# Ep 118 Troublesome Toilet Walks: What To Do When Walks Are Unavoidable

An episode of [Help! My Dog: The Podcast. Dog Behaviour & Training Strategies that Work!](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1721245241), 4 Mar 2026, 13 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2287608/episodes/18698775-ep-118-troublesome-toilet-walks-what-to-do-when-walks-are-unavoidable.mp3

Are walks an unavoidable part of your dog’s daily life? Whether you live in an apartment or flat, don’t have a garden, or have been told that walks are a necessity, this episode is for you! This week we’re tackling one of our most asked questions and taking a look at how you can rebuild your dog’s relationship with walking when ditching them completely just isn’t possible! We’ll think about some ways that we can help our dogs before we’ve even left home, as well as some small (but mighty) changes you can make to switch the channels on your dog’s mental radio and let them know that going outside doesn’t have to feel so overwhelming. You don’t need to dread taking your dog out to go to the toilet, so we’ll explore our top tips to help your dog feel confident before they’ve even stepped outside and some rescue remedies for when everything feels a bit too much! ................ 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_00: You need a way in, right?
[0:02] SPEAKER_00: And the way in has to be responsiveness in this instance.
[0:06] SPEAKER_00: And the the level of responsiveness that you need generally needs to be 10 times higher than you really need, so that when a distraction appears, you've got half a chance, right?
[0:15] SPEAKER_00: Before we dive in, a warning.
[0:18] SPEAKER_00: The content of this podcast may not be appropriate for some young listeners.
[0:23] SPEAKER_00: This is real life, and that means that sometimes it can be a little bit graphic.
[0:28] SPEAKER_00: So listen on at your own peril.
[0:30] 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, understanding their brains and creating practical strategies that you can implement easily at home.
[0:45] SPEAKER_00: I know all too well when the dream you imagined when you first got your dog is far from your daily reality.
[0:52] SPEAKER_00: In fact, out of the blue, a few months ago, my little dog Gorse was bitten by a dog 20 times her size.
[0:58] SPEAKER_00: 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.
[1:09] SPEAKER_00: I'm Dr.
[1:10] SPEAKER_00: Tom.
[1:11] SPEAKER_00: 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.
[1:21] SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to this episode of the Help My Dog Podcast.
[1:27] SPEAKER_00: And today we've got a listener's question, and it's you know it's a common one.
[1:32] SPEAKER_00: Some of you won't have this challenge in your lives, and yet you're gonna be able to pull out some things that I'm saying to answer this listener for your own living situation, and that is I can't ditch the dog walks right now.
[1:49] SPEAKER_00: We don't have a garden or outside space, so we have to walk our dog to toil at them.
[1:56] SPEAKER_00: Can we make progress if we have to face his triggers every time we go outside?
[2:01] SPEAKER_00: And the answer is absolutely yes, you can, right?
[2:05] SPEAKER_00: Um, it's just gonna require a slightly different approach, slightly different strategies, and it might be that this requires like a behaviour behaviour clinician to come up with a plan for you, because everybody's living situation when they don't have gardens is slightly different, and so we might need to tailor a plan specific to um to what you're what you're coming up against.
[2:26] SPEAKER_00: But my overarching like thoughts are on this, if I were to, I guess, give you three tips that also would apply to other people's situations, even if they do have a garden, is we need to differentiate, potentially differentiate with your dog between um training walks, in other words, rebuilding walks, right?
[2:49] SPEAKER_00: We're re we're building the perfect picture and the fact that we some the picture sometimes isn't perfect because we have to go to the toilet outside, right?
[2:58] SPEAKER_00: Um and I can't constantly be engaging you outside on those walks because actually you need to go to the toilet.
[3:04] SPEAKER_00: Um, and so the way to do that and the way to get dogs to differentiate between a picture where you're really trying to build a great picture and a you know a fresh start, versus maybe where we can't avoid some unideal picture is thinking about how can we make it really obvious that these are completely different scenarios, even though the location is the same.
[3:26] SPEAKER_00: Now, one way that we might do that is having different walking equipment.
[3:31] SPEAKER_00: We walk them to go to the toilet on this particular harness and lead combination or whatever you walk your dog on, and yet when we're doing a trade, the when we're rebuilding the picture through training and through through growing skills, then actually we are going to um walk in a different kind of harness and lead.
[3:51] SPEAKER_00: That's one way to do it.
[3:52] SPEAKER_00: Another way to do it is the um entry and exit from the house.
[3:56] SPEAKER_00: So we've had clients where we've said, right, we're gonna rebuild the perfect walk from the back door out, right?
