Ep 122 Why Your Dog "Hates" Random Things: The Hidden Reasons Behind Your Dog’s Reactivity

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: Help! My Dog: The Podcast
Host: Dr. Tom Mitchell
Episode: 122 — Why Your Dog "Hates" Random Things: The Hidden Reasons Behind Your Dog’s Reactivity
Date: April 1, 2026

In this insightful episode, Dr. Tom Mitchell tackles a listener question about why some dogs seem to react negatively to “random” things—such as people using wheelchairs or zimmer frames, or to certain men. Dr. Tom explains the hidden psychological causes of such reactivity, especially focusing on the concepts of novelty, ambiguity, and judgment bias in dogs’ perception. He offers clear, actionable strategies and games to help listeners understand and positively shift their dogs’ reactions to unfamiliar or ambiguous situations.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Listener’s Dilemma: Reactivity to “Random” Things

[01:28 – 03:04]

• Listener Email: The listener, owner of a six-year-old Labrador (“an absolute angel”), says the dog is loyal but “hates wheelchairs, zimmer frames, etc.,” and is wary of certain men for no clear reason.
• Dr. Tom’s Framing: The specifics (wheelchairs, random men) are less important than seeing these as “slightly novel, ambiguous situations.” The dog’s reactivity is not due to specific past traumas but a response to novelty or unpredictability.

2. Ambiguity and Negative Judgment Bias in Dog Behavior

[03:44 – 06:19]

• Key Concept: Dogs have an “underlying negative judgment bias,” meaning, when faced with novelty or ambiguity in their world, they’re more prone to interpret it as potentially threatening.
• Human Analogy: Dr. Tom illustrates with an example about his cat Poppy and how we, too, can interpret ambiguity pessimistically or optimistically.
  • Quote [05:11]:

    “Our dogs have this flavor of optimism and pessimism just the same. … Instead, it's ambiguous stimuli, ambiguous events, ambiguous scenarios.” — Dr. Tom

3. How to Shift Your Dog’s Perspective (Top Up Their “Optimism”)

[06:19 – 10:13]

Dr. Tom offers two principal routes for helping dogs reinterpret novelty as something positive, rather than something to fear:

A. Pairing Novelty with Positive Outcomes — in Daily Life

• Watch for everyday novel occurrences and immediately mark them as positive (using a marker word like “nice” or “good”) and deliver a piece of your dog’s daily food allowance.
• This approach gradually conditions the dog to consider novel things as positive or neutral, not threatening.
  • Quote [08:19]:

    “Throughout the day, throughout your walks, pair novelty with positive outcomes, AKA daily food allowance.” — Dr. Tom

B. Intentional Novelty-Optimism Games

• Cardboard Chaos Game:
  Collect cardboard from recycling, pile it up, and let your dog interact with it. As the dog investigates, reward with food thrown away from the pile.

  • This teaches two things:
    1. Novelty leads to good things (food).
    2. Moving away from worrying things is safe and rewarding.
  • Quote [11:50]:

    “By playing that kind of game in that way, we don’t only work on how she sees novelty … but we also start to build that pathway of, Hey, you can move away from things, and that's gonna feel good.” — Dr. Tom

• Dr. Tom also mentions there are more “novelty optimism games” featured in his training membership, the Help My Dog Hub.

4. Key Advice on Changing Your Dog’s “Pessimism”

[13:30]:

• Once you understand that your dog isn’t unpredictable, but is responding to ambiguity or novelty with a “pessimistic” lens, you have a clear pathway forward.
  • Quote [13:30]:

    “As soon as you realize the why she's reacting and what she's reacting to, you realize it isn’t unpredictable and it gives you a way forward to transformation.” — Dr. Tom

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Human Analogies for Ambiguity
  [05:09] Dr. Tom:

  “Does Poppy the cat have a huge tumor that she’s dragging around and we're seeing how big the tumor has become? Obviously a very pessimistic example … our dogs have this flavor of pessimism and optimism just the same.”

• Summing Up the Approach
  [08:19] Dr. Tom:

  "Strategy number one is, throughout the day, throughout your walks, pair novelty with positive outcomes, AKA daily food allowance.”

