What is trigger stacking?

Did your dog ever act out while you did not see it coming? You might recognise this situation, you and your dog are out on a walk having a good time and your all of a sudden dog growls at another dog or person while you thought your dog was feeling fine. There is a possibility that this is caused by trigger stacking, something you also experience in your daily life.

There are days when things are going well, there are days when things go horribly wrong. You oversleep, you spill coffee on your shirt, your car breaks down on your commute to work, when you finally arrive at work you need to quickly print out some documents for your meeting, you rush to the printer and notice that your colleague is printing out a fifty page document, you can not deal with another setback and have an outburst at your colleague: 'Why do you need to print out this document right now? Hurry up!'

If these situations would have happened over the period of a couple of days you would have been able to deal with these 'triggers' without getting very stressed out, but because all these things happened on the same day, in quick succession, you got super stressed and had an outburst. This is what happens to your dog too.

How does this work in dogs?

Dogs need to deal with several triggers during the day.

The impact these triggers have on the dog depends on their personal situation.

A social dog that loves children might not get very stressed by a couple of children playing loudly at a playground. A fearful dog that is scared of children might get very stressed by even seeing a child in the distance walking calmly with their parents.

There are different hormones that are activated during stress, like adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline is a short lasted hormone that makes your dog go into immediate action, the fight, flight, or freeze response. Once the trigger is gone, the adrenaline goes away. Cortisol on the other hand can stay in the body for up to 8 hours. If multiple triggers are present in a short period of time, the dogs body does not have enough time to get balanced again. This causes the cortisol level to rise and add up to the previous level, making your dog feel super stressed out which might result in a bite.

An example of trigger stacking

Dog Bobby is a bit fearful of strange dogs and very hesitant when meeting dogs, he is okay with children and does not mind joggers or cyclists as long as they curve around him when they pass.

Out on a walk there's a child that pets Bobby on the head, this is not Bobby's preferred way to get petted, which causes his stress level to rise, he shows his hackles and licks his lips. Right after that a cyclist races passed Bobby at a close proximity which makes Bobby uncomfortable, he shakes it off. But then the last straw that breaks the camel's back, an off lead dog approaches, Bobby starts to growl and as soon as the dog is near Bobby he is not having any of it and bites the dog. Bobby's owner is shocked and keeps apologising to the other owner. Not sure what just happened, he says: 'My dog normally does not behave this way.' Trigger stacking causes dogs to use behaviour which they normally might not show, which is why it comes as a surprise when your dog snaps or bite unexpectedly. Your dog never decides to bite without warning, you might not be able to pick up these signals yet. There is always a cause for this behaviour and accumulated stress, trigger stacking, might be one of them. How can you prevent trigger stacking?

• Learn to read dog body language

Observe your dog and learn which stress signals your dog shows.

What do you notice about his ears, mouth, face, tails and the body as a whole. A great book with super clear illustrations about dog body language is: Doggie Language by Lili Chin. Once you are aware of even the tiniest signals, you will be able to tell when a situation is getting too stressful for your dog and he needs your help.

• Identify your dog's triggers

There are many situations that either make your dog feel comfortable or uncomfortable, think of going to the vet, getting picked up, family and friends that come over and excitedly greet your dog, things that you come across during walks, strangers, dogs, cyclists etc. Observe your dog and write the triggers down in a journal. Dogs that are dog reactive are not necessarily reactive to all dogs. Your dog might specifically be reactive to medium sized, female, long haired brown dogs. Same goes for dogs that are stranger reactive, they might not be reactive to all strangers. It’s for you to find out what your dog’s triggers are as specific as possible.

• Find your dog's threshold

Every dog has its own threshold and every dog has the ability to bite when being pushed to the limit. Find your dog's threshold by learning which situations are stressful for your dog and how often he can endure these situations without going over threshold.

• Manage stressful situations

Avoid triggers when you notice that your dog is getting very stressed. During walks this can mean that you need to cross the street when there's an upcoming dog and you know that passing the dog will put your dog over threshold. Keep in mind that positive situations also cause stress, having friends over that love your dog and keep playing with him and giving him a lot of attention also adds stress. Going to a dog training class might be a fun experience for you and your dog, but this also adds stress. Keep this in mind when managing your dog.

• Allow your dog to decompress

Give your dog time to decompress after stressful situations to prevent stress from accumulating by giving your dog the possibility to rest and recover. This is key to prevent trigger stacking.