🌟How to Picnic with your Pup🌟

A Picnic with your pup just makes any Adventure day out. On a day out we will most likely want to stop for lunch and there is no better way than having a picnic.  Unpacking all our goodies, laying them out on the picnic blanket to sit on, perching on some rocks, or shading under a tree with all our goodies. Sounds idyllic right? 

Sometimes these situations can be very tempting for our pups especially if they haven’t been taught how to cope when you take your lunch break. 

Stopping for a refreshment break like a picnic with my pup can be quite a novel situation. Try to Make sure your pup can cope with these situations will make it way more enjoyable for you and more importantly, your pup will feel equipped to cope with this.

Here are my TOP TIPS for helping your pup cope in a picnic situation.

  1. I like to build skills, as with nearly all situations, by helping my pup understand the concept of settling.
  2. Learning to deal with disappointment (by this I mean not being able to eat the content of your lunch box or stealing your sandwich out of your hand!)
  3. Patience, this could be waiting till you move on, or for some dogs coping with other dogs walking past or even walkers coming up out of nowhere on a coastal path. All these skills have to be developed individually and they are a skill rather than a response to a single cue. 

I like to top up with as many skills through games as possible, this will be about shaping the brain rather than a response to a cue. 

My Top Games to play involve:

  1. I Play lots of games where there is restricted access to the very thing they want,
  2. I play lots of games where delayed gratification is entwined into the game
  3. I Play ooodles of confidence and optimism games to boost my dog’s awareness of their own belief that they got this!!     

Guess what, the greatest gift is???? all games are practiced with kindness, support and never fear or intimidation, we don’t need to resort to harsh handling when there are so many kinder solutions. 

The concept of shaping the brain for so many key skills alongside exercises like stillness and waiting for action I find is a great way to build skills to Picinc with my Pup ready for adventures.

Picnics or settling in a pub/cafe is a skill for our pups, so have a plan.

Understanding the complexity of what we are asking will help you dive into helping develop skills for them, there’s no better gift than giving them what they need in the form of skills and ability.

If you too would like to prepare for your adventures with real-life ready skills, let’s have a chat on how I can support you, simply book a call and I can talk you through how I work  or let’s have a chat, you can book a call HERE

Happy Adventuring