Most dogs live in their owner’s house, or sometimes a flat if it’s large enough and has access to a ground-floor (communal) garden. They get used to being cooped up inside the home during the day while their owner(s) are often at work making money to feed the family, including them.
A dog’s life in a countryside location is a lot different to his life in the city. Up in the North West, the air is cleaner, there are beach walks in Southport to look forward to or holiday trips in the Lake District for a change of scenery. There’s so much to see and do in the great outdoors that your dog will never get bored again.
Living in the Country
With country properties in the North West, it is fair to say that neighbour dogs are a greater distance away from their property and tend to be friendlier because they aren’t stressed by the fast-moving traffic nearby and the abundance of people all around them. Dogs feel stress in their lives far more than humans realise and it comes out in various unhealthy ways. Being around nature helps deal with that because the population is more dispersed.
What to Do When Your Dog Is Having Trouble Managing
There are some dogs that find it difficult to manage their daily lives. Sadly, some rescue dogs have been abused by their previous owners (usually a male) and naturally develop issues with having a human male owner, meeting other men or boys in the street, and so on. Understanding when this is a serious issue with deep felt emotional pain from the past that’s affecting their behaviour today is key to beginning to address it.
In this case, it can often be very difficult to train your dog to be obedient, and to come out of its shell. It might be worth getting dog training in a more populated area, for example, the Manchester dog trainers from Dog Harmony are very experienced to train and socialise these dogs. Manchester is a much more distracting and intimidating environment for dogs – being taught here with professionals like Dog Harmony will ensure calm and safe behaviour in a quiet area such as the countryside.
Some dogs will shy away and hide behind the leg of their own when a scary person walks up to them. If they’re had bad experiences with little children swinging their arms around or a teenager being overly rough during playtime, this may show up only when around young kids. Manchester dog trainers have seen this problem many times before and possess proven techniques to slowly help a dog work through them until they can handle being near younger children again.
Big Moving Objects Appearing Real
One of the things that may happen in the countrywide is that your dog sees a tractor or another type of moving farm equipment for the first time. Unable to recognise it or what it’s purpose is, s/he will likely bark continuously about its proximity until the tractor or other equipment has moved away from them. It’s likely that a nervous dog will do this any way to a certain degree when not growing up on a farm or being in the countryside all their lives.
For a city dwelling dog, the countryside creates new hurdles to overcome besides the metal farm gate at the end of the road with those funny looking cows behind it making weird ‘mooing’ sounds. However, given sufficient time, most dogs will get used to visiting with other animals found on their country walks, even if they never fall in love with tractors and other big moving objects coming at them with scary mechanical jaws. No amount of dog training will probably end their fear of tractors though; there’s only so much a trainer can do. Put yourself into the mindset and ground level with a dog’s eye view and you begin to see why farm equipment looks so scary!
Planning to Still Visit the City?
It’s important that when you travel into the city, you sometimes take your dog too. This may seem inconvenient, but the risk otherwise is that they forget the skills they’ve learned to handle the increased anxiety that comes with the cacophony of traffic noise, moving cars, people traffic, horns honking, and more. When they haven’t been socialised in the city recently, it can be its own special kind of culture shock, so it’s a good idea to not leave it too long between visits. This way, they can handle the big city and the countryside with ease and don’t have major behavioural issues surfacing because of stress.
Also believe it or not leaving your dog at home away from you can lead to a build up of things like separation anxiety. It’s something that shouldn’t be overlooked, for more information check this article – how to help a dog with separation anxiety.
Don’t Forget Their Routines
Dogs like routines. It’s how they learn what they’re expected to do. They have their own doggie comfort zone and they like to stay well within it most of the time (until they go wandering off exploring a secret place they haven’t seen before). Even in the countryside where life is a little more laid back, it’s sensible to create boundaries for your pet. By setting boundaries and addressing any problems they have with understanding and responding to commands, they can be managed in a way that makes them a great addition to the home.
Living with a dog in the countryside is easier to do when they were born there, haven’t seen anything else, and never venture into the city. For dogs that move with their owners for a more serene existence away from some of the crowds and noise, the adjustment period isn’t as immediate as some people would think. Just like people, some dogs handle change better than others. It’s a good idea to keep a watchful eye on them if you’ve just made the leap to the countryside to avoid problems later.
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