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.
Management
Adjust your dog’s environment to prevent triggering unwanted behaviors. Just like a toddler who might fall into a pool, it's better to put up a barrier (like a fence) than to lecture. Dogs also need environmental management to avoid triggers until they are ready to handle them.
Videos
Prerequisites
See Trouble Before it Starts
Most barking, lunging, or biting behaviors stem from fear, anger, or frustration:
Fear/Avoidance: "I want to get away." Walking away from the trigger is reinforcing.
Anger: "I want you to go away." The trigger leaving is reinforcing, but walking away can also help.
Frustration: "I want to get closer." Moving toward and away from the trigger can be reinforcing.
When behaviors get extreme, it's called reactivity, which usually involves increasing or decreasing distance from the trigger. Proper training helps dogs stay calm by teaching them to gather information rather than reacting.
Dogs repeat behaviors that bring rewards and avoid ones that bring punishment. This is based on learning theory: behaviors that promote survival and happiness are reinforced, while others fade away.
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 calm your dog when they're reacting to a trigger. Start with the least intrusive method and use only what’s necessary. Mark any sign of disengagement (cut-off signal), move away, and reward when your dog turns away from the trigger. See Mark & Move. The goal is to give your dog the chance to learn without relying on constant cues. 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 when your dog decides how to react, like choosing between paths. BAT setups encourage dogs to explore and gather information from a distance. Start farther from the trigger to avoid negative experiences. If your dog heads straight for the trigger, stop or change direction. No need to reward for good choices, as the real reinforcement is the dog’s freedom from social pressure. Let them choose to move on naturally.
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:
Free Exploration: Stay out of the way as your dog freely explores.
Moderate Intensity: Slow stop if focus on the trigger gets moderately intense.
Prompting: Call the dog away if she can’t handle the situation on their own (Prompts).
Occasional check-ins are good. Praise calmly and change direction if needed. If your dog heads toward the trigger, stop slowly to prevent crossing their threshold. Wait for them to disengage and move on. If not, use a prompt and keep more distance next time. Avoid micromanaging; let your dog handle it, but intervene if arousal rises.
*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