• Why the Cardboard Chaos game matters
  [11:50] Dr. Tom:

  “Imagine if actually she was like, Oh, I'm worried about that situation over there. You know what? I'm gonna move away from it. Way more appropriate, way less awkward. And ultimately that's gonna make her feel better.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–01:27: Dr. Tom introduces the episode’s theme of ambiguity and reactivity.
• 01:28–03:44: Listener’s question and Dr. Tom’s initial framing.
• 03:44–06:19: Discussion of “novelty,” “ambiguity,” and negative judgment bias.
• 08:19–10:13: Practical strategies: pairing novelty with positive outcomes in daily life.
• 10:13–12:06: The “Cardboard Chaos” game explained as a tool for optimism and coping.
• 13:30–end: Reassurance and empowerment—recognizing the pathway to change.

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Takeaways & Action Steps

• Dogs’ reactivity to certain people or objects is often rooted in a learned pessimism about novelty or ambiguity.
• Pair new/ambiguous things with positive experiences—rewards, food, praise—to shift your dog’s judgment bias toward optimism.
• Games like “Cardboard Chaos” intentionally present your dog with controlled novelty, rewarding calm engagement and offering an “escape” option that feels good.
• Seeing the pattern in your dog’s reactivity—novelty and ambiguity, not unpredictability—makes the problem manageable and gives you a practical way forward.

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Transcript

[Dr. Tom]

It's not ambiguous statements that our dogs are having to interpret. Instead, it's ambiguous stimuli, ambiguous events, ambiguous scenarios. Yeah, and of course, that takes the form of people looking different ways and doing different things and moving in different ways. And for your dog, that is the clue that we need to top up her optimism before we dive in. A warning.

[Podcast Host / Behavet Representative]

The content of this podcast may not be appropriate for some young listeners. This is real life and that means that sometimes it can be a little bit graphic. So listen on at your own peril. As a veterinarian, dog behaviorist, best selling author and trainer over the past decade, I've had an obsession with transforming the behavior of dogs, understanding their brains, and creating practical strategies that you can implement easily at home. I know all too well when the dream you imagined when you first got your dog is far from your daily reality. In fact, out of the blue, a few months ago, my little dog, Gorse, was bitten by a dog 20 times her size. And suddenly our life of stress free walks, a calm and cuddly household, and being teammates was replaced with reactivity, anxiety, and worrying about what's around the next corner. I'm Dr. Tom. This is the Help My Dog podcast. And this is me documenting that journey of transformation, sharing my knowledge and experience with you, and having a few laughs along the way.

[Dr. Tom]

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Help My Dog podcast. And we're doing another listener's question because she loved them so much and we get so many. So this is what we're doing. You seem to really like hearing about other people's dogs and what I think we should do and how I think we should transform their struggles. And you guys seem to be really good at pulling out strategies and learning that will help you with your dogs, right? So way to go. That is the way to do it. So this listener has messaged in it looks like on Instagram and said, hi, Tom, I have a 6 year old Labrador and she is an absolute angel and is unbelievably loyal to me. Oh, she sounds so. Sounds so lovely. However, she hates wheelchairs, zimmer frames, etc. She also isn't sure of men, but only random ones. Very confusing and I don't know why. Well, I'm going to explain why in a second. Can I help her to understand that none of them will hurt her? She hasn't had a bad experience with them. All right, so the answer is we're going to explain why and you can absolutely do something about it. So this is a classic scenario where effectively forget that it's, you know, wheelchair, zimmer frame, or, you know, random men. Okay? Think of these things as slightly novel, ambiguous situations. In other words, it's relatively novel to. For your dog to see somebody using a wheelchair or to see someone using a zimmer frame as compared to the majority of people that your dog is exposed to, and that makes that novel. Okay. And equally with certain men or certain, you know, types of person, whatever, you know, we don't know what. What the specific elements of. Of the person your dog is worried about. Again, rather than trying to reverse engineer.

[Podcast Host / Behavet Representative]

Oh, it's.

[Dr. Tom]

This is when the man looks like this, or it's when they do this, or it's when they have a beard or whatever.

[Podcast Host / Behavet Representative]

Right.

