Behavioral Adjustment Training (BAT)
This uses a long leash and distance from triggers to let your reactive dog have some freedom to make the right choices.
Overview
The following information is paraphrased from Grisha Stewart’s BAT 2.0 book. I recommend you check out her short PDF and the charts on the last pages: https://grishastewart.com/BAT-basics.pdf
BAT in Brief: Follow your dog on a loose leash. Any direction is okay, except for straight at the trigger.
Tip: If he walks toward the trigger in a focused way, slowly stop him. If you see any signs of increasing stress, call your dog away.
Two main principles - following your dog using the leash skills or using Mark & Move techniques when up close to them.
Management
Management means changing your dog’s environment to make it unlikely that they’ll be triggered to do the behavior you are trying to change. There is only so much responsibility you can put on your fearful dog at this point. Like a toddler that keeps falling in the pool. To keep it from happening you could yell or explain the concept of death, but this likely won’t work. For an instant fix, parents would put up a barrier around the pool so that they don’t have a problem until swimming lessons have started and brain has matured.
This is the same for dogs. Sometimes they need environmental management to avoid overexposure to a trigger.
Videos
Prerequisites
See Trouble Before it Starts
Most dogs that bark, lunge, or bite aren’t chemically imbalanced killers, out to injure other dogs or people for sport. If you could translate what their barking or lunging at some trigger means, it would either be “Go Away!” (anger), “Get over here and play with me!” (frustration), or “Let me get out of here safely!” (fear).
Fear/Avoidance: “I want to get away.” Walking away is the best reinforcer for fearful dogs. The trigger walking away is also reinforcing. The dog’s center of gravity is low and away from the trigger (rear end tucked and legs bent) or the dog alternates between lunging forward and bouncing away.
Anger: “I want you to go away.” The trigger leaving is most reinforcing but it’s a good idea to have your dog walk away also. The dog is standing up high and stiff, squarely facing the trigger.
Frustration: “I want to get closer to you.” Ironically, walking towards the trigger and away from it seem to be reinforcing. The dog is fairly bouncy, vocal, and greets without fighting when allowed to get up close, though the dog’s rude greeting may cause the other dog to start a fight.
When the behaviors become over-the-top or obnoxious, we call that “reactivity.” The point of reactivity usually boils down to increasing or decreasing distance between the dog and the trigger. When we work at the right distance, the dog is able to move more freely and gather information. He can be interested in the environment and doesn’t need to run away from or toward triggers.
We use the scientific principles of learning theory as the model training. That may sound technical, but it’s not. The basic idea of the theory is that dogs only do what works for them. By this I mean that normal animals, including dogs and humans, repeat behaviors that are followed by reinforcement and decrease behaviors that result in punishment. It’s like survival of the fittest for behaviors, based on the consequences that each behavior brings. All behaviors that contribute to the dog’s survival and happiness survive and other behaviors go extinct.
Know the Signals
This is just a list of common behaviors based on how the dog is feeling. For more information I recommend spending time looking through the Body Language handout.
Polite Cut-Off Signals:
Head Turn or look away from trigger
Sniff Ground
Body Turn
Scratch
Lip Lick
Yawn
Shake-off
Interest Signals:
Soften eyes
Ears to neutral (relaxed)
Play Bow
Sniff previous location of where trigger was
Sniff Rear
Stress Signals:
Yawning
Tongue Flicks
Dry Panting
Frantic Sniffing
Refusing to go forward (avoid leading towards trigger)
Deliberately ignoring the trigger
Crouched, shivering, worried face
Staring at trigger after moving away
Sweaty feet, shedding
Fleeing from the trigger
Scanning around for danger
Barking, lunging
Prompting Your Dog Away
Prompts can help tip the scales toward calmness if your dog is looking at a trigger and arousal is going up. This list starts with the least intrusive and builds up from there. Try to use the lowest level so your dog has more of a chance to learn without relying on your signals. Just use the least intrusive method that you think will work. If your dog is having trouble turning away from the trigger, mark any sign of disengagement (cut-off signal), move away, and then feed the reward. See Mark & Move. Your dog may have different responses to prompts so your list may be a different order or have other options.
Shift your weight away
Calmly praise dog for looking
Shuffle your feet
Sigh or yawn
Cough
Move your hand or body into their peripheral vision
Kissy Noise
Name
“Leave It”
“Come” or “This Way” (change direction)
Apply gentle leash pressure
Pull the dog away (this can trigger an outburst)
Signals you should prompt your dog away:
Tail going up into a flag, may be wagging while body is stiff
Hackles raised
Freezing
Up on toes
Mouth closes when they see trigger
Wrinkling of skin above upper lip, behind nose, or on forehead
Whale eye - quick turn of the head and freeze, eyes stay focused on trigger
Stiffness or eye contact
Whining or growling
*If your dog may self sooth or choose to disengage then give them a moment to and move away after
In order for BAT to work, you must be able to recognize when your dog is at or below threshold versus when they are over threshold.
Choice Points
A choice point is a situation in which a dog has a decision to make, like choosing between two paths in a maze. As they walk around they have a lot of choices to make - from “do I follow this yummy odor?” to “Do I bark at that dog?” BAT setups create situations where your dog has a really high chance of choosing to sniff around and explore the area, gathering information about the trigger at a distance.
