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Ten days of foundations, then three weeks of careful progression. This programme is for dogs who bark, lunge, stare or spin up at other dogs, people, bikes or vehicles on leash. It works at distances where your dog can still think, and it uses food, patterns and exits, never corrections.
Dogs whose on leash reactions are frustration or fear based and who have never bitten. It builds directly on our topic guide to leash reactivity, which explains why dogs react; this page is the day by day plan. If your dog has bitten, has redirected onto you, or reacts to people inside the home, skip the home programme and book a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist or a CPDT-KA trainer with reactivity experience.
Every exercise in this programme grows out of one simple loop, described here in our own words. Your dog notices the trigger at a distance where they can still think. The moment they look at it, you mark ("yes") and feed a good treat, ideally turned slightly away from the trigger. Then you let them look again, and repeat. Two things are being learned at once: the trigger predicts good food (the feeling changes), and looking calmly, then back to you, is the behaviour that pays (the habit changes). Keep sessions short, five to ten minutes of actual trigger work inside a normal walk, and always end by walking away while things are still calm.
On day one, take your dog somewhere you can see triggers from far away. The working distance is the closest range at which your dog notices the trigger but can still: take a treat softly, respond to their name, and break their stare within a few seconds. Write the distance down. All ten foundation days happen at or beyond it. Getting closer is a week three question, not a day three one.
| Days | Focus | What to practise |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | Baseline and equipment | Find your working distance. Practise the notice, mark, reward loop with mild, far away triggers, or even with neutral sights (a parked car, a distant person) if real triggers are too much. Finish every walk with easy sniffing. |
| 3-4 | The loop, repeated | Two short sessions a day at working distance. Aim for 10 to 20 calm repetitions. If your dog cannot disengage, increase distance and shorten the session; that is the correct adjustment, not a failure. |
| 5-6 | Add the turn away | After three calm looks, mark, then cheerfully turn and walk ten steps away, feeding as you go. The turn away becomes your dog's job: see it, glance, leave with you. Practise the turn with no trigger present too, so it is fluent. |
| 7-8 | Pattern walking | On quiet streets, reward a rhythm: a treat at your side every few steps while walking in a gentle zigzag or wide arcs. Patterns give an aroused brain something predictable to do. Keep triggers at distance using crossings and driveways as exits. |
| 9-10 | First planned setups | Choose one predictable trigger at a known distance, such as dogs behind a fence on a quiet road, or a park viewed from the car park. Run the loop for five minutes, then leave. Success looks boring: soft body, easy treat taking, quick glances back to you. |
| Week | Progression | Move on when |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Same distances, busier places. Add a second trigger type. Start closing distance by roughly ten percent on your easiest trigger only, and only on days when the first repetitions are easy. | Your dog recovers from a surprise sighting within seconds and can take treats at the new distance. |
| 3 | Parallel walking. If you have access to a calm helper dog, walk the same direction on opposite sides of a wide street, rewarding calm glances. Let distance shrink slowly across several sessions. No greetings. | Your dog can walk parallel at a comfortable distance with a soft body and loose leash for several minutes. |
| 4 | Real routes, rehearsed. Walk one normal route at your quietest time of day, using crossings and turns as planned exits. Keep one foundation style session a week to hold the gains. | Most passings on the route are look, glance back, treat, walk on. The odd hard moment is fine; the trend is what counts. |
Progress is not a straight line. Weather, a bad night's sleep, or a surprise close encounter can cost you a week. Drop back a level, rebuild, and go again. If three to four consistent weeks produce no change at all, that is the point to bring in a professional to watch you work.
Muzzle conditioning (one week, before you need it). Use a basket muzzle your dog can pant and drink through. Day 1 to 2: muzzle appears, treats rain; muzzle is put away, treats stop. Day 3 to 4: smear something tasty inside and let the dog push their nose in to lick it out, no straps. Day 5 to 6: fasten the strap for a few seconds, feed through the basket, remove. Day 7: short, fun walk in the muzzle with frequent treats. Never force it on, and never use the muzzle as a punishment.
Red lines. Stop the programme and get professional help if: your dog bites or nearly bites; the reaction transfers onto you or a family member; reactions appear toward people inside the home; your dog is too strong for you to hold safely; or fear is clearly worsening week on week. These are veterinary behaviorist and certified trainer cases, and that referral protects your dog as much as anyone else.
Far enough away that your dog can notice the trigger, still think, and still take treats. That distance is different for every dog and can be the length of a football field at first. If your dog is lunging, barking hard, or refusing food, you are too close. Distance is the training tool; closeness is earned later.
Something soft, smelly and genuinely high value to your dog: small pieces of chicken, hot dog, cheese or a commercial soft treat. Dry biscuits rarely compete with a trigger. If your dog will not eat, that is information: the situation is too hard, so add distance before you change the food.
No. Reactivity is driven by emotion, usually fear or frustration, and corrections add pain or startle to an already aroused dog. They can suppress the warning signals without changing the feeling, which makes bites less predictable. This programme changes the feeling and teaches an alternative behaviour instead.
Some reactive dogs go on to greet calmly; others do best as dogs who pass politely and never say hello on leash, and that is a perfectly good outcome. Decide based on your dog's progress over weeks, and make any first greetings happen with a trainer present, in open space, with an easy exit.
Immediately if there has been a bite, a redirected bite onto you, or lunging you cannot physically hold. Also book a certified trainer (CPDT-KA) or behaviourist if you see no improvement after three to four consistent weeks, or if the reaction is getting stronger. Aggression toward people in the home is always a professional case.
A muzzle is worth conditioning if there is any bite risk, if you walk in tight spaces you cannot avoid, or if a trainer advises one. A dog who wears a happily conditioned basket muzzle is safer and, honestly, often gets more relaxed walks because the owner relaxes. It is a seatbelt, not a punishment, and many non reactive dogs wear one for scavenging control too.
Last updated: November 2026. The day by day plan, games and progression rules are our own work, written to the reward based, cause first approach described in the sources above. How we work: our methodology.
All training programs | Topic guide: leash reactivity