Blog — reactivity

Many dogs who struggle with reactivity, behavioral changes, or sudden “attitude shifts” are quietly carrying something we don't always see: pain that's being filtered through the nervous system. To understand why pain can hide during activity, show up during rest, and dramatically increase reactivity, we need to talk about three related—but often confused—concepts: Nociception, Stress-Induced Analgesia, and Pain. Nociception is not pain Nociception is the nervous system's process of detecting potential tissue damage or threat—things like excessive pressure, inflammation, chemical irritation, or joint strain—and sending that information to the brain. Importantly: Nociception is the signal Pain is the experience A...

What is Neuroception? Neuroception is a term coined by Dr. Stephen Porges as part of his Polyvagal Theory, referring to the subconscious, automatic process of scanning the environment for cues of safety or danger. It is a "built-in radar" that operates below the level of conscious thought, allowing a dog's nervous system to detect threats and initiate survival behaviors (fight, flight, or freeze) long before they consciously perceive a danger. As dog owners, understanding neuroception is crucial because it helps us realize that a dog's "bad" behavior is often actually a fear-based, involuntary survival response rather than disobedience or defiance....

Emotional Capacity: The Foundation of Canine Somatics Everything for me in the world of canine somatics comes back to one central idea: emotional capacity. When we strip away the noise—training methods, behavior labels, quick fixes—we’re left with something much simpler and far more powerful. A dog’s ability to navigate the world is not about obedience or control. It’s about how much they can handle, process, and recover from. Rethinking Reactivity Reactivity is often misunderstood. At its core, reactivity is not a behavior problem—it’s a capacity problem. It reflects a dog’s limited ability to deal with outside stressors. When a dog...

  Balance and Proprioception are Deeply Intertwined Proprioception (your body's sense of position) provides the raw data (where you are) that your balance system uses (with input from eyes and inner ears) to make constant, tiny adjustments via your muscles to keep you steady and upright, preventing falls and allowing coordinated movement, with balance training effectively enhancing this internal GPS system. Essentially, better balance means better proprioception because the challenges of balancing force your proprioceptors to work harder and smarter, improving nerve signals and muscle response. Proprioception (body position in space) and interoception (internal body states like hunger, fatigue) are...

  State Before Story: Creating Autonomic Flexibility In behavior work, we often focus on what a dog is doing and what we want them to do instead. But underneath every behavior is something more fundamental: the dog’s nervous system state. Before there is behavior, there is state. And before there is “story” or interpretation, there is physiology. This is the foundation of autonomic flexibility—the ability for a dog to move fluidly between different nervous system states without becoming stuck in any one pattern. Without this flexibility, behavior becomes rigid. The dog may appear either overly activated and reactive, or shut...