# Ep 82 Garden Wars: Is Your Dog’s Backyard Routine Sabotaging Training?

An episode of [Help! My Dog: The Podcast. Dog Behaviour & Training Strategies that Work!](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1721245241), 25 Jun 2025, 18 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2287608/episodes/17274517-ep-82-garden-wars-is-your-dog-s-backyard-routine-sabotaging-training.mp3

Is your garden a war zone for your dog? Whether it’s your dog reacting in their backyard or your neighbours’ dog sparking the drama, what seems like innocent outdoor time could actually be shaping your dog’s behaviour more than you think! Have you ever noticed how your dog’s mood spikes from just a quick trip outside? Or how their behaviour in other parts of their life isn’t getting better? There’s a surprising link that’s quietly feeding these unwanted behaviours without you realising! In this episode, we’ll shine a light on these overlooked moments and offer you some practical ideas for a peaceful garden. If you’ve been feeling stuck with fence running, barking or garden zoomies, tune in! ................ Whether your dog is unpredictable with other dogs or predictably bad… Whether it looks like freezing, barking, lunging or running away… Whether you are just starting out on your dog-owning journey or your dog has been labelled as having a “behaviour problem”… … this episode is for you and is going to give you huge insights! Want to join the Help! My Dog Online HUB? Here's the link: www.helpmydog.com/hub Dr Tom Mitchell is a world-renowned veterinarian, behaviourist and dog trainer and director of the Behavet behaviour clinic (rated Excellent on Trustpilot), which sees over 400 pet behaviour consultations each and every month no matter where you are in the world. In 2023, he founded Help! My Dog, an online dog behaviour learning platform to help even more owners all over the world and show that dog behaviour transformation is not only possible but it's FUN, with the right know-how! Make sure to subscribe/follow the podcast for the free weekly episodes! Useful Links: Follow Help! My Dog on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helpmydogofficial/ Schedule a Consultation with Behavet: https://www.beha.vet/ Follow Behavet on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/behavet

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_01: I think sometimes because it seems very mundane going out in the garden, we don't realize that it has the same impact as that, right?
[0:07] SPEAKER_01: They are having arousal spike six times a day.
[0:11] SPEAKER_00: Before we dive in, a warning.
[0:13] SPEAKER_00: The content of this podcast may not be appropriate for some young listeners.
[0:19] SPEAKER_00: This is real life, and that means that sometimes it can be a little bit graphic.
[0:23] SPEAKER_00: So listen on at your own peril.
[0:26] SPEAKER_00: As a veterinarian, dog behaviourist, best-selling author and trainer over the past decade, I've had an obsession with transforming the behaviour of dogs.
[0:35] SPEAKER_00: Understanding their brains and creating practical strategies that you can implement easily at home.
[0:41] SPEAKER_00: I know all too well when the dream you imagined when you first got your dog is far from your daily reality.
[0:47] SPEAKER_01: In fact, out of the blue, a few months ago, my little dog Gorse was bitten by a dog 20 times her size.
[0:54] SPEAKER_01: And suddenly our life of stress-free walks, a calm and cuddly household, and being teammates was replaced with reactivity, anxiety, and worrying about what's around the next corner.
[1:05] SPEAKER_01: I'm Dr.
[1:06] SPEAKER_01: Tom.
[1:06] SPEAKER_01: This is the Help My Dog Podcast, and this is me documenting that journey of transformation, sharing my knowledge and experience with you and having a few laughs along the way.
[1:17] SPEAKER_00: Hello, HMD family!
[1:19] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to this episode of the Help My Dog Podcast.
[1:24] SPEAKER_01: And today we're going to be talking about garden wars, okay?
[1:28] SPEAKER_01: Because I know it's a big struggle for many of you, and that is your dog's behavior in the garden, or sometimes it can be your neighbour's behavior in their gardens, right?
[1:39] SPEAKER_01: And it can create a real conflict.
[1:42] SPEAKER_01: And I think sometimes it's one of those things that we're we're we we go into survival mode, like just firefighting mode.
[1:51] SPEAKER_01: We're like, oh, it's fine, you know, you let your dog out, and the behavior you call them back in, and and you're just like, oh, it's you know, seems like there's loads of other things to deal with, and so that's not a priority.
[2:01] SPEAKER_01: And I just want to put something to you if you're if you're thinking that at the moment, and that is how frequently does your dog go out in the garden every day?
[2:09] SPEAKER_01: Probably really quite frequently, like maybe at least sort of every two hours, right?
[2:14] SPEAKER_01: Um, and if they if they're going out once every two hours, right, and let's say they're awake 12 hours a day, that's six times a day.
