes before and see if this too can help your dog relax and behave in a non reactive way. CBD, like this, can be administered 20 minutes before your dog is most likely to react. There are a number of calming treats on the market that may also be worth trying for your dog. You can find those in our amazon shop Reactive Dog Essentials

Steps 1-3 are always my go to when supporting my clients but in addition to these steps there are also some training exercises that you can try. The first is  working on your dog's recall cue. So that when they are reacting you can calmly call them away from where they are reacting and help them behave in a more productive way. In our course Trustworthy Recalls, I give you a step by step training plan for teaching your dog to come when called, even when they are really worked up. Additionally I love to teach dogs to “station” which boils down to going to a dog bed and laying down until released. This can help to form a more productive pattern of behavior. When faced with a trigger, you can call your dog away from where they are reacting and then ask them to go and lay down on their bed. Over time and with loads of positive reinforcement the dogs learn a coping strategy that they will be able to perform even without human instructions. 

If you are struggling with your dogs reactive behaviors in your home, know that you are not alone and I truly hope that these strategies can help to reduce the reactivity and improve everyone's quality of life!

-Rachel Laurie Harris, CPDT-KA, owner A Good Feeling Dog Training