When dog trainers talk about a canine behavior “threshold,” they generally have a common understanding of what is meant. This is pretty miraculous when you consider how nebulous the definition of a Threshold is for behavior.
What is a Dog’s “Threshold”
When dog trainers talk about a canine behavior “threshold,” they generally have a common understanding of what is meant. This is pretty miraculous when you consider how nebulous the definition of a Threshold is for behavior.
The most accurate interpretation of a threshold is the point beyond which a dog’s behavior changes from one state to another. A dog who has moved from a calm and responsive state to an agitated and unresponsive one has crossed a threshold. Commonly, this interpretation of a behavior threshold is specific to the point beyond which a dog begins expressing an unwanted (and typically aggressive behavior) towards a stimulus.
For example, if you are walking a reactive dog and nobody is around, your dog can most likely follow known cues, eat food and generally work with you. However, if another dog (the stimulus) approaches, your dog might become increasingly agitated and struggle to pay attention.There will come a point – the threshold – after which your dog suddenly reacts by barking and lunging towards the other dog. Most definitions will include or imply that the threshold is also a point of no return; easy to approach, but once surpassed it can be very difficult to go back to doing what they were doing beforehand.
Dogs described as “over-threshold” have reached an emotional state so intense that they cannot function as they typically would under baseline conditions. Most commonly, dogs described as over-threshold cannot follow known cues, cannot respond to their own name, and cannot even eat their favorite treats from right under their noses. This over-threshold state, which is actually a stress response, vexes many a pet-parent. When your dog is unresponsive to cues and food, normal operant style training does not work. The path forward becomes very unclear, and mounting desperation can lead to ineffective, high-stress and exhausting strategies for both human and dog alike. Put simply, if your dog is panicking, repeating “sit” at them while waving a piece of steak in their face will yield no results and frustrate the both of you.
The problem is that knowing this definition of a threshold isn’t valuable in practice. A dog isn’t simply fine until they aren’t. There are ample warning signs that a dog is approaching their threshold, and this nuance is lost when we draw our line in the sand between “All Good” and “Hopeless.”
The reason two dog trainers understand the concept of a threshold almost implicitly isn’t because these definitions are truly sufficient. It’s because we have a collective shared experience – many hours of observation – dancing around this invisible line in the sand. There’s an art in pushing your dog out of their comfort zone, just a little, without pushing them so far that they go over their threshold. When you come back around to describe the experience to somebody without those hard hours, these definitions can start to feel vague. When you try to actually measure or map out the threshold, it becomes downright slippery.
Measuring a Dog’s Threshold
Often, dog trainers use a behaviorism-style approach to training. Since we can’t know how the dog is feeling internally, we don’t try to guess. We can only measure observable behavior and track any differences to understand whether or not our methods are working effectively. Measuring threshold is important, not only to ensure that the dog is in the right state to learn, but to track how the threshold itself changes as we progress through the training plan. In theory, a successful training plan will produce a dog who no longer crosses the threshold as readily as they once did. Unfortunately, tracking and measuring threshold is no easy task.
In a perfectly controlled setting, we might be able to use the stimulus intensity as a proxy to measure threshold. For example, if a strange dog appearing at 10 meters away does not promote a stress response but at 8 meters away it does, we can make some inferences about where the threshold is via the metric of proximity, about 8 or 9 m. The same can be true for other metrics like:
- the volume of sounds,
- size of dogs and
- speed of moving objects.
When training using set-ups in a facility, proxy metrics can be hugely valuable, but it isn’t always feasible to train set-ups. We live in the real world. Each stimulus encountered outside is an independent study of one, and your mileage will vary if you are trying to predict your dog’s reaction using a single proxy metric like distance. It’s slippery because it’s often very helpful to know that a dog will typically not react to other dogs passing outside a set distance, but then it can seem surprising when this rule is broken because the passing dog in question was more intense in a different way; perhaps a larger size, or barking.
Dog Body Language in Measuring Thresholds
The most effective measurement that we have for threshold is body language. As a dog approaches their threshold, their outward body language, which is simply behavior, will change in stages. For a dog who guards food, we might see behavior progress from freezing to covering to growling, then snarling and eventually biting as the stimulus (an approaching human) increases in intensity. We know that we are approaching the threshold for biting, because the dog is already growling softly. The same is true of dogs who urinate on meeting a new person, or dogs who lunge at other dogs on leash. We are on the pathway, so to speak, and we can make predictions about what will happen next. In every scenario, escalating body language behaviors will inform us of an impending threshold for the target behavior. By understanding how body language behavior changes as we increase stimulus intensity, we can usually avoid triggering a full blown stress response by removing either the dog or the stimulus from the scenario, or by preventing the stimulus intensity from increasing any further.
