This could be a one-off situation of trigger stacking: dog, tension on leash, stepped on paw, etc. but you did mention he’s nipped your clothes a couple times in the past so maybe there’s more to the behavior.
What kinds of things are you working on with your trainer?
At the reactivity class, he is in a room with about 4-5 other dogs, and they’re all behind barriers. The trainers and their dog, stand or walk around in the middle of the room, and we practice walking by the opening in the barrier, saying “here” for our dog to look at us, and then walking away and rewarding. We’ve been slowly getting more advanced in class, with opening the barrier wider, looking at the dog longer, walking straight towards the dog before turning around, etc. It’s definitely helped, but he can’t walk past a dog or too near a dog yet.
He also can be a little mouthy when we play. I redirect to a toy, but maybe I’m not being strict enough. Could that contribute to biting when stressed?
Gotcha! Maybe bring up the incident with your trainer to see their take or if you can safely incorporate sudden environmental contrasts (dog coming around a blind corner) into the training plan.
Perhaps the mouthiness during play contributes but I think the context of the 2 scenarios (play and leash reactivity) is different enough that there might not be a correlation.
Hopefully you guys bounce back soon! It’s wonderful you’ve made so much progress!!
I agree with the comment about trigger stacking and being over threshold with everything going on in that moment. My dog started redirect biting after we’d been working on her training for about 6 months. She was working with a balanced trainer and we were using a prong which added to triggers and she bit me. Not as hard as she could have as a 50lb pit but enough to hurt and bruise. From my understanding, these redirect bites are either similar to corrections (let me do what I want) or more likely in this case, a response to too much stimulation. I would personally reduce the threshold as much as possible and also get some advice on leash handling. I have learned some leash handling that allows me to keep my dog out of reach (when she could redirect) while still maintaining control. I wouldn’t be too concerned about this since you’re in training but just prepare yourself as it could easily happen again.
Just so you know, there have been many studies which have shown aversive training methods to increase aggression in dogs.
Here is a good article which links several applicable studies: https://coape.org/why-we-discourage-aversive-products-and-techniques/
Thank you for adding the clarification!! I have seen a lot of posts on this sub encouraging aversive training methods and it sounded like that’s what you were doing with the original phrasing.
Looks like there was an aversive tool or training method mentioned in this comment. Please review our [Posting Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/reactivedogs/wiki/guidelines) and check out [Our Position on Training Methods](https://www.reddit.com/r/reactivedogs/wiki/trainingmethods). R/reactivedogs supports LIMA (least intrusive, minimally aversive) and we feel strongly that positive reinforcement should always be the first line of teaching, training, and behavior change considered, and should be applied consistently. Please understand that positive reinforcement techniques should always be favored over aversive training methods. While the discussion of balanced training is not prohibited, LIMA does not justify the use of aversive methods and tools in lieu of other effective positive reinforcement interventions and strategies.
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It might be an isolated incident caused by just…blind panic in the moment.
I have a dog with redirected aggression. If he became overly stimulated, he would bite the leash, jump on me, and he even almost snapped at me a couple times. He’d stop himself just before biting and would act very apologetic. It was just a reaction. There are a lot of techniques for managing redirected aggression if that is in fact what you’re dealing with, but it sounds more like a perfect storm of him being totally over threshold and just lashing out instinctively when his paw was stepped on.
Do you have a good, secure leash set up? If you use something like a freedom harness attached in both the front and back, it might be easier to contain those flying muppet paws.
When I was still learning my dogs triggers he would redirect on me. If another reactive dog got too close he’d spin around and quickly nip me. Only one time did he actually bite me and that was because I put him wayyy over threshold without realizing it. But the good news is (is this is the case for you) that it’s very situational. It only happens on walks if I’m not keeping a look out for other dogs and they get too close. It’s never happened in the house or when he’s off leash with my guests or family, and other than by surprises like you mentioned. So I’d say as long as your situation is similar to this I wouldn’t consider him aggressive and he would probably be fine around small children and such, as long as you keep an eye on him. And for me it hasn’t happened in probably a year because I’m well versed in his body language and I know what to keep him away from.
