I was asked the other day if a client should let a 14-year-old neighbor let her puppy out while she’s at work. My response was immediate….no, not yet and not without supervision. The reason…this pup is working through some issues. Currently he’s a bit dog reactive, not bad but not perfect either. If the neighbor has him out playing on the front lawn and a dog walks by and it ends badly, we’ve got a lot more work to clean that up, then just to avoid it in the first place.

I believe that one of the things we need to communicate to our dogs – especially dogs who have had past trauma’s, is that we have their back. That we are going to help them navigate the world and equally (or more) important is that they don’t need to be on defense or protect themselves anymore, you’ve got it.

We do this in subtle ways like by taking a knee to let a dog come to you when they’re obviously overpowered or concerned about a situation, by encouraging your dog to walk just behind your leg (in the safe zone) when things are present that are concerning to them. By putting yourself between your dog and anything that could worry him or her (kids, bikes, dogs, etc), and most importantly by making sure they don’t have to deal with something scary (repair men, construction workers, etc) when you’re not there.

Again, if your dog is in good balance and doesn’t have any issues this is typically not something you need to worry about, but if you have a dog who is still struggling to trust the world and especially humans again, it’s imperative that you are there for them when they need you and that you have their back!