If your dog hasn’t noticed the trigger you can just wait, do something to attract their attention to it, or zigzag closer. Starting too far away is better than too close. If you are too close, the dog has a negative experience and you need to micromanage, taking away the dog’s chance to choose.
One obvious sign that your dog may be too close to the trigger is walking directly at the trigger. Straight approaches are a predictable sign that your dog is headed over threshold, so when that happens, do a slow stop or subtly change direction. Your dog will gradually be interested in meandering closer to the trigger, but don’t let them go straight there.
You don’t necessarily want your dog in working mode while doing BAT training, so when they make good choices at choice points (like turning away and moving away), there’s not much need to mark and reward with treats. The true reinforcement is the distance your dog is getting from social pressure. The dog chooses the best reinforcement at that instant (sniff a bush, walk away, etc.) by simply following them. Because you are working from farther away, the dog is likely to just move on after disengaging from the trigger.
How to Apply BAT
Follow Your Dog
In BAT setups you basically just keep the leash loose and follow your dog while staying out of their way, unless there’s a specific reason to not let them continue in a direction. You should first work without triggers around to get used to following and leash management.
Most set-ups with a semi stationary trigger have this general flow:
Stay out of the way as your dog freely explores
Slow stop if focus on the trigger gets moderately intense
Call the dog away if she can’t handle the situation on their own (Prompts)
Getting occasional check-ins is good. Respond by praising them calmly and asking where to go next. You can rotate your body to offer a change of direction.
If your dog is walking directly toward the trigger they are probably reaching their emotional threshold. Do a slow stop to prevent them from going over threshold. Relax the leash when they stop. Now wait for them to disengage from the trigger. Give them a chance to gather information and then relax their body, turn away and move on. If you stopped them in time, they can easily do this on their own. If not, you’ll need to help them with a prompt and don’t get so close next time.
Try not to micromanage your dog. If you work on the right distance, your dog can do great on their own. That said, if you see arousal going up you can always intervene if you don’t think they will make a good choice.
*Once your dog is comfortable in a certain training place and/or with a specific person/dog/trigger, remember to vary your training space. We want them to generalize this behavior so make sure you go to different locations, change up the training area, introduce new triggers.
BAT on Everyday Walks
To help practice the BAT mindset of allowing your dog the chance to make opportunities when on regular walks you’ll be relying more on Mark & Move and rewarding more often. Triggers tend to come out of nowhere and you may find yourself cornered. This is why having some decent loose leash walking, recalls, distractions like “Touch,” “Find It,” “Leave It,” “Look” can come in handy in prompting them away.
Look, Move, Treat
This is the simplest version of Mark and Move. It is useful for handling surprises in real life. Use this technique whenever the dog is likely to bark and lunge or panic if you were to let them check things out on their own. If a child pops out from behind a fence, just mark “Yes” (or call your dog) and go away giving them the treat after you moved away.
Behavior: Dog looking at trigger
Marker: “Yes!” or “Free!”
Move: Move away and feed them the treat or toy
The behavior you are reinforcing here is simply noticing the trigger. This is like the Engagement/Disengagement Game except you don’t stick around to keep playing it, instead you move away.
Choose, Move, Treat
This example of Mark and Move gives your dog more responsibility but you are still using a reward. The only difference between this example and the previous is that you are marking a different behavior than just looking at the trigger. You are waiting for a good choice. This is similar to the second part of the engagement/disengagement game, however that game wants them to look at you, for this example we will accept any form of disengagement from the trigger.
Dog sees trigger
You wait for them to make a good choice
Mark the moment they make a good choice and walk away
Reward them when they get to you and keep moving a little
Troubleshooting
Dog is in Working Mode with You
If your dog isn’t freely wandering around and taking in information from their surroundings and instead just trying to figure out how to get rewards from you then they aren’t getting the most out of BAT training. It’s not a bad thing necessarily, just continue to ignore and not reward them, hopefully sooner than later they’ll get bored.
You may need to move to an area that is more interesting for them to sniff around.
Dog Needs Direction
Some dogs feel uncomfortable being able to wander around freely and may need direction from you.
Walk near interesting smells, casually drop treats behind you for them to discover later
Use your body language to show them they have a choice of where to go. Take a slow step in a couple of directions and see which one they most readily go to.
If the dog is stressed and looking for help then you may need to end the session and remove any triggers before trying again.
Dog is Over Threshold
If any of the following situations happen, then you are probably waiting too long to stop your dog, he’s gone right from being relaxed to being overwhelmed. When you prompt a dog away from a trigger make sure to go far enough away that they don’t glance back right away.
It’s difficult to slow or stop your dog. They are already in over their head. Call them away.
Your dog walks directly towards the trigger after disengaging. Call your dog away, unless you are really sure they are relaxed enough to handle it. Most of the time they are too focused on the trigger and nearing their emotional threshold.
It takes them more than two seconds to disengage. If they are kind of stuck don’t take control right away, but be ready to suggest where to go next.
Relax and wait for him to disengage on his own then suggest that they move away, shifting your weight, walking in new direction, asking “Where to next?”
If they are getting more excited while you wait, call your dog away! His emotional balloon is inflating fast and you can give them time to check things out. Here’s some signs it’s time to intervene with a prompt:
Face muscles tight
Taller
Up on toes
Breathing faster
Heart rate going up
Mouth closing
Leaning toward trigger
Spine pointing directly at trigger
Chest puffing out
Ears forward
Tail up
Forehead wrinkled