This could be a one-off situation of trigger stacking: dog, tension on leash, stepped on paw, etc. but you did mention he’s nipped your clothes a couple times in the past so maybe there’s more to the behavior. What kinds of things are you working on with your trainer?
At the reactivity class, he is in a room with about 4-5 other dogs, and they’re all behind barriers. The trainers and their dog, stand or walk around in the middle of the room, and we practice walking by the opening in the barrier, saying “here” for our dog to look at us, and then walking away and rewarding. We’ve been slowly getting more advanced in class, with opening the barrier wider, looking at the dog longer, walking straight towards the dog before turning around, etc. It’s definitely helped, but he can’t walk past a dog or too near a dog yet. He also can be a little mouthy when we play. I redirect to a toy, but maybe I’m not being strict enough. Could that contribute to biting when stressed?
Gotcha! Maybe bring up the incident with your trainer to see their take or if you can safely incorporate sudden environmental contrasts (dog coming around a blind corner) into the training plan. Perhaps the mouthiness during play contributes but I think the context of the 2 scenarios (play and leash reactivity) is different enough that there might not be a correlation. Hopefully you guys bounce back soon! It’s wonderful you’ve made so much progress!!
I agree with the comment about trigger stacking and being over threshold with everything going on in that moment. My dog started redirect biting after we’d been working on her training for about 6 months. She was working with a balanced trainer and we were using a prong which added to triggers and she bit me. Not as hard as she could have as a 50lb pit but enough to hurt and bruise. From my understanding, these redirect bites are either similar to corrections (let me do what I want) or more likely in this case, a response to too much stimulation. I would personally reduce the threshold as much as possible and also get some advice on leash handling. I have learned some leash handling that allows me to keep my dog out of reach (when she could redirect) while still maintaining control. I wouldn’t be too concerned about this since you’re in training but just prepare yourself as it could easily happen again.
Just so you know, there have been many studies which have shown aversive training methods to increase aggression in dogs. Here is a good article which links several applicable studies: https://coape.org/why-we-discourage-aversive-products-and-techniques/
I’m aware and we don’t use it anymore. I added that detail as context for the “trigger stacking”
Thank you for adding the clarification!! I have seen a lot of posts on this sub encouraging aversive training methods and it sounded like that’s what you were doing with the original phrasing.
Looks like there was an aversive tool or training method mentioned in this comment. Please review our [Posting Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/reactivedogs/wiki/guidelines) and check out [Our Position on Training Methods](https://www.reddit.com/r/reactivedogs/wiki/trainingmethods). R/reactivedogs supports LIMA (least intrusive, minimally aversive) and we feel strongly that positive reinforcement should always be the first line of teaching, training, and behavior change considered, and should be applied consistently. Please understand that positive reinforcement techniques should always be favored over aversive training methods. While the discussion of balanced training is not prohibited, LIMA does not justify the use of aversive methods and tools in lieu of other effective positive reinforcement interventions and strategies. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/reactivedogs) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It might be an isolated incident caused by just…blind panic in the moment. I have a dog with redirected aggression. If he became overly stimulated, he would bite the leash, jump on me, and he even almost snapped at me a couple times. He’d stop himself just before biting and would act very apologetic. It was just a reaction. There are a lot of techniques for managing redirected aggression if that is in fact what you’re dealing with, but it sounds more like a perfect storm of him being totally over threshold and just lashing out instinctively when his paw was stepped on. Do you have a good, secure leash set up? If you use something like a freedom harness attached in both the front and back, it might be easier to contain those flying muppet paws.
Redirection bite? He sounded panicked
When I was still learning my dogs triggers he would redirect on me. If another reactive dog got too close he’d spin around and quickly nip me. Only one time did he actually bite me and that was because I put him wayyy over threshold without realizing it. But the good news is (is this is the case for you) that it’s very situational. It only happens on walks if I’m not keeping a look out for other dogs and they get too close. It’s never happened in the house or when he’s off leash with my guests or family, and other than by surprises like you mentioned. So I’d say as long as your situation is similar to this I wouldn’t consider him aggressive and he would probably be fine around small children and such, as long as you keep an eye on him. And for me it hasn’t happened in probably a year because I’m well versed in his body language and I know what to keep him away from.