07/05/2026
Reactivity training.
Notice I don't stand around and wait for Nino to react.
Reactivity training is normally training the dog to NOT react, so I'm not going to set Nino up to fail.
He gets rewarded for disengaging, for ignoring, and for moving away because that's what we want him to do.
Imagine you're claustrophobic and I put you in a space that makes you feel claustrophobic. Panic sets in, you'll likely start saying "no, let me out. I don't like this. Get me out of here. Stop." and try to get out of the room. If I gave you a correction every time you said something or tried to leave the room, would that make you less claustrophobic?
Would that calm you down or would it add to the panic?
You'd likely panic more because you're asking for help, you're expressing your anxiety and no one is helping you.
You first have to feel safe and be in a state where you're able to learn in order to be able to work on your claustrophobia.
Same with dogs. Whether it be for teaching them a basic "stay" or working on reactivity, your dog has to feel safe
and be in a state of mind that will allow learning and the taking in of information.
Training looks boring. Videos like this don't get a lot of views or clicks because nothing happens in them, while huge progress is actually being made for the dog.
This will never go viral.
People won't see before and after videos of Nino.
There's no editing done to the video to make it trendy, or eye catching. I just sped it up 2x because if you find it boring at less than 1 minute, imagine watching 2 minutes of "nothing"? 😅
But Nino went for a walk, saw 3 dogs (we saw another one later in the walk), had zero reactions, and took treats which he rarely does on walks!
This was a successful walk.
Nino had fun and was able to enjoy himself.
That's what matters.
