When Training Might Not Be The Answer

Those of you familiar with the person behind the page here at Good Guardianship will know that a new canine member of the family joined as a few weeks ago. She’s a beautiful Border Collie puppy called Freya, just under 6 months old, and a full sister to one of our other dogs, the gorgeous Rogue. She came to us much later than is normal for a puppy due to a health issue that required heart surgery. This also meant that she had to be kept very quiet during the time that most puppies are learning about the world they will encounter throughout their lives.

 She is definitely full of character!

Despite this, she is on the whole bold and confident and has taken to walks and meeting new people well. Coming from a showing line breeder who has several of her family members in the home, other dogs have not been an issue!

Very full of character (yes, we safely traded something good for the stick immediately after)

We have moved recently and live a few hours away from family. My husband decided to visit his parents today, a trip of between 3 and 4 hours each way, depending on traffic. Freya gets carsick still (Rogue did until 18 months old, she’ll also grow out of it) so we decided that’s way too far for her yet. He’s taken our oldest dog visiting so he can see some of his favourite people and left the 2 girls with me.

Family walk time!

We’re in a spell of hot weather for the time of year in the UK, with temperatures in the high 20s/into the 30s over the next few days. This means walks are taken early before the day starts to heat up. This morning we stepped out and started on our way through the morning mist at 6.15. Both girls have very busy noses, so we alternated striding out and stopping to read the canine/wildlife message boards along the sides of the country lane we live on. After a while Freya started to slow down because she’d heard something. 2 men were talking next to a JCB, a large digger. I managed to gently persuade her to come along a little further so she could see what was making the noise, but she was definitely spooked.

After a few seconds I tried to persuade her onwards but could see she was worried and so turned for home. At this point she sped up to the point she was pulling on the lead, although Rogue was happily walking next to me. I had a decision to make – whether to make this a training situation and make her walk on a loose lead.

I decided not to and instead concentrated on getting her away from the noise and the situation that was bothering her.

Was this a failure? Absolutely not.

Sometimes the most important lessons our dogs can learn are not how to do something that we would like for them to do, but that they can trust us to listen and that we will do our best to make sure they get what they need in any situation.

Trust is absolutely one of the most important things we can teach our dogs and making sure we are trustworthy and predictable is a central part of being the best people we can be for the dogs in our care.

For more on fear and reactive behaviours in dogs check out my book Understanding Reactive Dogs or for a guide to living in harmony with the dogs in your life there is Building the Bond.

(Books available via a range of stores as an e-book via the link, paperback and hardcover through Amazon or to order through your favourite bookstore, audiobook at Amazon, Audible and Apple Books).