# Ep 91 Why Is Your Reactive Dog’s Behaviour So Unpredictable?

An episode of [Help! My Dog: The Podcast. Dog Behaviour & Training Strategies that Work!](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1721245241), 27 Aug 2025, 19 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2287608/episodes/17422067-ep-91-why-is-your-reactive-dog-s-behaviour-so-unpredictable.mp3

Ever had a dog that’s perfectly fine one moment, then suddenly not? You’re not alone! And in this episode, we’re diving into why dogs can seem unpredictable in everyday situations. Whether it’s being petted, meeting someone new or bumping into a stranger at the vets, their reactions can sometimes feel confusing or even frustrating. We explore the hidden layers behind these moments and how small things can add up to big reactions. You’ll discover a fresh way to look at your dog’s behaviour that makes sense of what feels “random.” This episode is packed with insights to help you better understand your dog and support them in these tricky situations. Tune in to learn how to see the world from your dog’s perspective and build more confidence in handling those unpredictable moments. ................ Whether your dog is unpredictable with other dogs or predictably bad… Whether it looks like freezing, barking, lunging or running away… Whether you are just starting out on your dog-owning journey or your dog has been labelled as having a “behaviour problem”… … this episode is for you and is going to give you huge insights! Want to join the Help! My Dog Online HUB? Here's the link: www.helpmydog.com/hub Dr Tom Mitchell is a world-renowned veterinarian, behaviourist and dog trainer and director of the Behavet behaviour clinic (rated Excellent on Trustpilot), which sees over 400 pet behaviour consultations each and every month no matter where you are in the world. In 2023, he founded Help! My Dog, an online dog behaviour learning platform to help even more owners all over the world and show that dog behaviour transformation is not only possible but it's FUN, with the right know-how! Make sure to subscribe/follow the podcast for the free weekly episodes! Useful Links: Follow Help! My Dog on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helpmydogofficial/ Schedule a Consultation with Behavet: https://www.beha.vet/ Follow Behavet on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/behavet

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_00: Dogs hate mystery, right?
[0:02] SPEAKER_00: If they're like, if they if they see a scenario and they're like, it could be good, it could be bad, they have to go and find out if it's gonna be good or bad.
[0:10] SPEAKER_00: Even though there's the big possibility that they might be absolutely freaked out.
[0:14] SPEAKER_00: Before we dive in, a warning.
[0:17] SPEAKER_00: The content of this podcast may not be appropriate for some young listeners.
[0:22] SPEAKER_00: This is real life, and that means that sometimes it can be a little bit graphic.
[0:27] SPEAKER_00: So listen on at your own peril.
[0:30] SPEAKER_00: As a veterinarian, dog behaviourist, best-selling author and trainer over the past decade, I've had an obsession with transforming the behaviour of dogs.
[0:39] SPEAKER_00: Understanding their brains and creating practical strategies that you can implement easily at home.
[0:44] SPEAKER_00: I know all too well when the dream you imagined when you first got your dog is far from your daily reality.
[0:51] SPEAKER_00: In fact, out of the blue, a few months ago, my little dog Gorse was bitten by a dog 20 times her size.
[0:58] SPEAKER_00: And suddenly our life of stress-free walks, a calm and cuddly household, and being teammates was replaced with reactivity, anxiety, and worrying about what's around the next corner.
[1:09] SPEAKER_00: I'm Dr.
[1:09] SPEAKER_00: Tom.
[1:10] SPEAKER_00: This is the Help My Dog Podcast, and this is me documenting that journey of transformation, sharing my knowledge and experience with you and having a few laughs along the way.
[1:20] SPEAKER_00: Hello, HMD family.
[1:22] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to this episode of the Help My Dog podcast.
[1:26] SPEAKER_00: We need a little jungle.
[1:28] SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna do a listener's question, and I'll be honest, this listener's question I had to Google something in it because I didn't know what it was.
[1:37] SPEAKER_00: So let's dive right in.
[1:40] SPEAKER_00: My problem isn't stressful walks with my dog.
[1:43] SPEAKER_00: My problem is how he acts in certain situations.
[1:47] SPEAKER_00: A couple of weeks ago, we were out four-wheeling.
[1:50] SPEAKER_00: Now I had to Google what four-wheeling was.
[1:54] SPEAKER_00: It's another way of saying off-roading.
[1:56] SPEAKER_00: So like four by four driving, off-road, four-wheeling.
