Endless Pawsibilities

On Lead Social Dog Walking Group in Redhouse Area for Sensitive Furbabies

Hello there, my name is Mel and I have a very large rescue dog that wasn't given the best start in life resulting in him missing out on social learning during an incredibly fundamental and impactful learning phase. As a result of this, to him, everything is scary until proven otherwise and because he is partly shepherd, rather than retreat and make himself small, he will instead puff himself up, occasionally lunge forward and give a powerful bark to warn the scary thing to give him space. I am a behaviour trainer myself and together we have worked very hard on this making wonderful progress, however, I can't do the next stage of his rehabilitation alone. I need to provide Murphy with the opportunity of walking with other dogs in a safe, controlled manner, giving him the opportunity to relax and become optimistic about people/dogs in particular.
This is not a class as I will be focusing on supporting Murphy with 100% of my attention, however, I believe it could be an opportunity for other people in the area to benefit from the same requirements of having a safe, non judmental, support dog walking group, so I wondered if anyone would be able to help and interested?

Logistics:
🐾The walks will be every Thursday, commencing at 10am
🐾 We will be starting from Redhouse Park area, I will wait for 5 minutes for any late arrivals but no longer as this will build stress levels for anxious dogs
🐾 The walks will last approximately 1 hour long with varied routes to offer maximum sniffing enrichment
🐾 You will be fully responsible for your own dog, please do adjust your distance from other dogs on the walk according to how both your dog is coping as well as the surrounding dogs
🐾 This will be a non judmental, supportive group where we will set each dog up for success by being observant and mindful of how much space they need and understanding of minor controlled lunges or barks (remember that space is your friend, if your dog is lunging or barking they are over threshold and will not be in a learning state of mind. However, we are human and errors occur so just calmly readjust your position and know there will be no judgement)
🐾 There will be no fee to join or need to book in, just turn up if you fancy joining us. Please do send me a message via Facebook if you have any questions or would like to let me know that you will be coming along ☺️
🐾 All dogs will be on lead the entire walk for everyone's safety and welfare (I am happy for people to have a long line for areas with more space). If you are using a retractable lead please ensure to lock it at a suitable length and be respectful of each dogs confidence bubble
🐾 All breeds and sizes of dogs are welcome, they just need to be able to walk with other dogs given reasonable and realistic accomodations
🐾 Please only have one dog per person so that you can give your undevided attention and support to them, if you have a multi dog household like me, please use this time to give your dog one on one time which is incredibly beneficial
🐾 Please note that I am a positive reinforcement trainer so do bring along their favourite food rewards and toys
🐾 We will be walking routes with good visibility and avoiding narrow paths to allow for ample room for each dog to feel safe

Looking forward to walking with you 🐾