Living with a reactive dog can be really challenging. It can also be really beautiful. Reactive dogs are some of the best teachers I know. While reactivity can be isolating at times, it’s important to know that you are not alone. You are not a bad dog guardian. And your dog is not a bad dog. If you find yourself looking for some support with your reactive dog, the good news is that there are so many wonderful, skilled, trainers (who are committed to humane training practices) out there creating great resources for you and your reactive dog. 

While this guide is not designed to lay out exactly what to do with your your reactive dog, our hope with this page is to: 1) give you a useful overview of reactivity to help you make informed decisions on your reactivity journey; 2) connect you to great reactivity resources across a range of formats (books, courses, webpages, podcasts, etc.); and 3) recommend trusted products that might help you on your journey - keep scrolling for our list with links. There is no one perfect resource or product, so ultimately, you’ll still want to do a little investigating to find what works for you, but we hope this guide gives you a great jumping off point. 

We want this to be a community resource, and we are thrilled to receive suggestions of things we should look into adding to the guide. You can make a suggestion here.

Navigate to Where You Want to Go

What Is Reactivity in Dogs? 

What Causes Reactivity in Dogs?

When It Comes to Reactivity, How Do My Dog’s Emotions Factor Into the Equation?

What Is a ‘Trigger’ in Dog Training?

How to Change Your Dog’s Reactive Behavior

Resources to Help You and Your Reactive Dog

Products We Like for You and Your Reactive Dog

TOC Reactivity Instagram Posts

Suggest a Resource or Product to Add to the Guide

While we may use the term “reactive dog” in this guide for ease of reference (referring to a dog who shows reactive behaviors under some conditions), in reality, reactivity describes behaviors your dog does in certain conditions (for example, when another dog comes within 20 yards of them on a walk) rather than who your dog is. Your dog is wonderful. “React” is what your dog does in certain situations.

The photos in this guide are all from awesome, “reactive dogs” from our TOC community with captions that share a bit about that dog’s journey. Let’s dive in!

What Is Reactivity in Dogs?

This is a really important first question to ask. Reactivity is often described as an “overreaction” to a stimulus (something in the environment). I think this type of general description may be useful in providing an overall “sense” of what reactivity is, but ultimately, “reactivity” and “overreaction” are both labels. If we want to really understand a behavior (and at some point, change it), we need to operationally define it: What behavior can I actually observe? 

Here are some common behaviors that are often associated with reactivity: barking, lunging, freezing, excessive pulling on leash, hyper fixation, whining, and jumping. 

Talking about observable behavior is important, but we also need to talk about the conditions under which the behavior occurs. Behavior doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and many of the behaviors listed above would get labeled as reactivity in some contexts but not others. For example, if my dog was stuck in the basement and barked at the door, I wouldn’t call that reactivity. If my dog was lunging and barking anytime another dog got within 20 yards of us on a walk, I’d probably label that reactivity. Ultimately, we need to talk about behavior in context to understand it.

And while it may go without saying, I want to mention that reactive behaviors (like any behavior) involve the whole body. This means that there are lots of physiological processes at work – the nervous system, the circulatory system, and respiratory system, etc. are all involved when a dog is “reacting.” This also means that the dog is experiencing emotions as they are behaving and interacting with the world around them – this should matter to all of us. 

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What Causes Reactivity in Dogs? 

Behavior in general comes from three things: genetics, learning history, and current conditions. You can’t do much about the genetic piece of your reactive dog’s puzzle or the experiences that they’ve already had (though knowing this information can be useful), but you can build new learning histories and adjust current conditions. 

One of the most important aspects of the current conditions to consider is whether your dog is experiencing any pain or discomfort, which are often present when we see reactive behaviors – especially if there is a sudden shift in behavior. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to tell if your dog is in pain or discomfort (especially if we haven’t been trained how to spot it), so we’ve included some resources in our resource list below to help you. Getting your dog checked by a vet and any other relevant professional is an important first step on your reactivity journey (we generally don’t want to start any behavior modification until pain is addressed if pain is involved). A trainer should be able to help you through this process too (they won’t diagnose though). Okay, so what else could be causing the reactivity if pain isn’t involved? 

