25/08/2025
Although we're very lucky in Stoke-on-Trent having so much open space, whether it’s our parks, nature reserves, towpaths, disused railway lines, for some of your and your dogs, it's all a bit too much! Too many distractions, too many people, bikes & scooters, squirrels, and especially other dogs, many of whom are offlead.
It's lovely to have a dog who's a social butterfly, but for those that aren't for whatever reason, or who's recall isn't that great just yet, all of this just means you have to be very selective about where you walk, and your dog might not get the chance for some regular offlead time. And lets face it, they do love to let off steam every now and then!
While there's training that can help your dogs cope better with things that they struggle with (more on that later), how do you go on in the meantime?
We’re even more lucky to have lots of enclosed areas you can use, whether it's to give dogs who overreact the chance to run around in peace, to give their humans some peace of mind, or to practice their recalls.
Some of our parks have old tennis courts which lots of people use to exercise their dogs off-lead, we’ve got the free dedicated secure dog area in Burslem Park (I’d like more of these please!), there’s an enclosed football field in Chatterley Valley, open but quiet spots in places like Forest Park that are great for dogs who’d rather not be around other dogs (and where there’s nothing to get a long training lead tangled up on!), and you can now hire Freedom Fields which are becoming really popular.
A few I'm aware of, some of which I've used for both group classes and private training are Doggy Cool Day Care in Cellarhead which has 3 small and 1 xl field as well as an indoor arena, Salthouse Pet Boarding in Werrington which has a big field and an indoor space, the Bark Park in Madeley (this has a public footpath along one edge which is useful to practice against distractions), Outward Hounds in Halmerend, Paddocks for Paws in Bradnop near Leek, and Paws and Play in Bradwell.
Going back to the training, there's lots we can do. To begin with, make sure your dogs have plenty of enriching activities that meet their needs. Whether it's different ways of feeding so that they can sniff, search (the ball pit in the photo is just one example), lick and chew their food, places to dig, places to run, things to legally destroy (as you can see Crumpet loves to kill a cardboard box!) to name but a few, giving them an outlet for their physical and mental energy is a great start. Think about the benefits to your mental heath of having enjoyable things to do, and what a detriment it would be to have nothing.
Secondly, work on nice simple exercises that help your dog to be able to focus on you, and then work on them being able to do these no matter where you are or what's going on around you. It could be as simple as getting them to respond to their name or other sound, or playing games which could be with food, toys or yourselves. When they can respond somewhere calm, practice in more and more distracting places, always taking care that you're far enough away from distractions to begin with that they can respond, and gradually get closer.
You can then use these training games to help them cope better when they see things that they overreact to. So whether your dog is a frustrated greeter, or one that's worried about other dogs/people/etc, we can work on changing how they feel and therefore how they respond.
I'll not lie, it can take time and patience, but being calm and consistent gives you the best chance of making the world an easier place for your doggo to live in - which makes life easier for you too!!