Do you have a dog that is a little bit nervous when you're out and about? Maybe they're reactive, and can struggle to be around other dogs or people?
Well, if so, and you want to expose them to these things from a distance and have a chance to work on your training safely - let us tell you about the group for you.
Eva Boyd rescued her dog Spot two years ago, and felt there was a gap on the Island for group walks to help solidify training.
Jump forward to now, and she is the Neutral Walk Leader for Honest Hounds - an online community of dog lovers connecting all around the world.
Siobhán Fletcher went out to meet her.
Hi there, I'm Siobhan Fletcher and I'm one of the journalists up at Monks Radio. Welcome to the latest edition of our newscast. Well as you know we always welcome community news at Monks Radio and invite you to email in with any suggestions you may have and we got a lovely email into the newsroom recently regarding neutral dog walks. So basically this is for people whose dogs react to different triggers such as other dogs, bikes, cars, motorbikes and other things. So I've come out of the office today. It's a beautiful Sunday, start of Monks Grand Prix, a little bit cloudy, a little bit windy but gorgeous day looking out over the Irish Sea. And I'm wandering up Marine Drive right now with my own little dog in hand. Little know me's with me, know me the newsroom pound and we're going to find Eva, Eva Boyd, who has put this group together. So I'm going to chat with her, find out what the motivation was, what the logic is behind it and yeah a little bit more about the group. So let's run up the hill here and find out a bit more shall we? I've caught up with the walking group now and I'm here with Eva, Eva would you want to introduce yourself for me? Yeah so I'm Eva Boyd, I'm the neutral walk leader for the Isle of Man through Honours Towns and I'm walking the spot, my rescue board of Bali. I can confirm spot is very cute. Can you tell me a little bit about neutral walks and what are they and why they kind of import with dogs? So neutral walks, the idea was created by Honours Towns, a like online community across based in Scotland and the idea is for people to come along with their nervous or overexcited or reactive dogs and just be exposed to the triggers sort of very gently and not shy away from them because that doesn't always help them overcome their fears. Yeah so we can we can meet other dogs on the walk, dogs in the group, bikes, people and the dogs have just kept it a safe distance and we support them through through that. Coming up behind you guys on the on the road here as well it's quite stop start so it's controlling and like like stopping them calming them down. Is there any tips for anyone listening? Like if they have a bit of an overexcited dog or a bit of a reactive dog? I would say come along to the walks because it's such a safe community to come along to. You know we don't judge if your dog has a reaction on the walks it's good boys buddy. You know it's we we've all been there we know exactly what that's like and we just we support everyone through that so we come along and see if it helps your dog. And so why did you want to start it here then? You said you saw it kind of online did you just see a gap in the kind of market here and thought oh that would be nice to have on the old map. Yeah I did so I was really envious of all the social walks and neutral walks that happen across all like you know around the world and I knew it was the next step for spots training and we've we've done you know a lot of training with dog trainers to get them to a point where he doesn't normally react at dogs now but it was just walking in a group that I really wanted him to be part of get used to being around all sorts of dogs to really solidify the training we've done. So I I spoke to the the owner of Anna's hounds and she was happy to enroll me as a as the neutral walk leader for the Isle of Man. It was quite tricky because there wasn't any members over here yet of Anna's hound so I had to slowly build that up but now we've got about 17 members on the walks which is brilliant. Another reason why I set up the walks was because walking a reactive dog can be really really lonely you know you go out you try to avoid dogs and and it's not easy if if your dog has a reaction you sometimes feel like you just you just want to go home but just coming on the walks it's it's just such a safe place to to walk with others and not feel so isolated by your reactive dog because we all got dogs to to be social and get out and about and and not hide away and that's definitely something the walks give others. And you you were saying actually just a minute ago as well that this isn't like a formal training group that's not if anyone's listening and they're worried about like oh what am I signed up for it's more about yeah you knowing what your dog needs and works with and then building on that I suppose yeah absolutely so I'm not a dog trainer I've learned a lot over the last two years since having spots with dog trainers but um no you yeah I don't offer any dog training advice but I do offer you know we're supporting um person to speak to who knows exactly what it's like and yeah just a totally non-judgmental community that you can be part of. And so to the same members come every week do you see like different different people showing up and you obviously do at different different locations as well. Yeah so I do I try and do four walks a month because there's members that are based all around the island we've got some in Belafs I'm in Castle Town so I'm in Douglas I try and do a walk sort of up north one week south another week east and west as well just so it's accessible for all there's definitely a few that try and make all of them which is just