Can reactive and fearful dogs be ambassadors?

When we think of breed ambassadors, we picture a dog who’s essentially “perfect” in every way imaginable. They certainly have no behavioral issues to speak of, right? Breed ambassadors are one of a kind, capable of meeting anyone or anything without any problems whatsoever.  As the owner of reactive, fearful dogs I never thought or considered my dogs to be breed ambassadors. That is until I changed my idea of what a breed ambassador can be.

I believe that when you own a fearful or reactive dog your call to be an ambassador is even greater. While there most certainly are rockstar dogs out there who are making great strides for this breed, there are also many pit bull type dogs who are capable of amazing things that may be reactive or fearful. It’s our job to get the message out there that all dogs are individuals and that means that sometimes they’re going to be fearful of people or maybe they bark at dogs whenever they see them-AND that we can change that by using humane training methods to obtain more desirable (or shall I say ambassador-like?) behavior. It’s our job to show the diversity of these dogs by making an effort to do more with our dogs, whether that means teaching your dogs tricks or taking them through a beginner agility class or simply working on helping them become more comfortable and confident in their environment.

When I got Nina, she was an adolescent dog who was people and dog reactive. She didn’t have a lot of confidence and a lot of things scared her. In class, we had full barriers around her otherwise she’d go over threshold. Thankfully I knew more than what I did with Boris and Nina has never been trained with pain. While Nina wasn’t the dog that could go out and meet tons of new people, we set out to change people’s minds about pit bulls by showing just how versatile they are when it comes to training. We worked on tricks, we worked on dog sports, we did basic obedience and she had a blast doing it all. Focusing on training, we were starting to discover Nina had become an ambassador in her own way. With the help of force free training Nina has made epic improvements with her issues. In class she no longer needs any visual barriers, she can be around people and dogs without barking, and along the way has learned some really cool tricks. We work on advocating for not only humane training methods but going out and doing more with your dog as well. Reactive and fearful dogs don’t need to be locked away from the world, they need understanding, compassion, and some yummy chicken. My hopes in working with Nina and sharing that with people is that those with fearful and reactive dogs are inspired to work more with their dogs and help them build confidence.

What I’ve come to discover is that ambassadors, like dogs, are individuals and that there are so many amazing breed ambassadors who are doing all different kinds of awesome things out there waiting to be discovered. We as owners just need to make the decision on whether or not we’re willing to answer the call. Will you answer?