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In this month's addition of dog insights I am going to help you understand something that is easily overlooked, but yet has a big part to play in the behaviour of the dogs who we share our lives with. Hopefully helping make those seemingly unpredictable behaviours more predictable.
Trigger Stacking / The Candle Effect
So what is trigger stacking or the candle effect?
This is when the dog is overstimulated on a physiological/emotional level and releases that. If a dog is trigger stacked or has too many candles lit then it can present in seemingly unprevoked reactions to stimuli, such as cars, dogs, people, noises for example.
One way to think about it is imagine whne you get up in the morning but the first thing you do is stub your toe, not a great start to the day but semi manageable. Now you head downstairs and make coffee, but you spill it everywhere first... again not great but you will probably cope with it worse due to having just stubbed your toe. Now you try to make breakfast but drop all the eggs, you day is now over before it's even begun...
If these events happened in isolation you may have been able to manage them better, but due to a build up you now react in a more negative manner. Then lets add in pain, a poor nights sleep, or bad weather, these may again impact the reactions more negatively.
If all of these events are 'light candles', pain, poor sleep, scary noises, spilling coffee, dropping eggs, stubbing our toe, and too many candles are lit then we over heat. This is the same in our dogs, leading to reactions and an inability to navigate situations.
Unpredictable to Predictable Behaviours In Dogs
So if your dog is hears a scary noise it lights a candle, then see's a stimuli they find challenging, lights a candle, slept badly, candle lit, pain candles lit, encounters with certain triggers, candles are lit, so by the time you see the fourth dog for exmaple they are running too hot and react.
This is where we get those patterns of behaviour where a dog may, seemingly, be okay with some dogs/cars/people then suddenly react to the next one. They have too many candles lit or are too trigger stacked.
So what can we do?
By having a greater understanding of our dog's and their internal systems we can better support them and set them up for success.
We want to work on snuffing out the candles as much as possible. Activities that are nervous system calming, such as non-frustrating enrichment based activites are perfect. Things like:
Snuffle mats
Lickimat products
Scent games
Sensory exploration & Free Work
Shredding
Chewing
Foraging
Activites that support their physical structure and don't cause pain
To have the best success we need to work out what our dogs find meaningful to calm their nervous systems, for some it's shredding, others licking, others snuffling, some mouthing soft objects, some chewing. Then we can offer these behaviours in an appropriate setting and help them to re-set, supporting them in being ready to navigate through the world more successfully.
What's Next?
I want you too explore with your dog to work out what they find the most meaningful behaviour. Give them choice to show you and allow them have access to it when they need to decompress from the world, that might even mean taking something on a walk with you for them use.
This will open a world of success for you and your canine companion, and a deeper connection helping you both to navigate through the world more successfully.
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