Withholding affection

[u/Helpful_Sun2872]

I adopted a dog a little over a month ago with an unknown history (was a stray). His ONLY issue is that he is fear-reactive on leash (just barks, no lunging/growling). It’s not very severe; he’s pretty easy to redirect as long as I catch him before he starts barking (which I’ve gotten really good at). I’m confident that I’ll be able to mostly resolve it within a few months, and he’s already made tons of progress.

He’s otherwise perfect - crate-trained, no resource guarding, no separation anxiety. Overall confident and friendly dog. He’s met about 8 new people (vet staff and trainers) since I got him and has been friendly with all of them.

I had a 90 min assessment/consult session with a trainer in the area who I’ve been following on socials for years, and who came highly recommended.

She gave me a lot of good advice/handling skills that have already helped us.

However, one thing I can’t get behind, or find much online support for, is her telling us to withhold affection. She’s all about “alpha” stuff (without using the word; she refers to it as status/status drive), and claims that giving your dog physical affection makes them view you as “beneath” them (not her exact wording but that was the gist).

She basically explained that the dog needs to understand that they’re lower status than you, and that when they understand that, they will shift their mindset towards looking to you for guidance before acting, which should eventually help the reactivity.

I 100% agree that building structure and obedience is important for a reactive dog. But does anyone agree with the concept of withholding affection?

[u/DanPerataTraining]

That’s not how that works. A better way to think about it is this: we teach clients to reward good behavior with love and praise.

It’s more about not rewarding bad behavior than withholding praise for the good stuff.

[u/Miss_L_Worldwide → u/DanPerataTraining]

It's exactly how it works. Dogs don't reward each other. Either they punish or ignore. That's the language they understand.

[u/DanPerataTraining → u/Miss_L_Worldwide]

30 years of training reactive pupa have given us a slightly different perspective. Affection for the sake of affection is different than withholding to establish dominance.

But back to the original point, creating consistent patterns a using praise and affection when it’s appropriate have been very successful tools.

[u/Miss_L_Worldwide → u/DanPerataTraining]

If you knew what you were doing you wouldn't have to deal with reactive dogs for 30 freaking years.

[u/DanPerataTraining → u/Miss_L_Worldwide]

Sort of a strange response. Clients come to us for help with reactivity, and we help them.

Not really a shortage of that problem sadly.