In order to understand why your dog is reacting, the key is to look at their observable behavior and the conditions under which it occurs. While your dog’s behavior may look like an “overreaction” to you, it’s functional behavior for them (i.e. it produces some valued outcome) – otherwise they wouldn’t be repeating it. This is just the way behavior works on this planet. 

If you want to understand what is causing your dog’s reactivity, here are some questions to investigate (noting that ruling out and/or addressing pain/discomfort is the place to start): 

• What are the behaviors you are seeing (describe them in observable terms like barking or lunging)?

• What happens in the environment immediately after your dog performs the behavior? This likely tells you WHY your dog is performing that behavior. For example, did the mail person walk away from the house? Did the passing dog look away?

• What happens in the environment immediately before your dog performs the behavior? This tells you WHEN your dog performs the behavior. This could be something like another dog appearing within 15 yards of them.

• What other things might set the stage for the behavior but not directly cue it? This might be things like whether or not your dog has had a trail walk that day, how many dogs they’ve seen on a walk, how long it’s been since their last acupuncture appointment, etc.

These questions can help you pay attention to the behavior and the conditions under which it occurs (or doesn’t). If you are feeling up to it, you can even collect data (an important part of changing behavior)! Check out this post we created to get an idea of an easy way to collect data.

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When It Comes to Reactivity, How Do My Dog’s Emotions Factor Into the Equation?

You may have noticed that emotions were conspicuously absent from the “what causes reactivity” section above. Using a behavior science lens (or even a neuroscience lens), emotions do not cause behavior. 

Does that mean I don’t care about a dog’s emotions? HECK NO! I care deeply about dogs’ emotions. And I think there are likely some very big feelings involved for our reactive dogs and see great value in thinking about emotions anytime we try to change behavior.

The difference is really in how we talk about those emotions in relation to the behavior: Instead of saying “the dog barked and lunged because they were afraid,” we can say “the dog barked and lunged AND was afraid because an unknown dog came within 15 feet of them.” The environment causes both the behavior and the emotions. 

Ready to add another layer to it? 

Scenario 1: Imagine you are on vacation and swimming in the ocean. Suddenly a shark appears. You feel afraid and immediately swim to shore. The contingency (“When X event happens, if Y behavior is performed, then Z result will happen”) in play is basically this: When the shark appears, if I swim to the shore, I will avoid being bitten. The emotions that track an escape/avoidance contingency like that tend to be “unpleasant”/”uncomfortable” (not in all cases though – for example, I move away when a dance partner moves into me, and my emotions aren’t uncomfortable). 

Scenario 2: Now imagine you’re a marine photographer swimming in the ocean with your camera. A shark appears. You feel excited and start snapping photos. The contingency in play here is likely: When the shark appears, if I snap photos, the camera will click (which is a conditioned reinforcer … down the line results in photos of sharks). In contingencies where individuals are behaving to get/access something valued, emotions tend to be “pleasant” or “comfortable.” 

In both scenarios, the same thing showed up in the environment: a shark. But in the first scenario, you felt fear; in the second, excitement. What you felt was determined by the type of contingency that was in play. 

While saying that emotions don’t cause behavior may sound callous at first and then like a picky semantic thing, I actually think it matters when it comes time to help our dogs. If the cause of the barking and lunging is fear, it’s harder to figure out where to start if you want to change the behavior. How do you just make a fear go away? Perhaps you see how it starts to get circular very quickly. However, when we think about the cause of both the behavior and the emotion as being the unknown dog coming within 15 feet, you now have a pretty tangible starting point if you want to change the emotion and the behavior (we can change conditions to change behavior AND emotions). If we can get the unknown dog approaching to signal a different contingency, different emotions and behaviors are likely to follow. 

Note: We happened to talk a lot about fear here as an example (it’s a common one), but it’s not the only emotion dogs may experience in situations where they display reactive behaviors. For example, plenty of dogs experience excitement and frustration in situations where their reactive behaviors show up. 

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What Is a ‘Trigger’ in Dog Training?

