Hard Truth: Reactivity Requires Both Reinforcement And Consequence

Reactive dogs need reinforcement. We need to build engagement, teach replacement and alternate behaviours, reinforce good choices, develop communication and show the dog what to do instead. But reinforcement alone doesn’t automatically make unwanted behaviour disappear.

Sometimes a dog also needs a consequence for behaviour that has already been clearly taught and understood with a well established reinforcement history. Here’s the hard part for people to understand, the dog determines whether a consequence is actually a consequence.

Not the trainers or owners emotions and feelings, not a training ideology and not what someone on social media approves or disapproves of. If it changes the dogs behaviour, it had an effect and if it doesn’t, it didn’t mean anything. That doesn’t mean harsher is better and it doesn’t mean corrections should replace reinforcement. It certainly doesn’t mean throwing random punishment at a reactive dog and hoping for results.

Timing, clarity, motivation and context matter. A consequence should give the dog information, not simply reflect the handlers frustration or lack of competence. Sometimes that consequence is removing access to something the dog wants. Sometimes it’s interrupting a behaviour, changing movement and space or using appropriate leash pressure.

The point isn’t to avoid consequences because they make humans uncomfortable. The point is to understand what actually affects the individual dog. Reinforcement teaches the dog what works. Consequences provide information about what doesn’t.