The Weekly High Five 🐾

Hey Reader,
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This is the hottest summer on record in Boston. Two heat waves in July alone, one of them pushing 100 degrees. If you had a dog park trip on the calendar during any of that, there's a decent chance it didn't go the way you hoped.

Before you decide what it meant, read this.

A crowded park is one of the hardest setups you can hand a dog. Nobody's managing space. Everyone's too hot and too close together. And the second your dog can't create room for himself, his body does it the loud way. Stare. Growl. Lunge. Whatever gets the job done.

That's not aggression. That's a dog with no exit. He's not broken. He's stuck. That's essentially the whole story behind most of these scuffles.

I worked with a young dog named Springroll on this exact problem, though on walks rather than at a park. Multiple dogs anywhere near him and he'd lock on, stare hard, and struggle to look away. If nobody made space, it escalated.

During one session, his owners tried to work him through it with treats while another dog was close. He wouldn't take them. Wouldn't look at them either.

That's the part worth sitting with. When a dog won't take food he normally loves, he isn't being stubborn. He's telling you he's past his limit. Food is the first thing to go.

So we moved. Instead of standing there trying to force focus, I walked them in a wide arc around the other dog, away rather than straight through. I call it the Big U.

The first few times, it feels ridiculous. I told his owners, "you act like you're avoiding them like the plague." That's the point. Give your dog room before he needs it, not after.

You might only buy a few extra feet at first. That's fine. Enough for him to breathe.

By the end of that session Springroll was pulling less, looking back at his owners more, and walking past dogs he would have growled at earlier. Nothing about him changed. Someone just started managing the space he couldn't manage himself.

And it compounds. What I told his owners: "Over time he won't have to move so far, because he'll understand something's not going to happen."

The Big U buys you room in the moment, and that's genuinely useful. What it won't tell you is your dog's actual threshold. How far is far enough for him specifically, and what to do next if distance alone doesn't get you all the way there.

That's the plan piece, and it's dog specific. That's what my 2-Hour Consultation is built for. One session, and you walk away with an action plan for your dog in your inbox within 24 hours. https://down4paws.com/2-hour-consultation/

Start with the space. The rest gets easier from there.

Talk soon,

Pam,
CPDT-KA

Find me on IG: @down4paws

P.S. Got a dog park story of your own, good, bad, or somewhere in between? Hit reply and tell me what happened. I read every one, and I might have a specific answer for your dog.