11 Dogs That Your Reactive Dog May Struggle With

This tends to come with what they’re bred for. These dogs tend to be herding breeds, and the stare helps them intimidate livestock. So, when you combine that with a dog who might be a touch more nervous or prone to anxiety, may read that stare as a threat – because that’s what it was intended as. This one is a selective breeding thing, and only really become more apparent as these dogs transitioned from working dogs to

Examples: Border collie,

Because they’re untrained, and their human isn’t advocating for them as they should be, they’re likely they’ve never been socialised properly – or worse have a faulty idea of what socialisation actually is.

Consequently, these dogs who don’t, won’t, or haven’t been taught to listen become a huge threat, you have a person behind them yelling, and a dog approaching in an incredibly direct manner.

Example: Any dog.

Running dogs, especially excited running dogs approach fast, and quickly narrow down your reactive dog’s choice to fight, or flee.

Normally, a reactive dog’s response to any threat is fight. So, it happens very quickly.

Note: this is often made worse by the fact that running dogs may not be looking at your reactive dog, and may be taking a very direct path, after, say, a ball.

Dogs who really want to play are a kicker. Because even though they have good intentions, they can be very intense about their want to play. That may lead them to ignore social cues, and be overly persistent.

For your reactive dog, the ignoring of a subtle sign gives them no indication that this dog is a dog to be trusted, and can cause them to escalate their behaviour.

It very quickly then becomes a learned response that playful dogs don’t want good things, and hones a negative response.

Rude dogs may not be swearing like this poodle, but, they are dogs who may have minimal politeness in communication. They might be too bullish, they might be a little too direct or ignore social cues.

Similar to the playful dog, this tends to mean that your reactive dog can look at these dogs and read “This dog is a threat”.

Some breeds have been bred to have a natural, very forward stance, be broad-chested, and to lean into their build. This is often referred to as being “Chest proud”.

Aesthetically, to us humans, this can look great! But in dog body language, this can be read as a threat. So, when your reactive dog sees a chest proud dog, they can read this dog to be a threat — when they’re not.

Examples: Akitas, Boxers, German Shepherds, Huskies, Bully breeds

This again comes down to the ability to read the dog.

Think about talking with another person. If you can see their face, you can tell whether their tone is humourous, or perhaps sarcastic. However, if you now talk to that person under a sheet, would it be so easy to tell their meaning from just the tone of their voice?

It’s easy to see that these dogs can become problematic for an uncertain dog.

Example: Tibetan Mastiff, Komondor, Old English Sheepdog, Portuguese water dog, bearded collie, Some doodle breeds

We’ve bred a lot of these breeds to look “cute” but their snuffly face inhibits their ability to communicate – especially when we consider that the wrinkles could easily look like a snarling face, and then when coupled with the noises these dogs make? It would be easy to assume this dog doesn’t mean well.

Examples: English bulldogs, boxer dogs, pugs, frenchies, Bostons

Some dogs are naturally higher energy dogs, I’d call them scatty, they’re here, they’re there, and then they’re over there! And they’re running like crazy puppers!

Typically, this is a cute thing to see, but, when you see it through the eyes of your reactive dog who’s not sure what’s going on, and instinctively has lower trust of other dogs, this dog begins to look like, I would imagine, how we see a nervous, twitchy addict. They’re not predictable, and consequently, they make us feel unnerved.

This is what your reactive dogs sees. Erratic movement, lack of predictability,

Examples: Spaniels, Boxers,

Because dog’s eyesight comes in a scale from blue to yellow, a black coat can create a certain same-ness that we can conclude creates problems for a dog’s eyes – I mean – it’s common that a black dog doesn’t even photograph well unless the light conditions are just right, it’s not a shock that our dogs can find it difficult to see the details of their face.

Examples: Black Labs, Black Newfoundlands, Black German Shepherds,