I get it, I really do! With Pixie, I remember those first spring days coming home from appointments thinking how wonderful it would be to go walk my dog. Then pulling into the neighborhood to find that everyone else had the exact same idea. Between the kids playing in the street, the bikes, and every dog in the neighborhood in their yard, there was just no way either of us would survive.
Here is a blog post I wrote in 2018!
What I want doesn’t matter
Having a dog who needed lots of support and space to navigate life taught me a ton! In those moments I learned that what I wanted and what my dog needed were not the same things, and I was going to support my dog even if I didn’t get to walk them. It just was not worth it.
Go explore safe places
It made me explore the area more. Walking in my neighborhood was easy. Get home, leash up the dog and go. On days when the neighborhood was going to be too difficult we got in the car and drove to a nearby school or park and explored new places. Over time, we found the places we could wander around reliably without too many issues and those places became my favorite places. With my current dogs, we prefer the quieter parks over the neighborhood most days. It gives them more freedom to explore and I can enjoy my walk without being constantly on edge.
They will tell you when something is wrong
I learned to watch my dog communicate with me. The ability of your dog’s sense of smell and hearing can tell you so much about the surroundings if you are paying attention. I could tell if certain dogs were in their yards, up to 2 blocks away just by the change in my dogs body language. Especially your reactive dogs, they will tell you if they are going to have a problem, way before they have a problem.
Let us help!
I want to pass on these lessons to you. If you have a barky lungy mess of a dog, let us help. We have developed private sessions that lead into our Reactive recovery group and eventually into actual group settings. All led by qualified trainers to be sure we are setting both the dog and human half of the team up for success before we let you out into the “real world.”
Schedule a phone consultation here to learn more!