so lovely that shows how determined they are to sort of overcome their dog's reactivity issues um there's some that just come to their local ones and I think any exposure that they can they can give their dog and any any walks that they can make is just brilliant so it's always nice to see people come back and and give give the walks a try if they're new as well. Look at spot here just walking so can't we're next to us. My excitable puppy somewhere back there um if anyone's listening and they want to get involved they want to come to the long to the walks. Where's the best place to find information from you guys? Through Honest Town's the website um you'll find me as a as a walk leader on there but otherwise just getting in contact with me directly is probably the best bet and then once you come along for your first walk which you can try for free with or without your dog I'd always recommend coming without your dog first so that you can see what it's all about and then I can if you do want to join then I can add you to the WhatsApp group where I roll out the locations for the month ahead and and get people to to come on the walks. Perfect um is there anything you think I've missed anything you want to add? Yeah so um to put people's minds at rest when they come along on the walks there are group rules to follow that Honest Town's have set which includes rules like no interactions between dogs are allowed just to maintain everyone's safety um some dogs if they do show aggressive tendencies um through fear you know they can wear a muzzle that's very accepted here on the group spot often wears one depending when we're going um and also you know people on the walks are not allowed to approach or touch other people's dogs because some of them are human reactive. So it's all about just setting that safety there into participants but also the dogs as well because they don't always know and this is about you know training them up a bit really well maybe training's not the right word but sort of desensizing them to these things so you don't want to then put a lot of triggers in place. Yeah for sure and it's just so nice to be able to work in a group setting like that because sometimes when you go out for walks with your dog and you might with lots of friendly off-lead dogs but they can really set your dog back you know if they're charged up to so it just gives you a space to walk where all the dogs are on lead and I'm usually at the front as well so if if an off-lead dog does come over I can deter them away. My name is Sue. Sue and what's your dog called? Tank. Tank I tank you're gorgeous aren't you? He's like I know I know I am. So how long have you been coming on the walks? About three months three four months now yeah they're really good they really work I mean he used to be terrible but they all calm down once they're in a pack situation then they all calm down and walk quite nicely together so yeah it's a good thing. And was he reactive to like other dogs to noises you know what sort of things have he been exposed to in the group that you seem to have helped cyclists, walkers, motorbikes, other dogs some people dressed in certain ways certain builds lots lots and lots the list was endless yeah it really was and so this has just been kind of invaluable then. It has been very good I mean he's he's matured and he's just turned two so he has matured and as they get older they do calm down or the majority of dogs do like this one's just a pup. You're just a pup but they've said hello already I mean you're not supposed to on neutral walk say hello but I know Tank and I know that when he's allowed to say hello to another dog then he's fine. His trigger is not being allowed to say hello to other dogs and so this group is helping him because he learns then that he can't say hello yeah so it does help him. Now the Honest Hounds team will be visiting the island this upcoming weekend to run a series of training sessions and workshops. You can find all the information you need at our website but I asked Eva on our walk for the details. Honest Hounds who have set these walks off in the community and stuff so they are actually coming over to the Isle of Man from the second to the fifth of September they're going to do a range of workshops with the dogs and the humans from body language to overreactivity, health and wellness and social walks things like that. It's really exciting so if you're interested definitely get involved it's a really good opportunity. So how can people is it signing up like we said through the website and like as they would to sign up for these walks anyway. Yeah I would say get in contact with me directly and then I can send you the links but otherwise it will be on the website fairly soon as well to sign up. And so do you know what sorts of things will be we involve that week or is it as much of a surprise to you as it will be to be at Andy? So there's a top trainer coming over from Dundee so she's called Jess and then Jesse is also coming over between them they're bringing 10 stooge dogs and so it's a really just good chance for your dogs to be around you know multiple dogs. Jesse has been on a big journey with her reactive dog as well and she's managed to overcome human and dog aggression and at the story of Atlas some of you might know from Instagram so Atlas will be coming to the Isle of Man. And it's just it's going to be a really awesome weekend really really excited about it. Thank you for making it to the end of the Manx Radian newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. May I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manx Radia podcasts at your favorite podcast provider so our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone. Thank you. (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
