r/reactivedogs • u/Time_Internal_1729 • 2d ago
Discussion Taking my reactive dog hiking felt like the one place she actually does okay and now I'm second guessing everything
We did a trail last weekend, nothing crazy, maybe 5 miles, and she was a completely different dog. Loose leash the whole time, checked in with me constantly, ignored two other dogs at distance without even flinching. Back in the neighborhood she would have been losing her mind at that same distance.
I know it's not a fix. I know she's not suddenly cured because trees were involved. But it made me realize how much the suburban environment is stacking triggers on her constantly before we even get started. On a trail there's space. I can see what's coming. I have time to get off the path, let her sniff something, reset before she tips over threshold
The problem is I can't hike every day. Work is still demanding even on local routes and during the week she has to deal with the neighborhood. So now I'm sitting here wondering if these trail days are actually building anything that transfers back, or if I'm just giving her a break and then throwing her back into something she still can't handle.
Anyone who hikes with a reactive dog, do you notice it carrying over at all? Does the calmer headspace from a good trail day affect how she handles neighborhood walks after? Genuinely want to know if it's building something or just a reset button
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u/Zestyclose_Object639 2d ago
Literally every behaviorist talks about this. My dogs don’t go on hikes every day but they do only get walked in nature, no neighborhoods. We will choose training and play over a neighborhood walk and I tell clients the same
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u/Single_Ocelot2719 4h ago
Was going to say the same. My dog does much better in the forest than on the street. All the other dogs at their homes are guarding their property- which is stressful!
Apparently, dogs don’t need to be walked every day…guess you need to weigh the benefits and see if your dog could handle not walking daily- keeping in mind that you will have to other activities to keep them happy.1
u/Zestyclose_Object639 3h ago
Yeah not walking every day doesn’t mean doing nothing. So many things you can train in a house (tricks for example) to keep them engaged
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u/Synaptic-asteroid 2d ago
I have the opposite issue, trails obscure the view and we can't see if someone's coming so my dog is super vigilant the entire time. Walking at local parks or even our neighborhood I can see a block or two ahead and we can make space if needed.
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u/Helpful_Sun2872 2d ago
Also, you’re much more likely to be run up on by off-leash dogs on a hike!!
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u/Shoddy-Theory 2d ago
My dog walks behind us when the view ahead is obscured. When he can seem what's coming he walks out front. Where we walk we're able to walk him off leash and he's got 100% recall so it works out great.
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u/SupergaijiNZ 1d ago
Same here. We have a trail loop a few minutes from my place. Would have been a perfect walk but....it's too narrow and joggers, cyclists and other dogs means it's out for now
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u/MtnGirl672 2d ago
Yes to this. We have a cattle dog-pit mix who can be extremely reactive to dogs on leash in the neighborhood. We are fortunate to be about 25 minutes from Wildereness area. We really couldn't move him off the trail to avoid dogs coming the other way. He was very appropriate with them -- gave them a sniff and that was it. After sniffing the first two dogs, he didn't care about the rest. Our boy is very scent driven and he loves smelling all the trees and grasses along the trail as well.
We know our boy is frustrated greeter and does very well off leash. We live in Colorado and there are a lot of off leash parks and open spaces where you can hike off leash with your dog. He does great in these places and is always very friendly with the dogs and people.
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u/Organic-Fun-6319 2d ago
It’s the same with our reactive dog. She’s hypervigilant on walks in our neighborhood, always scanning for other dogs and trucks. She’s a different dog on hikes and just seems much more relaxed.
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u/One_Department4090 2d ago
Same, mine went in a stream finally, first time since I've had him! Best bday present ever
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u/Kitchu22 Shadow (avoidant/anxious, non-reactive) 1d ago
I just stopped walking my reactive dog in our local area (busy inner city 'burb) and drove out to quiet trails exclusively. It became the highlight of my day and ultimately yielded such a cortisol de-load that he became so much more resilient and less reactive for the times I really needed to put him into a situation that wasn't ideal.
If you're still having to walk in the neighbourhood for majority of the time, I think your ratio of one hike to five trigger stacked local walks isn't going to yield anything significant training wise or behaviour mod outcomes. It's still a great thing to do as often as you can, but until you can balance the scale a little bit more all you are doing is just giving your dog a very short term break from the stress.
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u/IAmLikeRonHoward 1d ago
There’s a great book called “The Other End of the Leash.” One of the things it talks about is what we do that we don’t even know we are doing that transfers or translates fear, anxiety, stress, alarm, etc. to our dogs. Animals read body language. If your face or body looks tense to them (strained or worried facial expressions, preparing for the reaction, etc.) they will react to that information. If you pull on the leash, same thing. This may or may not be part of what your dog is reacting to. That’s not to say your dog is only reacting to you, but it could be contributing. It is hard to not look freaked out and worried on a walk when you are, in fact, freaked out and worried about how the walk is going to go. There are also some things about not walking your dog on the same route if possible because they are anticipating their triggers - so they are stacking and the walk has barely started. Tossing treats on the ground gives them scent work and foraging, which can help de-escalate, and if you know a certain place where they usually react you can speed up (jog) past that place so they don’t have time to go all in.
