What do ticks have to do with reactive dogs?

Training Reactive Dogs

What do ticks (parasites) have to do with dog to dog aggression and reactivity?

Not much as far as I know!

However, a situation on holiday with ticks made me think about the way we help dogs recover from reactivity or fear of other dogs...

I'm was staying in a cottage in the Highlands. On day one, it became apparent that the garden is full of ticks. Every time the dogs went outside, they returned with multiple ticks crawling on them. Not only are ticks repulsive, but they carry the risk of giving the dogs (or me) Lyme's disease.

The tick situation makes me very anxious, so much so I contemplated driving the 5 hours home immediately.  I felt physically sick and my heart was pounding with anxiety because I was so unused to dealing with the significant number of ticks.

Every time the dogs came inside, they were treated to a rigorous all-over tick check.  It got to the point that my sensitive dog Velma didn't want to come inside because she knew I was pretty dysregulated.

I jokingly thought "I wish I had £1 for every tick I've removed. Maybe I'd love ticks by now?"

This is where I started to think about dog who are reactive towards other dogs.

Reactivity is the umbrella term given to dogs who get up set around triggers, usually other dogs or people.  Reactive behaviours can include, barking, lunging on the lead, aggressive behaviours or sometimes trying to escape and run away.  Almost always, even if your dog is excited to approach other dogs, is a feeling of anxiety.

Often, resolving reactivity is simplified into the idea that we can change a dogs emotional response to other dogs by just providing food every time our reactive dog sees a trigger dog.  

That might look like handing the dog a piece of food, as soon as they see the approaching dog.  It might also be waiting for the dog to look back at their person then giving the food.  It might also be a food scatter as soon as a dog appears. 

With me and the ticks, earning £1 for each tick removed would definitely have given me a little buzz of pleasure but it would not have impacted on the under current of stress because the fact of the matter is, ticks are not safe and not paying attention to them can have consequences. 

This is the same for our dogs around other dogs.  Some dogs will make your dog feel unsafe, and some will actually be unsafe.

For me to have long-term confidence in the tick situation, I need to know to control them. I've already observed they are not on the short mowed grass, so if I lived here permanently, I could perhaps change the environment to change the ticks' behaviour. 

To get a whole solution for dog reactivity, we need to address that underlying sense of feeling unsafe when dogs are scared of other dogs.

It might have given me a little moment of joy to be paid for each tick, but my nervous system would still have been activated and on alert.

I needed a plan that reduced the danger from the ticks.  Your dog needs to know how to achieve safety around other dogs.  Especially because in real life we have no control over other dogs approaching our dogs.  No matter how wrong it is, it happens.

Our reactive dogs need more than just a good feeling if they see a dog as this doesn't tackle the issue of their nervous system still being on alert.

Our long term goal isn't for our dogs to remain hyper vigilant for every dog.  Whether that's because they are anxious, or because they will get an reward.

We need them to learn how to use their own behaviour to communicate with other dogs that they are not interested in an interaction and extract themselves from interactions that don't feel good or safe.

More than anything we want our reactive dogs to learn how to be around dogs without having their nervous system sparked into dysregulation.  We can only do that by helping our dogs relearn how to be a dog around other dogs.

Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using food to help our dogs feel better about other dogs, but it's only a small part of the picture.  Rehabilitating reactive dogs is about helping them rediscover they have other choices around unfamiliar dogs and that their communication skills are effective.

I learned how to feel more relaxed around the ticks by having an effective system for removing them and understanding how I could keep them at bay if I stayed in the cottage long term.

That's what we need for reactive dogs... Teaching them effective strategies for feeling safe and in control.

Can you spot the tick on Bertie?

Five ticks WERE harmed in the making of this post.

I provide 1-1 training, behaviour consultations and follow on group classes in Glasgow and surrounding areas.  Please get in touch if you would like me to help you and your dog. 

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