Blackpool Prom, Lytham Green and back to Worden Park

Dog training has become a way of life rather than I thing I do! One of the the most important principles of our training programme is to train for the situation, not in the situation. That begs the question, how do you know whether you’re ready for the situation? Two weeks ago we had reasonable success with our ‘bird’ training so last week I thought we’d give a busy and novel environment a go. What better place than Blackpool Prom!

Having parked at South Shore we had a challenging 5 minute walk to South Pier, largely due to paper blowing in the wind.  Clearly not ready for blowing paper yet!  Second was go-karts, which I expect would have been a major tigger a few months ago.  Marley strolled past the noisy karts without concern so I call that a success.  Next was the busy spot around South Pier.  Again, no big issues and we made it happily to the grassy area that lines the prom, watching trams, horses, carriages and the expected stag and hen parties wander past.  Again, no issues.  Eventually, we made it to North Pier and under the shadow of Blackpool Tower we listened to some live music close to a crowd of several hundred people. Success again.  Amongst the crowd was a young boy who decided to run across the prom which prompted some lunging and whining so at that point we headed back, with only birds and blowing litter prompting any reaction.  All in all a good walk in the sunshine and a good test of where we are at.

Last Monday (bank holiday) we headed to Lytham and a nice walk on the prom and through town. Only birds proved a challenge, and another little boy playing football. Monday night was a bit of a nightmare with jumping and humping, prompting a telling off followed by a rethink of our approach to keep a nice calm dog.  With hindsight, his bucket would have been filling all weekend so hardly unsurprisingly it overflowed on Monday night.  We have done lots of calming training since.



Today saw a return to Worden for the first time in a few weeks.  A group of friendly lady runners said hi to him and whilst I wouldn’t have him off lead near runners, he didn’t lunge or jump at them.  More than 5 minutes watching football practice proved a challenge, as did birds (again). We had loads of off lead time though, with other dogs and people around, which was great.

Since we got back he has been a gem, even allowing me to (largely) get on with work on my laptop tonight. Maybe we have turned another corner!