Apps for reactive dogs

Eight, and six of them are from this year. That is the real answer to how many there are, and it is more useful than a ranking, because a category this new does not have an established option to point you at.

This page is written by the person who makes one of them, so here is the conflict of interest stated plainly at the top, along with the fact that matters most: there is a free reactivity tracker on the App Store, and CalmDogs costs $59.99 a year. For scale, a one-to-one session with someone experienced in reactivity runs from around $75 to $200 an hour in the US, with $100 the figure reported most often — so a year of CalmDogs costs less than a single session, and what that work actually costs is the number worth having in mind. Everything below was checked on the App Store listings on 17 August 2026, and listings change.

A category about a year old

This is the part nobody writes down, so here it is with the numbers.

Eight apps are built specifically for reactive dogs, and six of them arrived in 2026 — Under Threshold in April, Cue and BauBau in May, Mellow in June, TriggerPath in July, CalmDogs in August. A year ago this category did not exist in any meaningful sense. It is forming right now.

Between all eight, they have fourteen ratings. That is the whole of the public evidence that anyone wants this. And CalmDogs is inside that sentence, not outside it: it launched on 23 August 2026 and has none of its own. Nobody in this category has proven that it sells, us included.

Every one of the eight is free with in-app purchases, CalmDogs included. Only Reacpaw is on Android; the other seven, CalmDogs among them, are iPhone only.

Two things follow, and they are both true at once. You are not late — there is no entrenched option you have missed. And you should treat every one of these apps, including this one, as young software made by one or two people rather than as a settled product with years of use behind it.

The eight, one by one

CalmDogs first because it is mine, then the rest. Each one gets a line on where it beats CalmDogs, because on a page like this that is the part worth reading.

CalmDogs — what it does, and who it is not for

Four fields per event: the trigger, roughly how far away it was, what the dog did, and how long they took to settle. Three of the other seven record recovery time as well, so that is not what makes it different.

The difference is the direction. Every other app on this page looks backwards — it logs, scores and shows you trends. CalmDogs reads the previous few days and gives you a line each morning about what the day that has not happened yet can realistically hold. Accumulation across days is the idea the whole app is built on, and it is the one thing in this comparison that none of the other seven describes doing. A forecast rather than a history. That is a narrow claim, and narrow is the point: it is checkable.

It is not for you if you want a training programme, exercises and instructions — it deliberately does not tell you what to do with your dog. If you want one app for vaccinations, walks and feeding. If you are on Android. If you want to try before paying, because there is no free tier and no trial. Or if you are not going to log consistently for two or three weeks, because before that there is not enough history for any of it to work.

It is for you if the thing you keep running into is not knowing why some days go badly, and you would rather have an accurate record than a better memory. CalmDogs is $59.99 a year or $9.99 a week, iPhone only, and does not share your data.

Reacpaw — free, on Android, and the only one with any history

By Christelle Sissoko. It logs walks, triggers, reactions and notes, produces custom reactivity ratings with trends over time, and its listing advertises a coming feature for sharing your history with a trainer. Going since August 2023, which in this category makes it the veteran by two years.

Where it beats CalmDogs: it is free, it is on Android — the only one that is — and it has been in real hands for longer than everything else here put together.

One thing to read for yourself. Its App Privacy section states that Diagnostics data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies, and that location, contact info and user content are linked to your identity. CalmDogs declares no data used to track you. Both statements are on the App Store.

BauBau — the fullest picture of the week around the dog

By Marco Altea. Reaction level from 0 to 10, trigger type and distance, with weather and location captured automatically, medication with dose and schedule, and background factors like sleep and meals. Day, week and month views with zones, trends and top triggers.

Where it beats CalmDogs: automatic context capture. Sleep, meals, medication and weather are exactly the things that make a week heavy, and CalmDogs asks you to notice them rather than recording them for you. If you want the fullest record of what surrounds a reactive dog, look at BauBau before you look at us.

Cue — reactivity and ordinary training in the same app

By Karol Jaworski, launched May 2026. It records distance and recovery time, and covers general training alongside reactivity rather than treating them as separate problems.

Where it beats CalmDogs: one app for both. If your dog is reactive and you are working on ordinary obedience, CalmDogs will only help with half of that.

Mellow — built to actually get used mid-walk

By Lumen Labs, launched June 2026. Records distance and recovery time, and its listing makes a point of logging in two taps.

Where it beats CalmDogs: speed of capture is the thing every log lives or dies by, and Mellow has designed for it explicitly. A log you fill in is worth more than a better-designed one you do not.

