Three Things to Understand about Reactivity and Dog Aggression

In this episode of Will Bangura’s Dog Training Today, dog behaviorist Will Bangura explains three essential things every pet parent needs to understand about reactivity and dog aggression.

Reactive and aggressive behavior is often misunderstood as dominance, stubbornness, or disobedience. In many cases, the behavior is rooted in fear, anxiety, stress, frustration, or perceived threat. When pet parents understand the emotional cause of the behavior, they can make better choices about training, safety, and professional help.

Topics covered include:

• Why reactivity and aggression often come from fear, anxiety, stress, or frustration
• Why punishment-based methods can make behavior problems worse
• How shock collars, prong collars, and harsh corrections may suppress behavior without changing the emotional state
• Why positive reinforcement is not permissive or weak
• How counterconditioning and desensitization help change emotional responses
• Why working below threshold is essential for reactive and aggressive dogs
• How to recognize early warning signs before barking, lunging, snapping, or biting occurs
• Why choosing the right trainer or dog behaviorist matters
• What credentials, methods, and red flags pet parents should look for
• Why evidence-based, force-free behavior modification is safer and more humane for serious behavior problems

Will also explains why the goal is not simply to stop visible behavior. The goal is to change the underlying emotional response so the dog can feel safer, recover faster, and make better choices around triggers.

This episode is especially helpful for pet parents living with reactive dogs, aggressive dogs, fearful dogs, leash-reactive dogs, dogs who bark or lunge at people or other dogs, and dogs who need professional behavior help.

Will Bangura, M.S., CAB-ICB, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FDM, FFCP, is a certified dog behaviorist and founder of Phoenix Dog Training, specializing in dog aggression, leash reactivity, separation anxiety, fears, phobias, resource guarding, dogs fighting in the home, and complex canine behavior problems.

Official Links:

• Phoenix Dog Training: https://phoenixdogtraining.com
• About Will Bangura: https://phoenixdogtraining.com/will-bangura/
• Dog Behaviorist in Phoenix: https://phoenixdogtraining.com/phoenix-dog-behaviorist/
• Dog Aggression Training in Phoenix: https://phoenixdogtraining.com/aggressive-dog-training-phoenix-dog-aggression/
• Dog Anxiety and Fear Training: https://phoenixdogtraining.com/dog-anxiety-training-phoenix-scottsdale/
• Sniff to Soothe Book: https://phoenixdogtraining.com/sniff-to-soothe-by-will-bangura-m-s-cab-icb-cbcc-ka-cpdt-ka-fdm-ffcp/
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/dogtrainingphoenix
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PHOENIXDOGTRAINING
• Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Will-Bangura/author/B0CH99RW7L
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-bangura

Hashtags:

#WillBangura
#DogTrainingToday
#DogBehaviorist
#PhoenixDogTraining
#ReactiveDog
#DogAggression
#ForceFreeDogTraining
#PositiveReinforcement
#DogReactivity
#AggressiveDog

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

Raised by wolves with canine DNA in his blood. Having trained more than 24,000 pets, helping you and your fur babies thrive, live in studio with Will Bangura answering your pet behavior and training questions. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host and favorite pet behavior expert, will Bangura.

Speaker 2 0:25

Would you like to go on? Are y'all ready for this? Good day, dog lovers. I'm Will Bangura, certified canine behaviorist. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Dog Training Today.

Speaker 2 0:46

If you're listening to this brief podcast, that means that most likely you've got a dog that has reactivity or aggression problems, and I want to talk about some information that's absolutely critical critical If you're a pet parent and you do have a dog with those type of problems. There's a couple very important things that we must discuss, and I'm hoping that you'll listen to this all the way to the end. I promise I'm going to make this short, but there's three things. First of all, how do we define and how do we understand the problem? How do we define and how do we understand aggression and reactivity? You know, if we don't understand the problem, then we certainly can't understand how we're going to put together and craft a solution to the problem. Right Now, when it comes to aggression, when it comes to reactivity, no animal and I mean this no animal goes into fight or flight unless they perceive a threat. Now, that doesn't mean that there's a real threat, they merely need to perceive it. But I want you to hear that again they merely need to perceive it. But I want you to hear that again no animal goes into fight or flight unless they perceive a threat. Now I realize, when they're engaged in that outward display of reactive and aggressive behavior, you might not see your dog and think my dog is feeling threatened. My dog feels there's a threat, but in order to feel that there's a threat, in order to perceive that there's a threat with a particular trigger, that means that your dog is experiencing some level of fear, anxiety, of fear, anxiety, stress. Your dog's uncomfortable and finds the trigger scary. This is what's driving the behavior. Oh, I know the reactive and aggressive behavior is a problem, but really that's just a symptom of the underlying problem, the root cause your dog's underlying conditioned emotional response to the trigger. You see, when we change the way that your dog feels, when your dog no longer views the trigger as scary, when your dog no longer views it as a threat, when we help your dog to relax and be calm, when we help your dog to not have that anxiety, not have that stress, not have that fear, then your dog doesn't perceive it as a threat. And when there's no perceived threat, the behavior naturally just goes away. There's no need to have reactive and aggressive behavior. That's the dog's response to its anxiety, stress and fear.

Speaker 2 3:57

And the second thing I need to talk about when we're talking about a dog that's reactive and aggressive, what is the right way to train? What kind of training and behavior modification is best for that? What kind of tools should you use, maybe not use? Well, first and foremost, if we take a look at aggression and reactivity and say, hey, that is a response to the dog's anxiety, fear and stress, hey, that is a response to the dog's anxiety, fear and stress. When we have trainers and, trust me, the vast majority of trainers that are out there are just taking dogs that are reactive and aggressive, triggering their fear, anxiety and stress by bringing out I don't care if the dog's reactive or aggressive towards another dog, they bring out a dog. If it's another dog, they bring out a dog. If it's another person, they bring out a person and they get the dog to elicit that behavior, only to correct that behavior.