[2:01] SPEAKER_00: Um, and I don't know if it's like a US-UK difference, but anyway, four-wheeling, aka off-roading.
[2:08] SPEAKER_00: Um, and we stopped.
[2:09] SPEAKER_00: So we weren't four-wheeling anymore, we were for stopping.
[2:13] SPEAKER_00: And we were walking around with the other four-wheeling people.
[2:18] SPEAKER_00: One of the women even petted my dog, and he was fine.
[2:22] SPEAKER_00: Then we were over by my vehicle, four-wheeler, and the woman walked past and the and the dog, my dog, tried to attack her.
[2:31] SPEAKER_00: Anytime I'm in a situation where we're around a lot of people, I always put a muzzle on him so no one gets hurt.
[2:38] SPEAKER_00: Now I can't take him on four-wheel trips because people don't like to be around.
[2:44] SPEAKER_00: Because they never know how he's going to react to them.
[2:48] SPEAKER_00: One minute he may be the sweetest pie.
[2:50] SPEAKER_00: I find that such a funny, uh, funny way of describing the dog, it's so sweet.
[2:54] SPEAKER_00: The sweetest pie.
[2:56] SPEAKER_00: Um, the next, he turns into what some call anger management.
[3:00] SPEAKER_00: Why is he so unpredictable?
[3:03] SPEAKER_00: So it's a really great question.
[3:05] SPEAKER_00: Actually, it's a question that I think there's loads of insight just generally to be had from this.
[3:12] SPEAKER_00: Because whether it is that, you know, you're taking your dog four-wheeling and you know, they seem fine and then they're not, and then they're fine, and then they're not, or whether it is that your dog, you know, can be unpredictable with um with with people like visitors coming to the house, or they're fine one minute at the vets and then they're not fine, or they're fine one minute at the groomers and then they're not fine.
[3:34] SPEAKER_00: Um, ultimately, it boils down to the same kind of considerations.
[3:39] SPEAKER_00: Um and so if we dive into this four-wheeling mishap and the the reasons why your dog might have been absolutely happy being petted, and then absolutely not happy with the same person walking past, I think we'll be able to draw insights and light bulbs about why dogs are unpredictable with people generally, right?
[4:04] SPEAKER_00: Which is gonna help a load of you listeners.
[4:06] SPEAKER_00: So, first things first, um the lady petted him and he was fine.
[4:15] SPEAKER_00: I think what we've got to do is sometimes um in those instances, and and looking back, we I guess we sometimes have to question what fine is and what fine looks like, okay?
[4:26] SPEAKER_00: Because just because there's almost a difference between tolerating and being absolutely um happy and confident about an experience.
[4:35] SPEAKER_00: And sometimes what can happen is that dogs can be in a state of tolerating.
[4:39] SPEAKER_00: Um they might be still, they might be feeling a little bit um anxious and worried, but that that kind of um petting, for lack of a better word, in this instance, um, that might just not have reached a threshold at which they're gonna overtly show that um that they're worried and unhappy.
[5:03] SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes just because a dog is is accepting of something, just because a dog is still, just because a dog is staying in the situation, just because a dog, you know, even if a dog's tail is wagging, right, that does not necessarily equate to being happy, okay?
[5:21] SPEAKER_00: Um, and the and and so I guess the the next question is well, how do we know if our dogs are happy or not with an experience?
[5:28] SPEAKER_00: Well, it's actually really difficult to know in the moment.
[5:31] SPEAKER_00: But what is a very easy tell of whether they were truly happy with something is if you look, instead of looking at that micro situation, if we look at the macro, is is their response to people getting better or getting worse as a result of that interaction?
[5:47] SPEAKER_00: And interestingly, in this situation, fairly instantly, the next time your dog encountered a person, you know, specifically that person, um, your dog actually showed that they were quite worried about that.
[6:02] SPEAKER_00: Um, and so um whether they were fine or not, I can't tell you.
[6:08] SPEAKER_00: Um, in fact, you can't say either.
[6:10] SPEAKER_00: But what we can say is that if we always give the dog, our dogs, the benefit of the doubt that we want to avoid them being in experiences that they don't enjoy, and we can't decide if they enjoy that experience or not.
[6:24] SPEAKER_00: I always lean towards my dog doesn't enjoy that experience so that I can then manage them and manage the people around them um for yeah, the safety of other people, right?
[6:35] SPEAKER_00: But I'm always, to be honest, more interested in the the mental well-being and safety of my dog.
