Envisage this…
You are out walking your dog. It’s a typical, on-lead walk through a familiar neighborhood (perhaps your own). Suddenly you hear the familiar jingling of a collar, and another on-lead dog turns from around the approaching corner with a person walking behind them. They are about 30 feet away from you.
Your dog runs out to the end of their leash and begins barking at the approaching dog. No matter how many times you say your dog’s name and attempt to get their attention, they ignore you. The barking becomes more confrontational, perhaps now including snarling or snapping, so you rapidly attempt to drag your dog away from the other dog and across the street. Even after the other dog passes, your dog is still repeatedly turning to look back until the other dog is out of sight.
This particular situation is all too common for dog owners, and any sort of reactive behavior can be concerning for people. If reactive behavior escalates to aggression, the stress prompted by a dog’s response oftentimes intensifies significantly, which can negatively impact the lives of the dog and their human family.
Whenever any sort of “intense” behavior is being demonstrated, whether it includes aggressive responses such as biting, confrontational reactivity, or extreme excitement, it is important to realize that there is an emotion driving that behavior. Dogs generally only display extreme behavioral responses when something triggering is occurring, and before you can begin remediating any behavioral concern, it is imperative to understand which emotional state is driving it.
What is emotion?
Researchers still don’t agree on what exactly constitutes an emotion. Even though numerous definitions exist, most researchers agree that emotions are internal functional states which impact behavior. The work produced by neuroscientist Jakk Panksepp in the 1980s remains highly influential in modern day emotional theory. Panksepp defines emotions as “centers of gravity” within the brain which help organize behavioral responses to environmental challenges.1 According to a lot of modern research, it seems as though the primary purpose of emotions is to promote safety and survival.2
Emotions are important. They aren’t just “feelings” – they actually alter behavior in a substantial way.3 4 Understanding that emotions are significant drivers of behavior – especially in animals who aren’t attempting to rationalize them as they occur, such as dogs – can help us understand why it’s so important to accurately pinpoint the emotions driving your dog’s more intense behavioral responses. Your dog’s emotions are programmed to help them survive, so if they are experiencing an emotion so intense that it is resulting in an extreme behavioral response, it probably means that the trigger is either considered a serious threat or benefit to them.
If you misdiagnose the emotion motivating a behavioral response, you are very unlikely to be able to resolve the issue and can in many cases make things worse.
How can emotions impact behavior?
We already covered that emotions are strongly believed to be a response to something that a body deems important to survival or wellbeing. This is likely why emotions actually alter brain chemistry to send signals to the body about how to respond to something.5 This occurs rapidly, and before an animal can process what is occurring, they are already responding. In dogs, we can often observe emotional changes through their body language cues. The issue is that strong emotions can rapidly transform into a fight or flight response, which often generates the most intense behaviors that a dog can perform within that context. Oftentimes these “fight or flight” signals are not an accurate representation of which emotion is actually driving a behavior, since the subtleties are lost which help us identify an emotion in the first place.
When a dog’s nervous system is so aroused that fight or flight is initiated, many behaviors begin to look the same. For instance, a dog may fight because they hungry and concerned that something may take their food… however, they will also fight for reproductive opportunities, control of a valuable resource such as a door leading outside, because they are frustrated, or because they are terrified.
If you wait to diagnose the issue until a dog is experiencing this response – especially if they are choosing “fight” over “flight”, it can be incredibly difficult to pinpoint what is actually driving the behavior. This is where many people begin thinking that their dog is asserting dominance, trying to protect them, or maybe is just really mean – none of which is likely to be the actual culprit of the behavioral response.
If you want to correctly identify the emotion driving your dog’s more intense behaviors, it is important to consider the response prior to threshold.
What is threshold?
The American Psychological Association defines a threshold as, “The minimum intensity of a stimulus that is necessary to evoke a response.”6 In dog training, threshold is often used to identify the exact point at which a dog’s normal behavior changes into something more intense, abnormal (for that dog) or generally maladaptive. In the example of the reactive dog used at the beginning of this article, we know that the dog definitely has a threshold of 30 feet in the context where another dog just sort of appears and is facing our dog.
In this same situation, that dog may not have responded by barking and lunging had the other dog been 50, 60, or 70 feet away, or if the dog was walking in the same direction from across the road. Basically, in this case, threshold is referring to the point where the dog’s behavior changes from being able to walk calmly on lead, likely responding to their handler’s cues, to being hyperfocused on another stimulus while demonstrating intense and threatening behaviors.