[2:21] SPEAKER_01: And if your dog, I don't know, um, saw another dog on a walk and reacted to them six times a day, we would think, I think that's contributing to the fill of their stress bucket.
[2:35] SPEAKER_01: I think that's contributing to their reactivity, I think that's contributing to their inability to settle in the house.
[2:40] SPEAKER_01: Like we we but I think sometimes because it seems very mundane going out in the garden, we don't realize that it has the same impact as that, right?
[2:49] SPEAKER_01: They are having arousal spike six times a day, they are reacting six times a day.
[2:56] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they're going into a negative emotional state six times a day, they are fence running six times a day.
[3:03] SPEAKER_01: Um, they are playing keep away and charging at you and barking and grabbing your clothes six times a day.
[3:10] SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is for you and your dog, what we've got to realize is that something that happens so frequently can really contribute to driving your dog's brain in a certain direction, can really contribute to the typical emotions that they experience that day, can really contribute to how full their stress bucket is.
[3:32] SPEAKER_01: And so I wanted to share with you, you know, three to five tips, we'll see how it goes, um, that that hopefully will help you improve this.
[3:41] SPEAKER_01: So, tip number one.
[3:42] SPEAKER_01: Um I'm gonna go for with open spaces, I'm gonna go for like a not a not an obvious one.
[3:51] SPEAKER_01: With open spaces, what can happen is your dog can go into a vicious cycle of what they do creates an emotion that impacts what they do.
[4:01] SPEAKER_01: So, what I mean by that is that there's a link between our dogs' bodies and our dogs' brains.
[4:07] SPEAKER_01: The body is signaling to the brain how to feel, the brain is signaling to the body what to do all the time, right?
[4:14] SPEAKER_01: And it's the same with us humans.
[4:15] SPEAKER_01: If I get you to do a frown for long enough, you'll start to think about things that you want to frown about, right?
[4:21] SPEAKER_01: Because your face is signaling to your brain, right, there's something to be annoyed about, sad about, angry about, right?
[4:27] SPEAKER_01: In fact, there's some really interesting, uh, really interesting research that looked at um, there's quite a few studies on this now in humans, that looked at putting Botox in the um forehead of humans.
[4:42] SPEAKER_01: They did it in a group of humans struggling with depression.
[4:46] SPEAKER_01: And what they did is they they one half of the group they did Botox, one half of the group they did like a placebo, um, placebo injection.
[4:54] SPEAKER_01: And what they found is that the humans that were having the real Botox in their foreheads, right, were suddenly reporting that they felt a lot happier, right?
[5:05] SPEAKER_01: We're suddenly reporting that actually they felt calmer, they felt less anxious because their foreheads were no longer signaling to their brain, be anxious, be upset, be depressed, be frustrated, whatever you know, emotions that that forehead was signaling to that brain.
[5:20] SPEAKER_01: Um, and so it's the same with our dogs.
[5:22] SPEAKER_01: When they go out into the garden, what happens is they go bark, bark, bark, right?
[5:28] SPEAKER_01: And then that like signals to their brain, oh my goodness, alert, alert, react, react.
[5:33] SPEAKER_01: The brain goes, oh, upregulate stress hormone, bark, bark, bark more.
[5:37] SPEAKER_01: Zoomies run around, yeah.
[5:40] SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it can be the body that is the main instigator rather than the brain.
[5:44] SPEAKER_01: I know it's like a weird concept, and we can dive into it more at some point.
[5:48] SPEAKER_01: But the the the choice of walk out into the garden and bark a few times, yeah.
[5:53] SPEAKER_01: You know, Thistle did this a few months ago.
[5:55] SPEAKER_01: She got into the habit of doing that, just walk out, three barks, yeah.
[6:00] SPEAKER_01: And that's just because, like, I don't know, like three months ago, she um a bird shot out of the long grass.
[6:08] SPEAKER_01: Like we've got this insanely long um grass on a bank outside our outside our kitchen, and it's uh we leave it like that um for as long as we can because it's there's loads of like cool wildlife that use it, right?
[6:22] SPEAKER_01: Um and um and and the thing is that Thistle had learned, like, oh, if I do like three barks, sometimes I flush a blackbird out, right?
[6:30] SPEAKER_01: Um but the thing is that the blackbird was long gone, and yet this continued.
[6:35] SPEAKER_01: And what start I start to see the balance tip, right?
[6:38] SPEAKER_01: Three barks, it's like it's not really an issue, is it?
[6:40] SPEAKER_01: And then you start to see, hold on a second, now her hackles have gone up because we're entering this vicious cycle every time she goes out of worsening body, right?
