How to tell if training is actually working

The hardest part of reactivity work isn't the beginning. It's the middle. You've been at it for weeks, you're putting in the reps, and your dog is, in your eyes, still reactive. That's usually where someone tells me it isn't working. And almost every time, I'm looking at the same dog and seeing the opposite, because progress here rarely shows up as the barking suddenly stopping. It shows up in a handful of small things underneath the bark, and once you know where to look, you can't unsee them.

Watch for the pause

The first thing I watch is the pause. Early on, a reactive dog goes from zero to explosion with nothing in between: trigger appears, dog detonates, no gap. So when your dog starts to notice the other dog, freeze, stare for a couple of seconds, and then bark, that little window of hesitation is a genuinely big deal. It looks like nothing. It's actually your dog's thinking brain buying itself a moment before the emotional brain takes over. A few weeks ago there was no moment. Now there's a beat. That beat is where all the change eventually happens.

Then, the distance

Then there's distance, and this one's the clearest scoreboard there is. If a month ago your dog came apart at fifty feet and today they hold it together until thirty, that's not a lack of progress, that's the whole game moving in your favor, even if thirty feet still looks messy. That shrinking number is their threshold moving. And watch the shape of the reaction itself, not just whether it happened. A full-body lunge with snarling and snapping quietly shrinking into a single annoyed "boof" on a loose leash is enormous. Same triggerAnything that reliably produces a strong emotional response in a particular dog.Read more →, a fraction of the volume. That's the reaction losing its teeth.

Recovery, the one I trust most

The one I trust most, though, is recoveryHow quickly a dog returns to normal after reacting to something.Read more →: how fast your dog comes back down after a reaction, not whether one happened. Early on, a single trigger can wreck the whole outing, your dog panting, pacing, too wound up to take a treat for ten or twenty minutes. Later, they bark, and then they shake it off in seconds and re-engage with you. That drop in recovery time is one of the truest signs the work is landing, because it means the stress hormonesAdrenaline and cortisol, the chemicals released when an animal responds to something stressful.Read more → are clearing faster and the calm is coming back online sooner. It is also why a bad day stacks the way it does: recovery is the thing that stops it. And I watch your recovery too, honestly. A handler who used to spiral after a bad moment and now resets in a breath is every bit as much progress as the dog.

And the check-in

And then the one that always makes me grin: the check-inA dog noticing something that concerns them and then choosing, without being asked, to look back at their handler.Read more →. Early on your dog has full tunnel vision, no name, no treat, no leash can pull their eyes off the trigger. Progress is your dog glancing at the trigger and then, all on their own, turning to look at your face. Even if they look right back at the trigger, that half-second of choosing you was your dog's thinking brain flexing over the emotional one. It also means you both have a toolbox now. You've got more than one move, a U-turn, more distance, a game, and so does your dog, who's learned they can look at you instead of fixate. Choices, on both ends of the leash, are what calm actually looks like.

You're both beginners at this.

Here's the part that makes this hard and also matters most: you're learning right alongside your dog. You, learning to read a moment, time a reward from a clip-on treat pouch↗(affiliate link), and stay calm under pressure. Your dog, learning to trust that you'll handle it. That's a lot to carry at once, and it's exactly where the bond comes from. So if you feel stuck, don't judge the work by today's walk. Zoom out. Look at where you both were a month ago: the distances, the recovery, the number of tools you each reach for now without thinking. That's the real scoreboard, and almost every time, it's moved further than you thought.

Written by

Kourtenay Dolmos

Founder, Hearth & Hounds · LIMA-Informed · Houston, TX

Kourtenay is the trainer behind Hearth & Hounds, working hands-on with reactive, anxious, and rescue dogs across Houston. These notes come straight from that everyday work.

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