The behaviors Jolly showed that convinced me he was social:
*barking with lots of flexion in legs
*elongated body
*relaxed facial expression including open mouth, blinking eye,
*flexion in his spine, legs and tail
*Elevated foot fall, defensive dogs do not jump up high
*strong blinking visual persistence showing dogs are important to him
*consistent patterns of engagement
*relaxation increased as he got closer to the other dog

When I think of reactivity, it’s not black and white…I think of dogs with…
Big personality who become activated…including Vocalization + High Arousal + Persistence. Here are a few of my Categories of behavior based on observations of hundreds of dogs displaying lunging.

1. Social / Socially confident greets nicely often.
2. Excited Social + Socially confident dogs need skills or impulse control exercises.
3. Excited / Conflicted is the dog who is a Social but lacks social confidence in the greeting. This dog will struggle in the actual greeting by showing teeth or growling initially. This dog needs a slow greeting with tolerant, patient dogs to build his confidence + socialization skills.

3. Frustrated Dog / Persistent Greeter – Persistent + Vocal + High Arousal (impedes their thinking) which causes a defensive response in the other dog. This dog needs to be allowed to get closer to a tolerant, social dog quickly to reduce some frustration, they do not need to be told off by bully dogs. Once you have met some of his needs by reducing the distance, he will be able to think and respond better.

4. Persistent Sniffers – Dogs who live through their nose! After they get a good sniff of the other dog, they walk away completely content.

Jolly here is an excited social greeter. His strong persistence to get to what interests him makes him frustrated very quickly. This frustration can appear as aggression to the untrained handler or trainer. I knew he needed to get close initially to reduce some frustration, it worked nicely!

For more information on reading dogs arousal, consider my online Arousal in Dogs Webinar https://caninebehaviorcounseling.com/...