Just over a year ago I was unable to walk my blind dog in my local park or along the city street to it. Initially, these noisy environments had presented no problem however, as is often the case a perfect storm ensured that these 2 places became off limits.
Firstly, the street - a series of loud noises - a van reversing and an ambulance siren all compounded with the general traffic and suddenly Inka could not manage to walk along the street, she didn’t even want to approach the clanging gate to leave the car park where I live. Although in some circumstances it didn’t present a problem as we could drive to venues, on work days it did impact on her opportunities to get a walk and her world began to shrink as we were still at that time in lock down.
Driving to the park was an opportunity however, the same thing happened a perfect storm of noise - basketball, skateboarders, the traffic on the Mancunian way all compounded on one particular afternoon and she froze I then had a struggle getting her back to my van along with her 2 brothers - my disabled boys Maz and Bambi. Now her world was truly shrunk and unless it was a day off Inka could not have a walk except a walk around the car park!
So often I am reading about this with other anxious dogs and people keeping worlds small so anxiety is not increased but nothing changes or gets better and I felt that we were just in an ever decreasing circle with this approach.
After thinking about this for a while and working through the behaviour course I am doing I then read this awesome book and realised what I needed to do.
I started changing the way I approached it. Our walks in the car park became about getting Inka comfortable with traffic noise. I worked at getting her used to the clanging gate and comfortable around the metal (metal is not something she is keen on), I used essential oils to support both these activities and her favourite oil - Rose at the time I smeared on the gate and on my legs as we would walk towards it. I literally did 5 mins a day.
The park I drove to and again I did 5 mins a day using essential oils to calm and soothe and provide familiarity and treats to engage her. Utilising scentwork with behaviour modifications is so very powerful and IMO is so underutilised in dog training and behaviour yet dogs live in a world of scent and it is so very effective to combine these two modalities.
As the months continued the improvements began to show - consistency really being key and continuing to work at it and build Inka’s resilience up. This was crucial if we were to do more than just get her comfortable in these environments again but to make sure that these perfect storms would not happen again as things do occur but making her as bomb proof as I can means far less likelihood of regression.
A month or so ago I did a video of us enjoying our time in the park - there were people playing basketball, sirens on the Mancunian Way, someone playing football against the fence - the constant thud, thud, thud not worrying Inka at all as she sniffed the grass and rolled around in it. This was a dream come true and it is so lovely to see her enjoy things. This has gone beyond just this area. I hire a secure field twice a week and for a long time - dogs in the surrounding fields could be difficult for Inka and she would react - but this same approach for the park now has chilled in the field and even going up to the fence and sniffing dogs on the other side!
Watch the video I made about this below
The change has been truly magical but it has not been magic just the continual effort of small but frequent steps. Applying the oils and carrying out the behaviours that all led to this. Practice makes permanent and even though small steps often don’t seem to be getting anywhere it's the compound effect and the building up of resilience that really does yield results. If consistency is the key then time is the lock - it is not a quick fix but it is a good fix and one that will ultimately mean your dogs world increases and you can start to enjoy it again together.
Get in touch if you would like help with your dog and if fireworks night in November is a problem then do check out my next event as I take these concepts to help you and your dog make the adjustments you need to have a
Calm Dog For Fireworks Night