[Dr. Tom]

Instead, just think of it as what she is reacting to is novelty, okay. Or ambiguous situations or things that are slightly different from what she sees as her blueprint of what is normal. Okay. And that's really valuable because it gives us the clue that what this is driven by is what's called an underlying negative judgment bias, which is just a really fancy way of saying that right now, at the moment your dog perceives anything slightly unusual, novel, or ambiguous, they're more likely to perceive that to be something to worry about than for it to be nothing to worry about. Okay? And so, effectively, we've got this underlying pessimism that's going on, just as, you know, if I say to you the statement, I need to take Poppy, my cat, to the vet to get her growth measured. Yeah. What do you interpret that? I gave you an ambiguous statement there. What do you. What did you take from that? Is Poppy the cat a kitten? And actually, I'm just taking to taking her to the vet to see how much she's grown. Right. That'd be very optimistic interpretation of that. Is Poppy the cat obese? And I am taking her to the vet to find out if she's finally lost weight. Slightly more pessimistic.

[Podcast Host / Behavet Representative]

Right.

[Dr. Tom]

Does Poppy the cat have a huge tumor that she is dragging around and we're seeing how big the tumor has become? Right. That obviously a very pessimistic example and interpretation. But the point is, our dogs have this flavor of pessimism and optimism just the same. And while it's not ambiguous statements that our dogs are having to interpret, instead it's ambiguous stimuli, ambiguous events, ambiguous scenarios. Yeah. And of course, that takes the form of people looking different ways and doing different things and moving in different ways. And for your dog, that is the clue that we need to top up her optimism. Because if we can get her perceiving novelty to be seen, something good, something not to worry about. Well, all of these challenges with how she reacts to people using wheelchairs, Zimmer frames certain types of men that will all disappear because she won't perceive those novel things to be something to worry about. Okay, now there are basically two routes to doing this. Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Behavet Representative]

Hey guys, I just want to take a moment to answer a question that has been coming in literally 10 emails today and that is how, how can we help you with your dog's behavior struggle? Whether that be reactivity, separation anxiety, resource guarding, Maybe you've got multi dog household struggle right now. Maybe your dog's just so over aroused on a walk that they just can't listen to you and they're chasing everything in sight. Like can I get Tom's help? And the answer is that actually you can. And you can do that by booking a Behavet behavior consultation. That's where literally my team give you the plan on how to transform your struggle and get you to that dream that made you get a dog in the first place.

[Dr. Tom]

Right?

[Podcast Host / Behavet Representative]

Your world's got smaller and smaller and smaller and actually it doesn't need to be that way. You just need to reach out for help. Now a couple of things to say on that. First of all, if you're insured, if your dog's insured with Pet Plan, Kennel Club, Agria or many pets, we actually do direct claims with them, which means that that's covered by your insurance. So you don't pay out of your pocket, your insurance covers that. And the second thing to say is that we have loads of options if you're insured with another provider. If your dog's not insured at all, that's also totally fine. We have loads of options that we've developed to make this so accessible for you because we're aware that you've already invested a load of time and a load of money in getting your dog, looking after your dog, caring for your dog. But the last thing we want is for you to have done all that

[Dr. Tom]

and still not be living the life that you deserve with your dog.

[Podcast Host / Behavet Representative]

And we know we can get you there. So all you need to do is go to the Behave Vet website and the way to do that is go B E H A that's beh vet and it will take you there or just Google Behavet, right? And you can get scheduled in and

[Dr. Tom]

we can literally get you booked in

[Podcast Host / Behavet Representative]

for a consultation as soon as possible.

[Dr. Tom]

We normally can accommodate it within a week.

[Podcast Host / Behavet Representative]

Right. So that you can be getting to your dream asap.

