Understanding Canine ‘Reactivity’: Species-Specific Behaviour or Human Inconvenience?

Dogs are often referred to as ‘human’s best friend’, and many households in the United Kingdom and worldwide include a dog. Research highlights the strength of the bond between human and dog, including the myriad of physical and mental health benefits. However, less research has explored this bond (and the subsequent effect on health) when dogs exhibit behaviours that their human companion finds inappropriate. Yet many dogs each year are relinquished, or even euthanised, for exhibiting such behaviours. A key behaviour often cited in these situations is ‘reactivity’. Importantly, however, there is no consensus in the literature (or the lay population) as to exactly which behaviours constitute problematic ‘reactivity’. This research, therefore, sought to investigate how dog ‘reactivity’ is understood by dog guardians, through an online survey. Six themes emerged from a thematic analysis of the data, which were generally clustered in two ways; dog-centric and human-centric, with a final theme drawing together the complexity of the term for both dog behaviour and human perceptions and applications. This research highlighted the complex, nuanced and, sometimes, contradictory nature of understanding around the label of ‘reactivity’, and the need for further research to consolidate knowledge in this area to provide a single definition of ‘reactivity’ and to understand how this label is used in dog training. A key recommendation from this research is the need for an objective measure of dog behaviour to help with the human-dog matching process at rehoming centres and to track changes in dog behaviour during training programmes.