[6:42] SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's something that we have to think about.
[6:44] SPEAKER_00: Sometimes what we do when dogs are um reacting, you know, anger management or whatever, yeah, anger management were the words that we use.
[6:53] SPEAKER_00: You know, we put this this almost narrative on that of they're angry, they are, you know, they're they're they're mean, they're nasty, you can't predict what they're gonna do next.
[7:05] SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're the victim of a situation that they're trying their best to navigate with the skills that they have, and they're trying to communicate, but the communications aren't going, aren't going through, right?
[7:18] SPEAKER_00: They were whispering, but we didn't respond to the whisper, and now they're shouting.
[7:23] SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
[7:24] SPEAKER_00: And I think that's that's a just a lovely way to be in dog ownership is if we can't decide if they like something or not, let's assume they don't like it, because then worst case scenario, they miss out on an experience that they mildly enjoyed, right?
[7:40] SPEAKER_00: Um, worst case scenario um is that you know, if we get if we got it wrong and we said, oh, we I think they enjoy that, that we are putting them through an experience that actually is causing them extreme anxiety.
[7:53] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and putting the person in danger and them in danger as a result of that.
[7:58] SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's the first thing.
[7:59] SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, I just want to take a moment to answer a question that has been coming in in literally 10 emails a day, and that is how can we help you with your dog's behavior struggle, whether that be reactivity, separation anxiety, resource guarding, maybe you've got multi-dog household struggle right now, maybe your dog's just so over aroused on a walk that they just can't listen to you and they're chasing everything inside.
[8:23] SPEAKER_00: Like, can I get Tom's help?
[8:25] SPEAKER_00: Um, and the answer is that actually you can, and you can do that by booking a behavet behaviour consultation.
[8:32] SPEAKER_00: That's where literally my team give you the plan on how to transform your struggle and get you to that dream that that made you get a dog in the first place, right?
[8:43] SPEAKER_00: Your world's got smaller and smaller and smaller, and actually it doesn't need to be that way.
[8:47] SPEAKER_00: You just need to reach out for help.
[8:49] SPEAKER_00: Now, a couple of things to say on that.
[8:50] SPEAKER_00: First of all, if you're insured, if your dog's insured with Pet Plan, Kennel Club, AgriA, or many pets, we actually do direct claims with them, which means that that's covered by your insurance.
[9:01] SPEAKER_00: So you don't you don't pay out of your pocket, your insurance covers that.
[9:05] SPEAKER_00: And and the second thing to say is that we have loads of options if you're insured with another provider, or if your dog's not insured at all, that's also totally fine.
[9:13] SPEAKER_00: We have loads of options that we've developed to make this so accessible for you.
[9:18] SPEAKER_00: And because we're aware that you've already invested a load of time and a load of money in getting your dog, looking after your dog, caring for your dog.
[9:24] SPEAKER_00: But the last thing we want is for you to have done all that and still not be living the life that you deserve with your dog.
[9:30] SPEAKER_00: And we know we can get you there.
[9:31] SPEAKER_00: So all you need to do is go to the Behave Vet website, and the way to do that is go B-E-H-A.V-E-T.
[9:40] SPEAKER_00: That's behotvet, and it will take you there, or just Google Behave Vet, right?
[9:47] SPEAKER_00: Um, and you can get scheduled in and we can literally get you booked in for a consultation as soon as possible.
[9:53] SPEAKER_00: We normally can accommodate it within a week, right?
[9:56] SPEAKER_00: So that you can be getting to your dream ASAP.
[9:59] SPEAKER_00: Second thing, other reason why your dog might have been unpredictable in this situation.
[10:04] SPEAKER_00: What I want you to think about is every dog has a stress bucket, okay?
[10:07] SPEAKER_00: And this stress bucket might be big, it might be small.
[10:11] SPEAKER_00: In your dog's case, it might be tiny, right?
[10:14] SPEAKER_00: Um and what happens is things fill this stress bucket.
[10:17] SPEAKER_00: Things that are mildly worrying, mildly exciting, mildly frustrating.
[10:22] SPEAKER_00: The bucket fills, the bucket fills.
[10:23] SPEAKER_00: And while the bucket's filling, your dog might not be showing too many signs of their stress bucket filling.
[10:29] SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
[10:30] SPEAKER_00: When it overflows, that's when we get a reaction.
[10:33] SPEAKER_00: And so the person walking past your dog next to your vehicle was probably not the trigger.
