Precautions I’d take even if my dog was super social

Featured photo credit to the very talented Saint Paisley Photography

I talk a lot about advocating for my dog. Sometimes people hold a perception that only pets with “issues” (like Scout’s fear-based reactivity) need training and advocacy from their owners. That’s a myth if I’ve ever heard one!

While our individual pets absolutely might require specific things from us, a baseline level of risk management never hurts.

Here are some day-to-day precautions I’d take even if I owned the most social dog in the world!

paws.andreflect

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Why advocate for my dog?

Scout came to me timid around other dogs, but it wasn’t until she was attacked on a walk that she started displaying full-blown fear reactivity. The dog we were passing looked under control until the last second—then it lunged and pinned her to the concrete. It was awful.

Animals are capable of single-event (or one-trial) learning, especially when the situation is traumatic. (There are some great Huberman Lab podcast episodes that touch on this.)

This is not t…