Why Feeling Safe Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Feeling safe is so nice when you're with a reactive dog, or even if you're not with a reactive dog, it's it's just the nicest feeling. It's it's what a stress-free walk should feel like.

When The World Beats Your Attention

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sext in a Squirrel podcast. I'm Lauren Langman. I'm one of the world's leading dog trainers, and it's my mission to help owners become their dog's top priority. In each episode, you'll discover how to gain trust and communicate with your dog like never before, creating unbreakable bonds that make you the most exciting part of their world. So, Karen, time after time, people come here to the training centre or contact us or get in touch with the help desk, and they basically say, help. My dog is so distracted by the environment. In fact, I think my dog even hates me. Like he just finds the world way more exciting than me. What is that about?

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Yeah, it's a tricky one, isn't it? But so, so common. I think the environment is just so exciting. I mean, if you think about it from a dog's point of view, you go out into the world and it's just full of experiences and things that dogs find exciting. If I think of my dog, he likes to chase and he likes to sniff. So take him outside, there's immediately a hundred different smells that aren't in the house, things to grab his attention, things that move, and things that he can then find exciting to chase, whether that's a bit of wildlife or even a leaf or something blown along. I think the environment is just really good at giving our dogs novelty and things to do and things to excite them and things that tap into, I guess, what they're bred to do, really, depending on what type of dog you've got.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Massive, absolutely massive. And it's almost like wherever you are, whether you're rural or whether you're in the middle of a city, there's something for your dog to be distracted by. So let's think about, I don't know, you're probably more city than I am. You're not city city, but you're more like town than I would be. What things in the town do you does your dog immediately hit when they walk out of the door?

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Well, for us, the biggest distraction actually, I am not sexier than rubbish. I'm not sexier than the bit of food that somebody dropped on the floor and didn't bother to pick up and put in a bin. Or it doesn't even have to be food, actually, a bit of discarded wrapper that had some food in it that still smells of food. I mean, I guess we it's easy to forget, isn't it, how much our dogs can smell on something that to us just looks like a bit of rubbish. But I know that Rupert must find them interesting because he has eaten bits of rubbish that had no food anywhere near them. So stuff like that for me would definitely be a challenge. I guess if Rupert was a border collie rather than a cockpoo, then cars would be something that he would potentially be quite interested in chasing anything that moves in towns. People, depending on your dog, there's there's people everywhere, aren't there? There's other dogs. There's all sorts of smells and sniffs and and things going on. And I guess it just depends what taps into your dog's either interests or worries, what can then pull their attention away from where you would like it to be.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

It's massive. And for me, deer, rabbits, foxes, chickens, squirrels, squirrels are a big problem, actually. Local lady going out for a little bike ride, horses, livestock, sheep, cattle, ponies, even just like the fact that they make a noise. It doesn't even have to be they can see them. So there are so many distractions. Now, what are we up against,

Why We Lose To Sudden Distractions

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Karen? Like, why do we lose?

SPEAKER_01 3:42

I think we lose because we are often not as exciting or as unpredictable. I mean, we the podcast is called sexier than a squirrel for a reason. Squirrels or anything else that you would like to substitute that for, because really, when we say squirrel, we mean distraction, don't we? We mean something that is grabbing our dog's attention. They appear potentially out of nowhere, and then they do something a bit unexpected. If you've got a dog that likes to chase a ball, and then you've got a squirrel that's going to run straight in front of it, you've immediately got a ball on legs with a big bushy tail that is going to be way more exciting, particularly if you're then going to try and compete for that bit of attention with your voice or a bit of kibble or whatever you might be trying to kind of win your dog's attention back with. And I think the the flip of it is if we can be exciting and unpredictable and and kind of give our dogs those experiences that they enjoy, whether that's on lead or off-lead, you we're then not competing with it, but offering something that's as valuable.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

And I think that's a big part of it. If you recall your dog from a squirrel and you give them a piece of biscuit and then carry on walking in the same direction as a squirrel, there is no no part of you that is ever going to overcome the squirrel, in my opinion, unless you've got a seriously biddable dog who is very, very hungry. For me, it might mean I need to start in the other direction. We were playing Retrieve with a pup earlier out in the arena, and she wasn't bringing a toy back. And I said to Matt, she's got to miss it. She needs to miss it. So what I mean by that is she goes in to get the toy and he makes her miss it, and she gets angry and she goes, and then he lets her get the next one, and then she pushes it at him, like, I am angry with you. You need a bit of that, and that for me is what squirrel is. That for me is what all of the other things like she was it was angry, it was like that moment of and she really liked the rrrrr. Um, I'm not growling at you, Proof. And and the big thing is that some of them need a bit of that, some of them need a bit of like changing direction, changing rewards, using toys, using food, using all of the other things that you might consider. But what they don't need is