With reactivity, it’s common to call the stimuli that “set off” dogs’ reactive behaviors “triggers,” which has a way of making you think that your dog’s behavior is being involuntarily “triggered” when this thing shows up. So many reactive behaviors are big and explosive and give the impression that they’re happening automatically. In reality, most of the observable behaviors that we think of as the reactive behaviors (e.g. barking and lunging) are voluntary and have been learned based on the past results (consequences) of doing them. 

There are certainly also respondent behaviors (“reflexes”) that are triggered (aka involuntarily pop) in the presence of whatever your dog’s “trigger” is – those behaviors are primarily physiological responses like muscle tension, heart rate increase, etc. These involuntary behaviors happen basically at the same time as (or maybe fraction before) those voluntary ones like lunging. Some of those physiological responses may even make certain voluntary behaviors more or less likely. 

I don’t bring this up trying to zero in on the difference between respondent and operant behavior (ultimately, a less and less useful distinction), but rather to emphasize that the language that gets used with reactivity isn’t always as accurate or helpful as it could be. Most of the behavior you think of when you picture your dog reacting (barking, lunging, jumping, etc.) is not automatic; it has been learned based on the past results of doing that behavior in similar situations. 

Here’s the good news about all this: Learning is always happening! Our dogs can learn new behaviors! We can really humanely and effectively change conditions to change behavior and emotions – yay!

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How to Change Your Dog’s Reactive Behavior

We can’t give an individualized plan in this article, but we can highlight some key aspects of a lot of good reactivity training. Before doing any training, it helps to start with determining exactly WHAT the reactive behavior is (what does your dog do), WHY your dog behaves that way (to produce what outcome?), and WHEN your dog behaves that way (under what conditions … presumably they aren’t barking and lunging 24/7). Below this general overview, we’ll connect you to resources we really like to help you on your journey.

1. Health check – Make sure your dog has a clean bill of health. If you suspect pain or discomfort, keep going until you find the right person to help assess your dog. 

1. For example, when my dog suddenly seemed quicker to bark on walks, I had a gait analysis done to see if a professional noticed anything and suspected pain. 

2. Add enrichment – A key part of most behavior plans is meeting your dog’s needs. We want dogs with big skill repertoires and environments that have a big variety of reinforcers that they can behave to access! Behavioral health is health! Some of the resources we’ve shared below provide great enrichment info. 

1. For example, this might mean finding low-traffic trails and taking your dog on walks using a long line and letting them sniff and move freely. This could also mean hiding a food item in your yard and letting your dog sniff and scavenge for it (I am a BIG fan of sniffy enrichment). I’ve also found it hugely helpful to teach “reactive dogs” tricks – dogs gain lots of new behaviors and ways to impact and control their environment to access a range of reinforcers related to working with you. There are SO many ways to add enrichment – the key is to watch how it impacts your dog’s behavior. 

3. Prevent rehearsal of reactive behaviors (as much as possible) – This is done by avoiding certain environments, changing conditions, and/or implementing trained management strategies.****

1. For example, if your dog is reactive to other dogs coming within 20 yards of them on a walk, this might mean avoiding areas where other dogs walk altogether. It might also mean teaching your dog a pattern game (like Leslie McDevitt’s 1-2-3 pattern) at home and then gradually moving it into more distracting settings until your dog is able to play the pattern game with you to move past another dog. 

2. Pssst … sometimes this is enough to make daily life navigable for you and your dog. Other times, you may continue teaching new skills. Either way, preventing the rehearsal of reactive behaviors (as much as possible) is an important step.

4. Teach desired behaviors out of context – It’s often easier to teach your dog skills in contexts where they’re likely to occur as a starting point. Why swim against the current?

   1. For example, if you want your dog to orient to you when they see another dog, you would first train offered attention at home and then gradually add neutral distractions and move to new locations before finally working on the behavior around other dogs (at a distance to start). Or if you were looking for your dog to sniff when they see other dogs, you may start training by playing a nose work game and then slowly fade in distractions (starting with neutral) as the dog sniffs.   

5. Slowly bring those behaviors into the target contexts / teach your dog to do desired behaviors around their triggers – This is a slow process. You won’t move straight from your living room to working outside a dog park. 

