Wow! I sure joined this party late. Congrats on your success! You did a great job....very dedicated.
My late Doberman, Lyric was what I'd call reactive, (to dogs only) but not aggressive. Toward people, he was the perfect gentleman and completely unfazed by people zooming on skate boards, running, biking right past us...even inches past us....completely unconcerned. But dogs.....another story. He never wound up actually attacking another dog. And off leash, he was hardly reactive at all. He wasn't reactive in class situations and we could do agility and obedience fine. It was only on casual leash walks around the neighborhood where he would lunge toward another dog on a leash, snarl and bark. And it wasn't even all dogs....just some. If a dog came onto my property, he'd run toward it....sometimes barking and then stop 20 ft. short and just stare. Then maybe he'd mosey up close and just check out the other dog like normal dogs do. When dogs are off leash and allowed to communicate with each other naturally, without being confined and "contorted" by a leash, they very often will avoid conflict and even get along.
We worked on this leash thing whenever I could. There weren't a lot of dogs for me to practice with here, but when I went to Seattle and walked on this path where a lot of dogs frequented, we'd practice there. Of course, it was only about 3-4 times a year, each time, maybe a week to 3 weeks long. So, he got much better, learned some alternatives....but not as "better" as I would have liked. I used some of the skills discussed in Click to Calm.
Reactive means reactive. LOL. It doesn't say HOW the dog is reacting. A dog might react merely by turning his head and looking at another dog or whatever the stimuli. So, to me, aggression is a reaction, but it describes the reaction more specifically. How is the dog reacting? Aggressively. What is aggressive? Is it actually biting? Or can aggression mean simply overly pushy? We use terms with various perameters and various flexibility.
Lyric acted aggressive....pushy, snarly, showing all his teeth sometimes. But he didn't go all the way up to a dog and didn't bite or start a fight. Some of the time, he'd change his mind and decide he might like to play with another dog after the initial macho man thing. LOL. His little stubby tail would start to go bing, bing, bing.....back and forth and he might even engage in a play bow. But I tell you what. A good deal of the time, he looked scary as hell and it was embarrassing to say the least. And one time, he pulled me down prone in one of his lunging escapades. I called him the F word, grabbed his muzzle and yelled at him. :yikes: I "reacted" reflexively but not correctly or wisely. That was before we started class and we had just entered the arena. So not only was I embarrassed by his behavior, but I was by mine too. Very much so. He hadn't gotten into his "work ethic mode" yet, I guess. Once we started being organized, he was fine around the other dogs. They'd be in a line-up on a long down stay, for instance, side by side and he just minded his own business and watched me.
So, I think it's safe to say that reactivity is some kind of non-specific description of some kind of noticeable reaction to a stimuli. And aggression is excessive pushiness and/or dangerous aggression, where biting might be involved.
Overly reactive or aggressive dogs are acting on the instinct of flight distance. There are only two ways to create flight distance. You either make the other guy go away by doing something.... or you run away to create space in between the two of you. Invariably, this desire for flight distance is fueled by fear...fear of losing one's territory, fear of losing another resource, fear of being hurt etc.
And dogs have different styles of creating this distance. The dog may not be a shivering, shrinking mess. Some have that personality and some don't. One dog's style might be to look very forward and unafraid and push on with determination. So, it looks like the dog is just flat out aggressive and brave. But deep inside, he is probably insecure and his style to create flight distance is to act strong and brave to make the other guy go away.
Some dogs will start out with that forward, lunging, non-hesitation and then when push comes to shove, they'll back off and simmer down. That was Lyric.
But I think that most all aggression and reactivity has it's roots in fear. So punishment, force, compulsion...what have you.... or associating more of a rotten time with the trigger is a big mistake. After one or two foul-ups by me, I got on the right track and he over came a lot of it.