Pete (@TidyWeekender)

Emotions are the precursor to behaviour. For reactivity and aggression in particular; Before any muscle moves, your dog has detected something in the environment, the brain has processed that thing and has begun reacting to it by either: 1) Ignoring it because it's a known non-threat or is not interesting 2) Begun the fight or flight response by dumping adrenaline and cortisol into the nervous system and bloodstream In the case of point 2, this ranges from mildly concerned to potential death threat panic / offence is the best form of defence. This is the fundamental underlying reason why techniques such as redirection, counter conditioning or punishment based corrections or other dog training things do not work to solve the issue in the long term. They all fail to address the cause - the emotional reaction. To change the behaviour, first we have to change the feeling. Changing the feeling can only be done by voluntary confrontation of fears and positive experiences as a result.