I was working with a dog the other day. The plan was to focus on their reactivity to other dogs.
But the more time I spent watching, the more obvious it became that reactivity wasn’t the first thing we needed to tackle at all…
Their arousal levels were already sky-high before we even started.
And here’s the thing we all need to remember:
Arousal is basically how “revved up” your dog’s body and brain are.
It’s their level of excitement, stress, frustration or anticipation.
When arousal is high, their brain is flooded with ‘go-go-go’ chemicals, which make thinking and learning really hard.
If a dog is buzzing, frustrated, fizzing with excitement, stressed, or simply ‘wired’, their thinking brain switches off, and their survival brain switches on.
That means:
• less focus
• less processing
• less ability to make good choices
• MORE reacting, pulling, barking, spiralling.
So before we touch reactivity, loose lead walking, recall, or anything that requires learning…we have to help the dog come down to a place where they can actually listen and feel safe.
When we work on lowering arousal, slowing things down, changing patterns, giving them time to breathe, reactivity often starts to reduce all by itself.
A calmer nervous system is the foundation of good behaviour.
Behaviour doesn’t change without the brain being ready.