Speaker 2 4:55

Now, listen, when I say the word correct, I'm talking about punish. Correction is just a nicer word for punish. And the problem is this they're not correcting aggression, they're punishing fear. Think about that. You're not correcting aggression, you're punishing fear now using a prong collar, choke chain, shock collar, yelling at the dog, punishment, alpha rolls.

Speaker 2 5:29

Those type of techniques have no basis in science. They have no basis in evidence-based training. There are over 40 modern scientific research studies that all come up with the same conclusion Positive reinforcement, force-free training is more effective, more efficient and produces long-lasting results with permanence and reliability. Unlike punishment, unlike correction, which only suppresses the outward behavior, it does absolutely nothing to address the underlying root cause the anxiety, the stress, the fear, the dog's underlying emotional state that's driving those behaviors. If you want to have lasting success, permanence, reliability, make real change. This is not about obedience training. This is about counter conditioning and desensitization and it's about getting the dog to view those triggers as something positive, that those triggers bring on good things and when you can condition a new underlying emotional response where the dog, when it sees a strange dog or sees a strange person that it used to think was scary, now thinks it's really great because wonderful things happen. They get rewarded, they get positive reinforcement, their underlying emotions change, their cognitive perception of the trigger changes and the aggressive behavior, the reactive behavior, goes away.

Speaker 2 7:21

So don't let any trainer tell you that you need to use punishment or that you need to use corrections, that you need to use a choke chain, a prong collar, electronic collar. You don't. For 35 years, I've been specializing in dealing with some of the most difficult dogs with severe aggression, reactivity, fears, phobias. I don't have to use any force, I don't have to use any punishment. Everything I do is force-free and positive reinforcement and we have success every single day.

Speaker 2 7:55

The last thing that I want to talk about because I get calls about this every week, many calls and that is should you send your aggressive or reactive dog away to a board and train? You know where you send your dog away for training and they take your dog and they keep your dog for one week, two weeks, maybe three, maybe even four weeks. Well, that's the worst thing that you could possibly do if you have a dog that's aggressive or reactive. First of all, you are not going to resolve these complex behaviors that are rooted in deep-seated, conditioned emotional states and turn that around in a week or two weeks or even four weeks. It's not going to happen. There's not enough time. It literally takes months of intensive behavior modification when you know what you're doing in order to really turn this around.

Speaker 2 8:55

So when you send a dog with reactivity or aggression issues and you send them to a boarding train, this is what happens. They bring out the trigger, like I was talking about earlier. The dog reacts. They punish the dog. Now the problem with punishment, the problem with corrections again, it's short-lived, it's temporary, it only shuts down the outward behavior, does nothing to address the underlying emotional state and, as a result, the aggression, the reactivity always comes back. It's like if you're pulling weeds, if you don't get it all the way at the root, that weed is going to grow back. And if all you're doing is correcting or punishing the outward behavior and you're not addressing what is driving that behavior, what's at the root core and the cause of why this is happening, you're not going to have long lasting change.

Speaker 2 9:54

Oh, the dog now is in what we call the pressure cooker effect. It's already anxious and nervous and stressed and that's why it's acting out with its reactivity and aggression. It wants distance and space. It wants that thing that it views as a threat to go away right Now, as a result of the dog being nervous and displaying reactive, aggressive behavior. Now that dog's being punished, we're adding more anxiety, more fear, adding more stress to the dog. Eventually the dog can't handle it and it goes into overload. It snaps and boom the aggression's back. I can't tell you how many calls I get from pet parents that have sent their reactive or aggressive dog away to board and train, only to tell me yeah, it came back and everything was great for two weeks or a month or maybe even two months, but always within two weeks to two months that behavior comes back. But now it comes back worse, because punishment corrections make a dog more anxious, make a dog more aggressive.

Choosing a Qualified Dog Trainer

Speaker 2 11:14

It's really important that you understand this. It's also very important that you find a professional that really knows what they're doing. Unfortunately, you may not know that the dog training industry is unregulated. What does that mean? That means anybody can call themselves a dog trainer and anybody can call themselves a behaviorist. They don't need to have any formal education. They don't need to have any certification. They don't need to have any licensure. They don't need to have any certification. They don't need to have any licensure. They don't need to have any insurance. They don't need to have any continuing education. These are all things that other professions mandate.

Speaker 2 11:49

I mean, if you're going to be a psychologist, you've got to have a formal education, then you've got to pass certification so that you can prove that you know what you're doing. You've got to follow certain ethical guidelines and standards, a code of conduct, and you've got to stay current on the latest and greatest evidence-based, science-based practices in changing behavior. That means that you need to have continuing education. All those things are in place to protect you as the consumer, but none of that, none of that is in place in the dog training industry. So you've got to be very careful.

Speaker 2 12:32

There are a ton of very nice trainers. There are a ton of very nice trainers with very good intentions that know very little and they have not gotten a formal education and even though they're nice people, even though they've got good intentions, they're doing a lot of damage to dogs. So make sure that you do your homework, make sure that you do your research. Don't just take my word for it. Get out there and really investigate what I'm talking about. No educated, certified, modern trainer or behaviorist uses corrections or punishment or force None, not today. That is old school stuff. We know that we can do better. If you're ready to make some long, lasting change with permanence and reliability, and really make this work, go ahead and schedule your initial behavior consultation with me. Together, we will embark upon this journey to create a better tomorrow for you and your dog.