You open the front door and suddenly your dog has somewhere to be.
There are smells to investigate. Leaves moving. People passing. Dogs in the distance. Something interesting happened beside that lamppost approximately six hours ago and apparently it is VERY important that your dog finds out exactly what.
And then there's you.
Standing at the other end of the lead with a treat and the rapidly diminishing hope that your dog might remember you exist.
Sound familiar?
It can be frustrating when your dog is brilliantly focused at home but seems to disappear into the environment the moment you step outside.
But look at the world from your dog's perspective and it starts to make a lot more sense.
The outside world is a VERY good deal
Think about what your dog gets to experience on a walk.
Smells they haven't encountered before. Movement. Novelty. Wildlife. Other dogs. People. Food somebody dropped yesterday. Places to explore. Things to chase. Sounds to investigate.
And unlike your living room, the outside world is constantly changing.
That squirrel wasn't there yesterday.
That dog has never walked past before.
That smell wasn't on that particular blade of grass the last time your dog checked.
The environment is unpredictable – and unpredictability can make it incredibly exciting.
So when your dog wants to forge ahead, dive into a hedge or investigate something rather than turn back to you, they aren't necessarily making a conscious decision to ignore you.
They're showing you where the value is.
And that's useful information.
Where's the value?
This is one of our favourite questions to ask when we're looking at walks.
Where does your dog believe the good stuff is going to happen?
For some dogs, it's always forwards.
That's exactly what Lauren discovered with Skittle.
Skittle wanted to GO. There was always something exciting ahead and, unsurprisingly, that's where she wanted to be.
Lauren could reward her beside her leg – and she did – but Skittle still believed the really valuable stuff was out in front.
That changed the question.
Instead of simply thinking about how to stop Skittle pulling forwards, Lauren started thinking about how she could build more value somewhere else.
And that little change in perspective became an important part of transforming their walks.
It's something you can start noticing with your own dog too.
When you're outside, where do they naturally want to be?
What's pulling their attention?
What choices do they make when they have them?
And perhaps most importantly:
What are they telling you they LOVE?
Become your dog's detective
The environment isn't only full of distractions.
It's full of clues.
Your dog is constantly showing you the kinds of experiences they find valuable.
Maybe yours could sniff for England.
Perhaps movement is EVERYTHING and the moment something runs, rolls or flies, they're transfixed.
Maybe they're happiest with their nose down following a trail.
They might love chasing, searching, splashing, carrying, digging or exploring.
Perhaps other dogs make their entire face light up.
Watch.
Notice.
Get curious.
What makes your dog come alive?
Those are valuable clues, because once you understand what your dog loves about the world, you can start thinking about how you might offer some of those experiences too.
Got a dog who loves to chase? Bring chase into your games together.
Love sniffing? Create opportunities to search and sniff with you.
Got a dog who adores movement? Explore games where you move together rather than expecting all the fun to happen while you're standing still.
You don't need to become a squirrel. (Which is fortunate, because we're not entirely sure where you'd get the tail.)
You CAN learn from the squirrel, though.
You don't have to compete with the whole world
It's easy to hear all this and think:
Great. So now I need to be more exciting than a rabbit, three dogs, a discarded sandwich AND a field full of sheep.
Nope.
We don't want you spending every walk frantically waving chicken around while attempting to be the most entertaining thing within a five-mile radius.
We want to build value in experiences with you.
That might be food.
It might be play.
It could be movement, sniffing, searching or exploring together.
And sometimes the reward for reconnecting with you can even be access to something your dog wanted from the environment in the first place.
Over time, your dog starts to build a richer reinforcement history with you.
The environment can still be brilliant.
You get to be brilliant too.
Start the conversation before the environment does
There's another important piece to this.
If you wait until your dog has spotted a squirrel, locked onto it and is straining at the end of the lead before trying to become relevant, you've given yourself a very difficult job.
That's not necessarily the moment to find out whether your connection can compete.
Look for easier opportunities.
Build your games at home.
Play in the garden.
Try them near the front door.
Take them somewhere quiet.
Practise when there's something mildly interesting happening rather than waiting for the canine equivalent of Disneyland.
You can gradually take those skills and that value into more challenging places as your dog becomes ready for them.
And when something IS too difficult?
Create distance. Change direction. Help your dog out.
Not every distraction needs to become a training exercise.
Sometimes the best decision you can make is simply to recognise that your dog isn't ready for that challenge yet.
What does your dog rehearse?
Value and rehearsal go hand in hand.
Imagine your dog spots something interesting and pulls towards it.
They get closer.
That works.
Next time, they pull again.
They get closer again.
Pretty quickly, your dog has learnt something useful:
Pulling gets me where I want to go.
The same principle can work in our favour.
Your dog notices something and turns back towards you.
Something great happens.
They choose to stay close.
Something great happens.
They disengage from something exciting and reconnect with you.
Something great happens.
Those choices get rehearsed too.
And the more opportunities we create for our dogs to practise the choices we'd love them to make, the easier those choices can become.
Your dog doesn't need to stop loving the world
This is perhaps the most important bit.
We're not trying to make the environment less exciting.
We don't want our dogs to stop sniffing, exploring, watching, investigating or enjoying everything that makes a walk a walk.
We want to be part of the experience.
A dog who can explore and reconnect.
Notice and disengage.
Move away and come back.
Enjoy the world while still keeping that conversation with the person at the other end of the lead.
That's a very different goal from expecting your dog to stare at you for an entire walk.
So next time you head outside and your dog's attention gets pulled towards something fascinating, resist the temptation to think:
Why is THAT more exciting than me?
Put your detective hat on instead.
What does my dog love about that?
What does that tell me about what they value?
And how could I use that information to build something brilliant between us?
You might start seeing your dog's distractions very differently.
Ready to build better walks together?
If you'd love more help turning these ideas into real-life skills, join us for our FREE Stress Free Walks Masterclass.
Lauren and Jamie will be diving into the foundations behind calmer, happier, more connected walks – with practical coaching, demonstrations and ideas you can start using with your own dog.
Whether your dog pulls, forges ahead, gets distracted by every squirrel or simply finds the world far more interesting than you sometimes, we'll show you how to start building the skills that make stress free walks possible.
