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Beyond Threshold: The Science of Effective Counter Conditioning and Keeping Dogs Safe During Fireworks, With Certified Dog Behaviorist, Will Bangura

• Will Bangura, M.S., CAB-ICB, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FFCP is a World Renowned Dog Behaviorist, Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, Certified Professional Dog Trainer, and a Fear Free Certified Professional with over 36 years of experience with the most difficult • Season 6 • Episode 178

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In this episode of Dog Training Today, certified canine behaviorist Will Bangura, M.S., CAB-ICB, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FFCP, tackles one of the most common—and consequential—mistakes pet parents make when attempting behavior modification: working with their dog above threshold. Whether you're addressing fear-based reactivity, anxiety around people or dogs, or noise sensitivities like fireworks and thunderstorms, the success of counter conditioning and desensitization hinges on one critical factor—your dog must be emotionally below threshold.

Will breaks down exactly what "threshold" means in practical, observable terms, and why too many pet parents unknowingly push their dogs into mild, moderate, or even severe stress while trying to change emotional responses. This episode serves as a reality check and a science-based guide to getting it right.

You'll learn:

  • Why starting too close to a visual or auditory trigger can completely derail counter conditioning efforts
  • The difference between being "physically calm" and "emotionally below threshold"
  • How to recognize subtle, hard-to-read canine body language signals that indicate discomfort or stress—well before overt reactivity surfaces
  • How to establish safe training distances that allow for true learning and emotional reappraisal to occur
  • Why early intervention and incremental exposure are essential, especially with noise-based phobias like fireworks
  • Practical 4th of July safety tips for keeping your dog secure, calm, and protected before, during, and after fireworks begin
  • When to consult with your veterinarian about the use of anti-anxiety medications or natural calming aids to support behavioral progress

Will also explores the neurobiology of fear and stress responses in dogs, offering a clear explanation of how amygdala-driven reactivity undermines learning when a dog is flooded, and why the emotional safety zone is where meaningful behavior change takes place.

Whether you’re a pet parent working through fear-based issues or a professional looking to sharpen your desensitization protocols, this episode offers grounded, science-backed advice you can put into practice immediately. Don’t wait until your dog is reacting—learn what to look for before the reaction ever happens.

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Speaker 1:

Raised by wolves with canine DNA in his blood. Having trained more than 24,000 pets, helping you and your fur babies thrive, live in studio with Will Bangura answering your pet behavior and training questions. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host and favorite pet behavior expert, will Bangura.

Speaker 2:

Would you like to go on? Y'all ready for this? Good day, dog lovers. I'm Will Bangura. Thanks for joining me for a special episode of Dog Training Today. There's a few things that I want to talk about today. One we've got the 4th of July coming up and that can be a huge stressor for lots of dogs as well as pet parents that have to watch their dogs suffering on the 4th of July. So I'm going to be talking about what you can do to help your dogs on the 4th of July. So I'm going to be talking about what you can do to help your dogs on the 4th of July so it's not so scary for them.

Speaker 2:

And going along the same lines, because a lot of what we need to do for dogs that have fears and I don't care what the fear is is counter conditioning and desensitization. And we use counter conditioning and desensitization for dogs that have anxiety, fears, phobias, reactivity, aggression, dogs that get overstimulated, over aroused. We use counter conditioning and desensitization for dogs that struggle with distractions. And a lot of you are attempting to do counter conditioning and desensitization, but you're making some mistakes or you're not getting the kind of results you're looking for. You're putting in the work but you're struggling to get the results.

Speaker 2:

So I want to talk about counter conditioning and desensitization and one of the big things that I want to talk about is threshold, or thresholds and how that relates to dogs, how that relates to this topic. So when we're talking about a dog's threshold, we could really break that into two categories. One would be what is their threshold? How much stress, what has to happen before the dog starts engaging in the outward visible behaviors of fear, anxiety, reactivity or aggression Again, behaviors of fear, anxiety, reactivity or aggression Again, threshold to see outward behaviors. So what are some of those things? Well, maybe there's a trigger a dog, maybe a dog, is dog aggressive or people aggressive and it triggers another strange dog or another strange person. Well, as soon as you start seeing outward behavior like growling, barking, lunging, or a dog that's afraid, trying to run away, or their tail is tucked or their ears get pinned back, well, those are very obvious outward behavioral displays. By that time it's too late to do anything with your dog. We would call that over threshold. And when you're trying to do counter conditioning and desensitization, when you're trying to change how your dog responds to triggers, they can't be over threshold when you present the trigger. So if you're trying to do the work and you're seeing outward displays of behavior that you're trying to resolve, you're doing something wrong. If it's a visual trigger, if it's a visual trigger, you're too close.