How To Become Worth Chasing

SPEAKER_00 6:00

an owner who, number one, isn't even aware of it, and number two, when they do become aware of it, it's already so far down the route of gone that it's too late, really. We need to maybe go in the other direction. We need to maybe play hide and seek, we maybe need to play or a piece of food or a bit of a snuffle box when we're out and about, or use the natural like nature as a snuffle box. We need to vary when they do get their toys, when they do get their food, how they get the food, and how they spend the rest of their time when they're not out walking. All of those things matter, Karen. And these are things we're gonna be talking on a masterclass soon, right? Like, what is the masterclass about? What are we gonna be talking on? And is it free? Because I'm pretty sure it is, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 6:36

It is absolutely free, and it's for anybody really who has stressful walks, uh, whatever those stressful walks look like. So whether that's pulling or whether that's some other thing in your walking life which makes them less than enjoyable. I think when we get a dog, walking walking a dog in whatever capacity you do that, whether it's on lead, off-lead, in a town, in a country side, up a path, it's got to be enjoyable for you and your dog, hasn't it? That's none of us imagines guessing a dog and then thinks, right, well, I'm gonna have to take it for a walk, two, three, however many times you want to do it times a day, and I'm going to hate it. That's nobody's dog-owning dream.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Having a dog and being able to go for walks, for me, it's I was talking to someone the other day, it's one of my anchors of my day. Like I really enjoy it. I look forward to it, I want it. And to have a dog that is not fun to walk, or to have a dog that you stress walking, and or to have a dog that is difficult to walk can really throw that whole anchor into a completely different direction. And sometimes the thing you bought for your very therapy is now the thing you probably need a therapist for. Yes. Because it's setting you into therapy. And so for me, yeah, walking my dogs is is one of my greatest joys. Poor Matt gets dragged in because I don't know it's one of his greatest joys, but I'm like, I want to walk my dogs at six o'clock in the morning. I'd happily walk them at lunchtime and I'd quite happily walk them again at five o'clock, six o'clock. So I would anchor my whole day around walking. Well, that's summertime. I won't tell you about winter. Winter, it might be swimming, arena, training, swimming, water treadmill, treadmill, gym work, fit without kit. Um, I'm not a winter walker. I don't like the winter sort of weather really. I will walk, but I don't walk like constantly all day long. But when it's like this, like beautiful days, like we want to be out there walking. We want to be out there. So, yeah, what's this masterclass going to help with, Karen? Or how is it going to open people's eyes?

The Walk Starts Before The Door

SPEAKER_01 8:30

I think it's it's going to give people potentially a fresh way of considering well, what a walk even is, how a walk should start, what skills you might need to build before you even consider going for a walk. It's certainly not going to say don't go for a walk, but I do think there are some skills that put in place before you even click the lead on make a massive difference. How you start a walk makes so much difference, doesn't it? Whether your dog is going out with their brain in their head or whether their brain is already in the park. Because if you if you're leaving the house and your your dog's brain's already running around a field with five other dogs, then chances are you're going to get dragged to that field and then your dog's probably not going to be listening to you when you get there. And that makes walks definitely stressful for you, but potentially dangerous for your dog. And there's just a I think it's the best way to do it.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

So, Karen, if you you own a dog who is a little bit naughty but nice, he's quite different in lots of ways. If you were to start again, would you do your walks differently? And what three things would you take into consideration? I know the three's not enough, but go for threes for now. What three things would you do maybe differently or take into consideration straight away?

SPEAKER_01 9:46

I wouldn't go for a what we you would consider a traditional walk as early as I did with him at all. Because I think there were skills and and not just not just lead walking skills, emotional skills, probably emotional resilience he needed to build before I took him out into a lot of the environments. So I think that's one part of it, building skills and building his optimism and confidence with the world at large before I ever put him in situations. And then certainly also not allowing him to rehearse things, not allowing him to go and see every other dog as super exciting and his best friend in the world, at the detriment of me, really, not because I want to be the centre of his world in that sense, but because it's important that if he goes out, he's under my control, not in a I'm controlling you sense, but in a you are safe and I am safe and everybody

Puppies Need Skills Before Exposure

SPEAKER_01 10:50

else is safe. You don't just go off the lead and then disappear and have your own party and then come back when you're ready to go home.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

I read something a while back and it said, I'm gonna share something and some thoughts that might be controversial in the dog training world. Puppies, specifically young puppies, to cut a long story short, do not have any place going out and about in the world before they have skills. If and when shit hits the fan, I am gonna say it, you do not have the relationship and the skill set trained to be able to really influence your puppy's perception of the world and help them in that situation. Because that relationship and skill set isn't there, then actually you're gonna negatively impact their future. And that's for me the reason that my dogs work and train and get all the skills before we put them in that big bad world, I suppose. But also the world is getting more complex, and that's what we're going to tackle on the um the opportunity for everyone to come to the masterclass. Karen, if people want to come to this masterclass, it's free, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 11:47

It is free, and we will pop a link, a registration link underneath this podcast. So wherever you're listening to it, there will be a link, and all you have to do is sign up.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Everyone can come, invite friends, family, sister, mother, brother, long-lost lover. Everyone is welcome, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Yes, absolutely. We would love to see as many people as possible. And it doesn't really matter whether you think your walks are stressful because of one thing or another, or actually, even if you don't think your walks are stressful at all, but you'd just like to learn more, it's it's for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

If you were starting again with Reaper, is this the sort of thing you would do?

