Lead by Example - They are watching
There are thousands of little moments that add up and give our dog a picture or a ‘sense’ of who we are as handlers and leaders and of what we allow/endorse and what we don’t. If the majority of our small moments are permissive, excessively affectionate, inconsistent, or allowing the dog to behave rudely or impulsively, push the boundaries and disregard the rules then we are giving our pup the impression that we are not very believable leaders. And if our dogs don’t want to listen to us in the small mundane moments, then we definitely won’t have the influence that we need to help them make good choices in the big important moments! In the video, Bailey and I are working on her polite leash manners as we pass other people and dogs and it’s the accumulation of all the small moments like these where the handler ensures that the dog is tuned in, calm, polite and following and holding commands (in this case the heel!) that either builds or breaks our believability as the leaders that our dogs either want to follow or choose to disregard.
Always use space to your advantage
There are many ways to advocate for your dog on the walk and making space away from triggers is a great choice! A 4’ side walk is much too close to pass by for a reactive dog, so we always want to make space by stepping into the street, up a lawn on cutting through a driveway as we walk past. In this video, as I’m walking with Brady, the moment he starts to feel excited or intense towards a dog or person I tap his remote collar as I say ‘No’ which he has been trained to understand means ‘stop loading on that dog, it’s none of your business’ and then by moving off the sidewalk or moving Brady to my right side, I take the pressure off Brady and also put myself in a better position to advocate for him from oncoming excitement triggers as we walk by. There are sooooo many ways to ensure that we have a great outing with our dog EVERYWHERE we go, but it is up to us handlers to plan ahead, correct mental arousal EARLY and BEFORE it becomes reactivity, and always use space to our advantage to take unnecessary pressure off our dog!