[4:05] SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna keep the not so perfect walk um out the front door, yeah.
[4:11] SPEAKER_00: Um, and that in itself can just really help keep any bad experiences from the the you know the the toileting context, keep that box there, and it doesn't impact or set you back um on the the perfect picture that you want to build, yeah.
[4:27] SPEAKER_00: Now then what we've got to think about is um the I guess how do we go about rebuilding this perfect picture?
[4:38] SPEAKER_00: And I I think we've got again a number of different things, and I'm trying to kind of process, I'm trying to kind of distill them down into what's going to be most like meaningful to you.
[4:49] SPEAKER_00: I think I think my second tip would would be for you that you're gonna need a really, really, really strong marker word or marker noise or attention noise, because ideally what we need to be doing is is is being able to get in there early when your dog sees a um uh one of their triggers.
[5:07] SPEAKER_00: I you haven't mentioned what what what they struggle with right now.
[5:11] SPEAKER_00: Um, but we're gonna need to get in there really early.
[5:14] SPEAKER_00: And so I like to do a bit of a marker test with my dog.
[5:17] SPEAKER_00: So those of you that have listened to the podcast for any length of time, you're probably familiar with the fact that what we do is we teach our dogs that new events that are happening in the environment, like other dogs or people or birds or noises or cars, they actually are nothing to worry about.
[5:33] SPEAKER_00: In fact, they're a predictor of something good, a positive outcome.
[5:36] SPEAKER_00: And the way that we do that is by marking that those events when they appear with a nice or a good or whatever, a marker word um that is consistent and always the same, and then following up with a treat, okay?
[5:50] SPEAKER_00: A piece of food.
[5:52] SPEAKER_00: And you might need to use high-value food in this instance.
[5:55] SPEAKER_00: Now, I like to do a bit of a marker test in these situations where I'd love you to be, you know, walking and I'd love you to say your marker word and with your dog ahead of you, say your marker word.
[6:09] SPEAKER_00: Do they do like a whiplash turnaround to uh to you and say, Where's my positive outcome?
[6:15] SPEAKER_00: If they don't do that in the absence of a distraction, how on earth are we going to get them to do that when they see a distraction, right?
[6:23] SPEAKER_00: And so if they didn't pass the marker test, which you know often there are like there are levels that we can get it to to make it make this even easier for you.
[6:33] SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I'd suggest potentially you do you want to do this anyway, you want kind of really whiplash turning in this in this situation.
[6:40] SPEAKER_00: Um, then what you need to do is you need to go back to building that as a really um as a really highly predicting marker word for that for that positive outcome or that piece of food.
[6:52] SPEAKER_00: Now, ways to do that.
[6:54] SPEAKER_00: One, simply pairing it with very high value food.
[6:57] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[6:58] SPEAKER_00: I know sometimes people think, oh, we, you know, with with dog reactivity dog training, we shouldn't use high-value food.
[7:05] SPEAKER_00: I I am not in that camp.
[7:07] SPEAKER_00: Some people think, oh, high value food means that they're excited.
[7:10] SPEAKER_00: I think that we what we need first and foremost is responsiveness so that we can support them and help them and guide them to make different choices and emotional responses to the environment.
[7:20] SPEAKER_00: So responsiveness is absolutely number one, especially in this scenario where triggers are unavoidable.
[7:26] SPEAKER_00: Um so very, very high value food.
[7:29] SPEAKER_00: Say you mark a word, deliver a piece of food, say you mark a word, deliver a piece of food, say you mark a word, deliver a piece of food.
[7:34] SPEAKER_00: The other variation of this that I like to do that creates the whiplash turn, if your dog is comfortable with it, is almost have your dog, and if you're in the help my dog hub, there's videos in the help my dog hub of how to do this and build this.
[7:47] SPEAKER_00: Um, have your dog on lead, on a harness, and have your dog out in front of you, have the lead quite short so that they actually can't turn around to you and they're sort of pointing away from you out in front of you, right?
[8:01] SPEAKER_00: And then what you're gonna do is you're gonna say your marker word, and then you're gonna loosen the lead, and they're gonna then be able to turn and get that piece of chicken or whatever it is that you've got.
[8:10] SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna repeat.
[8:11] SPEAKER_00: And what you'll find is as you do that, they'll be really anticipating that marker word because that marker word becomes the predictor of them being able to spin around, get the high-value piece of food.
[8:21] SPEAKER_00: And so we're we're creating almost like scarcity around the marker word.
[8:27] SPEAKER_00: So they're literally going, come on, human, give me that marker word, right?
