A 12-week program for dogs stuck in fear, frustration, or reactivity. On walks, at home, around visitors, with noises, or all of the above. In your home, at your dog's pace.
Reactivity isn’t one thing. It shows up differently in every household.
What it does have in common: your dog’s nervous system fires before their brain catches up. The lunging, the barking, the freezing, the cowering. That’s not aggression. That’s a dog saying “I can’t cope with that” the only way they know how.
Take Slim for example, a Border Collie x Kelpie who’d decided buses were sheep. At two years old, every time a bus went past he’d launch at it (full herding sequence, on the lead, in traffic). His owner Serena told me walks had become a chore. She had a second dog who was also reactive and she couldn’t walk them together anymore because Slim was pulling and trying to round up public transport.
Reactivity means your dog has run out of strategies. And every time it happens (every walk, every doorbell, every storm where they rehearse the same big reaction), that pattern gets harder to shift.
If you’re still crossing the street, avoiding visitors, walking at weird hours, turning the TV up during storms or even not going out at all, that’s just coping.
Our Reactivity Pathway program works with what’s driving the reaction, not just the reaction itself, and helps you get back on track with your dog’s behaviour.
Most reactivity programs jump straight to training. Treats, distance, exposure, reps. That approach often stalls, because it skips two questions that need an answer first: what’s actually driving the reaction, and where your dog’s brain is in the moment.
So we screen before we train. A meaningful proportion of the reactive dogs I see have something physical going on (pain, gut function, sleep quality). Train a dog whose nervous system is already overloaded by something medical and nothing lands. Our HEAL screen runs across Health, Exposure, Activity and Learning before week one. Anything flags, we coordinate with your vet. Clean across the board, we move into the program with a clearer picture of what we’re treating.
Then in every session, we work in the right zone. Reactive dogs cycle through three: Comfort (brain online, learning possible), Tolerance (looks fine, white-knuckling), Discomfort (nervous system has taken over, learning has stopped). Most owners try to coach in Discomfort. Treats out, recall cues firing, frustration rising. By that point your dog can’t take any of it in. The Reactivity Zones Approach tells us what to do instead. We read the zone in real time, then work where learning can actually happen.
By week 12, you can read those zones yourself. You know when to push, when to leave, and what to do in the moment a trigger appears. Your independence is the measure of success.
We start with a 90-minute deep-dive into your dog's triggers, daily routine, health history, and what your household can realistically commit to. HEAL screening happens during this assessment at no extra cost, and if anything clinical surfaces we coordinate with your vet straight away through Patient Referral. You leave Session 1 with a management plan that starts the same day - because the longer your dog is rehearsing the reaction, the harder it is to shift later.
Next we focus on building the foundation skills that your dog needs where your dog's brain is still functioning and where they can actually learn. Between our sessions you'll send me videos so I can see how it's going in real life, and I'll review and adjust the plan before our next session.
Where we move from controlled foundations into your actual world -the street you walk every day, the doorbell that sets your dog off, the specific triggers your household lives with. We keep your dog in the learning zone, never so far that they tip back into the reaction we're undoing. Your own training runs in parallel through the portal's 8 concepts, because reactivity work asks as much of you as it does of your dog. Eight weeks in, most clients can already feel the difference on walks or in their homes.
The last four weeks are about building your confidence and independence. We test the skills in harder, less-controlled contexts where possible. We finish by building a maintenance plan you can sustain on your own. After the program ends, you keep 90-day access to the portal for any further help needed.
Most reactivity programs only train the dog. But your body language, your breathing, and your decisions on the lead are half the equation. From session 1, we work on five handler skills in parallel with the dog’s training.
Mechanical: Lead handling, body positioning, equipment use. Where your hips point matters more than what your mouth says.
Observational: Reading your dog’s body language before the big reaction, not after. Catching the closed mouth and the stiff gait before the lunge.
Decision-making: Knowing whether you’re in a training moment or a management moment. The single most under-taught skill in dog training.
Communication: Clear cues, consistent responses. Getting everyone in the household on the same page.
Emotional regulation: Managing your own stress response so you can think clearly when your dog is losing it. This one changes everything.
By week 12, you won’t just have a dog with better skills. You’ll be a handler who can read a situation, make a call, and execute it without freezing.
The most loving of dogs, Moses completely forgot mum Danna was there when he was out and about! She reached out to our resident games-based trainer Marianne to help focus her disengaged boy.
Patchy was fearful and aggressive when mum Anna first contacted us -we couldn't even look at her during our consultation! Find out how she has become 'super chill' at home with visitors.
Rescue dog Gregg was on his 4th home when his new mum reached out to help with his barking and lunging at strangers.
We recommend that all bite cases work with a behaviour veterinarian before or during our program together as they go hand in hand.
We can refer you to our network and help find someone to work with local to your area.
