28/05/2026
Sound familiar?
Dogs with reactivity are often finding themselves doing the same laps around their streets because owners feel that they have the most control and it "gets them out for their walk". Street walks can do more harm than good with the amount of dogs displaying barrier frustration. Constant short lead, unknown corners and tight paths just fuels more stress in your dog and yourself.
I rarely do street walks and this video I only had to walk less than 50meters to get from the house to a field and this is the chaos I had to walk through. Now it was a good test for my dogs on their neutrality but with a dog in the early stages of reactivity training this would be really stressful.
I know not everyone can avoid street walks and they can have their convenience and benefits but this post is mainly aimed to change the perception that street walks over park walks are not always the answer when it comes to helping your dogs reactivity. Use management to get your dog out into wider spaces and give them more lead with a flexi/long line to have fun and build motivation then work aeound triggers at distance before introducing short lead and street paths again.
