Compassionate Reactivity Recovery for Orillia Dogs and Their Humans!
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The Truth About Reactivity
The Truth About Reactivity
Living with a reactive dog--a dog who 'overreacts' to the world around them by barking, lunging, or biting--is hard.
Dinner and drinks at dog-friendly patios are off the table.
Pet store and park trips become tactical trials that test your vigilance to the max.
Instead of the relaxing strolls you envisioned, walks become a dreaded exercise in exasperation and embarrassment.
This is not what you signed up for.
But, I have good news.
This is not your fault--or your dog's.
Cortisol Response is the root of reactivity. Cortisol is the secret ingredient that combines with genetics, lived experience, and health status to shape our dog's response to the world around them...sometimes with explosive results!
Cortisol is a stress hormone, and is released when a dog (or any mammal!) is exposed to stimulus. The amount of cortisol released depends on the novelty, speed and predictability of movement, duration of exposure, and distance from the dog.
Every mammal has a unique cortisol threshold above which they revert from learned behaviours to one of four instinctual defensive behaviours. This response is commonly known as 'fight or flight', but we now know there are additional panic responses including fawn and freeze.
When a dog's nervous system is overwhelmed with cortisol, they make a subconscious snap decision to preserve their safety. The dog will either attempt to Flee the most direct threat, Fawn in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, Freeze in hopes the threat passes, or posture and threaten to Fight the most direct threat.
Given agency, most dogs will freeze, fawn, or flee before they choose a 'fight' response. Unfortunately, pet dogs are not allowed much agency. When dogs do not feel they have the option to flee, their last resort is a 'fight' response in a desperate bid for space from their triggers. The result is the aggressive behaviour that brought you to my page today!
Humans and other dogs generally give space to an aggressive dog, and so the 'fight' response becomes 'self-reinforcing', or more likely to repeat.
Frustrated, embarrassed owners become tense on walks or even apply punishment when reactive behaviour occurs. Unfortunately, these responses contribute to the dog's cortisol load, and dogs begin to associate 'corrections' with their triggers--leading to more fear! Owners and dogs fall into a vicious cycle, damaging their relationship and diminishing everyone's quality of life.
We can make this better.
There are three steps we will take to addressing your dog's reactivity:
- Develop their resilience, increasing their cortisol threshold and decreasing their baseline cortisol.
- Use counter-conditioning techniques to reduce your dog's cortisol response to specific triggers.
- Carefully assess your dog for signs that underlying health conditions may be contributing to their cortisol load.
The amount of support I offer is tailored to you and your needs--whether you would like frequent sessions or prefer to work solo with your dog and just want some guidance along the way.
Let's get started--you aren't in this alone!
About Me
About Me
Welcome to GD Dogs! I'm glad you're here.
I’m Grayson Diamond, and I want to make life better for you and your dog.
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Like many dog lovers, I have always felt more connected to our canine companions than to fellow humans. Their devotion, trust, and exuberance was a constant source of joy and peace growing up, and I've always known that whatever career I chose would involve dogs.
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In 2022 I developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
PTSD lowers your cortisol threshold and increases your cortisol response. That means that threats are imagined everywhere, and your brain and body respond as though those threats are 100% real. As a response, your reactions to things like a dropped book, car horn, or curious glance from a stranger become radically negative and oversized.
Sounds familiar, right?
At around the same time I met Kitty the Dog. Working with Kitty brought me moments of peace.
She also ignited my passion for helping reactive dogs.
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Kitty the Dog was a large collie cross, traumatized from her surrender in North Bay and subsequent transfer to Orillia.
At the shelter, she shied away from contact, freezing and looking away as though she couldn't trust human touch. Despite this, she clearly craved connection and feared isolation. Left alone in her kennel, she would pace in circles and bark, her eyes wide and blank.
But, on our snowy trail walks behind the facility where she was housed, Kitty would roll and romp like a puppy. Whenever I had a spare moment, I would take her outside so I could see that joyful side of her.
I didn't fully realize it at the time, but I saw myself in Kitty's all-consuming anxiety, constant state of hypervigilance, and inability to feel safe.
I adopted her as soon as I could.
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As Kitty began to settle at home, the real scope of the project I'd taken on began to surface.
She resource guarded food from our cats.
She resource guarded me from my fiance.
She threw herself at our glass picture window to menace passers-by on the sidewalk.
She dragged a friend off their feet and across a playground trying to attack another dog one hundred meters away.
She was, in short, an average adopter's nightmare.
It would have been easy to pigeonhole this huge, snarling dog as vicious. As dominant. As needing to be put in her place. But, even in our short time together, I had already seen the goofy, clever dog that Kitty could be when her nervous system was regulated. I knew that--like me--Kitty wasn't choosing to react to the world around her this way.
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My research on reactivity and behaviour science confirmed what I had intuitively recognized.
Kitty was not a bad dog in need of discipline.
She was a stressed dog in need of help.
I began to put what I learned into practice, working below Kitty's cortisol threshold to tease out the sweet and social dog buried under a severely dysregulated nervous system.
As Kitty improved, positive experiences came more frequently and her confidence grew exponentially.
Working at Sunshine City Pet Care, I applied the same force free techniques with other dogs. Birdie. Beatrice. Archie. Bennie. Kitty wasn't a fluke. Working below a dog's cortisol threshold--whatever that may mean for the individual dog--was the key.
The truth is, a few small changes to how we address reactivity can open up the world for reactive dogs and their guardians.
The knowledge to get you there can be found on my Recommended Resources page; no tricks, gimmicks, or gotchas.
But, if you want a helping hand along the way, I'd love to meet you!
Kitty the Dog: the dog who inspired my passion for reactive dogs!
Your dog doesn't want to be this way, and we can help them—together.
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