Zen Dog's Point Grey Reactive Dog Training
Reconnect with your worked up and stressed out dog.
When a dog goes on high alert due to the various triggers in their environment, it’s as if they’ve gone off into their own little world. As the one gripping the leash, you might as well be a ghost for all the attention your dog is paying you in those critical moments when they need your calm assurance more than ever. All your efforts to distract them and gain some space during these episodes might seem utterly futile, and in many cases, could even exacerbate the issue. That feeling of disconnection can be both alarming and lonely.
Dog reactivity is essentially a dog’s frantic effort to manage and maintain distance from whatever they perceive as a threat. This behavior is often rooted in fear and a lack of confidence. For some dogs, their reactivity is born out of an impetuous urge to interact with something, while the leash acts as their frustrating barrier.
Life With A Reactive Dog in Point Grey
Navigating daily life with a reactive dog in Point Grey can turn the simplest of activities into Herculean tasks. Just taking a stroll down the block, having a guest over, or enjoying a leisurely beach walk becomes fraught with anxiety over potential reactive episodes. Traditional obedience classes, severe corrections, or attempts to distract with treats don’t get to the heart of the reactive mindset, nor do they provide lasting solutions for behavior modification. A more calculated and empathetic strategy is needed to forge new paths of understanding for your struggling pup and to pave the way for learning.
Your dog looks to you to be a knowledgeable and intentional leader to foster their confidence and strengthen your bond. The journey isn’t without its challenges, but the tools to start making those daily walks and routines more manageable and positive are within reach.
What Reactive Dog Training Looks Like
Through the Growl program we’ve designed for our reactive dog clients in Point Grey, we aim to transform that isolating experience so your dog turns to YOU for guidance and reassurance when they’re feeling uncertain or agitated. We delve into the factors that impact your dog’s mental wellbeing and teach you how to educate, manage, counter-condition, and desensitize your dog in their challenging urban environment. The Growl course offers personalized protocols and exercises to soothe and rebuild your connection.
Our Growl course tackles the tough topics of fear, reactivity, and frustration, taking into account your physical abilities and previous experiences with dogs. Through personal coaching sessions, we explore the elements that affect your dog’s mental health and trigger their extreme reactions. With Growl, you’ll master the use of marker training, real-life management strategies, counter-conditioning, desensitization techniques, calming exercises, and customized protocols to pacify and reconnect with your excited pup.
Prepare yourself for an invigorating challenge!
How The Growl Program Works
Growl kicks off with a Zoom session where we help you decode your dog’s reactive behavior. We craft a specialized training plan centered around desensitization and counterconditioning protocols tailored to your dog’s specific needs. We also discuss lifestyle adjustments (including diet, management, exercise, and enrichment) during this mental wellness consultation. The session wraps up with foundational exercises for you to work on before our first face-to-face meeting.
We then proceed to three one-hour training sessions in the locations where you need us the most. In each session, we demonstrate how to forge a connection with your dog and channel their reactivity into more socially acceptable behaviors. We recommend spacing these in-person sessions two weeks apart to allow time for practice, contemplation, and necessary adjustments.
Throughout this process, we encourage questions through phone and email so we can tweak exercises as needed. Many of our clients share video clips of their training endeavors for more detailed feedback and support, ensuring you stay on course when uncertainties pop up.
Our Dog Training Experience
At Zen Dog Canine Training, we specialize in working with reactive and overly excited dogs. We share our lives with high-energy, highly emotional dogs, so we get how their minds tick. We approach reactive dog training like solving a unique puzzle for each dog/handler duo. What works wonders for one pair might not be the perfect fit for another, which is why our approach is drawn from our extensive 25-year experience and the vast array of tools we’ve gathered in working with dogs.