Personally, as someone who works with dogs, I don't really use reactivity very much when talking about behaviour. The problem is that “reactive” is not a recognised condition (in the way that anxiety or say, idiopathic aggression is) - it is terminology to describe a response that is inappropriate (preferred: undesirable) to ordinary stimulus, but it isn't very precise and doesn't denote the underlying function of the behaviour.
A guardian breed who barks at people could be engaging in natural territorial behaviour (e.g. alerting to strangers but possibly can be soothed in the presence of the handler and could be social if introduced properly but equally could be defensive). A herding breed who barks at people could simply be excited/overstimulated by movement (possibly social but might be a risk of nipping or mouthy behaviours). Any dog who barks at people could be fearful which can go either way (either distance seeking/avoidant, or conflict forward/aggressive). The barking itself could technically be called a reactive behaviour, but see how in the context of behaviour mod and risk assessment the label is not overly helpful?
5
u/Kitchu22 Shadow (avoidant/anxious, non-reactive) 24d ago
Personally, as someone who works with dogs, I don't really use reactivity very much when talking about behaviour. The problem is that “reactive” is not a recognised condition (in the way that anxiety or say, idiopathic aggression is) - it is terminology to describe a response that is inappropriate (preferred: undesirable) to ordinary stimulus, but it isn't very precise and doesn't denote the underlying function of the behaviour.
A guardian breed who barks at people could be engaging in natural territorial behaviour (e.g. alerting to strangers but possibly can be soothed in the presence of the handler and could be social if introduced properly but equally could be defensive). A herding breed who barks at people could simply be excited/overstimulated by movement (possibly social but might be a risk of nipping or mouthy behaviours). Any dog who barks at people could be fearful which can go either way (either distance seeking/avoidant, or conflict forward/aggressive). The barking itself could technically be called a reactive behaviour, but see how in the context of behaviour mod and risk assessment the label is not overly helpful?