Trigger stacking
You woke up and stubbed your toe on the corner of the bed.
When you started getting dressed for work you realized the shirt you wanted to wear has a spot.
You’re really looking forward to eating some toast and honey, but you’re out of honey.
The phone rings, and you pick it up thinking it’s the doctor’s call you’ve been waiting for, but it’s actually a spammer and they won’t get off the phone, so you end up hanging up on them.
On the way to work, someone cuts you off. When you walk in the door someone jostles your arm and spills your coffee so it dribbles down the side of your cup and onto your hand. You snap, “Jesus, would you watch where you’re going?”
Your boss, who jogged your arm, looks at you like you’ve lost your mind. “Sorry.”
Inwardly you’re thinking, Fuck fuck fuck. Outwardly you apologize. You get into the office and your phone rings. It’s your ten year old, and they want to know if they can go to Jimmy’s tonight. You say no. They ask why. You bark at them to stop whining and no, they can’t go because you said.
When you get off the phone you realize you were just a dick to your ten year old, and you groan. It was a nice request, easily done, and instead you bit their head off. Why?
Trigger stacking.
Let me give you another example.
Your dog starts out on their walk. They see another dog, and that dog is saying, “Hey, I could take you in a fight!” But they resist responding and keep on going.
A squirrel dashes across their path, and they start to dash after it, but a tug on the leash reminds them they aren’t supposed to. They whine, but behave.
A dog behind a fence barks curses and threats at them.
A cat streaks across the street and under a car, but they maintain their composure.
A puppy yaps inside a house: “Come play with me! Come play with me! Come play with me!” They can’t even respond.
A dog rounds a corner and is suddenly right there in their face, and your dog jumps, startled, and barks. You yank them away, apologizing to the other owner: “I don’t know what’s with him, he’s normally good with dogs.”
What’s with him? Trigger stacking.
By now I hope you have an idea of what trigger stacking is. It’s little things that go wrong, and they just stack on top of each other. From a physiological perspective, adrenaline and cortisol and other hormones are released each time, until finally enough are released that they crest that point at which we react.
Trigger stacking is the reason we present our dog with something difficult, and then take breaks. It’s also why we don’t push training past a certain point. And it’s the reason your dog does so well, but only for x amount of time.
Trigger stacking happens when people bring their dogs into Petco, and maybe their dog is a little shy of people. So we teach them what to do when they see someone, practice in the “safe” training area, and then we venture onto the floor. Each person we see is another trigger, and one of the things I’m watching for is when that stack starts getting too high.
This is where knowing dog body language comes in. Know your stress signals: whites of the eyes and/or back molars show, and the ears flatten or fold against the skull. If one of these increases, triggers are stacking up. It’s time for a break, or to quit altogether. You dog isn’t going to learn a lot once stress has kicked in, so at that point it’s about managing the situation so no bad associations are made until you can get them somewhere where they can relax.
Push a little. Break a little. Let those hormones die down, let the tension in their muscles release, play a game like tug to help them break down the stress hormones that are already present. Then, IF they’re calm enough, try again.
If you’re out in the world and your dog reacts “suddenly” to something, keep in mind what’s come before. If you can note those things, you’ll also start noticing the tension building in your dog. That “sudden” reaction becomes very predictable, when you know that the triggers are stacking up.
When something does happen, give yourself and your dog some slack. We can’t always stop the triggers from stacking, and sometimes blow ups happen. Apologize to yourself, your dog, any casualties, take a breather, and try again later.
Jenna
