Is Your Dog Ready For Freedom?

Is Your Dog Ready For Freedom?

One of the best parts of owning a dog is exploring, going on adventures and spending time together. Long off lead walks in the forest, the beach and parks are made much more joyful when accompanied by our dogs seeing them explore and be free.

But… sometimes we have to make a difficult decision when our dog is not showing reliable behaviour… is our dog ready for it and have they earnt it?

With choices, comes responsibility.

Having trained many dogs over the years, a key pattern appears with dogs that come to see us with behavioural problems. That pattern is ‘owners giving too much freedom, too soon’.

For a dog to thrive, they need structure, boundaries, leadership and consistency from their owner.

The thing is, when your dog is off lead on your adventures, or even free to roam the house, they have many choices. With choices comes responsibility. They have a multitude of choices at any given time e.g return when recalled? Run over to the other dog? Bark out the window? Listen to their owner? And so on.

Dogs will more often than not select options that better their situation and suit them. So it is our job as owners, to guide them into the right options and behaviours.

Previously in the UK, where we ran a busy board and train programme, we would often within as little as 48 hours have the dogs significantly improved and working cooperatively with us. Why? Because for the first time in their life they have received structure, routine and consistency.

If you are struggling with your dog’s behaviour, sometimes we need to take 1 step back to take 2 steps forward. Train your foundations, control your dogs environment (within reason) and only start to give them the freedom you so desperately want to give them, once they begin to show you they can handle it.

Happy training! 🐕