Take a second to consider your own dog’s thresholds. Perhaps your dog won’t charge the window barking at a delivery truck way up the road, but they will once the driver pulls into your neighbor’s driveway. Perhaps they won’t chase a cat that is 50 feet away, but they will chase that cat as soon as it’s 20 feet away.
How to make a more accurate diagnosis
The thing about thresholds is this: they change behaviors too much.
If you want to accurately identify the emotional state driving your dog’s behavioral response to a trigger, you need to observe their behavior before they hit threshold. For instance, say you have a dog who is reactive to other dogs on leash. Once the dog is pushed past threshold, their behavior may appear to be based on anger, frustration or even predatory drive. You might think that your dog genuinely wants to fight with other dogs; however…
If you look at this same dog before they hit threshold, you are likely to witness other, more subtle behaviors.7 8 Take the reactive dog we are using as an example in this article: say they hear another dog barking from far away but they can’t see the dog, or they hear the jingling of a collar from way off in the distance. If you are watching closely, you may see that this dog slows their pace, begins looking at their handler more frequently, stops to raise a paw, begins licking their lips or yawning, or demonstrates any other number of signals that they are clearly stressed out. They may even begin attempting to move away from the sound or may begin demonstrating displacement signals such as scratching theirselves or shaking off.
In this instance, you might recognize that the underlying emotion behind the dog’s reactivity is not actually frustration but fear. Another example is a dog who is uncomfortable with children in the home. When a child is at a distance from the dog, you may see them begin panting, yawning, repeatedly glancing at the child or attempting to get to a spot where they feel safe. As soon as that child gets too close, you might witness those subtle behaviors transform into growling, barking or even biting.
If you evaluate behaviors before they escalate, you will likely recognize that the driving force isn’t what you originally thought it was.
Behaviors can change, and so can emotions
Luckily, just because your dog is experiencing a strong emotion when confronted by a particular stimulus does not mean that it always will be that way. Behavioral therapies such as counterconditioning and systematic desensitization9 can be very helpful in changing a dog’s emotional state from a negative one to a positive one. Not only will transforming your dog’s emotional change their behavior and enhance their wellbeing in the short-term, but doing this has the potential to permanently change your dog’s behavioral responses.
The accurate diagnosis of behavioral outcomes is pivotal to the success of any management strategy, training plan or behavioral modification program. By accurately reading your dog before they hit threshold, you can learn a great deal about which emotional state they are experiencing when confronted by a trigger.
If you don’t feel comfortable identifying these emotions on your own, or if you want help learning how to effectively change them, please reach out to us. We offer in-person pet dog training programs for individuals located in central NC, as well as virtual dog training programs and consulting services for anyone in the world.
References
- Plutchik R, Kellerman H. The Biological Foundations of Emotion. Orlando, USA: Academic Press; 1986.
- Simic G, Tklcic M, Vukic V, Mulc D, Spanic E, Sagud M, Olucha-Bordonau F.E., et al. Understanding Emotions: Origins and Roles of the Amygdala. Biomolecules. 2021, May 31; 11(6): 823. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom11060823
- Steinhauser K, Leist F, Maier K, Michel V, Parsch N, Rigley P, et al. Effects of Emotions on Driving Behavior. Transp. Res. F Traffic Psychol. Behav. 2018, Nov; 59(A): 150-163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2018.08.012
- Lerner J.S, Li Y, Valdesolo P, Kassam K.S. Emotion and Decision Making. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2015, Jan; 3 (66): 799-823. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115043
- Afradi A, Ardakani H.T, Mousaee S, Malakpour O, Ramezanzadeh A. The Neurochemical Basis of Emotions: Bridging Psychology and Chemistry. Int. J. New. Chem. 2025; 12(5): 1013-1028. doi: 10.22034/ijnc.2025.722829
- American Psychological Association. Threshold. APA Dictionary of Psychology. https://dictionary.apa.org/threshold
- Beerda B, Schilder MBH, van Hooff JARAM, de Vries HW, Mol JA. Behavioural and Hormonal Indicators of Enduring Environmental Stress in Dogs. Animal Welfare. 2000;9(1):49-62. doi:10.1017/S0962728600022247
- Beerda B, Schilder MBH, van Hooff J., de Vries, H.W. Manifestations of Chronic and Acute Stress in Dogs. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 1997; 52 (3-4): 307-319. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-1591(96)01131-8
- Crowell-Davis, S.L. Desensitization and Counterconditioning: The Details of Success. Compendium, 2008, Nov. http://vetfolio-vetstreet.s3.amazonaws.com/mmah/d4/a499226f924483b24692908fb5bf84/filePV_30_11_589.pdf