Nerding Out on Thresholds with Sarah Shapiro Ward

Follow the Rethinking Reactivity Podcast on FB and IG.Join the waitlist for the leash reactivity mentorship and be the first to know when registration opens AND get $50 off. Thresholds are a concept, not something concrete, so it can be difficult to have a consensus as to what they actually are. To make this even more confusing, there are many types of thresholds that a dog can cross. In this episode, Sarah and I do our best to break this topic down. We discuss:Sarah's framework for helping her clients understand the threshold of perception and the threshold for behaviorHow changes in the environment cause changes to thresholdsHow vocalizations are not always a helpful metric for a dog "going over" thresholdThe correlation between increased stress and lowered thresholds, and what to do with reactive dogs when they in various stages of stressHow the intensity of a trigger influences a dog's thresholdAnd so much more!About Sarah:Dr. Sarah Shapiro-Ward CPDT-KA, KPA-CTP 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 horse, Niamh.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. She can be found on Instagram and TikTok @prancingpoodles.Read her blog post on thresholds here. Subscribe to my mailing list to be the first to know about learning opportunities for reactive dogs