This takes us away from the “line in the sand” metaphor for threshold and presents a progression pathway instead. By making predictions about where the threshold might be, we can avoid it. The infographic below, by When Hounds Fly, illustrates this.
This isn’t the end of the story. We need at least one bombshell revelation per blog post, so here it comes: I don’t use the concept of a single threshold with my clients much anymore. We don’t want to trigger a stress response at all, so emphasizing this particular threshold is about as useful as telling a client to cross a minefield, then spending all of your time describing the explosion without explaining the safe road across to the other side. Instead, I’ll explain how to navigate and avoid this over-threshold stress response – the dog trainer equivalent of a map and a compass.
Two-Steps in Dog Thresholds
Amy Cook wrote a blog back in 2019 which spoke about a “One-Step” threshold. Amy postulates that while dogs have many thresholds, the only threshold that really matters for training is the first step your dog takes away from feeling great. The moment your dog takes a single step on the behavior escalation pathway towards a stress response you can consider them “over-threshold” for the state of calm and apply your behavior modification protocol. It’s never too soon to help your dog return to baseline, so why wait for things to get worse?
This article resonated with me, but I still found it difficult to simply and adequately explain “threshold” to my reactive dog clients. It was sometime after reading this blog post that I started using two new phrases to describe the concept to my clients: “Threshold of Perception” and “Threshold of Behavior.” I needed two thresholds, because I want my clients to perform different training tasks depending on where their dog is on the progression pathway towards stress. By having these two thresholds, I can more easily map out for them what to do, and when to do it. The first threshold, the Threshold of Perception, is the moment the dog notices the trigger stimulus. This typically coincides with Amy Cook’s “One-Step” threshold, as most dogs will become mildly concerned once they notice the stimulus, displaying subtle body language signals like yawning, lip licking, self-grooming, looking away and failure to engage in play. The “Threshold of Behaviour” happens a little bit further along the stress progression pathway, at the onset of a more intense stress signal. These body language signals are unique to each dog, but typical signals are heavier breathing, stiff front legs, upright posture, intense staring, mouth tensing, weight shifting forward and/or ears pulling back.
It was much later that I discovered Malena Martini’s Certified Separation Anxiety Trainers (CSATs) had the lingo for this all along. If a dog has separation anxiety, the first threshold the dog crosses (loosely mapped with my Threshold for Perception) is the moment they realize they are alone, usually when the human leaves through the front door. The second threshold (Threshold for Behaviour) occurs when the dog begins to feel uncomfortable, which can happen several minutes or even hours after the human leaves. It can then be several more minutes before the dog progresses through escalating discomfort to hit their classic over-threshold stress response. CSATs describe the space between the threshold for onset of early stress behavior and going over-threshold as the “Zone of Itchiness”. Interestingly, just because a dog is in the Zone of Itchiness, doesn’t mean they will always progress linearly to an over-threshold response, many separation anxiety dogs learn to self-soothe and bring themselves back to baseline rather than tip over into panic. This wasn’t a revelation for me, but it did bolster a gut feeling that I had after reading Amy’s blog. Sometimes it’s OK (and dare I say even beneficial) to walk more than one step along the progression pathway towards stress, so long as the dog has some kind of de-escalation exit-ramp to take or is saved from going over-threshold by a timely intervention. Indeed, the CSAT separation anxiety treatment protocol involves delving briefly, intentionally and systematically into the Zone of Itchiness; gradually building resilience in a dog who is afraid of being alone. Progress is made much faster this way, compared to lingering in the relatively safe area between the Threshold of Perception and the Threshold of Behaviour.
While separation anxiety training enhanced my understanding of thresholds, particularly the Zone of Itchiness, it doesn’t map perfectly onto reactivity training. This led me to coin the two-step threshold concept for my clients.
The Threshold of Perception
The Threshold of Perception is the most important threshold to grasp at the beginning of any training plan which aims to mitigate stress in the dog in response to a specific trigger stimulus. It’s our first opportunity to intervene, and it’s the easiest place to find success while the dog is actually aware of the trigger stimulus. Remember, if the dog hasn’t noticed the trigger stimulus, counterconditioning and desensitization protocols won’t work. The dog must perceive the stimulus before any new associations can be made.