[10:41] SPEAKER_00: It was probably everything that came before that, including being petted by that lady earlier, right?
[10:46] SPEAKER_00: Including when, I don't know, we chucked the tennis ball for your dog in a break, including the fact that maybe they're on, you know, they're they're in your four-wheeling vehicle and they're seeing all these sounds, and they're hearing all these sounds, and they're seeing all these things flash by, and there's loads of movement.
[11:05] SPEAKER_00: The bucket's filling and filling, and that was just the straw that broke the camel's back, right?
[11:10] SPEAKER_00: It's awful.
[11:10] SPEAKER_00: I'm never saying that again.
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: I've just realized that is actually a really horrible idea, isn't it?
[11:14] SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it's the it's the kind of final little like thimble of water that then makes the whole bucket overflow.
[11:23] SPEAKER_00: Um, and so that could be another reason, and and I say it could be because we don't know.
[11:29] SPEAKER_00: I can just talk about dog behaviour and you can understand your dog better, but we're never gonna know for sure which pieces of this puzzle actually cause that scenario.
[11:38] SPEAKER_00: And that's where it comes back to giving them the benefit of the doubt and saying, well, I'm gonna keep you safe regardless.
[11:43] SPEAKER_00: Um, so the bucket is the second one.
[11:46] SPEAKER_00: Third one that I want you um that I want you to consider um is that in a way there's a little bit of a difference um between the two scenarios.
[11:57] SPEAKER_00: We've got um your dog is still, the lady is still, the lady is is petting your dog.
[12:04] SPEAKER_00: We've got the lady is walking past your dog and her legs are moving and your dog is still, right?
[12:11] SPEAKER_00: And so some dogs can get very stimulated by movement, especially herding breed dogs, right?
[12:17] SPEAKER_00: They've been bred to be stimulated by movement.
[12:20] SPEAKER_00: And and the funny thing is, is dogs can be especially stimulated by movement that is moving away from them, moving past them and away from them.
[12:27] SPEAKER_00: If we wanted to get a if we wanted to build a dog's desire to play with toys, and they had no desire to play with toys, you know, the first thing that I would do with that toy is I would move it past them and away from them.
[12:42] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, a little bit like um uh I don't know, they imagine that another dog is running past them and away from them.
[12:48] SPEAKER_00: That's insanely stimulating to them.
[12:51] SPEAKER_00: They struggle to disengage from that, they get very stimulated by the movement.
[12:55] SPEAKER_00: And um, sometimes that can be the thing that makes the bucket overflow.
[13:00] SPEAKER_00: Um and it it's whether it's positive stimulation, negative stimulation, it's the movement that actually has caused that bucket to overflow there.
[13:09] SPEAKER_00: So that's the third one.
[13:10] SPEAKER_00: And the fourth one that I'm just gonna throw into the mix here is that our dogs, um I find many dogs often go through life experiencing conflicts of emotion.
[13:23] SPEAKER_00: In other words, they they sometimes like something, they're sometimes worried about something.
[13:29] SPEAKER_00: You know, they they they like the the sometimes when they get cuddles from your visitors, but sometimes they get quite worried about cuddles from your visitors.
[13:38] SPEAKER_00: And what this creates is um almost like a cocktail of emotion, because they're going, they're putting themselves in the situation, they're going and getting on the person's lap, and then they're stuck there, and at some point they might feel worried and then they're snapping at that person.
[13:56] SPEAKER_00: And now we're in a situation where our dogs are actively putting themselves in situations where they're endangering other people and endangering themselves, because there's this cocktail of positive and negative outcomes that happen.
[14:08] SPEAKER_00: And this could be the case with your dog and might explain why they're being unpredictable.
[14:13] SPEAKER_00: And the thing is that um there's this unique thing in dogs that makes the, that almost supercharges this conflict of emotion.
[14:20] SPEAKER_00: Dogs hate mystery, right?
[14:23] SPEAKER_00: If they're like, if they if they see a scenario and they're like, it could be good, it could be bad, they have to go and find out if it's gonna be good or bad.
[14:31] SPEAKER_00: Even though there's the big possibility that they might be absolutely freaked out.
[14:34] SPEAKER_00: You know, the the best example would be think about the you the puppy that's off lead and they see a dog in the distance, and that dog's behaving a little bit, you know, unusually, and they go, ooh, is he gonna love me or is he gonna hate me?
[14:50] SPEAKER_00: Let's find out, right?
[14:51] SPEAKER_00: Let's charge over to him and hump his head, and then I'll know for sure.
