A thought from me, your dog walker.

I didn’t walk your dog today… Okay so stick with me, that’s a bold start for my first blog but in truth, it’s something my clients are already used to hearing.

When I’m organising my working week, I have a plan in place for the behaviours I’ll cover on my training walks. In 2 years of business, I doubt I’ve ever stuck to that plan once!

I love a plan! Targets, goals, progress tracking. They’re all things you need when you’re training, I find it can be really easy to lose sight of why you’re bothering if you can’t tick off your achievements, whether it’s a physical thing, or just a list in your head.

BUT….

What you have to remember when you’re training dogs, whether it be your own or someone else’s, is that they are living beings. They have good days and bad days, they can get worried and frustrated, they have busy days and need chill time just the same as we do. My plan doesn’t always tally with this.

Sometimes your dog’s difficult days may be the day I planned to take them to a busy park and practice behaving around strangers. Maybe the day I planned a quiet one, your dog shows real progress and we end up doing way above what I planned.

The point I’m making is, the dog you think you’re going to see isn’t always there. The dog you made progress with yesterday, might be having a rough time of it tomorrow. When I’m working with client dogs, I work really hard to get to know them, to learn their quirks and their struggles and I firmly believe, regardless of the plan, I should work with the dog that greets me that day.

This is the first point at which I could abandon the plan.

If I can’t get your dog to focus in your garden, is it really fair to ask them to try and focus out in the world?

They haven’t got it wrong or failed. They just can’t deal with that today and let’s face it, we’ve all been there!

If your dog’s having a hard time of it, you can be sure I’m not going to make it any harder for them!

If we do make it out for a walk, which by the way, we mainly do! The plan may be to stay out for the whole walk. But here’s the second point at which I could ditch the plan. It’s super busy and your dog copes really well, but I can see them getting to their limit. Do I stay out and push it cause, well, we’ve coped so far? No!

Quit while you’re winning!

We finish on a high and don’t wait for something to come along that turns out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

When I’m doing training walks, I want the dog that greets me to succeed with the lessons we learn TODAY. So what if yesterday’s walk was a better one? We might have an even more successful walk tomorrow!

But today, we should be able to change the plan and make the most of the dog that’s in front of us.

“The dog sets the pace.”

Lisa Lyle Waggoner, Cold Nose College

Ever made plans with a pal weeks in advance and then when the night comes it’s the last thing you want to do? Or at the other end of the scale, had a quiet night in planned and a last-minute night out turns out to be the highlight of the year?

Why can’t we apply this logic to our dogs? Let them have a say in how they spend their time.

We control every aspect of their life. When they eat, what they eat, where they walk, when they walk, who they meet, when they sleep, when they play.

They don’t get much of a say in any of this.

They can’t verbalise what they feel and what they need. But they still communicate with us. If we can see they’re struggling, take a hint. Abandon the plan. Try again tomorrow.

Maybe we didn’t walk today. Maybe we just did a little focus work in the garden with a game of tug as a reward. Maybe we just played find it games to get your dog engaged in something that comes naturally to them, without putting any pressure on them. Maybe we just had a cuddle.

To my clients, your dogs are the best at communicating to me what they need. I see when they’re giddy, over tired or struggling with the world. I hope you see progress; I hope you understand that when I say we haven’t walked, I’m not being lazy, I’m giving your dog a voice to say “Not today please”.