1. This is true for even “simple” things like eating a treat from your hand. A behavior that shows up in one context may not in another. It’s our job to gradually add distractions and change environments in a way that keeps the behavior stable. This may mean playing the up-down pattern game at home, then at home with some toys out, then at home with a friend walking around you, then in a low-distraction new location, etc. 

**** Sometimes we can’t change conditions enough to make space for new behaviors, so we may need to partner with a vet behaviorist or vet to add some pharmaceutical support if needed. This can be a very important part of a reactivity journey. If medication may help your dog thrive, it’s absolutely worth exploring.  

Ultimately, if we want to change behavior, we change conditions. There are so many things we can play with to help support our dogs: distant antecedents (things like the amount of enrichment they’ve had that week, their learning history related to desired behaviors, etc.); antecedents (things like walking in places less likely to have triggers or introducing other stimuli that can cue more desired behaviors); and consequences (things like reinforcing more subtle distance increasing behaviors like stiff body or upping the value of treat available for orienting to you). 

As a little plug here, I can’t speak highly enough about the importance of adding enrichment to you and your dog’s life. Working on reactivity can be hard (on you both) – be sure to also do things that you both love doing! I could go on a whole tangent story here, but my dog used to bark and lunge at anything new in the environment. I mostly addressed this by doing LOTS of fun shaping games that didn’t seem super related to the “problem.” I still had to work on reinforcing some new behaviors in the contexts where the barking and lunging historically showed up, but our “unrelated” training gave my dog a whole new set of skills and learning history that changed how he approached some of those situations. Plus, fun matters. 

At any rate, there are SO many ways to work on changing reactive behavior. One key element in most (all?!) of them will be honoring the function of your dog’s original behavior (when possible). If your dog was barking and lunging to create distance, they still need to be able to use their behavior to create distance (especially initially) – you might just teach them other behaviors that can also access that same distance increasing result. In plenty of cases, we don’t even have to teach them anything new. We just need to help them create space (e.g. walk them away or ask someone to stop approaching) when they show more subtle behaviors (like muscle tension) than barking and lunging (i.e. we just have to be really good observers and “listeners”). If they can effectively use those more subtle behaviors to control distance from a trigger, the need to bark and lunge may decrease. 

While retaining your dog’s ability to avoid or escape a trigger, you can also teach them that “good things” are available in the presence of a trigger. Sometimes being able to effectively say no opens the door for them to say yes to other things. 

And in time with new skills and experiences, that trigger showing up may no longer represent an escape contingency at all - cool!!! It may come to represent the opportunity to gain valued things (this takes some intentional work on your part)! As a quick reality check, this doesn’t necessarily mean your dog-reactive dog is suddenly going to seek out social interaction with other dogs (though it certainly could). It might look more like a reactive dog who sees another dog and either looks to you for a treat or puts their head down to keep sniffing and walking. Behavior is flexible, and that is a good thing. 

I feel excited knowing that there are so many ways to tailor training to support specific dogs and teams. There are lots of levers you can pull that can influence behavior and so many different procedures. 

Reactivity is really about a problem situation, and we can adjust situations (at least to some degree). 

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Resources to Help You and Your Reactive Dog

Reactivity can be a tough journey with a lot of ups and downs. It can feel isolating and frustrating and can get expensive quickly. There are so many reasons to be hopeful though! There are wonderful people creating great resources to support you and your dogs. Our hope is to connect you with some of them. With that being said, here are some resources for you to explore. We’ve included some recommended products below the resources section in case it’s of interest. (You and your dog are doing a good job!!!!)

As a note, we recommend resources and products from companies that follow a suggested hierarchy of behavior change procedures according to the least intrusive, effective intervention principle (LIMA). 

If you see any missing resources or products you think should be in our guide, you can make a suggestion here.

Books:

• Control Unleashed Reactive To Relaxed by Leslie McDevitt – This book has really useful pattern games in it that can be used to great effect as management strategies and also as known frameworks through which you can introduce new stimuli (and eventually the trigger). The known patterns tend to make desired behaviors more likely even as things go on out there in the world. 

• Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide Interpreting the Native Language of the Domestic Dog by Brenda Aloff – A huge part of supporting your dog on their reactivity journey is being able to read their body language. While body language is still behavior and should always be taken in the context of the individual, this book gives a GREAT overview and may help sensitize you to some of the more subtle behaviors your dog may be showing. This book has black and white photos in it. 

• Doggie Language: A Dog Lover's Guide to Understanding Your Best Friend by Lili Chin – This is a great illustrated book that can provide a basic starting point for learning about dog body language. 

• Canine Enrichment for the Real World: Making It a Part of Your Dog’s Daily Life by Allie Bender and Emily Strong – This book talks about what enrichment is and gives you practical ways to add more of it to your dog’s life. Meeting your dog’s needs is not only an ethical consideration but it can also influence their behavior in other settings (the beauty of distant antecedents!). 

• Fired Up, Frantic, and Freaked Out: Training the Crazy Dog from Over the Top to Under Control (Training Great Dogs) by Laura VanArendonk Baugh – This book has some step by step info for training. 

• Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0: New Practical Techniques for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression in Dogs by Grisha Stewart – This book focuses on teaching you how to give dogs safe opportunities to learn about people, dogs, or other triggers. This is not a treat heavy book, so noting that in case it’s of interest. It does involve a lot of set-ups, so you have to be able to find locations and create situations where your dog won’t react and is safe to explore (though I still think you can apply concepts from this book even if you need some info from other resources as well). 

• The New Click to Calm: Solutions for All Dogs in a Challenging World by Emma Parsons – One of the big takeaways in this book is how to teach your dog that a trigger is a cue to orient to you. 

• The Midnight Dog Walkers: Positive Training and Practical Advice for Living with Reactive and Aggressive Dogs (CompanionHouse Books) Help Your Dog Recover from Fear and Anxiety, and Enjoy Walks Calmly by Annie Phenix – In addition to giving management and training tips and talking about why punishment fails, this book shares real stories of the extreme measures people with reactive dogs have to go to support their dogs. This can be a helpful reminder that you are not alone. 

• Where Does My Dog Hurt: Find the Source of Behavioral Issues or Pain: A Hands-On Guide – A hands on guide to help you do some checks around if your dog may be experiencing pain (which is present in many reactivity cases)

• Up to Snuff has this excellent low-cost e-book on body language (we know body language is SO important to understand for reactivity work!) 

Reactivity Courses, Webinars, etc.: 

• From Nervous Nellie to Confident Canine with Rover Rehab – This is a 6-week live virtual class with both working and auditor spots (sliding scale available for all). The class is run 2-3 times per year. 

• Reactive Rover Recovery with Clickstart Dog Training Academy: 6-week live Zoom class (each class is an hour); run regularly

• Confident Mutts offers two options: a 14-Day Reactivity Challenge and Embracing Big Feelings course, which is a 6 month course with monthly self-paced video modules, group support sessions, and guided homework workbooks.

• Dealing with On-Leash Reactive Behaviors with Léa Hernandez on Tromplo: 6 week live virtual class, run periodically 

• Triumphant Teens with Lizze and the Good Dog People - Live virtual class run periodically that may help with some types of reactive behavior in teen dogs 

• The Muzzle Puzzle: Putting the Pieces Together with Enthusiasm with Dog Behavior Institute – Live virtual 4-week class held on Zoom; run periodically 

• Reacting to Dog Reactivity: Practical Assessments and Interventions with Chirag Patel – live and recorded; open periodically 

• Reactive Redefined with A Good Feeling Inc - On-demand, live, and coaching; open periodically

• The Leash Reactive Dog Course with Instinct Dog Training (FREE!!) – self paced online course

Free E-Books, Guides, and Webinars: 

• Rover Rehab has a free enrichment e-book to download here (enrichment is super important to reactivity work)

• Connect the Dogs has a lovely free Behavior Basics e-book 

• Calm Canine Academy has an extensive free webinar library 

• Here’s a Canine Body Language Webinar by Dr. Sara Bennett 

Articles: 

• Thanks for Barking 2.0 by Kiki Yablon – If you have a dog who barks a ton at noises they hear in the apartment hallways or things they see out your window or through your fence, this is likely going to be a very helpful blog for you. The “thank you protocol” (as it’s often called) is pretty straightforward and accessible and can help you build an alternative behavior to barking at stuff out of windows and fences (or at a minimum, have a reliable way to stop the barking).

