Understanding Trigger Stacking

Trigger stacking is so important to be aware of in almost all instances of problem behavior. Trigger stacking affects so much of a dog’s behavior, so in this article I want to provide some examples of trigger stacking to hopefully make it a bit easier to understand and empathize with our dogs when they’re expressing some embarrassing or frustrating behavior. 

The Human Side

Imagine a typical day for yourself. Your morning routine, work routine, that little snack or commute home you have that helps you unwind. You reach the end of the day and maybe find it a little difficult to be as patient with everyone as you’d like, but you wake up in the morning feeling refreshed. 

Now imagine you wake up, and the first problem is your alarm didn’t go off. No matter what you do, you’re going to be late for work and you know your boss will be upset or disappointed. Then, you realize you forgot to get gas the day before, so you have to stop on your way (or your internet is out, if you work from home). You didn’t have time for breakfast, and your boss drops a last minute, large project on you.

Lunch time rolls around and the delivery guy gets your order wrong. On the way home, your car decides not to turn on, and there’s an unexpected bill waiting for you in the mailbox. The kids are running around screaming extra loud today, and after asking them once or twice to quiet down, you snap and yell, threatening punishment if they don’t go settle down right now. 

Sound familiar? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. With all those stressful events, no wonder you were triggered! While each of those problems might have been a small bump on the road on any normal day, but the time lunch didn’t arrive correctly, your ability to problem solve, stay in a thinking mindset instead of an emotional one, and your ability to regulate your stress had probably decreased significantly. By the time you got home, it was basically nonexistent, resulting in high emotional, reactive behavior. If you don’t sleep well that night, or experience chronic trigger stacking throughout your days, your ability to deal with stress in general will continue to decrease.

Ask questions, join the conversation, and post pictures of your crate set up in the Facebook group!

𓃡 𓃩 𓃡 Human End of the Leash 𓃡 𓃩 𓃡

Ask questions, join the conversation, and post pictures of your crate set up in the Facebook group! 𓃡 𓃩 𓃡 Human End of the Leash 𓃡 𓃩 𓃡

The Canine Side

Now, let’s take a look through a dog’s point of view a couple days after school has started. 

I woke up tired, the last two days have been pretty confusing and stressful. They put me in my crate again during the time I usually snuggle with the kids and eat their cheerios off the floor, and I don't understand why - I’m frustrated because I can’t get at those cheerios and stressed from the lack of social contact. They were really busy too, and loud.

 After the kids left I got a brief play time with mom but it just left me jazzed up -we didn’t get to snuggle to relax afterward. I had to stay in my kennel again and the kids were just missing when they were usually playing in the house. It makes me nervous that they’re suddenly gone. 

When everyone comes back, I’m so excited to be let out of my kennel. I was so anxious about where the kids were, so I jumped up on them to lick them and reconnect, and gather information about where they were. Instead of being greeted, I’m shouted at and put back in my kennel, at this point unable to settle. 

I’m so excited to be let out of my kennel again, but the new kids my humans brought home as friends are stressful and unpredictable. They start up a shrieking game of chase and I snap and yell, barking and lunging and nipping to tell everyone to just stop!

Well no wonder your dog nipped at the kids to get them to stop moving, they were trigger stacked! Understanding your dog's stressors and how they can build up can help us understand their behavior and respond more appropriately.

Due to the fairly similar lack of socialization for covid puppies, this kind of trigger stacking can affect them greatly. Small triggers may cause a response/the dog may be sensitive to smaller variations, they may experience a build up of stress for longer than average (consider the dogs last 7 days instead of 3-5), and are prone to more dramatic outbreaks. If you have a covid puppy, focus on prevention through management and recognizing warning signs of stress early.