What does it mean to bubble wrap your fearful, reactive or aggressive dog?

People use the metaphor of bubble wrapping people or dogs from bad experiences like it’s a bad thing…but is it?

If your end goal is to always protect your fearful, aggressive or anxious dog from everything that might scare them, we can do better than that. However, when our fearful dog is still early on in the process, when they can’t yet handle the unpredictable nature of the real world and/or while we’re troubleshooting medications or treatments with their vet, the best thing we can do is bubble wrap them and micromanage the things they are exposed to. This is because practice of reactive, aggressive or fearful behaviour, exposure to things beyond their comfort level and bad experiences will prevent your dog from making progress. The best course of action of action is to expose them in very controlled ways so that they can be successful - and then little by little, adding in more real life elements as they progress.

So bubble wrap away and be intentional about what you expose your anxious, fearful, aggressive or reactive dog to and how you do it for best chance of results

Tess Morgan is a multicertified dog trainer and behaviour consultant in London, Ontario. She specializes in training for reactive, fearful, anxious and aggressive dogs. She sees clients for both in-home dog training in London, ON and virtual training worldwide.