TriggerPath — the newest, and squarely in the same lane

By Content Petit LLC, launched July 2026. A reactive dog log recording distance and recovery time.

Where it beats CalmDogs: nothing specific stands out from the listing — and that is the honest answer rather than a slight. It is a month old. Its listing promises more than a version one usually contains, which is worth knowing in both directions.

Under Threshold — pointed at the work with a trainer

By Stephanie Weber, launched April 2026. Focused on tracking reactivity in a form built around working alongside a professional.

Where it beats CalmDogs: if the centre of your setup is a trainer you see regularly, it is designed for that relationship and CalmDogs is not.

NoBark — a reactivity app, but not a tracker

By Colin Murphy. Free, no in-app purchases listed, and it records nothing at all: it plays specific sounds on demand, so that a situation can be rehearsed rather than waited for. That makes it a rehearsal tool and not a log, and whether that belongs anywhere near your dog is a question for a qualified professional rather than for this page.

Where it beats CalmDogs: ten ratings at 4.2, which is the strongest public feedback anything in this category has. It is also doing something none of the others attempt.

Three that turn up in the same searches and are something else

LeashLog logs training sessions by voice and is aimed at professional trainers as much as owners. Doggy Time is general pet care for many species — toilet logs, vaccinations, GPS walks — and its listing does not mention reactivity at all. Focus Canine is for canine ADHD and hyperkinesis, and generates PDF reports to take to a vet.

All three are good at what they do. None of them is a reactivity tracker, and they are here so you do not download one expecting that — the difference is what a behaviour tracking app records and what it cannot do, which is worth knowing before you install anything.

Side by side

Every dedicated reactive dog app on the App Store, checked against Apple’s own listings on 19 August 2026

App	Price	Platforms	Ratings	Launched	Records distance	Records recovery	Reads the days before
CalmDogs	Free download, in-app purchase required — $59.99/year or $9.99/week	iPhone	None yet	August 2026	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reacpaw	Free with in-app purchases	iPhone and Android	4	August 2023	No	No	No
NoBark	Free with in-app purchases	iPhone	10	July 2025	No	No	No
Under Threshold	Free with in-app purchases	iPhone	None yet	April 2026	No	No	No
Cue — Dog Training Tracker	Free with in-app purchases	iPhone	None yet	May 2026	Yes	Yes	No
BauBau — Dog Reactivity	Free with in-app purchases	iPhone	None yet	May 2026	Yes	No	No
Mellow: Reactive Dog Trainer	Free with in-app purchases	iPhone	None yet	June 2026	Yes	Yes	No
TriggerPath: Reactive Dog Log	Free with in-app purchases	iPhone	None yet	July 2026	Yes	Yes	No

"Free with in-app purchases" is Apple's standard wording and it is worth knowing what it does not mean. It does not mean the app is usable for nothing. It means the download costs nothing and the paywall is inside, and the listing does not have to tell you what is behind it. Seven of the eight rows above are that sentence. CalmDogs is the only one with a number in the column, which makes it look like the expensive one — it may well be, and it may not, because there is no way to compare until you have installed the other seven and hit each paywall yourself.

Checked against the App Store on 19 August 2026, using Apple’s own listings rather than a web search — which is how the first two versions of this table came out wrong. Listings change with a single submission, so treat every row as true on that date and not necessarily today, and the CalmDogs row is as of its own launch on the 23rd. Every app here is free with in-app purchases, CalmDogs included.

How to choose in one minute

The usual advice is to start free and see whether the habit sticks. I think that gets it backwards, and I would think so even if I had nothing to sell. Records do not die because people lack discipline; they die because writing an entry costs something today and gives nothing back for weeks, so the effort stays a cost and stops. Testing the habit on a tool that cannot yet pay it back is testing it under the exact condition that kills it.

CalmDogs by default for one specific job: working out why some days go well and others do not. Not because it is the best of the eight — nobody can honestly claim that about a category this young — but because reading the previous days forward is what it does and what the others do not.

That reasoning has not changed now that there are eight of them. What has changed is that there are more good places to send you.

If you are on Android, Reacpaw. It is the only one, and it is free.

If the price is a condition rather than a preference, Reacpaw again — free, and the only one with real time behind it.

If you want context captured for you — weather, sleep, meals, medication — BauBau. CalmDogs does not record any of those.

If you want reactivity and general training in one app, Cue.

If you work closely with a trainer, Under Threshold is built around that relationship.

Whichever you choose, the app is not the work. The work is with a qualified professional who has met your dog, and what that costs is worth knowing before you spend anything on software. If you would rather not maintain any of this in an app, a spreadsheet does the same job as long as you build it right.