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Yes, it's the sort of thing I really wish I'd found and knew about beforehand. I mean, that quote that you just read there, it could have been written about Reaper, really. That's everything that went wrong with us. He was worried about the world, but he also found it way too exciting and he didn't have the skills before he ended up in a situation which he couldn't handle. And it has actually impacted his view of the world in a way that I've not managed to really entirely unpick since. He's now terrified of other dogs and quite reactive as a result. And it's purely because he was way too interested in what was out there and ran up to the wrong dog and ended up with his head in its mouth.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

You didn't know enough, he didn't know enough, poor combination, basically ended up in carnage, have unpicked a lot of it, but the emotional response deep down hasn't really changed because what I would see as a person who works in animal behavior is that the one-time learning was really quite strong there. And that coupled with your which is something we see all the time, a level of owner anxiety, nervousness, worry, um, anxiousness, which is completely understandable. I'm throwing my pen, which is completely understandable. The two coupled together don't really help.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

No, and I would say that he I have become a reactive dog owner. As much as he's become a reactive dog, I have become a reactive owner. And I would freely admit that I'm the one as much as him who's now worried about what's around

When One Bad Moment Sticks

SPEAKER_01 13:45

corners. And that's just because I know what can happen if there is another dog around that corner.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

And I I to read another quote from the same post, um, there's loads of development and loads of exposure that you can do at home. You can build resilience, you can build recovery in their safe place. Whilst I initially said they don't have any place going out into the world, they do safely, once you've spent time at home preparing them for their first outings and all of the skills. So many people rush into this too soon. And that for me is where my young dogs are. My young dogs, I actually think my young dogs are very, very skilled. I'm worried really about other people's dogs out that are not so so well skilled. And what I want to make sure is that my animals are able to handle it. I shared a video of only a few weeks ago of uh it had over a million views of a dog running at one of my horses. And the owner said, if your horse can't cope with being chased by a dog, and I just think it's worth recapping here that when we're out with our dogs, whether our dog is friendly or not, they are under our control. So the dogs are under our control, and that's why I invite everybody to come to this masterclass because you might not have your dog under control right now, and that's why you should come. Yeah, it you don't have to be perfect to be there. In fact, we want really the least perfect people we possibly can find. So if you are less than perfect, you should be in this masterclass. Is that right, Karen?

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Absolutely, and even if you uh think your dog is perfect right now, I guess you never know, do you? Or even for a future dog or for somebody else who has got a dog who is maybe not quite as well under control when they're out and about. It I just the ripple of it is massive. A lot of the stress that I have on walks now is not really anything to do with my dog. It's to do with the unpredictability of other people. So I think the more people who understand from that as that point of view as well, the better everyone is off, really.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

So even if you are a reactive dog owner, even if you are a dog owner of a perfectly well-behaved dog, the more owners that know about this, the more owners we can get to the masterclass, the better, right, Karen? Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

If I could walk in a world where everybody understood this, I wouldn't care if everybody's dog

Join The Stress-Free Walks Masterclass

SPEAKER_01 15:55

was reactive. It would be that everybody understood that everybody else had a reactive dog and could handle their own dog, and then everybody would be fine.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

So, Karen, when you're at Devon Dogs, you're at the training center, you're at Bowerland, uh, which is the absolute dog's headquarters. How do you feel?

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Really safe and really relaxed because you just know how well managed everything is and how well under control everything is, and it's just safe. And feeling safe is so nice when you're with a reactive dog, or even if you're not with a reactive dog, it's it's just the nicest feeling. It's it's what a stress-free walk should feel like.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Massive, like absolutely massive, absolutely huge. Really, like, yeah, all of it makes complete sense to the dog training world. So, for everyone who wants to come, Karen, how do they how do they join us? How do they find out about it? How do they come?

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Hit the link, which should be absolute dogs.me forward slash stress free walks masterclass. But that is a bit of a mouthful. So we will put the link underneath the podcast episode.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

So, guys, come and join us. Your invite's there. It's free, it's ready, it's waiting. If you want to bring sister mother, long lost lover, brother, mother, father, lover, please bring all of the people and we'll see you at the masterclass.