Any stimulus that initiates a strong emotional and/or a behavioral response. These can be both good or bad, but generally we discuss Triggers in regards to annoying behaviors. For example, in highly reactive dogs seeing another dog can be a trigger. For some dogs with kennel aggression, someone approaching their kennel is a trigger. The intensity of the reaction depends on the dog’s prior experiences, level of training, and proximity to the trigger. Reactions can range the gamut from fear, to hyperarousal and reactivity, to aggression.
Triggers are more formally known in Psychology as a “Cognitive Bias.” Cognitive bias refers to a systematic pattern of deviation from normal behavior or rationality in judgment. The resulting bias tends towards illogical inferences about things and environments.
We always consider the concept of Threshold in conjunction with triggers, as we want to work below threshold to diminish the reaction to the trigger. Working above threshold (which is called “Flooding”) is largely unproductive, in most cases.
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