[8:31] SPEAKER_00: And then what you can do is you can easily expand that out onto the walk where they're ahead of you, and you say your marker word, and ping, they it's just become like this muscle memory super conditioned response, right?
[8:45] SPEAKER_00: And they're pinging back around to you.
[8:47] SPEAKER_00: That would be my second tip for you, because you need a way in, right?
[8:51] SPEAKER_00: And the way in has to be responsiveness in the in this instance.
[8:55] SPEAKER_00: And the the level of responsiveness that you need generally needs to be 10 times higher than you really need, so that when a distraction appears, you've got half a chance, right?
[9:04] SPEAKER_00: So that would be the second tip.
[9:05] SPEAKER_00: Third tip that I've got for you is I'd be thinking, well, hey guys, I just want to take a moment to answer a question that has been coming in in literally 10 emails a day, 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, maybe your dog's just so overaroused on a walk that they just can't listen to you and they're chasing everything inside.
[9:31] SPEAKER_00: Like, can I get Tom's help?
[9:34] SPEAKER_00: Um, and the answer is that actually you can, and you can do that by booking a behavet behavior consultation.
[9:41] SPEAKER_00: 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?
[9:52] SPEAKER_00: Your world's got smaller and smaller and smaller, and actually it doesn't need to be that way.
[9:56] SPEAKER_00: You just need to reach out for help.
[9:58] SPEAKER_00: Now, a couple of things to say on that.
[9:59] SPEAKER_00: 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.
[10:10] SPEAKER_00: So you don't pay out of your pocket, your insurance covers that.
[10:14] SPEAKER_00: 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.
[10:22] SPEAKER_00: We have loads of options that we've developed to make this so accessible for you.
[10:27] SPEAKER_00: Um 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.
[10:33] SPEAKER_00: 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.
[10:38] SPEAKER_00: And we know we can get you there.
[10:40] SPEAKER_00: So all you need to do is go to the Behave Vet website, and the way to do that is go B-E-H-A.V-E-T.
[10:49] SPEAKER_00: That's behotvet, and it will take you there.
[10:53] SPEAKER_00: Or just Google Behave Vet, right?
[10:56] SPEAKER_00: Um, and you can get scheduled in and we can literally get you booked in for a consultation as soon as possible.
[11:02] SPEAKER_00: We normally can accommodate it within a week, right?
[11:05] SPEAKER_00: So that you can be getting to your dream ASAP.
[11:08] SPEAKER_00: Third tip that I've got for you is I'd be thinking, well, okay, we might be a little bit limited by what skills we can grow in the situation right now.
[11:17] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the skill of disengagement, the skill of optimism, whatever skills your dog is lacking.
[11:22] SPEAKER_00: But though there are infinite ways you could grow those skills for the situation, yeah, and and and grow them at home so that you're walking into that environment with a head start of your dog having great skills, right?
[11:34] SPEAKER_00: Now, the best way to do that is to get involved in the Help My Dog Hub.
[11:38] SPEAKER_00: If you're not already a member, that is like the where the all of the games are in the skill building step-by-step sessions are so that you can build a dog to the level of disengaging from dogs chasing frisbees or whatever.
[11:53] SPEAKER_00: You can build a dog to be super optimistic so that they don't find any dog or person or noise or anything to worry about, right?
[12:00] SPEAKER_00: And all of it is in the Help My Dog hub, right?
[12:04] SPEAKER_00: Um and ultimately what that will what that journey will take you on is the journey of going, okay, I can't control what goes on outside, but I can control what goes on inside the house.
[12:15] SPEAKER_00: And I can build these skills so that I'm literally walking out into that environment, me and my dog like superheroes, navigating the world with the skills that are required for the world that we find ourselves in right now, which isn't ideal, right?
[12:30] SPEAKER_00: We we've established that, and yet we've also established that we can create separate pictures for the good walk that we're building and the bad walk that still potentially has to happen.
[12:40] SPEAKER_00: We've got, we're gonna build super responsiveness so that we can support and help them in the situation.
[12:47] SPEAKER_00: And before we pop back into the situation too much, we've got lots of opportunity to grow skills for that situation so that we've got even more of a head start.
[12:57] SPEAKER_00: I'm super excited to hear how you get on.
[12:59] SPEAKER_00: I um I'm you know, this is this is by no means a roadblock to your progress.
[13:04] SPEAKER_00: We work with this all of the time at Behave Vet, and so do not worry about that.
[13:09] SPEAKER_00: You know, this is many people have walked this path before you.
[13:12] SPEAKER_00: And as always, listeners, we will see you next week.

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