Speaker 2:

There is a distance. If you back up, there is a distance between the trigger and your dog where your dog doesn't display those outward behaviors. And if your dog's not showing those outward display of behaviors, then physically your dog is below threshold. That's good. We're looking for that. When we pick a distance to desensitize to a trigger, to change how your dog feels about that trigger, we've got to be at a safe distance where your dog doesn't have a care in the world.

Speaker 2:

Now I like to teach my clients. There's two kinds of thresholds. There's the outward threshold, the physical display of outward behaviors, and then there's the dog's inner threshold and that's where the dog is at emotionally. Inner threshold and that's where the dog is at emotionally. You know you could have a dog that's experiencing mild or moderate anxiety and that dog's not giving big outward displays of behavior that you may see, that you might not see that. And when you're trying to change the way your dog feels and change their behavior as it relates to a trigger.

Speaker 2:

It's important that both thresholds the outward physical display of behaviors as well as the dog's underlying emotional state the dog is below threshold. The dog's underlying emotional state the dog is below threshold. That means that the distance if it's a visual trigger, your dog doesn't have a care in the world. There's zero anxiety, zero fear, zero reactivity, zero aggression. The only way that you're going to know that your dog doesn't have a care in the world most likely is if you study canine body language, because there are dozens of tiny little subtle, what I call micro gestures or micro expressions in their canine body language that will tell you they're experiencing some stress. It's the low level anxiety, stress, fear, discomfort that the dog has when it is exposed to the trigger. That's what most people don't see and I can understand people working a dog over threshold when they may have some mild anxiety and they don't see the body language.

Speaker 2:

But listen, when you're seeing clear cut signs that your dog's not comfortable and you're seeing that in their outward behavior, your dog's way over threshold and you can't do the work, when your dog's like that, you're going to make things possibly worse because the dog's just now rehearsing the same behavior that we want to change and the more they rehearse it, the more conditioned it gets, the more habituated it gets and the harder it is to be able to use counter conditioning and desensitization behavior modification to change that. Now I want you to step aside from physical behavior displays and get into the fact that they are driven by your dog's underlying emotional state. I've said this on all of my podcasts on counter conditioning and I've got many the real work of changing the behavior of a fearful dog, the real work of changing the behavior of a reactive or aggressive dog, is not about correcting that outward behavior. It's about changing the way the dog feels about the trigger. It's about changing that underlying emotional state. See, no animal goes into fight or flight if it's reactivity or aggression, unless they're perceiving a threat. And to perceive a threat the dog's dealing with anxiety and fear. Get rid of that anxiety and fear, get rid of that stress, get rid of that discomfort, change the perception the dog has about the trigger and there's no need for the dog to display those behaviors. They melt away. However, on the other side of the coin, if you're using corrections, leash pops, scolding the dog using an electronic collar that just suppresses the outward behavior temporarily. You're being fooled. It's a Band-Aid and it's going to come back Because if you don't change the underlying emotional state, nothing changes. You've just temporarily set that behavior aside and you've added more stress for the dog because now the dog has what we call trigger stacking. The dog is stressed out about the trigger, the initial trigger, but now the dog is stressed out about the discomfort of the correction and it starts pairing that discomfort and association with the already paired discomfort and association with the main trigger, whether that's a person or a dog.

Speaker 2:

I'm using those as the trigger examples. You've got to know body language. You've got to keep the dog below threshold. Folks, a lot of you are trying to do this and your dog is having either a mild meltdown or a major meltdown. You're too close, way too soon. Now there's a lot of nuances to counter conditioning and desensitization to make sure that, as we're pairing positive reinforcement with the trigger, that the dog understands that the reason the good things are happening, like getting high value food rewards when it sees the trigger, is because it sees the trigger.

Speaker 2:

And if we're talking about sound phobia because I'm going to be talking about the 4th of July and fireworks in a second If we're talking about sound phobias. It's the same thing. We have to start at a volume when we're exposing the dog to that trigger where the dog doesn't have a care in the world. And that means we've got to be able to read all the little, mild, subtle signs of canine body language the dog licking its lips we call lip licking or tongue flicks, dilated pupils, rigid muscles in the forehead and face. A dog tight, closed mouth Watching their breathing patterns. What's going on with their tail? There's dozens and dozens yawning, turning their head away, lots of different signals. You can study canine body language and you can get a great guide and a great article by going to one of my websites at dogbehavioristcom that's dogbehavioristcom and go grab the article on counter conditioning and desensitization and, while you're up there, grab the article that says something to the effect of understanding thresholds and canine body language.

Speaker 2:

To have success with counter conditioning and desensitization, first of all, you also need to understand that when we're trying to change the dog's underlying emotional state and their cognitive association that they have with the trigger that the dog views as scary, we want to make that a positive experience. We want to change the way the dog feels and thinks about that trigger, where, when they hear or see the trigger, they get excited, they get happy, they're thinking. I love it when I hear this, I love it when I see this trigger, because good things happen. If you start at a level, volume wise or distance, if it's visual, where the dog is stressed out, how do you make that a positive? And when you're stressed, when you're fearful, when you're anxious, how well do you learn? It's really hard to learn anything if you're in fight or flight. You've got to be calm, you've got to be relaxed. So that means starting at a safe distance or having a safe volume where the dog doesn't have a care in the world.

Speaker 2:

Now, if we're talking about visual triggers, they need to be out of view. Your dog is here and then here comes the visual trigger and you're at a distance where your dog does not care. As soon as that visual trigger comes into view, you need to immediately mark that, whether it be using a verbal marker of yes or nice or good or using a clicker. Again, here's your dog. As soon as the visual trigger comes into view, you need to mark your dog with your marker and you need to start feeding constantly and continuously, for about three to five seconds. I like using a squeeze bottle where I make a meat, a yummy, yummy food paste, so that I can have a constant tiny, tiny stream of highly palatable food that the dog absolutely loves, the entire time the trigger is present. Here's your dog. Here comes the trigger. Here comes this click Get out the squeeze bottle. Feed, feed, feed, feed, feed, feed, feed constantly and continuously for three to five seconds. Keep feeding Trigger goes away. Stop the feeding. Trigger comes back into view. Feed, feed, feed constantly and continuously for three to five seconds. Keep feeding trigger goes away. Stop the feeding. Trigger comes back into view. Mark with your clicker. Start feeding with your squeeze bottle feed, feed, feed, feed, feed constantly and continuously for about three to five seconds and that trigger goes out of view stop, stop feeding. See, we're making a very black and white cause and effect association. As soon as a trigger appears, boom, good things happen. As soon as a trigger heads out of there and you don't see it, those good things stop.

Speaker 2:

And ideally, what I would want to do, let's say I brought that trigger into view during a counter conditioning and desensitization session 10 times. So here's the dog 10 times trigger comes into view feed, feed, feed, feed feed feed feed trigger goes out of view, trigger comes into view feed feed, feed, feed feed feed feed trigger goes out of view 10 times. Let's say I did it ten times in that session. Maybe two of those times I'm going to bring in a visual stimulus that's not a trigger. So let's give the example of a dog that has aggression towards strangers. Well, eight of those ten times the trigger appears it's going to be an unfamiliar person that the dog would normally be afraid of. But remember, we're at a distance where the dog can see the trigger but it doesn't care and that is critical. You must start the dog below threshold, okay. So eight of those times when the person comes into view it's an unfamiliar person, but two of the times it's a familiar person that the dog doesn't have aggression towards. And when that familiar person comes into view they stay there for three to five seconds but there's no feeding and they go out of view.

Speaker 2:

And in that counter conditioning and desensitization session I may have that familiar person come into view a couple of times and not feed the dog, not give a click or a marker to the dog, but then only to have the unfamiliar person at a safe distance where the dog doesn't have a care in the world, bring about wonderful things. The high value food, rewards, the positive reinforcement, the familiar person is the control. And when you do that it makes things much more black and white, much more crystal clear for the dog why good things are happening. And they really more strongly associate good things and positive reinforcement with the stranger. And I want to make sure they understand hey, good things are happening because of the stranger, are happening because of the stranger.