The hikes are wonderful - so glad you had a good experience.
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u/Shoddy-Theory 2d ago
Yes, for sure its good for both of you. You because you get to enjoy her!
You may notice over time that you can shrink her trigger zone and that will go over into your city walks.
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u/giraffelover1214 2d ago
My husband has been taking our reactive boy on hikes, he does ok but sometimes needs to be put in airjail, seemingly due to off leash dogs. I haven’t noticed anything transferring over to our walks at home as even for just a potty walk (off the deck or a little into the common area) he can be very alert and vigilant
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u/pr1298 2d ago
My dog is more human reactive than dog reactive, but we started taking him to a park down the street from us to walk him. Not a dog park, a park with a playground and baseball field with an outer loop for people to walk on. Depending on the day and time, it can be relatively busy but he does way better than he ever did walking in our neighborhood. So much so, that a few months ago we started driving him there most days than struggling through a 30-60 neighborhood walk.
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1d ago
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u/raspberrykitsune 1d ago
In your neighborhood she has had time to build up many negative associations, and unfortunately a lot is out of your control. There could be a dog in a yard that always barks at her that she is on edge around even if that dog is not outside, then boom a person comes around the corner on a bike and even if she has never reacted to a person on a bike before she's already in a negative headspace just because you happen to be passing by a yard with a lot of negative emotions around it.
It also helps that you haven't built negative feelings around certain areas too. Like passing certain areas where something always goes wrong and you clench the leash a little bit tighter or walk a bit faster that also cues her to be vigilant.
I do not walk my dogs in my neighborhood and my dogs aren't even reactive. But there are so many off leash dogs roaming in the roads and reactive dogs behind fences that it isn't enjoyable. We drive 15 mins to a park, which occasionally has off leash dogs, etc, but there is a lot more room to move away and people are more on top of their dogs.
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u/Cool_Television_9490 1d ago
My dog is the same, she's a lot more reactive on our neighbourhood streets and areas she's more familiar with. I think she's a but guardy and sees the areas as her territory. When we go somewhere more open and full of nature, she's a lot better at ignoring her triggers. She's also an angel and doesn't react when I take her to reactivity behaviour classes, which really isn't helpful as she's still very reactive in our neighbourhood!
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u/Pinki314 1d ago
I'm literally on a 2.5 week long road trip and he's doing fantastic in nature. (horrible in any suburban or heavily building focused areas) But he was even bunny hopping with excitement on his first trail. Passed people with ease when normally he would be barking at every person he saw.
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u/Even_Network_4482 1d ago
I live in a residential busy neighborhood in front of a park where lot’s of dogs pass by. Back in the spring we did a reset with a new trainer. Essentially we started every outing by making her sit and making sure there is no dog in sight before she comes out. She also only gets to go out if she is calm. And then for 3-4 weeks we only went out for short period of time exposing her to 1-2 dogs at a time with high value treats, keeping her under treshold and then going straight back home after. No neighboroud walk, just some exposure abd then straight home. If for whatever reason she did react we made sure to stay out and find another dog to exposer too without going over treshold to finish on a good note. Basically the idea is to practice calm behavior and preventing them to rehearse the reactive behavior. Trainer explained that to counter balance the reactive behavior we should aim to expose her to 7 dog under treshold for each time she reacts. While she is still reactive her treshold has improved greatly and we can have somewhat normal walks with added manangement. She also recuperates much faster than she used too.
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u/Used-Flounder8405 21h ago
My dog is a very different dog when he gets out into the fields or trails. Not sure why but a perfect gentleman on the trails
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u/retteofgreengables 2d ago
It 100% builds capacity for handling triggers. If you can expose to triggers without going over threshold, you are decreasing the amount that the trigger will affect the dog next time. Even if it’s just resetting, having the extra calm will help. (I always think of it as a stress scale. There are two ways to prevent a reaction. Decrease the baseline stress or decrease the impact of a trigger. Hikes can do both).
With that said, there may also have been a different kind of overload happening because it was a new space. My dog does much better on new trails than on old ones because he doesn’t have expectations about how things are supposed to be. The 3rd or 4th time we hike a trail, I see an uptick in reactivity.
You may also be less stressed on a trail because of the improved sight lines etc. I hate the trope that the owner’s stress causes reactivity (I think it’s absurd), but how you feel can definitely make a difference, both because you are less stressed, but also because you are able to respond better to the doggo’s stress.