The Balanced Hound

06/06/2026

Those teeth 🤣. Follow The Balanced Hound

06/06/2026

Fred is doing so well.. real life distractions and choosing to stay with us 🥰

31/05/2026

Offlead with distractions. Adult & puppy, no aversives, no treats in pockets!

30/05/2026

Sadly last yoga ball was taken down. We now wait for their new ones to arrive. And the rain is back 🙄 follow us The Balanced Hound hound for training help and Ed & Fred videos

29/05/2026

Loving life 🥰

29/05/2026

🐾 Training Against the Tide

One thing nobody talks about enough in dog training is how often you’re training against things happening around you.

Not because people are deliberately sabotaging the training.

Just because life happens.

And that’s completely normal. The key isn’t creating a perfect environment—it’s staying consistent when life throws distractions your way.

The door knocks.
Someone gets excited.
Food gets left out.
The cat walks into the room.
A visitor arrives.
A dog gets hyped up.

Meanwhile, you’re trying to teach calmness.

I’ve been thinking about this while raising Fred.

The reality is that puppies don’t grow up in perfect training environments. They grow up in real homes with real people, distractions, mistakes and mixed messages.

Yet despite that, they still learn.

Fred isn’t learning because life is perfect.

He’s learning because the important lessons stay consistent:

🐾 We don’t cross roads with tension on the lead.

🐾 We don’t chase the cat.

🐾 Calm choices open opportunities.

🐾 Excitement doesn’t remove the rules.

Does it always look neat? Absolutely not.

Some days it feels like you’re training against the tide.

But then one day your puppy pauses at a road crossing.
Or chooses not to chase.
Or settles instead of reacting.

And you realise all those small, boring repetitions were quietly working.

The goal isn’t perfection.

The goal is helping your dog make a better choice today than they made yesterday.

Fred is teaching me that progress often looks messy while it’s happening.

Until suddenly it doesn’t.

🐾

What small win has your dog achieved recently? Let me know in the comments 👇

If you’re enjoying following Fred’s journey and want more practical dog training insights, be sure to follow The Balanced Hound.

28/05/2026

28/05/2026

Thoroughly enjoying the chicken feet bone broth 🥰

27/05/2026

Why’s Fred on a lead here..

A dog he met the other day was passing. Now yes he’s met the dog and all went well. But I do not want him to assume he sees a dog, he can play with the dog. It’s not always possible.

As you can see no tension on the lead and the dog passed with her humans, we then went caught up with Ed.

New yoga ball 😃 and a cooler evening so they could play a little longer.

27/05/2026

🐾 Tiny Thing. Big Reminder. 🕷️

Found and removed a tick from Ed today.

Thankfully it came off cleanly and in one piece.

Ticks are one of those things that are easy to miss — especially on dark, glossy coats.

A reminder:
👀 Check after walks
🕷️ Remove carefully (don’t squeeze or crush them while attached)
🧼 Clean the area gently afterwards
🐾 Keep an eye on the spot over the next few days

And remember — finding a tick doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong. They’re opportunists.

Ed’s now back to his regularly scheduled programming and acting like nothing happened.

– The Balanced Hound