I’ll be happy if we don’t make more dog reactivity progress

For years, the majority of our dog Instagram posts (and later, many articles on this blog) centered on Scout’s fear-based dog reactivity. I remember:

• Getting home from every outing and detailing exactly how many dogs we saw. From what distance? How did she handle each one?

• Processing every overreaction she did have. At length.

• Sharing multiple IG story slides each day about reactivity alone.

While I still post big wins and hard moments, our cattle dog’s fear is no longer my main focus. There was a gradual shift as our life got bigger and my thoughts got broader. I moved our goalposts, adjusted to a new normal, and prioritized different things.

Here’s a deep dive into why I’ll be happy even if we never make another ounce of dog reactivity progress.

paws.andreflect

A post shared by @paws.andreflect

Where is Scout today?

On average:

• Scout still doesn’t want to interact with other dogs. She’s never shown interest in playing and only rarely shows interest in sniffing.

• She gets nervous if another canine approaches us directly (and needs us to advoc…