[6:52] SPEAKER_01: Worsening choices, worsening emotional state, which in turn triggers the body again, which in turn triggers the brain.
[6:59] SPEAKER_01: And so the first tip that I've got for you in improving your dog's behavior in the garden is break the cycle first.
[7:06] SPEAKER_01: Yeah?
[7:07] SPEAKER_01: So if we're if we want to make this a three-week challenge, let's, every time we head out into the garden, right, we're gonna do it on lead.
[7:14] SPEAKER_01: So we can't do zoomies, so we can't do wall of death, right?
[7:17] SPEAKER_01: So we can't do, you know, even you'll be you'll it's interesting, you'll find that if your dog's on lead, you'll often find they bark less in the garden.
[7:24] SPEAKER_01: That's purely because they're on lead, it's like, oh, we've changed the picture.
[7:26] SPEAKER_01: It's different.
[7:27] SPEAKER_01: I don't do that choice now.
[7:29] SPEAKER_01: I don't know what choice to do.
[7:30] SPEAKER_01: And then you get this moment to be like, the choice I want you to make is silence.
[7:33] SPEAKER_01: Quick, feed them a piece of food, right?
[7:35] SPEAKER_01: And that can just tip the balance on suddenly now they're not that their brain's not getting poked to increase arousal and stress hormone.
[7:43] SPEAKER_01: Hey guys, I just want to take a moment to answer a question that has been coming in in literally 10 emails today, and that is how can we help you with your dog's behavior struggle, whether that be reactivity, separation, anxiety, resource guarding, maybe you've got multi-dog household struggle right now.
[8:00] SPEAKER_01: Maybe your dog's just so overaroused on a walk that they just can't listen to you and they're chasing everything inside.
[8:06] SPEAKER_01: Like, can I get Tom's help?
[8:08] SPEAKER_01: Um, and the answer is that actually you can, and you can do that by booking a behaviour vet behavior consultation.
[8:16] SPEAKER_01: That's where literally my team give you the plan on how to transform your struggle and get you to that dream that that made you get a dog in the first place, right?
[8:26] SPEAKER_01: Your world's got smaller and smaller and smaller, and actually it doesn't need to be that way.
[8:30] SPEAKER_01: You just need to reach out for help.
[8:32] SPEAKER_01: Now, a couple of things to say on that.
[8:34] SPEAKER_01: First of all, if you're insured, if your dog's insured with Pet Plan, Kennel Club, Agria, or many pets, we actually do direct claims with them, which means that that's covered by your insurance.
[8:44] SPEAKER_01: So you don't pay out of your pocket, your insurance covers that.
[8:49] SPEAKER_01: And the second thing to say is that we have loads of options if you're insured with another provider, or if your dog's not insured at all, that's also totally fine.
[8:57] SPEAKER_01: We have loads of options that we've developed to make this so accessible for you.
[9:01] SPEAKER_01: And because we're aware that you've already invested a load of time and a load of money in getting your dog, looking after your dog, caring for your dog.
[9:08] SPEAKER_01: But the last thing we want is for you to have done all that and still not be living the life that you deserve with your dog.
[9:13] SPEAKER_01: And we know we can get you there.
[9:14] SPEAKER_01: So all you need to do is go to the Behave Vet website.
[9:18] SPEAKER_01: And the way to do that is go B-E-H-A.V-E-T.
[9:24] SPEAKER_01: That's behot vet, and it will take you there.
[9:28] SPEAKER_01: Or just Google Behave Vet, right?
[9:30] SPEAKER_01: Um, and you can get scheduled in and we can literally get you booked in for a consultation as soon as possible.
[9:37] SPEAKER_01: We normally can accommodate it within a week, right?
[9:39] SPEAKER_01: So that you can be getting to your dream ASAP.
[9:43] SPEAKER_01: So um that's first tip that I've got for you.
[9:46] SPEAKER_01: Second tip that I've got for you, it's nearly a tip, it's a tip nearly every single episode, right?
[9:51] SPEAKER_01: What do you want instead?
[9:53] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, everybody listening to this, their dog will do something slightly different in the garden that's a little bit annoying, a little bit far from ideal, right?
[10:01] SPEAKER_01: And so I'm not gonna go through each different what don't I want, because when we ask ourselves the question, well, what do what do I want them to do instead?
[10:10] SPEAKER_01: The what do I want is incompatible with them doing the what don't I want, right?
[10:15] SPEAKER_01: The them, you know, going and I don't know, if you want them to spend a decent amount of time in the garden, going and getting on a bed, yeah, and lying down is incompatible with them digging up the garden, is incompatible with them fence running, yeah.
