Royal on a long lead

A lot has been going on with Royal - indoors he's pretty anxious dog and we've needed to seek professional assistance to help manage & work through his anxiety.  Over the last two weeks we've met with two amazing trainers and a wonderful behavioral veterinarian. In the coming days I will talk more about why we've done this and the outcomes.  But, for this post we are going to see Royal having some fun! 

 

One of the recommendations from the trainers was to find a space where Royal can practice life enrichment without the pressure of the environment, people or other dogs. We've done this before - here's the Life enrichment post  but, A) I had D'light along and B) it's hard to find a dog park that is empty C) not many dog parks have a lot of enrichment opportunities.  

 

I had taken Royal to the small dog park a couple of times but, it proved to be too much and he did not have a good time since there were small pushy dogs.  Royal has great dog skills and he's fantastic with the dogs in my house, however bossy dogs with poor social skills are to much for Royal.  Sweet Royal gave all the appropriate signals for the dogs to back off and they weren't listening and I wasn't going to allow Royal to be bullied.  The humans weren't much help in managing their bossy dogs so we left pretty quickly when it was clear management wasn't going to happen.  Can't say I blame him for not wanting to engage with the dogs we encountered.

 

Here's a great video by a wonderful force free trainer  Sarah Owings: Life Enrichment Series Two: Exploration Walks

 

So, I found a great park by our house, we did some practice with the long line to see how Royal would do.  He did great so, off we went on the 25ft long line.  Martin Luther King JR Memorial is a lovely park although I've never seen anyone at this park so, it really works well for Royal. 

 

The long line is a great tool.  It gives lots of room & choice for Royal to move but, he's still attached to the leash that I'm holding.

"What's this place?"

 

Off we go!

 

Lots to smell

 

And lots of steps - I'm certainly getting some exercise!

 

 

Royal is having a great time exploring the environment

Off we go

And go...

He loved walking the walls and stopping to sniff the grass

 

He wasn't sure about the ledge but, he figured it out. Lots of opportunity to work his brain

 

Down the hill we go...

 

 

And then back up the hill!

A great park for Royal's homework!