Speaker 2:

Now, at that safe distance, when the dog loves this game, when the dog loves this game, and it might be a couple of days, it might be a week, might be a few weeks at the safe distance, over and over and over. But when the dog loves the game, then you get to start moving a little closer. So, instead of where you started, trigger comes into view and stops there. Well, now, after we've worked there for a while, the trigger comes into view and gets a little closer. As long as that new, closer distance, your dog doesn't have a care in the world, you're at the right distance and now you can start that counter conditioning and desensitization process all over again, very gradually, very systematically, you're getting closer and closer and closer and closer If it's a visual trigger, whether that be a dog, whether that be a person.

Speaker 2:

But a lot of you are working too fast. You need to dial, listen. If your dog shows any sign of anxiety or stress, you need to dial it back. All right, create more distance where your dog is fine. Take it slow. You can't work faster than your dog is fine. Take it slow. You can't work faster than the dog's pace. And if you're really bad at reading canine body language, you're going to struggle Again. Go to my website, dogbehavioristcom. Find my guide on counter conditioning and desensitization. Find my guide on canine body language. Find my guide on understanding thresholds and canine body language. To have success with counter conditioning and desensitization, get yourselves really well educated, because when you're armed with knowledge, you've got power and you can have success. But a lot of you are just working way, way, way too fast.

Speaker 2:

All right, let's talk about the 4th of July, because a lot of dogs panic. A lot of dogs have incredible phobias of the sound of fireworks. Now you've got a little bit of time. Let's see. Today is June 23rd, so we got the rest of this month and you got a couple days. Maybe in July.

Speaker 2:

You need to start utilizing the sound of fireworks that are recorded that you can begin to play at an extremely low volume. Now you can go to my local dog training YouTube page. All right, look for. Go to YouTube Type in Phoenix Dog Training. Look at my videos. I've got a video that has nothing but sounds of fireworks and you can use that to begin to desensitize your dog to fireworks. I'll explain how we do that in a second. Now, if you want, you can also go to my website at phoenixdogtrainingcom. That's phoenixdogtrainingcom. Forward slash, then type in the word sounds and that'll bring up all kinds of recorded sounds that dogs might be afraid of. Okay, garbage disposal, fire leaf blower, the printer, all kinds of different things, truck sounds. But in that we've also got a huge soundtrack of fireworks and if you go there and you listen to it, you're also going to see and hear very specific instructions on how to use that to desensitize your dog.

Speaker 2:

But it's very similar. It's the same thing as what we talked about with the visual trigger. Right, the volume we start playing fireworks at. Your dog can't have a care in the world. That means your dog's below threshold and that's where this work has to be done. If your dog is showing stress, the volume is too high, turn it down.

Speaker 2:

And the way you want to do the desensitization and counter conditioning is press play and as soon as the sounds start, feed, feed, feed, feed, feed constantly and continuously for about three to five seconds, press stop, stop feeding, rinse and repeat Again. Press play. As soon as the sound of the fireworks starts, begin feeding, feed, feed, feed, feed constantly and continuously for about three to five seconds, press stop, stop feeding. You're going to do that over and over until the dog absolutely is dying for you to press play and hear the fireworks so it can get some yummy food when your dog loves that. Now you can turn the volume up just a tiny bit and start that process all over again. And remember, as you're going up in volume, gradually, slowly, systematically, over days, weeks, maybe months, depends on the dog and how severe their fear is. But as you're doing that, at any point you see your dog getting stressed, nervous, bring the volume down, bring it down, spend more time there, conditioning that. You'll know when your dog loves this counter conditioning and desensitization game with the trigger of the person or the sound. And let me explain how you can figure that out the first couple weeks.

Speaker 2:

As soon as the trigger starts, whether it's auditory, whether it's visual, immediately give the mark. If you're using a clicker, click. If you're using a verbal marker, like nice or yes, give that marker and immediately begin feeding. That's the sequence Trigger begin feeding. That's the sequence. Trigger mark the dog feed. Trigger goes away. Stop feeding. Now do that for about two weeks. You're creating a pattern Trigger mark feed. Dogs are incredible at figuring out patterns, so when they love it. I want you to make a change. Do everything the same, just don't mark the dog when the trigger comes and don't feed. Wait to see. When you don't mark and you don't start feeding, does the dog look to you and say, hey, where's my click, where's my marker word, yes, where's my food? And when they do that, you know for sure they understand the game. And when they understand the game, it's just about going through the process now, gradually and slowly, at your dog's pace.

