My Reactive Dog Is Having a Meltdown. What Do I Do?
What do you do when things fall apart??
Sal and I were surprised by a yard of barking dogs on one of our walks back in January. He was definitely not ready for that challenge, and had I known they'd be there, we would not have walked that route.
But we were there, and had to deal with it.
Here were the key elements of my response:
Immediately increase distance
Distract
Continue to increase distance until he's calmer
Treat scatter to help him calm down even more
A meltdown is *not* a teaching moment.
Barking and lunging is my cue to evacuate the dog until he can calm down. It is not my cue to start teaching the dog that reactivity is wrong.
A meltdown is a learning moment for ME.
I learn which routes are too challenging or risky for the dog's current skills
My understanding of the dog's threshold is either confirmed or challenged
I make adjustments to the training plan
Although I learn things through a meltdown, I never intentionally provoke them. Quite the opposite: I go out of my way to avoid them.
Nevertheless, it's not uncommon to experience a few meltdowns during training. We cannot predict everything and we will get surprised by things the dog is not ready for.
That's okay. Help your dog, adjust your plan as needed, and move forward.