Body Language YouTube Videos: 

• Video: Understanding Dog Body Language by Kris Crestejo       

• Video: Understanding Dog Body Language Part 2 by Kris Crestejo   

• Fearful Behavior in Dogs by Alyssa Rose

• Warning Signs to a Bite by Michael Burkey

• Does Your Dog REALLY Want to be Petted? (Consent Test) by Eileen Anderson 

• Dog-Dog Interaction videos like this and this (there are others) by the Shelter Playgroup Alliance 

• Shut Down Dogs by Eileen Anderson

• Two Types of Lip Licks by Eileen Anderson

Podcasts:

• The Human Side of Loving a Behaviorally Complex Dog, with Mallory Kratimenos on Make It Click - for Dog Guardians  

• Reactive Dog Guardianship with Logan Buie on Make It Click for Dog Guardians

• Managing Reactivity with Dr. Amy Cook on CogDog Radio

• Barky Lunge-y 101 Part One: Intro to Reactivity on CogDog Radio

• Barky Lunge-y 101 Part Two: Desensitization on CogDog Radio

• Barky Lunge-y 101 Part Three: Remedial Socialization on CogDog Radio

• Barky Lungey 101 Part 4: Differential Reinforcement on CogDog Radio

• Barky Lungey 101 Part 5: Listener Questions on CogDog radio

• #120: Three Essential Skills for Living with a Reactive Dog with Leslie McDevitt on Drinking From The Toilet

Relevant Research or Scientific Papers and Articles:

• A couple articles on the possible connection between gut health and aggression: this article in Zoological Science and this article in Heliyon journal

• Efficacy of Dog Training With and Without Remote Electronic Collars vs. a Focus on Positive Reinforcement (China et al, 2020)

• Survey of the use and outcome of confrontational and non-confrontational training methods in client-owned dogs showing undesired behaviors (Herron et al, 2009)

• Does training method matter? Evidence for the negative impact of aversive-based methods on companion dog welfare (Vieira de Castro et al, 2020)

• The effects of using aversive training methods in dogs—A review (Ziv, G., 2017) 

Other: 

• Find a Veterinary Behaviorist near you

• If you suspect pain, consider a gait analysis with @the.speed.of.hound or @graceful_strides_gait_analysis (recommended by Ali Sutch of @up_2_snuff)

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Products We Like for You and Your Reactive Dog

We are big fans of buying quality products so you don’t have to buy as much stuff. With that in mind, we’ve collected recommendations from our community and shared them below for you. 

Signage 

There are lots of ways that you can try to signal to people to give your dog space – you can use leashes with words on them, attach leash sleeves to your leash or the belt of your treat pouch (attaching to your belt can be helpful!), wear a vest yourself (can buy these on Etsy or DIY them), and much more. Here are some recommendations from our community: 

• TheSunAndBeeCo biothane signs – These are attachments you can add to your leash with custom words (like “Caution” or “Needs Space” and bright colors.

• Tacticollar Do Not Pet Leash Sleeve 

• Thundershirt under a harness – the uglier the better – doesn’t look like a sweater + makes ppl ask 

• Taylor & Floor Worded Settle Mats – They have mats that say different things like “Anxious” or “Do Not Disturb” or “Give Me Space” or “In Training”

• MUCKLILY Yellow No Touching Leash Tag - Rather than words spelling out “do not pet” on a leash sleeve, this is just an image of a hand with a line through it to indicate no touching. 

• BestFriendSuppliesCo Leash Sleeves 

• Tip: Put leash sleeves on waistband 

• OneTigris harnesses have lots of room for patches 

• No Dogs Collar  

• High Viz Bandanas with Safety Messages

• Leashes with words & leash sleeves from Best Friend Supplies Co.

• Patches that attach to any harness - Some people prefer patches to leash sleeves. You can see which one works best for you. 

