Dear reactive dog owners

• Disappointment for not being able to take your dog everywhere.

• Shame for the feeling of failing.

• Embarrassment for your dogs outbursts.

• Grief for having to come to terms that this dog is not the dog you envisioned in certain aspects of life.

• Frustration for training that doesnt stick or set backs or the environment being unfair.

There is SO MUCH information out there on training the reactive dog.

But there is very little information out there for YOU. The handler. The reactive dog owner. The person at the end of the leash feeling all these things and feeling alone. 

Its isolating to have a reactive and aggressive dog and there is a huge culture on 

“you didnt raise them right” 

“you didnt socialise your dog”

 “you should NEVER rehome your dog”

 “the training methods you use are CRUEL (eventho its the only thing that works?)” Or “you just need to try harder”.

Would you tell your friend they were failing when they were doing their very best?

Of course you wouldn't!

So why are you being so hard on yourself?

Owning a reactive dog can be hard. There will be amazing days and set backs. It's important to remember when you are having a harder day, you haven't failed!

We are our own harshest critic and on those days of doubt if you rfriend came to you in the exact same situation, would you tell them they failed? You wouldn't.

If you're feeling alone, know that you're not! We did a whole podcast episode about this specific topic and you can find that here: