At the beginning of realising that your dog struggles with some aspects of their world, it can feel overwhelming. The amount of change that has needed to be able to take your dog places as if they were a ‘normal’ dog can feel insurmountable.
A ‘Normal’ Dog?
I take issue with the concept of a ‘normal’ dog. Our canine friends are often subject to unrealistic expectations. Think of the differences between the women we see in the media and the average woman in daily life. Similarly, the expectation of how a dog should behave can bear very little resemblance to the reality of a dog being a dog. And we should be doing everything we can to let our dogs be dogs!
Many of the things that guardians might label ‘problem behaviours’ are perfectly normal dog things. I suspect that those of us who share our lives with complex, sensitive dogs are more aware of what our dogs need to do to be happy dogs. Because we need to consider their emotions and stress levels much closer than other dog guardians, we’re more aware of our dogs’ wants and needs.
What we’re looking to do with our reactive dogs is to make them more comfortable in their world. They may never be able to go to dog shows, or big group walks, or to popular walking locations, at least not without much planning and alternative routes/hidey-holes planned. However, with consistent and careful work, we can help our dogs to feel happier with strange people, traffic, or other dogs.
Knowing where to start can be tricky, so here are three excellent locations to start the process of improving their relationships with the world around them.
Supermarket Car Parks
Not the most thrilling of places. Not somewhere that people go for anything other than the purpose of shopping. That’s a big part of their strength as places to begin working on the dog’s associations with their triggers. These car parks, particularly the big ones, are fantastic places to work with reactive dogs in the early stages, whether their triggers are people they don’t know or traffic.
Car parks have plenty of places to hide if you need to pull a quick ninja move – not least between cars – and there are always quieter areas further away from the store. These quieter areas are perfect places from which to start. You can move closer to the busier parts or away depending on how your dog feels about the situation.
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| Lots of room and places to hide |
Any traffic in the car park will also be moving far slower than on a road, so is exposing car sensitive dogs to vehicles at a much lower level of stress inducement. You might start with watching cars move around from inside the safety of your car. Then to moving around the quiet area, letting your dog see the moving vehicles from a distance. When the dog is comfortable at that level, move closer. The same method applies to people.
Industrial Estates/Business Parks
Again, not attractive places but so useful for increasing exposure. There are often fewer pedestrians (and certainly fewer dogs) during the week. On Sundays, these places are almost deserted. Traffic is moving quicker than at the supermarket but there is room to move away if it’s too much for the dog, into one of the business’s car parks.
This kind of place can make for a great next step in working with a reactive dog when ready to move on from the supermarket car park.
I use a car park with my dog that is halfway between the two above places. It’s on the edge of an industrial estate and serves a DIY and a pet store. By working carefully, and ensuring I keep my observations sharp, we work our way slowly closer to the stores where it’s busier with people. I can work on both his associations with people and dogs and have lots of room to retreat if I see signs he is becoming stressed.
Parks/Recreation Grounds
These do admittedly require careful selection, and timing can be crucial. Parks are generally quieter when it’s raining (but we reactive dog guardians are used to darting out for a walk in the rain!) Even when raining, there will be a few people around doing different things. In a quiet park, it’s usually easy to find some room if needed.
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| My boy on one of our park visits, watching people on the other side |
Another option if available is a fenced or hedged field that runs alongside a road (if there is one near to you with a public footpath in it – I am not advocating trespassing on someone’s property). If you can find one of these, it’s a fantastic way to introduce full speed traffic, but with a barrier in place for safety and, in the case of a hedge, reduce the sound a little.
For information on what is going on in the body of your reactive dog and the science behind the methods, we can use to help them have a better relationship with their world, see my book ‘Understanding Reactive Dogs: Why Dogs React & How to Help’.
In other news, I am adding another strand to the support services that I offer. I have now added to working on confidence and resilience in dogs working with the same things in humans. Some reading this will know that I released a book dealing with imposter syndrome in 2020. I have now set up a Facebook group as a safe space providing support and help in tackling imposter syndrome. Soon I will be offering online workshops and support sessions, either in small groups or on a 1-2-1 basis. I'm excited to see how this is going to grow!
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