𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗜𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗗𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱!

Islay is a very happy little golden doodle who’s great with people and off-lead dogs.  However, she’s been having a few fights with on-lead dogs. I think the issue is that she doesn’t quite know how to read dogs that are on a lead since she hasn’t socialised with them much.

On our walk today, we also noticed that Islay wasn’t eating food—not because of stress or anxiety, but simply because she’s so focused on the walk! Just like when you’re working out at the gym, food isn’t the first thing on your mind—that’s how Islay feels during her walks.

But since she pulls quite badly on the lead, we need to teach her to stop and use food to reinforce good behaviours. So, we changed things up by starting right outside the house, where we taught her to eat and work with food.

Islay picked this up incredibly quickly, and within minutes she was doing some beautiful loose leash walking! She lasted about 15-20 minutes before getting distracted, so we called it a day, but it was a fantastic start. She ate, she walked calmly, and we made a ton of progress in just one session.

Now we’ll keep working on this over the next few weeks, building up her focus and then tackling her issues with on-lead dogs. Well done, Islay, and a big well done to her owners for their hard work!  

Can’t wait to see you all soon and take things to the next level!

If this case sounds like your dog and you are having a similar issue, or a different issue entirely, book a FREE assessment call with us by clicking HERE