Show Notes
A client’s dog walked down his own street yesterday, the street he walks every day, and lost his mind at a fake black cat sitting on a driveway pillar. Halloween has not even happened yet. In this episode I go through why the sensitive dogs are already struggling, and why a fright early in a walk raises the temperature for everything that follows. I also tell the story of what happened at the park straight afterwards. Three dog walkers arriving at once with four dogs each, a loud and tense meet and greet that carried a hundred metres, and the way it rippled outward until every dog we passed on the way out was rattled. There is an honest bit about anticipation too — why I am sitting at home this week quietly hoping nobody knocks and wakes my toddler, and why your dog is doing a version of exactly the same thing. Plus what to actually do about it. Shorter walks, less social pressure, and a serious look at what your dog can access at the front of the house this weekend.
More from Unleashed & Unhinged
There is one lead I have never once looked at and thought, that is a good idea. It is worse than the extendable, and worse than the one I usually call the worst. I get to it at the end. Before that, something more basic — spatial pressure and leash pressure. Get the leash pressure wrong and you are restraining your dog rather than walking them. In this episode I go through the leads I come across most. Why slip leads belong in a vet clinic and not in the hands of the public. Why I still walk my own dog on a flat collar, and the honest trade-off behind that. And how length should change depending on the dog in front of you and the suburb you are standing in — Surry Hills and the Shire are not the same problem. I also explain the setup I actually use. A three metre flat lead, run like a car with two gears, open when it can be and shorter when it needs to be — shorter being a very different thing to tight. Then the ones I argue with. Flexi leads, including a client I told to keep hers before changing my mind entirely. Bungee leads, and the mechanical reason they make pulling worse rather than better. And then the one at the top of the list, which is worse than both of them.
I raise this in consults all the time and the eyebrows still go up. A lead does not have to be an outdoor item, and used indoors it is often the difference between a training plan that works and one that doesn’t. In this episode I go through the three situations I reach for it in. The dog who charges the window barking, where it blocks the pattern before it starts and keeps the arousal spike small enough to actually recover from. The household where the dog needs to be present but not underfoot. And the hyper-attached dog who cannot settle. I also get into why a tether can work better than a barrier for some dogs, and the bigger problem with shutting a dog away entirely — they never learn how to be near the thing, they just never see it happen. Plus the honest conversation about supervision. Active, passive, and the trap of believing you are watching the dog when the email in front of you is actually the priority. And the practical detail that catches most people out: never use your walking lead for this.
In this episode we explore why dogs jump up, what to do about it and what not to do.
Leadership is one of those terms that when spoken about by dog trainers seems to lead to someone talking about having to be the alpha, how your dog is not respecting you and that you have to be stricter and not let your dogs walk all over you.
People ring me about aggression across an enormous spectrum. One house, someone is being bitten regularly and telling me it's fine. Another house, a woman is close to tears because her dog grumbled and turned his head away from a cuddle. Both calls come in under the same heading. In this episode I get into why that spectrum exists, and why some conflict between you and your dog is contextually normal. A huge number of the dogs in our homes were deliberately bred to handle confrontation — herding breeds to push livestock around, terriers to hunt, guarding breeds to be sceptical by default. Working line dogs have an agenda, and an agenda means friction sometimes. None of that means punishment or intimidation belongs in the response. I cover what healthy leadership actually looks like, why we all drop the ball occasionally and so will our dogs, and the question that matters more than any other when it happens: is this a one-off, or is it a pattern? Plus the uncomfortable bit underneath all of it — in every one of these cases, the person is the one who has to change first.