Working some nosework on our morning walk behind an abandoned Circuit City...I got to thinking what can be difficult for #citydogs that we might not think of? I wrote a book on it, but to really narrow it down... There are a few biggies.

First, noises. I'm sitting now in my kitchen with the windows up.

Neighbors upstairs are walking and doing....burpees?

The two highways feet from my door have a meditative white noise thing going on, but that's only into the sirens wail.

And motorcycles.

Some people have toddlers in the home and not a lot of space to make space so everyone feels safe or can take a break.

Then there is outside space. If you're lucky, you might have a postage stamp area to use.

If you're not lucky, you have public space... Which everyone is using. This might not be an issue for many dogs, but the pups who are easily overwhelmed? Not great.

So you find the quiet spaces in the public domain if you need to.

Sidewalks.
We built them for humans to get around, but straight lines are really not dog friendly.

Many dogs learn this is another silly human convention, but same struggle. Walking with tension, head on toward another dog can be a recipe for reactivity.

And what about the magic moving room that eats people only to spit then out somewhere else?

While this looks fun to us, going around corners (to yet another straight line) can be overwhelming.

Especially blind corners. If you have a reactive dog on the city, your are familiar with blind corners.

That's not to say rural or suburban dogs don't deal with these issues, but in a city, if you don't have space to get breaks and every walk might have unknown scary stimuli and the noise never stops, you can see why some dogs can't cope.

Some people can't, either, truthfully

So going into year 5 of this little book, I want to say to all of you #citydog owners: I know it's hard. I know there is so much outside the box thinking we often have to do. But you can do it

Be safe, see things from their perspective and be their advocate.

Resources:
Dog trainers: @APDT @VictoriaS @karen_pryor @AcademyforDTs @PetGuild ,

Behavior consultants: @iaabc

Certified applied animal behaviorists (PhDs in behavior)
http://corecaab.org 

And for board certified veterinarian behaviorists, http://dacvb.org 

HOW DID I FORGET THE CHICKEN BONES! They are everywhere and Captain finds at least one a week.

Raccoons and squirrels pull them out of trash cans and discard them in medians. So, veterinarians in cities are WELL versed in medical issues due to sidewalk snacks.

Before you bring a companion animal home, please make sure he/she will be ok with constant noises and near constant visual stimulation (other people, bikes, skateboards, OMG HOVERBOARDS ARE A THING, dogs everywhere, etc).

That's the thing that I see as a dog trainer in the city. The noise phobic dogs or audio sensitive pups who can't ever find peace in the city and the dogs who are afraid of people who have to pass thousands of people a day just to go out to pee.

If I could give any advice for people looking to bring a dog into the city, make sure he or she is ok with noises and lots of weird things. You never know what you'll find.

(Captain did NOT find balls. Apparently this was false advertising and he was very disappointed)