A lot of my clients get a rescue dog and want to give it the freedom it never had: they want to take it off leash. On day one! Or perhaps they are more patient and wait until day two.
Recently, one of my clients walked his new rescue dog to a local high school. There’s a fence along the road — only problem is, it’s not a FULL fence. There are gaps.
My client watched in HORROR as his brand new rescue dog ran away from him, across the busy road, and out of sight. The good news is: she went home. The other good news is: she didn’t get run over and she didn’t cause an accident. But she easily could have.
YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE YOUR BRAND NEW RESCUE DOG GET HIT BY A CAR!
Here’s the advice I gave to my client: “Essentially what you have in front of you is an 8-week-old puppy.”
I said this to him, even though his dog was 5-months-old. Why?
It’s simple: It put into perspective the fact that you would never expect a brand new, 8-week-old puppy to already know recall. It was a lightbulb moment for that client, who realized that he didn’t adopt a finished product. He adopted a work in progress.
As we too are all works in progress, don’t be too hard on yourself when you’re training your dog. Sure, you’ll make mistakes, but you’ll learn from them. The next training session will be better.
Raising dogs shouldn’t be a race to the finish line, so give yourself permission to stop sprinting and breathe.
Doesn’t that feel better?
Here are some tips of what to work on before you unclip your leash.
Do some fun training exercises inside your home. We call this “training in a low distraction environment.” Discover if your new dog knows how to sit, lie down, or come. Keep your training short and positive. Have a LOT of fun!
Some rescue dogs have never worn a collar or a leash before. Allow them time to sniff these strange, new objects before expecting that they’ll want to wear them around. Reward them with praise and some of their favourite treats. Keep these sessions short as well.
Teach your dog to recall/come using a leash before expecting them to go to the dog park with you and ace a (likely) brand new command. Regardless of if you picked them up from the airport at 11 PM, let them sleep in your bed, and fed them breakfast this morning, you are still a total stranger. Give yourself and your dog time to get to know each other.
I’ve adopted rescue dogs and I’ve raised puppies. I love training dogs and I don’t see it as work. Every piece of the puzzle is a JOY to work on. Dogs are gifts. Now, stop reading and go enjoy yours.