[10:29] SPEAKER_01: And so when you establish the what do I want, and there might be a list of what do I want, and there equally might be a list of what don't I want, right?
[10:37] SPEAKER_01: But when you start investing reinforcement into the what do I want, you'll start to see the what don't I wants decrease, especially when you're thinking about your management strategies, right?
[10:50] SPEAKER_01: Of being on lead for this three-week period where we're getting on top of this.
[10:54] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[10:55] SPEAKER_01: And really, management is training in this situation.
[10:59] SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you see that when you see that link between the body and the brain, and you've had that explained now.
[11:04] SPEAKER_01: So the second tip that I've got for you is get your what do I want really clear, yeah?
[11:10] SPEAKER_01: And start investing daily food allowance in that.
[11:13] SPEAKER_01: Now, third tip that I've got for you relates to neighbours, okay?
[11:18] SPEAKER_01: Because um, you know, neighbours can be a spanner in the works when it comes to um when it comes to to your dog's behavior in the garden, because how you manage your dog's behavior might not be how they manage their dogs' behavior if they have if they have dogs.
[11:35] SPEAKER_01: And their dogs might fence run, and that might make your dogs fence run, right?
[11:40] SPEAKER_01: And I guess the first little kind of sub tip that I've got on this, you can speak to them for sure.
[11:47] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[11:47] SPEAKER_01: In fact, I spoke to I spoke to to my um neighbours once, um, not these neighbours, just to clarify.
[11:55] SPEAKER_01: Um, and um, and and I just gave them, I I just shared with them what I'm sharing with you now.
[12:00] SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes people um are helpless because they are literally helpless, they don't know what to do, right?
[12:07] SPEAKER_01: And so you you give them a what what do you want them to do, and it stops them from doing the thing that you don't want them to do, right?
[12:14] SPEAKER_01: And you can do that in a gentle way, and that can work really nicely.
[12:17] SPEAKER_01: It worked, you know, really nicely um previously for me.
[12:20] SPEAKER_01: Um and um and so that can be worthwhile.
[12:24] SPEAKER_01: But if you've exhausted that and like actually, yeah, okay, that did not work, then you need to think about you putting your energy into what you can control, and you cannot control them, and you cannot control their dog, and you cannot train their dog.
[12:36] SPEAKER_01: And so the only way that you can train your dog is have your dog not bounce energy off their dog, right?
[12:42] SPEAKER_01: That's where you can break that cycle.
[12:44] SPEAKER_01: You do have control of that, and so that's again where your management strategies come in.
[12:49] SPEAKER_01: Being on lead, yeah.
[12:50] SPEAKER_01: Um I know what some of you are thinking, but that's not fair.
[12:56] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[12:56] SPEAKER_01: Often when I have this conversation, people say, that's not fair.
[12:59] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my their dogs are running around and barking and fence running, and my dog has to be on lead.
[13:05] SPEAKER_01: That's not fair.
[13:06] SPEAKER_01: You know what I say?
[13:07] SPEAKER_01: Nothing is nothing is fair in the micro.
[13:10] SPEAKER_01: You zoom in on a situation enough, and it's not fair.
[13:15] SPEAKER_01: Yeah?
[13:15] SPEAKER_01: You you zoom in on the moment that I'm in the supermarket and I hand over money to the shopkeeper and you freeze that moment, that micro moment, that's not fair, is it?
[13:30] SPEAKER_01: I gave my money and I got nothing in return, right?
[13:34] SPEAKER_01: But you zoom out a little bit and you see, like 30 seconds later, I take my shopping with me.
[13:38] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I've got my food and I eat it, right?
[13:41] SPEAKER_01: And I'm happy.
[13:42] SPEAKER_01: And and it applies here as well.
[13:45] SPEAKER_01: If you zoom in on that situation, you're like, oh, that doesn't seem fair.
[13:48] SPEAKER_01: You zoom out and you see actually over the course of the coming weeks, your dog's stress bucket is empty and their dog's stress bucket is still overflowing, right?
[13:57] SPEAKER_01: You zoom out even more, and your dog is less prone to disease and lives longer because they've had a consistently more empty stress bucket.
[14:07] SPEAKER_01: Yeah?
[14:08] SPEAKER_01: Zoom out a bit more, and your dog's behavior is improving at a faster rate on walks because you've you've managed this situation that is happening throughout the day at home.
[14:20] SPEAKER_01: And then you start to say, well, actually, I can see that this fairness doesn't even come into it.
