🧠 The Negative Bias: How It Affects You, Your Dog, and Your Progress

I had never heard of negative bias until a few months ago, during a conversation with my own therapist.

In one of our sessions, I was talking through a particular situation and found myself saying things like:“I bet that person thinks X.”

“If I say or do X, the worst is going to happen.”

My therapist gently stopped me and asked me to go back over what I had just said. She asked a simple but powerful question:

“How much of what you’ve just said is fact — and how much is a story you’re creating in your head?”

I paused and really thought about it. What I realised surprised me.

I had created and played out an entire narrative — and around 95% of it wasn’t truth at all. It was my perception, my predictions, my thoughts. Not facts. Not information I actually had.

She helped me see how damaging this pattern can be — how it affects our mood, confidence, and ability to move forward.

And when I got home, something clicked.

Reactive dog owners need to understand this too.

🧩 What Is the Negative Bias?

Put simply, negative bias is our brain’s tendency to register, focus on, and dwell on negative experiences more than positive ones.

Take a moment and think about this:

• How long does a negative comment about your appearance stay with you compared to a positive one?

• How strongly do you react to a negative event versus a positive one?

• Can you easily recall negative thoughts, comments, or experiences — while positive ones take much longer to surface?

This isn’t a personal failing. There’s a reason we developed this bias.

🐾 Why We Have a Negative Bias

From an evolutionary perspective, negative bias kept us safe. It helped us remember danger and avoid it in the future. That instinct served us well when survival depended on finding shelter before dark or avoiding predators.

But today, we’re no longer worrying about finding a cave before nightfall to avoid being eaten by a sabre-toothed tiger — yet our brains still behave as if we are.

And this outdated survival mechanism can have a huge impact on our lives.

🐕 The Impact on Reactive Dog Owners

If you own a reactive dog, I can almost guarantee that both you and your dog are affected by negative bias.

If I asked you to recall the last “bad” thing your dog did, I imagine the answer would fall out of your mouth before I’d even finished the question. And chances are, you wouldn’t stop at one example — you’d list two or three.

But if I asked you to recall the last good thing your dog did?

I suspect you might pause. Think. Dig around in your mind like I’d just asked you to solve a complicated algebra problem.

You’d need to sift through all the negative files at the front before finally finding that one positive moment tucked away at the back.

“Oh… yes. I forgot about that.”

Sound familiar?

🌧️ The Emotional Toll

This constant focus on the negative keeps us stuck in a dark, gloomy headspace.

We start to think:

• “There’s no hope.”

• “My dog is a lost cause.”

• “This is all my fault.”

• “If only I’d done X, Y, or Z.”

• “I’m a rubbish owner.”

Add in unhelpful comments from others — comments that lodge deep and resurface again and again — and we end up replaying the same emotional trauma on repeat.

What forms is a vicious cycle:

Negative thoughts → emotional barriers → more negative thoughts → more barriers.

And progress feels impossible.

🌱 Moving Forward: Shifting the Mindset

Here’s the good news: this cycle can be broken.

Becoming aware of negative bias is the first step. Once you recognise it, you can start to challenge it — and gently rebalance how you see your dog, yourself, and your journey together.

Keeping a positive (and realistic) mindset throughout your dog’s rehabilitation journey isn’t about ignoring struggles or pretending everything is perfect. It’s about learning to see the whole picture — not just the hard moments.

This mindset shift is one of the key things I help my reactive dog clients with.

💛 Final Thoughts

If you’re feeling stuck in a dark, gloomy place — constantly replaying what’s gone wrong — please know you’re not alone. And more importantly, you’re not failing.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.

If you’d like support in changing how you think about reactivity, rebuilding confidence, and helping your dog progress in a way that feels compassionate and achievable, I’d love to talk.

👉 Get in touch — I’d be more than happy to discuss you and your dog’s individual needs. You can book a FREE 20 minute call with me using this link - https://calendly.com/canine-reactive/discovery-call

You don’t have to do this alone.