When animals are reactive (dogs, cats, horses, goats), correction is not going to yield the fastest results. Exposure is not going to lead the fastest results.
What do these animals need? They are reacting out of emotion.
When you are emotional and someone tells you to “calm down”, does that work? Nope.
If someone were to discipline you would that work? Nope, you’d get more angry.
If someone were to correct you, tell you youre wrong, tell you youre over reacting, would that work? Nope. You are reacting because you truly feel the emotions causing that reaction.
If youre reacting and someone else fires back with high emotion, will that work? Nope, youll both keep escalating.
If you were emotionally triggered or felt unsafe by something and your parent kept making you see that thing, would that work? Nope you would stay in a heightened emotional place and continue to feel unsafe. In fact, you may even feel betrayed.
Teaching emotional regulation (which is what reactivity is in animals) is not done through correction, discipline, exposure, or training. It’s taught over time by starting with limiting exposure to triggers.
You have to recondition and rewire the brain. The brain has been conditioned to react. “Neurons that fire together, wire together”. Most people have heard this. It applies to animals too.
It takes time for the brain to rewire. How does it rewire? By taking preventative measures to keep your pet calm and feeling safe. Love means acknowledging, to your animal, their fear, their anxiety, their level of discomfort is REAL to them. Aggression is also a form of all of those emotions.
By limiting exposure you allow your animals brain to literally rewire. You take them out of living in stress to living in calm and in peace. Once this happens you can start to gradually introduce triggers at a VERY far distance for VERY few seconds. Without ever crossing the threshold of allowing your pet to feel stressed.
This process takes SO long. But if are truly committed to it, you can take an animal that lives in stress to an animal that lives in safety and peace. Do you know how good that feels to them? It changes their entire life. And it will change yours too.
You two will develop the deepest bond and true trust.
And if you can’t commit to what it takes to help a reactive animal leave in peace, at least don’t get upset with them when they do react. I understand now everyone has the time for this. You can still love your pet for who they are, understand their emotions and fears are real to them, and most importantly, keep your emotions calm and neutral when they do react so they feel safe with you.