When a dog first notices a stimulus (a dog, skateboard, child or another dog), usually the first tip-off that our dog has noticed is a look in the direction of the stimulus. Be careful here, because some dogs have different body language signals. Where one dog stares, another might drop their tail and look away, or another might self-groom. Many dogs will simply look away, but continue to glance back at the trigger stimulus as if to keep tabs on it. Identifying what your dog looks like at the Threshold of Perception is crucial, so don’t make any assumptions. When you see your dog pass this threshold, it’s your cue to begin some sort of training.
The types of training that work at this stage are, in my opinion, based mainly around desensitization – controlled exposure. This means the dog is allowed to look at the stimulus and is protected from further escalation. Either the stimulus is removed or the stimulus is present at such low intensity that the dog can safely de-escalate away from stress on their own. Some desensitization plans do not involve strategic reinforcement, as food or toys can mask early body language cues for stress. Think about how a food motivated dog might be so excited about treats that the subtle stress signals are harder or impossible to spot over the wiggling and eagerness.
The notable exception for this is personal play, which is a wonderful reinforcer to use alongside desensitization plans, as it does not easily mask early stress signals. If you’re not sure how to apply desensitization based protocols, have a look at Grisha Stewart’s, “BAT 2.0,” or Amy Cook’s “Play Way.” The CSAT protocol for separation anxiety also leverages this heavily. Desensitization is a wonderful tool to have in your toolkit, because it empowers dogs to find their own exit-ramp away from the stress response. Depending on the problem my client is facing, I will typically give them some form of desensitization based exercise to perform at the Threshold of Perception.
There are two issues with training at the Threshold of Perception. The first is we humans are often pretty bad at it until we gain the critical observational skills to notice those subtle early signs that our dog has perceived a trigger stimulus. This means there can be an ugly trial-and-error phase for new handlers, and the dog may step into the stress pathway more often and further than they should.
The other issue is for my city-dwelling friends. You know this issue intimately. It would be lovely to hang out at the Threshold of Perception and then stop the stimulus from intensifying, but unfortunately, this just isn’t realistic in a place where stimuli are everywhere, at too-high intensity, as soon as you leave your front door.
Modifying the Threshold of Perception
One of the big ways that we can help our city dogs is to modify the Threshold of Perception. Making your dog more or less sensitive to perceiving a stimulus can go a very long way to turn an environment from “impossible to train in” to “difficult, but achievable.”
You can influence your dog to become less likely to perceive a stimulus in several ways. You can do this completely by accident by having your hand in your treat pouch. Yes, I am specifically calling you out – stop doing that. You know who you are. When your hand is near the food, your food-motivated dog may be so interested in this that they simply don’t notice the world around them. It might help you get out of a tight spot, like an elevator or a busy trail head. But it won’t do your dog any favors in the long run if they’re always wearing treat-goggles that limit their perception to 2 feet in front of their nose.
Sometimes we do want to mask the Threshold of Perception on purpose, so the dog doesn’t notice a stimulus at all. We would do this if the stimulus intensity might reach a critical point when the dog would notice. For example, if your dog barks at people through the car window on a drive, we might use a covered car-crate or a calming cap. You can’t bark at what you can’t see, and it’s fairly easy to keep the world outside of your car away from your dog inside your car.
If your dog doesn’t see the stimulus until it’s reached an intolerable intensity, then by the time you enter the stress progression pathway you are much closer to a full blown stress response than is useful, plus you are dealing with an unhelpful “startle” element now, too. In fact, if the Threshold for Perception is masked until a critical trigger intensity is reached, you will have a dog who moves from calm to full-blown over-threshold stress response with none of those escalating body language signals that serve as your only road map. I call these dogs “explosive”, because they might seem to explode from one state to another. For these dogs, modifying the Threshold of Perception in the opposite direction is crucial.
To help your dog notice stimuli in the environment sooner than they normally would, you can either teach them an informational cue, or reinforce them for noticing low-intensity triggers. Leslie McDevitt’s “Look At That” game teaches an informational cue quite well, by teaching our dog to look around the environment when we say “Look At That.” The dog can then clock the trigger stimulus early, giving you more room to implement your chosen training strategy. Another way of enhancing your dog’s Threshold for Perception is the “Engage” part of the “Engage/Disengage” game, or Stage 1 of Emma Parson’s Click to Calm. This teaches your dog to automatically scan the environment for interesting things, rather than relying on a cue from the handler. If you’re feeling fancy, you can do a bit of both.
Of course, the other way to do it is to use your environment wisely. Sun Tzu emphasized the importance of high ground in the Art of War thousands of years ago; you can see further when higher up, and that gives you an advantage. If you have a small dog, take a moment to think about how far they can actually see at ground level, and then maybe take them somewhere with a nice little hill to practice your training exercises.
