It can be challenging to distinguish between touch sensitivity, redirection, and reactivity in dogs. This is because the behaviors can appear to be similar, so it’s easy to confuse them as each other. Understanding the differences, however, helps identify the underlying causes. By understanding what’s causing the behavior, we can design a personalized training plan that addresses their behavioral challenges for long-term change. In this blog, we will explain each of these behaviors and compare redirection and reactivity to touch sensitivity.
What is touch sensitivity?
Touch sensitivity is when a dog is overly sensitive to touch and displays aggression or fear in certain contexts. They may be especially sensitive to being touched around their paws, ears, head, and rear.
Touch sensitive dogs become reactive, aggressive, or avoidant in response to being handled. Common situations in which this behavior arises includes:
- Veterinary or grooming visits
- Moved or bumped when laying down
- Taking on or off collars or harnesses
- Grabbed or pulled by the collar
Now that we defined what touch sensitivity is, let’s discuss the causes of touch sensitivity.
What can cause a dog to be touch sensitive:
Harsh training techniques that assert dominance can be harmful to the dog and can cause touch sensitivity. These techniques can include being pinned to the ground, shocks, stringing dogs off the ground and using throw chains. This can cause unwanted aggression and fear, including when being touched.
Puppy’s can develop touch sensitive behaviors by living in crowded places such as an overcrowded pet store or puppy mill. Having a small number of litter mates and being taken out of the litter before 8 weeks can cause touch sensitive behaviors.
Dogs that have been abused are more likely to develop touch sensitivity behaviors. These dogs will not want people to touch them because of the trauma they have gone through.
Now that we’ve explored what causes touch sensitivity, let’s look how this behavior is different from reactivity.
The differences between touch sensitivity and reactivity:
It can be challenging to distinguish between touch sensitivity and reactivity. Both behaviors can result in a dog biting someone when they get too close, but the triggers for the reaction are different.
Reactivity can occur when a dog is aggressive or avoidant of an unfamiliar person who is near them. For example, a dog may be reactive towards someone who comes into their line of sight during a walk. In most cases, reactive behavior starts before the person is close enough to touch the dog. You may notice a change in a dog’s body language, such as a stiff posture, a closed mouth, staring at the target without losing focus, barking, growling, snapping, or even lunging towards the target.
Some dogs may not show any reaction or warning signs until someone is within touching distance. If the dog bites the unfamiliar person when they get too close or touches them, the behavior is still considered reactivity and not touch sensitivity if the following factors are present:
- The dog is not touch sensitive around familiar people
- The dog reacts at a very short distance, so a stranger can approach closely before an incident occurs.
- The dog does not have a history of negative experiences with the unfamiliar person, such as being groomed or receiving vaccinations.
In contrast, touch sensitivity occurs when the act of being touched itself is the trigger. Touch sensitivity can be focused on particular people, such as groomers or veterinary staff, often because of the dog’s past experiences.
Touch sensitivity reactions will often occur more often with family members because they live with the dog. Reactivity is different because it is usually targeted towards unfamiliar people.
Touch sensitivity and redirection
It can be difficult to tell the difference between redirection and touch sensitivity, as both behaviors can result in a bite following physical contact. However, the underlying causes for the incident are different.
Redirection is when a dog bites a person or animal within a few feet, even though they weren’t the original cause of the dog’s aggression. For example, a dog can become reactive when seeing another dog at a park. In this heightened state, if someone tries to touch or restrain them, the dog may suddenly turn and bite that person instead. In this example, the bite is not a reaction to being touched, but is a redirection of aggression that was directed towards the other dog.
This is called redirected aggression. Redirected aggression is different from touch sensitivity, where the dog’s reaction is caused by discomfort or fear of being touched, not by the presence of another trigger. Because touch is involved in both scenarios, it’s easy to mistake redirected aggression for touch sensitivity.
Behavior modification training can effectively address these problem behaviors
We hope that this blog has helped you with understand the difference between touch sensitivity, redirection, and reactivity in dogs. Beyond the Dog Sarasota offers personalized programs to address touch sensitivity and reactivity with positive reinforcement and classical counterconditioning. All of our training programs are offered through one-on-one sessions at your home or local Houston neighborhood, depending on your training goals. If you are ready for training that delivers long term positive change, schedule a free consult today!
At Beyond the Dog Sarasota, our training is science-based and backed by over 20 years of experience. Co-founded by Dr. Kristyn Echterling-Savage, Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), our programs draw from her research and decades of hands-on experience. Every dog and household is unique, which is why our training is fully personalized to your training goals.
