Worse Than I Expected: Napi's First Reactive Dog Class

Friday night, I took Napi to his first reactive dog class. I knew going into it that Napi is reactive; I've seen him bark and lunge at people. I've also suspected that he might be a bit anxious, as he seems to have trouble settling. When he and Pyg play together, Pyg will want to take breaks. Napi doesn't. More than that, it seems like he can't. My overall goal for the entire session is to evaluate if he would benefit from medication.

For the first night of class, my goal was to get him settled on a mat – even briefly- and to teach him about the clicker. We did not accomplish these goals. Instead, I had to revise them to simply eating treats in class.

Napi is a lot more fearful than I thought. Upon entering the building, he immediately piloerected (hair on his back stood up), and tucked his tail. As soon as he saw the instructor, he started barking and growling. I scooped him up, stuck him behind a barrier, and started offering him bits of bacon and turkey. It was a no go. He was not interested in eating.

Hiding behind me, but eating!

I switched to using soft praise and petting. Napi liked this, and for the rest of the hour, whenever something scared him, he would hide behind me and press up against me. I was really happy to see this because I believe reactive dogs need to see their person as safe. Since we don't live together yet, I wasn't expecting to see this.

Napi did eventually start eating treats, although he would occasionally refuse them if things got too overwhelming. He never did go on his mat (he seemed scared of it, actually), and he never really did settle. In fact, it might not even sound like we did anything. It's true that I didn't teach him any exercises or introduce him to the clicker. But we actually accomplished a lot. I began the long process of counter-conditioning. I established myself as a safe person. I learned about the kinds of foods Napi likes and doesn't like – info that will be invaluable in coming weeks.

I also learned that although he could make a lot of progress with just training, it will not only be easier but also be more humane to start him on medications. Napi's fear response was extreme, far worse than I remember from Maisy. He was louder and more intense in his reactions. He was difficult to distract, even with food. He was slow and stiff in his body movements, and there were times he just shook from head to toe.

It's true that these reactions appeared worse because I took him out of his comfort zone. It's also true that this could be avoided by not “forcing” him to go to class. But the truth is that simply being in a new place does not change a dog's underlying personality and response to the world. The fact that he was terrified says a lot about what he's experienced and who he's become as a result.

That is no way to live. Even if Napi has carved out a little part of the world where he feels (mostly) safe, all of that anxiety and fear are still underneath. Leaving a living being to suffer like this is not kind, not when I can do something to help.

Shameless Self-Promotion

I’ve never done this before (this being promoting my classes; I’ve been teaching classes for reactive dogs for two years now), but I’ve had some emails lately from local folks wondering about when and where I teach. So, if you’re from the Minneapolis area, read on. If not, you should move. Our winters are awesome!

I teach for Paws Abilities Dog Training. While the main location is in the Rochester area, I teach in the Twin Cities, and I have some classes starting up here in a few weeks. The schedule is here. I teach two different classes: Growl (levels 1 and 2) and Agility Unleashed (levels 1 and 2). Both classes are taught with two instructors. This time around it will be me and the awesome and amazing Laura.

Here’s a quick run down on each class:

Growl Class
This class is limited to four students, which means we have one trainer for every two students. This class is designed primarily for dogs reactive to other dogs. If your dog is also reactive to people shoot me an email at reactivechampion(at)gmail(dot)com and we can chat about whether or not the class can be set up to meet your dog’s needs.

Level 1 teaches the basic skills you will need to help your dog survive the scary world. Many of these exercises are taken from the book Control Unleashed, but the curriculum does vary slightly based on the dogs that show up in class. No previous training experience is needed. We use barriers to help keep dogs under threshold, and generally speaking, dogs will not see each other until the last few weeks of class- if at all.

Level 2 builds on the skills learned in level 1, and includes more systematic exposure to the other dogs. By the end of the level 2 class, the dogs are usually working parallel to one another.

Agility Unleashed
This class is limited to six students, again with 2 instructors, for a 1 to 3 ratio. This class is meant for dogs who can look at other dogs without immediately going over threshold but who struggle with the increased motion or chaos often seen in agility (or obedience!) trials and classes. It’s also great for dogs who are easily stressed around other dogs and need to build up more confidence in a structured format.

Agility Unleashed is very well-suited for performance dogs, but it is not an agility class, and I am very upfront in saying that I have only a rudimentary understanding of the sport. This makes the class very interactive; I expect my students to speak up if I’m teaching them something that contradicts what their agility instructor has taught them. (Don’t worry- this doesn’t happen often!) I do have pet dogs take Agility Unleashed; sometimes Growl 2 graduates continue their work in this class.

Level 1 teaches many of the same basic skills introduced in Growl, but progresses through them quicker and includes additional exercises as well. We do some single-obstacle exercises in level 1, usually a jump, but we can modify all exercises for dogs who don’t know how to do a particular obstacle.

Level 2 builds on all the exercises learned in level 1 while increasing the number of dogs working at once, the amount of motion, and the difficulty of the tasks. Depending on the dogs present, we will do short sequences (usually 3 obstacles).


Both classes are a ton of fun for me to teach. I absolutely love seeing how much progress the dogs (and their people!) make. And, since one of the class rules is Have Fun, chances are good you’ll have a good time. Let me know if you have any questions, and I hope to see some of you there!