• High Visibility Vest on human that says “DO NO APPROACH” or “NO DOGS” (can buy them or DIY by ironing letters on)

Leashes & Leash Add-Ons

A good leash setup will go a long way with any dog, but it can be especially important for a reactive dog. In general, people tend to like slightly longer leashes with a traffic handle add-on (so you can quickly grab a shortened leash if needed), a safety strap, and a harness and collar. Here are some recommendations from our community: 

• Hightail Hikes – biothane leashes; locking sport carabiner; bright colors for long lines and safety straps; traffic handle add on; convertible sports leashes with safety straps (leashes with traffic handle addition and sport locking carabiner) – DISCOUNT CODE: TAILSOFCONNECTION

• Trailblazing Tails biothane leashes

• Squishy Face Studios Hands Free Waist Belt – 4” wide so it doesn’t cut you in half

• Houndagrip for longlines

• Gentle Creatures Back up safety strap 

• Bold Lead Designs Atlas Leash 

• Canada Pooch Walking Belt

• Grisha Stewart’s leash belay kit and BAT leash

• Tiny Horse Walk Multiple Dogs

• The Muzzle Movement Safety Strap 

• 15’, 30’, 40’ biothane leashes from Poplar Paws Biothane

• Nimble leashes

• Vivifying long line – more affordable option

• Offroad K9

• Shop Strange Tails 

• 2 Hounds Double Connection Leash – distributes force more evenly when dog lunges – may be helpful if you have a large, powerful dog and are worried about being pulled off balance if they lunge 

• For the Love of Dogs (India) - Good long lines in India

Harnesses

A well-fitted, non-restrictive harness is critical. We have an entire TOC Harness Guide to help you determine the right fit. The guide also has a lot of harness product recommendations. 

Muzzles

Good dogs wear muzzles! I am a strong supporter of muzzle training dogs – even if they don’t need to wear them. You just never know when they might, and future you (and your future dog) will thank you if wearing the muzzle isn’t stressful. Muzzle training can be so empowering for you and your dog and open up their world. Here are some preferred places to get muzzles from our community: 

• The Muzzle Movement - Helpful in finding the right size and they have customizable colors. 

• Mia’s Muzzles - Customizable 

• Big Snoof Dog Gear

• Trust Your Dog Muzzles 

• Hound Safe Muzzles – Good for dogs with narrow faces like sight hounds

• Baskerville Ultra Muzzle – Might be a good, cheap training option to start working with muzzles. Some people even cut the front of the muzzle off in early parts of training for easy food access. Then they move onto another muzzle. 

Go-To Enrichment Items

Enrichment before a walk may set your dog up for a bit more success, and enrichment after a walk may help them decompress. Here are some favorite enrichment activities and products from our community. 

• Frozen WestPaw Toppls and Tuxes

• Messy Mutts Lick Mats

• Woof Pupsicle 

• Piggly Poo & Crew Snuffle Mats

• Snuffle mat

• Bully Make subscription with sturdy toys and food dispensers for power chewers

• Tail Teaser (flirt pole) – allows dogs to safely chase and grab

• Omega Paw Tricky Treat Ball 

• Outward Hound Snoop Interactive Treat Dispensing Dog Toy 

• KONG Wobbler - Interactive Dog Toy for Treat Dispensing  

• Silicone snuffle mats like this or like this  

• Brightkins Ice Cream Cone Treat Toy

• Outward Hound Lickin Layers

• Nina Ottosson puzzles

• JW Pet Hol-ee Roller Dog Toy

• Yipetor 

• Felt pocket planter as a snuffle mat 

• SodaPup

• DIY:

• Toss kibble to chase to get some energy out before a walk 

• Frozen beef bone marrow

• Paper towel roll filled with treats to shred

• Grocery store paper bags and cardboard boxes to shred

• Towel with treats rolled up in it

• Consumable chews (turkey necks, lamb necks)

• Wood chews 

• Treat scatter in grass or house 

• You can find a lot of great enrichment info (including frozen food recipes for those Toppls and Kongs) from Bindis Bucket List

