Why Isn’t Agility Training Suitable for Reactive Dogs?

Why Isn’t Agility Training Suitable for Reactive Dogs?

Agility is often recommended for reactive, anxious and fearful dogs and I sort of understand the idea behind it. The idea is that it helps the dog to focus on something fun instead of the anxiety or triggers causing reactivity. And sure it can help boost confidence when done at the dog’s comfort level. And here is the problem, is it possible to do so in group classes? Most often no!

The more anxious, fearful or reactive a dog is the more they require tailored private training. And even more so: fun and short training sessions! An hour training session surrounded by triggers for fear, anxiety and reactivity is not a good learning environment. I have seen this countless of times when an anxious or reactive dog was booked for agility, more often than not they struggle heavily to cope in that environment. And for reactive dogs who get triggered by other dogs, it’s almost impossible to not react when the other dogs are running on the course. So since we wish to always work under the dog’s threshold when working with reactivity, in the worst case a dog would only learn to react more because the environment doesn’t support the opposite. So it’s always a better idea to work on the reactivity, anxiety and fear first and then either book private training for agility or a class that would allow each dog to train individually while other wait for their turn. Unfortunately this kind of set up is hard to find!

Here’s what you should do to help your dog cope better: