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Reactivity Intensive
The Stay
For Dogs The Neighborhood Crosses The Street For
The Intensive is three weeks for dogs that bark, lunge, or shut down around other dogs or strangers. The work is unglamorous and it works: finding the distance where your dog can still think, paying calm choices there, and shrinking that distance a few feet at a time — filmed every day so you see the trend line, not just the highlight reel.
Half the program is yours. Reactive dogs mirror handler tension, so the two go-home lessons drill your mechanics — leash handling, timing, exits — until they are boring. You leave with a six-month home plan, because three weeks starts the change and the next six months finish it.
We are blunt at the assessment: fear and frustration improve enormously but are not “cured” in three weeks. Anyone promising that is selling suppression, and suppression always bills you later.
Included
What The Intensive Buys
Everything below is in the price — including the helper-dog setups and the six-month plan.
Check Availability- Threshold mapping: your dog’s exact working distance, documented
- Desensitization setups with calm helper dogs, layered slowly
- Handler mechanics: leash skills, timing, and graceful exits
- Decompression routine — rest is medicine for reactive dogs
- Daily video, a six-month home plan, and two go-home lessons
- Ninety days of messaging after pick-up
The Weeks
How The Intensive Runs
Week One — Settle And Observe
Decompression first: sleep, sniffing, and routine. We map triggers and thresholds with zero pressure, and the vet record gets a hard look — pain hides behind a lot of “bad behavior.”
Week Two — Work At Threshold
Setups with helper dogs at working distance. Calm gets paid, over-threshold never gets rehearsed, and distance shrinks only as fast as the dog’s body language allows.
Week Three — Real World & Handover
Skills move to streets and trails, then two lessons put the leash in your hands. You practice exits, passes, and bad days — with us coaching beside you.
Good To Know
Reactivity Questions
It depends on the history, and the phone assessment is where we decide. One inhibited snap in a clear context is workable; a pattern of serious bites usually needs a veterinary behaviorist first, and we will refer you to one rather than take money for a program that cannot help.
Probably not — and that is not the goal. The goal is a dog that notices another dog and looks back at you: neutral, boring, walkable. Dog friends are a bonus some graduates earn later, never a promise we make on day one.
A well-fitted harness, a fixed-length leash, treats that your dog actually works for, and distance. No prong, choke, or shock collars — suppressing a reaction without changing the feeling underneath is how quiet dogs become surprising dogs.
Four Places At A Time
Start The Conversation
Reactivity starts with an honest assessment. Tell us what happens and when — we will tell you plainly whether the Intensive is the right call.