Speaker 2:

If you take the time, you can desensitize any dog to anything. Your timing's got to be good. You got to keep the dog below threshold, you got to be able to read canine body language and if you're dealing with a reactive or aggressive dog, you probably need to hire a professional. It's really. It can be dangerous.

Speaker 2:

The other thing listen, if you have not had time yet to desensitize your dog to fireworks, let's talk about what else you can do. First of all, you can go to your veterinarian If it's, if your dog reacts very severely, they're panicking. It's a panic attack. Maybe medication is something you might want to consider. That's a personal decision. If it's my dog, if my dog's panicking, I'm going to my vet. I'm asking the vet for some anxiety meds, situational medication that my dogs can take when a major trigger like fireworks happen, and if they panic, I can keep them from severe panic. I don't want my dogs to suffer Now. I had dogs that were afraid of fireworks. I did all the work of counter conditioning and desensitization. Today, when my dogs hear a firework, they come running to me excited, looking for food. Before they used to tremble and shake. So trust me, the the work can be done. The work can be done. You can change this now if your dog has not. If you haven't had time to desensitize your dog to fireworks and it's severe consider talking to the vet about meds. But let's talk about other things you can do.

Speaker 2:

First thing you want to do is find the quietest area in the house. Usually that is a closet that has a lot of clothes in it. It's like a soundproof, sound dampening room. Okay, go in there with your dog. It's like a soundproof, sound-dampening room. Okay, go in there with your dog. Hopefully it's not too small of a closet. Go in there with your dog. Bring toys. Bring high-value treats. Also, have a white sound machine or music to help drown out those sounds. Play games with your dog. Have puzzle games in there where your dog can use its nose, which will also help relax your dog. Dogs doing nose work changes the way they feel, so having puzzles with treats in it is a fantastic idea for them. Okay, but get into the quietest room you can.

Speaker 2:

If you know you've got a dog that's afraid of fireworks, please don't leave them alone. Do you know how many dogs each and every year panic? They might be in a crate and they're panicking to get out? Their nose is bloody, their paws are bloody. They break're panicking to get out. Their nose is bloody, their paws are bloody. They break a tooth trying to get out. Some dogs break through windows. Some dogs climb fence. They try to escape and get away. Some get killed because they're hit by a car. The shelters the busiest day the busiest day of the year where shelters take in more dogs than any other day of the entire year is the 4th of July. Because dogs get scared, the ones that are fearful, and a lot of them try to run away and escape, and they do, and they do so.

Speaker 2:

Make sure that your dog is safe. Make sure they're secure. Make sure that your dog has a flat collar on it with an ID tag on it. If your dog's not microchipped, see if you can get it microchipped now. Stay home with your dog. Put your dog in a safe, comfortable location.

Speaker 2:

Like I said, closets are great. They can be very quiet, having those puzzle games. And if your dog is very severely fearful of fireworks, if it's having a panic attack you know if it's trembling, if its tail is completely tucked underneath, if it's salivating, it's having a panic attack, panting. Get some help for your dog and then continue to do the counter conditioning and desensitization. So next time there's fireworks, you're not struggling with this and your dog's not struggling. Your dog is not having a panic attack. But you've got to take things slow. Everybody goes way too too too fast and you just can't do that. Well, folks, I don't know if you can hear that music in the background. It sounds kind of quiet, but that music means we are out of time.

Speaker 2:

I just wanted to take a few minutes here to talk about some of the mistakes people are making with counter conditioning and desensitization and what you can do, also for the 4th of July. But keep your dogs below threshold. Look at their body language, take it slow. Only work at your dog's pace and you'll have success. Do me a favor If you like this, give us, hit that like button, hit the subscribe button and please share this with your friends and family on your Facebook pages, on any other social media. We really appreciate it. And if you're a longtime listener of our podcast, if you haven't given us a five-star review and you love what we do, please give us a review. I'm Will Bangora. I'm out of here.

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Will Bangura M.S.,CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FFCP

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