[Dr. Tom]

Now, there are basically two routes to doing this. Yeah. The first route to doing this is thinking, well, you know what? Novel things are happening all the time. Yeah. Like, weirdly, just as I was talking then, like, for some reason, it's very warm day here. And the plaster, like the wall plaster light did, like, a little crack in the background. You probably didn't hear it. That is novel. Yeah. If I don't have a dog in here at the moment, but if I did, I could say to my dog, hey, that's nothing to worry about. Here's a positive outcome. How do I do that? Well, I follow up with a marker word when that thing happened, like nice or good. And I just deliver some of their daily food allowance. We're pairing novelty with positive outcomes so that they start to assume novel things are good things, just as we want your dog to assume wheelchairs, Zimmer frames, and certain types of men are good things. Right. Rather than things to be worried about. Another example of novel things that happen all the time. Well, think about it this way. Anytime your dog sees a person, yeah. Everybody looks different. And so they'll be probably what's happening is that she's probably mildly aware of lots of different types of novelty in certain people. But there's some people that are way more novel than others in her eyes, and therefore they're way more challenging to her. So what I would do is I would actually just be pairing every time she sees a person with a positive outcome, regardless of her reaction, knowing that, well, there's lots of variety in how people look and how people move and whatever else through her eyes. And so actually we're working on the problem through that route. So strategy number one is, throughout the day, throughout your walks, pair novelty with positive outcomes, AKA daily food allowance.

[Podcast Host / Behavet Representative]

Right.

[Dr. Tom]

So that's route number one. Route number two, what we can do is we can play games with her that present novelty to her, and we can pair it with positive outcomes just the same. So two games that I think would be really valuable for her first game is one called Cardboard Chaos. Okay, so what that is, is you're just going to get all of your recycling cardboard and you're going to stick it in a big pile. And that represents a real novel, ambiguous picture for your dog where as she interacts with that pile of cardboard, it's going to move, it's going to make noises, bits are going to fall over, and as that happens, you're going to deliver positive outcomes to her now, really important. And the positive outcomes of food. Okay, just to clarify. Now really important when we're delivering those positive outcomes, here's what I would do. I wouldn't throw the food into the cardboard pile. I would throw the food away from the cardboard pile. We're effectively rewarding her for interacting with the novelty and saying that it's, you know, there's. There's a positive outcome there. But then we're saying, hey, and you know what? You can leave novelty and you can move away from novelty, especially if it's worrying and the food gets delivered away from the cardboard. Why is that important? Well, imagine if she understood that about people using wheelchairs or zimmer frames or those certain types of men that she currently barks and lunges at. Imagine if actually she was like, oh, I'm worried about that. Worried about that situation over there. You know what? I'm gonna move away from it. Yeah. Way more appropriate, way less awkward.

[Podcast Host / Behavet Representative]

Right.

[Dr. Tom]

And ultimately that's gonna make her feel better. So by playing that kind of game in that way, we don't only work on how she sees novelty and what she thinks of novelty, but we also start to build that pathway of, hey, you can move away from things, and that's gonna feel good.

[Podcast Host / Behavet Representative]

Right.

[Dr. Tom]

So I think that could be really powerful. And there are lots of other novelty optimism games. If you're not. If you' not in the Help My Dog hub, which is our membership area, where there is all the video lessons of the games and strategies and, you know, troubleshooting videos step by step of what to do to transform any kind of behavior struggle, as well as a Facebook community. And we go live every week so you can get questions like this answered directly. If you're not in there, I would definitely recommend you get in there because there are tons. There's tons on growing optimism and transforming reactivity. And you can find out more about that by going to helpmydog. I believe it is. And I'm just going to quickly put that URL into my computer and just check helpmydog.com hub yeah. And there's a page where you can find a button to join the hub. And, you know, it's just like a monthly cost that is super cheap. You can cancel anytime. Basically, we want to help you for as long as. As long as you have the struggles. Right. And as soon as they're transformed, well, you. You can stay for the fun of it, like most people do, and, you know, teach your dog all kinds of cool things like a retrieve or you do like rock star boundary games where they stay on their bed, you know, when visitors come to the house and stuff like that. But equally, if you want to hop off at any time, you are welcome to. We do not want to hold you there against your will.

[Podcast Host / Behavet Representative]

Right?

[Dr. Tom]

It's that simple. Just want to help you. So that's helpmydog.com hub I cannot wait to hear how you get on with this. I'm so glad you asked it because these situations can be really confusing when it seems unpredictable and as soon as you realise the why she's reacting and what she's reacting to, you realize it isn't unpredictable and it gives you a way forward to transformation. So with that guys, can't wait to hear how you get on and we will see you next time.