Is not enough freedom making your dog more reactive?

Every dog needs exercise every day and it has a huge, huge impact on behaviour. There are at least six studies showing the correlation between lack of off lead exercise and behaviour problems, with one of them suggesting that 62% of dogs are more likely to struggle with behaviour problems such as reactivity if they don’t get the opportunity to run, sniff and explore off lead.

Off lead and free, dogs tend to spend around a third of their time foraging in the ground and using their noses to explore their environment.

This happens predominantly when the dogs go to a new place, just not the same place when you’re allowing your dog to run in a big garden or just pacing the pavements again and again, the same ones each day.

It’s really important that we recognise that dogs do have a right, and the need to explore and go to new places. So its especially important if you have a reactive dog that they should do at least one off lead walk a week, even if that is in a secure field, so that the dog is safe and you’re not likely to come across new people or new dogs or whatever it is your dog is reacting to.

And at least one off lead walk (in a secure dog park if needs be) and three opportunities for your dog to explore new things each week. So it might be a new area of an old walk or a brand new walk. That’s not too difficult or unrealistic for dog owners to do

So it’s really, really important that we take our dogs out for fun, playful and relaxing walks away from the triggers, that we play with them and that we engage with them on those walks. At least half of the walk should be for engagement and the rest of the walk is for them to sniff, run and explore.
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So put that phone away and play and train your dog on walks. Now that might look like hand feeding, it might look like playing ball, it might look like practicing loose lead walking or just having a little cuddle on a bench.