What is trigger stacking?

What is trigger stacking?

Let’s say your dog struggles with other dogs in their environment. You’ve been making progress, your dog is doing well, and on Wednesday you see a black Labrador over the road on your walk. Your dog doesn’t react. Awesome! But on Friday, you see the same black Labrador, and your dog reacts. Why, when they didn’t on Wednesday?

Sometimes in these situations, trigger stacking has occurred (your dog has had things to process and recover from before they’ve even seen the Labrador). Every dog has an amount that they can cope with before something will push them beyond what they can cope with – or rather, they’ve had too much to cope with. The thing that does this could cause the dog to react seemingly disproportionately.

An easy to understand, human example:

Scenario A – I go shopping for the day and have a great time. I head home to my husband who has cooked dinner for me, but burnt the lot and it was the last of our food before the shopping arrives. No problem, we will get a takeaway.

Scenario B – I go shopping but can’t find any of the stuff I need and the shops were VERY busy so it took me twice as long and got me stressed out. I decide to leave the shops and go home, but the roads are full of traffic. I take a short cut but hit a huge pot hole which could cause issues with my car. When I finally get home, my husband says that he tried to cook us dinner but burnt it and we have no more food. Cue me reacting pretty badly to my husband’s cooking efforts because I have already had so much happen to me that day.

The final triggers were the same in each scenario, but in scenario B, I’d already had so much on my plate with all these triggers stacking up. The final trigger pushed me to a point that was more than I could cope with, so I reacted to it.

So when our dogs seem to react ‘disproportionately’ to things that they are usually ok with, have a think. Could they be trigger stacked? There may be other reasons at play (new behaviours from our dog always warrant a health check. We should also be aware of signs that our dog could be in pain) but it should always be considered. We could also be habituated to things that our dogs find triggering so may not even notice them ourselves, such as loud car engines or helicopter sounds. If we can be more in tune to whatever our dog could be triggered by, then we can help them and be great advocates for them.

It is important to note that the nervous system does not differentiate between stress, excitement, and high arousal states – stress and excitement will both add to your dogs becoming trigger stacked in the same way.

If we notice trigger stacking occurring, we should try to prevent our dog being exposed to more and more triggers (as best we can), and give them plenty of time to decompress through enrichment, sniffing, licking, and even some rest time at home. Skipping walks for a day if you think your dog would benefit from it emotionally is absolutely fine, and they may prefer a quiet walk after.

Note for my husband: he hasn’t burnt a meal in the 11 years I have been with him, and the poor chap is always used in my trigger stacking examples! Thank-you for always making good dinners (but sometimes I’d prefer the takeaway).

Sally Lewis 2022