Three Things to Create Confidence

Something talked about a lot is how a lack of confidence and resilience can make life difficult for dogs. Those who share their lives and homes with the complex dogs, those frightened, anxious souls who struggle with the world, are particularly aware of how dogs need this confidence and resilience. An important factor we talk about far less often is the need for confidence on the human end of the lead.

Think about the lead for a moment. For at least a part of most walks a lead acts as a physical connection between dog and human. The start of the walk, from just inside the garden gate or the front door, to the local fields, common, park, whatever space where dogs can run free, that physical link between human hand and canine body exists. At the end of the walk, heading home or back to the car park, again the dog is at one end of a lead, the other held in a human hand.

We know that our dogs are incredibly sensitive creatures, able to pick up cues from their environment that we are not even aware exist. Studies have shown strong indications that dogs can actually smell human emotions. Knowing they can smell how we are feeling, imagine how quickly a dog can pick up on any tension via that physical connection.

It's clear then that we need to work on confidence in the human side o