Week 2 Recap: Taking the Pressure Off
This week was about slowing things down a little.
When you live with a reactive dog, it’s incredibly easy to become obsessed with getting better.
Better walks.
Fewer reactions.
Closer passes.
More progress.
But sometimes that pressure means we completely miss the smaller changes happening right in front of us.
The Pressure to Get Better
We started the week by looking at the pressure we put on ourselves — and our dogs — to constantly improve.
Progress with reactivity rarely happens in a perfectly straight line.
There will be brilliant days, difficult days and days where absolutely nothing seems to change.
That doesn’t mean the training isn’t working.
Part of becoming a better handler is learning to recognise progress without constantly demanding the next milestone.
Picture Your Perfect Walk
Then I asked you to think about what your perfect walk actually looks like.
Not what social media tells you it should look like.
Not what somebody else’s dog can do.
What would genuinely make a walk enjoyable and successful for you and your dog?
Maybe it’s passing another dog calmly.
Maybe it’s having enough space to relax.
Maybe it’s your dog checking in with you rather than scanning the environment.
Or maybe it’s simply coming home feeling better than when you left.
Your version of success is allowed to look different.
Capturing
For our dog skill, we looked at capturing — reinforcing behaviours your dog chooses to offer without you constantly asking for them.
Your dog settles? Capture it.
They voluntarily look back at you? Capture it.
They disengage from something interesting? Capture it.
They make a brilliant decision without being prompted? Capture it.
The more we notice and reinforce those little choices, the more valuable those behaviours can become.
What Did Your Dog Offer You?
And finally, I asked you to start watching your dog more closely.
What did they offer you this week?
A check-in?
A moment of calm?
Choosing to move away?
Looking at a trigger and then disengaging?
Recovering more quickly after something went wrong?
Sometimes we’re so busy looking for the behaviour we wanted that we don’t notice the really useful behaviour our dog gave us instead.
This Week’s Takeaway
Take some of the pressure off.
Decide what success actually looks like for your dog.
Notice the small behaviours.
Reinforce the good choices.
And remember: progress isn’t only found in the big moments.
Quite often, it’s hiding in the tiny ones we nearly missed.
Myth: “If You Use Treats Too Much, Your Dog Will Only Listen When You Have Food”
We finished the week by tackling a really common worry around food.
Using food to reinforce behaviour doesn’t mean your dog will need to see a treat before they’ll do anything.
There’s a big difference between bribing a dog with food and reinforcing behaviour with food.
If your dog needs to see the treat before they’ll perform the behaviour, then yes — we need to look at how we’re training.
But when we use food properly, the behaviour happens first and the reinforcement follows.
And remember, food doesn’t have to disappear from training just because your dog understands something.
We can change how often we reinforce, use different types of reinforcement and build behaviours that become valuable in their own right.
This Week’s Takeaway
This week was really about taking the pressure off and becoming more observant.
What does your perfect walk actually look like?
What behaviours is your dog already offering that you could reinforce?
Are you noticing the small wins, or only looking for the big end result?
And are you allowing yourself to use reinforcement without worrying that you’re somehow “cheating” by using food?
Stop rushing towards the finished dog and start paying attention to the dog who’s learning in front of you.
That’s where a lot of the progress happens.