The Threshold of Behavior
I don’t like talking about the threshold that you cross right before a full blown stress response because by the time you’re at this threshold, it’s already too late to implement any kind of training plan. Instead, I choose a specific behavior or set of behaviors on the pathway towards stress as my “threshold” instead.
When these behaviors occur, the client will be given a specific exercise to do. With desensitization at the Threshold of Perception, the dog learns to self-regulate. However, when you’re already more than one foot into the stress progression pathway, it makes more sense to guide your dog to the exit ramp yourself.
There are many ways to do this. The two main strategies are:
- Teaching a different, incompatible behavior
To do this cue the incompatible behavior at the onset of the target behavior and then reinforce for a correct response. - Utilizing a counterconditioning strategy
To do this, pair the target behavior with a reinforcer such as a treat.
Some techniques use a combination of both strategies. I’m not going to go into any specific training plans here, because there are so many, but my favorites are Engage/Disengage and some of the “Control Unleashed” Pattern Games by Leslie McDevitt. The crucial takeaway is explaining to your client, “When you see X behavior, do Y protocol.”
Let’s say that you are letting your reactive dog watch dogs playing at 50 feet away inside a park. At this distance, the Threshold of Perception, your dog looks up momentarily and then goes back to sniffing the grass or playing. One of the dogs comes out and advances towards you, causing your dog to stiffen and stare. “Staring” is your Threshold for Behaviour, so now you switch gears and deliver treats as soon as your dog stares at the approaching dog, and then gain some distance if your dog escalates any more. For a more sensitive dog, this counterconditioning step might happen at the Threshold of Perception, and then an exit-strategy is implemented at the Threshold of Behavior. If you’re dealing with a couple of separate issues, you can even have several different Thresholds for Behavior without contradicting yourself. If you have too many, though, you’ll need to start making some gnarly flow-charts which I don’t recommend.
My Dog is Stressed. Now What?
The reality of living in a busy city environment is that, from time to time, our dogs will go over-threshold in the full-blown stress meltdown sense of the word. So it’s worth taking some time to talk about this state, even though no real training can occur at this point.
Some dogs are obvious in their stress response – lunging, barking or running away. Others might freeze and become unresponsive in their stillness instead. Some dogs will lunge and bark without being stressed at all, happily eating treats and following cues all the while! It is worth “describing the explosion” a little bit, so the handler doesn’t try to push through a stress response when they should take some time to implement some damage control.
If a dog truly goes into a stress response, the first priority is to remove the stimulus or move the dog away from the stressful environment. To do this, you may need to master some defensive leash handling techniques or use equipment which allows you to safely move the dog away from the trigger stimulus. The next priority is to decompress in a safe space with no stressful stimuli (easier said than done sometimes). You can play some relaxing scent games like scatter feeding, but the real trick to overcoming a stress response is giving the dog time and space to fully recover from the incident.
Get in the Zone
Armed with a more nuanced understanding of “threshold,” my hope is that dog guardians can put themselves in the ideal zone for training, both for desensitization and counterconditioning techniques. Playing it too safe by staying well away from a trigger stimulus can prevent the dog from actually perceiving it, but getting too close can result in an unhelpful-at-best, downright dangerous at worst, stress response. Moreover, the optimal place for desensitization work is earlier in the stress progression pathway than most people realize, while I’ve found that counterconditioning is more versatile. It’s a game of “hot and cold” which doesn’t have to be complete guesswork. With practice, you will gain a better understanding of your dog’s stress responses, how far along the stress response pathway you are, and which training interventions will work best at any given time. Good luck out there!
Sarah Shapiro-Ward, Ph.D, KPA-CTP, CPDT-KA, CTDI
Sarah has lived and worked as a professional dog trainer in two of Canada’s most densely populated downtown communities: Toronto and Vancouver. Sarah is best known for her viral trick training videos with her Cockapoo Percy, including tricks such as playing Jenga, Connect Four and Painting on Canvas. She also has a standard poodle, Eleanor, and a part-time horse, Echo.
Before becoming a dog trainer, Sarah completed her Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 2015. Though she has long since left the laboratory behind, she still enjoys keeping up with the literature and applying her skills of critical analysis to dog training scenarios.
Sarah is a frequent guest on the live call-in radio show CBC BC Today, answering Vancouver’s dog behaviour questions. She has also been featured on Jimmy Fallon, The Daily Mail UK, NHK Japan, Good Morning America, The New York Post & others.
Besides training tricks, Sarah teaches group classes and private lessons for city dog owners across Vancouver through When Hounds Fly. She can be found on Instagram and TikTok @prancingpoodles.