[14:55] SPEAKER_00: And this is what tends to happen with a lot of dogs.
[14:58] SPEAKER_00: They act, they're actively attracted to situations where there's this, you know, plus or minus possibility, positive or negative possibility, good, bad.
[15:08] SPEAKER_00: And the more extreme good and the more extreme bad the possibilities, the more they get suctioned into it.
[15:14] SPEAKER_00: And that can make their behavior quite unpredictable.
[15:17] SPEAKER_00: Because then what starts to happen is they start to get suctioned into situations, but the emotions that they're experiencing are flipping between excitement, fear, extreme excitement, extreme fear.
[15:27] SPEAKER_00: And imagine if you're putting yourself in a situation and your emotion centers are flipping between excitement, fear, excitement, fear, excitement, fear, excitement, fear.
[15:36] SPEAKER_00: It escalates.
[15:38] SPEAKER_00: And at some point, you're probably just gonna lash out because you're just experiencing huge emotions.
[15:43] SPEAKER_00: Um and so that could be another reason why that is happening.
[15:47] SPEAKER_00: Now you can imagine if you've got if you I can't even remember, I can't even remember all the different um ones.
[15:54] SPEAKER_00: If you've got those four puzzle pieces, you you've got the the bucket, you've got the conflict um of emotion, you've got the movement in this picture um as well, and you had the fourth one which will come back to me at some point, um, then you know you can see how actually potentially all of those are accumulating and growing on each other, right?
[16:23] SPEAKER_00: Um and that can create very unpredictable behavior.
[16:26] SPEAKER_00: So my advice, give your oh, that was it.
[16:28] SPEAKER_00: The fourth one was are they just whispering and we're not hearing?
[16:32] SPEAKER_00: They're whispering that they don't, you know, they're not comfortable with that experience, but we're not hearing them because they're whispering and then they're going from whisper to shout, right?
[16:40] SPEAKER_00: That was the fourth one.
[16:41] SPEAKER_00: Phew, remembered.
[16:42] SPEAKER_00: Um now that you know, all of that is resolved by giving your dog the benefit of the doubt.
[16:47] SPEAKER_00: You know, if we give them the benefit of the doubt that probably they don't enjoy any of that experience, right?
[16:52] SPEAKER_00: They don't have the skills for that experience right now.
[16:55] SPEAKER_00: They're feeling a conflict of emotion right now about that, and there's a hell of a lot of movement that they can't deal with in that situation.
[17:03] SPEAKER_00: Well, now what we can do is we can say, okay, what skills do we need to build so that they can in them so that they can navigate that situation effectively, right?
[17:15] SPEAKER_00: And um and thrive in that situation.
[17:18] SPEAKER_00: And in the meantime, I'm not going to put them in that situation.
[17:23] SPEAKER_00: That's gonna, you know, build that.
[17:24] SPEAKER_00: And I know that you say my problem isn't stressful walks with my dog, and I know that you posted this question under one of the videos about the stressful walks 10-day plan.
[17:34] SPEAKER_00: Think about all of those little pieces that I've just described.
[17:37] SPEAKER_00: All of those little pieces we work on in the Help My Dog Walks a stressful 10-day course.
[17:43] SPEAKER_00: Um, we work on your dog's emotional responses to distractions, right?
[17:48] SPEAKER_00: We work on your dog's um, we work on your dog's ability to disengage from movement.
[17:54] SPEAKER_00: We work on your dog's bucket, yeah?
[17:56] SPEAKER_00: Um, and we work on your dog actually making different choices to going from whispering to shouting, yeah?
[18:04] SPEAKER_00: And so this is exactly, you know, these skills are exactly what you need.
[18:07] SPEAKER_00: This is a walk, yeah?
[18:09] SPEAKER_00: The skills that your dog needs on a walk are this are the same skills that are going to allow your dog to thrive with visitors coming to the house, are the same skills that are going to allow your dog to thrive when forewheeling, right?
[18:20] SPEAKER_00: Um but the key is that they need the skills before they get into the situation so that they can make great choices.
[18:26] SPEAKER_00: So, guys, I hope you got tons of value from that.
[18:28] SPEAKER_00: I hope it gave you some insights into why sometimes maybe your dogs might be unpredictable, whether for wheeling or not.
[18:35] SPEAKER_00: And and in understanding our dogs better, we can be better advocates for them.
[18:39] SPEAKER_00: I'll see you next time.

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