[14:27] SPEAKER_01: I'm just clear on what my goal is and where I'm heading, and I'm on my trajectory, and everybody else can, you know, I'm more than happy to share my trajectory with them, or they can go on their own trajectory, right?
[14:38] SPEAKER_01: Because I cannot control them.
[14:40] SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense, guys?
[14:41] SPEAKER_01: So I think this is huge.
[14:43] SPEAKER_01: This is huge.
[14:44] SPEAKER_01: And when we think about, you know, things not being fair.
[14:47] SPEAKER_01: So management, your dog being on lead might be the most appropriate.
[14:50] SPEAKER_01: And then I'd be thinking, right, what skills does my dog need to not just survive their dog and their behaviour, but thrive in the presence of their dog and their behavior?
[15:03] SPEAKER_01: Well, they need the skill of disengagement.
[15:05] SPEAKER_01: Quickfire game that I play with all my dogs with the boundaries of where we live because, well, I want them to have loads of freedom, I don't want them to leave, right?
[15:17] SPEAKER_01: Um, is I will teach them that the value is internal in the space.
[15:23] SPEAKER_01: The value is in the center of the space.
[15:25] SPEAKER_01: The further they go from the boundary, that the better the experience and the higher the value.
[15:30] SPEAKER_01: The way that I do that, quite simple.
[15:32] SPEAKER_01: Low value bit of food thrown towards the boundary.
[15:36] SPEAKER_01: When they come away from the boundary, I then feed, feed, feed, feed, feed high value.
[15:40] SPEAKER_01: Low value piece of food towards the boundary.
[15:42] SPEAKER_01: They bounce away from the boundary.
[15:44] SPEAKER_01: Feed, feed, feed, feed, feed, high value.
[15:47] SPEAKER_01: Gets to the point where they won't take the low value piece of food towards the boundary.
[15:51] SPEAKER_01: They won't approach the boundary.
[15:53] SPEAKER_01: They're like, that boundary is low value, it's dead to me.
[15:56] SPEAKER_01: I want to be in the center here.
[15:58] SPEAKER_01: What does that stop?
[15:59] SPEAKER_01: Fence running, right?
[16:01] SPEAKER_01: Especially when you pair it with breaking rehearsal because they're on lead now.
[16:04] SPEAKER_01: Yeah?
[16:05] SPEAKER_01: And you when you you know, if we go back to the fairness discussion again and we think about zooming out, oh gosh, you're having to train your dog because your neighbours aren't training them.
[16:18] SPEAKER_01: Yeah?
[16:19] SPEAKER_01: Zooming in, that doesn't seem fair.
[16:21] SPEAKER_01: Zoom out.
[16:22] SPEAKER_01: You're teaching your dog to thrive in the presence of even the most challenging distraction.
[16:28] SPEAKER_01: You you zoom out even more.
[16:30] SPEAKER_01: You're teaching your dog to disengage from a really real life situation that they might encounter on walks, so that they're better able to learn to be off-lead and have loads of off-lead freedom on walks, on the beach, in the woods, wherever you take them.
[16:45] SPEAKER_01: That seems like a good deal to me.
[16:47] SPEAKER_01: That seems like actually, weirdly, an opportunity that would will allow you to accelerate your learning elsewhere because you have this opportunity at home that originally seemed like a problem, right?
[17:00] SPEAKER_01: And as soon as you make that switch in your head, you get excited about going out into the garden and working on this, right?
[17:07] SPEAKER_01: Rather than the dread.
[17:08] SPEAKER_01: And the the dread and the disappointment and the frustration and the day-to-day firefighting gets replaced with something intentional, productive, and that actually is accelerating you towards your goals.
[17:18] SPEAKER_01: And ultimately, as I said before, you're you've got your goal, you're on your trajectory, people can join you and you'll help them, but equally they can go on their own trajectory, and that is fine, right?
[17:28] SPEAKER_01: Because you're heading where you need to head.
[17:30] SPEAKER_01: So I want you to get excited about transforming your dog's behavior in the garden, guys.
[17:35] SPEAKER_01: Um, it's a huge opportunity.
[17:37] SPEAKER_01: And if you don't tackle it, then you're kind of like, you know, it's happening really frequently throughout the day, right?
[17:44] SPEAKER_01: So you can potentially, that might be the 20% of input that's going to get you 80% of the results elsewhere, just because of how frequently your dog might be rehearsing certain emotions and choices.
[17:53] SPEAKER_01: We will see you next week.
[17:54] SPEAKER_01: Um, there is no cringe story this week because Mrs.
[17:57] SPEAKER_01: Cringe is on maternity, but she'll be back real soon.
[18:00] SPEAKER_01: Um, and we'll see you next time.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.