Treat Packs

• Ruffwear home trail hippack

• Sipsey Wilder treat pouch 

• Ultimate treat pack from @caminedoggear kickstarter 

Other Fav Products: 

• Go Dogo for enrichment and desensitization to fireworks

• Thunder Cap for dogs reactive in cars – helps decrease visual stimuli (important to train this cooperatively before using it in a car)

• Portable White Noise machine 

• Adored Beast “The Wolf” probiotic

• Purina calming care probiotic 

• BullyBillows Padded Collar – Helpful for dogs who really struggle to wear harness in case they lunge and hit end of line 

• NH Canicross belt from NorthernHowlShop

• Chuckit Air Fetch Stick, Jolly Pets Soccer Balls – Some people use toys to redirect 

• Clicino clicker ring – makes juggling leash, treats, and a clicker easier (if you use a clicker out in the world)

• PetSafe SprayShield – just in case 

• Easy access squeeze tubes - Purebites, Bark Pouch, Mini Skippy PB tube 

• Adaptil pheromone diffusers and collars 

• Rabbitgoo Window Privacy Film or Frosted Glass Window Clings  

• CBD Oil

• Climbing carabiners as leash attachments & Paracord leashes - will never break 

• Quality Training – “Gear is fun and can be important, but training is good for you and your dog”

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TOC Reactivity Instagram Posts

In case it’s helpful, we’ve compiled links to all of the posts we’ve done related to reactivity.

“Feed your dog when they notice a trigger to create a positive association.” A deeper look at this common advice.

If you use treats to train your dog, will all future training requite treats? Will you have to use them forever?

Why your management may not be working with your reactive dog.

Why are thresholds important in training?

Working through your dog’s toughest distractions.

Change conditions to change behavior.

Hypothetical stories to explain your dog’s weird behavior.

Reminder that you’re a wonderful human for your dog.

12 ways to change your dog’s behavior without formal training sessions.

Management: Tips to prevent unwanted behavior and teach new ones.

It’s okay to run away.

The most useful behavior my dog knows.

Info/advice about reactive dogs that you wish you’d been given sooner.

Affirmations for when life with your dog feels hard.

Tips to prevent your dog from reacting to triggers.

This simple trick for walking reactive dogs is not cheating.

Long line handling skills.

Calming dog down after getting worked up.

Why I sometimes show my dog treats to help get behavior.

Up-down pattern game & how I modify it to suit different situations.

Handling a reactive dog when visitors come over.

Can your dog take a breath?

Helping a noise sensitive dog with a fear of trucks.

Simple enrichment game to help build your dog’s confidence.

“My dog knows it but chooses not to respond” → What to say instead.

Can you make progress if you're avoiding the scary things with your dog?

Questions reactive dog guardians can ask themselves to help navigate the environment.

One way I use sniffing to change a fearful dog’s behavior.

Dog training tips for passing other dogs on walks.

Some things we can do to make life easier on reactive dog teams.

One way to help dogs who struggle with noises.

IRL example of handling triggers with a dog-reactive dog.

Should you toss treats towards something your dog is afraid of?

But what if I can’t get ahead of my dog’s problem behavior?

One way I set up training with an anxious dog.

What does good training look like? Training around horses.

Reactive dog success stories: they involve management.

Reactive dog training doesn’t always look flashy.

Reactive dog management: Teach “harness” cue.

Why decision making with your dog can and should look different.

Try this simple scent game to help your reactive dog.

Is my anxiety causing my dog to be anxious?

Navigating hot zones in apartment buildings with a reactive dog.

Watch me navigate a trigger with my dog IRL.

How I reduced my dog’s barking at noises outside the door.

Let your dog do their own desensitization. 

Watch this tiny reactive dog learn to pass other dogs.

Thank You

It’s important for us to thank the people who have contributed to this guide - including the many members of our community who’ve made recommendations. We’d also like to thank trainers Lyz Knight, IAABC-ADT, FFCP, Juliana DeWillems, CDBC, KPA CTP, and Ran Courant-Morgan, M.S., Behavior Analysis for sharing their favorite resources and really helping us get this guide off the ground. Grateful to be a part of such a generous community who really cares about helping people and their dogs. 

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