08/09/2026
✨ Sometimes the biggest wins start with the smallest steps. ✨
I received the loveliest update from a client today and, with her permission, I just had to share it. 🥹❤️
When I first met her dog, getting into the car was a huge problem.
His family had tried treats, encouragement and different ways of getting him into the car, but he simply wasn’t comfortable. It had reached the point where attempts to get him in could result in growling and snapping at family members.
His owner desperately wanted to be able to take him places with her — to explore, go on adventures and enjoy little breaks away together — but getting him into the car had become such a barrier that those things just didn’t feel possible.
His owner had already sought help from another trainer and had put a lot of effort into trying to work through the problem, but unfortunately they were still struggling to make progress.
Despite that, she took another leap of faith and reached out to me. ❤️
Rather than focusing on “How do we get him into the car?”, we changed the question to:
“How can we help him feel differently about the car?”
The growling and snapping weren’t him being stubborn, naughty or difficult. They were communication. For whatever reason, he was telling us that he wasn’t comfortable with what was happening.
So we stripped everything right back.
No forcing him in.
No pressure.
No battles.
We introduced free shaping, allowing him to make his own choices around the car and rewarding those tiny decisions along the way.
And there was a LOT of patience involved!
At first, progress might not have looked particularly exciting to anyone watching — approaching the car, investigating it, choosing to get a little closer…
But those tiny choices mattered.
We worked at his pace, gradually building his confidence rather than simply trying to achieve the end goal of getting him inside.
And eventually, those tiny steps became something pretty massive.
He has now been away on not one, but TWO little holidays with his owners. 🥹🚗
The same dog who wouldn’t get into the car is now able to head off on adventures with his people — and his owner finally has the freedom to enjoy those experiences with him that she wanted so badly.
Her message today said:
“I would never have believed it last year.” ❤️
She then sent me another message saying how happy she was that things had worked out and that she felt I had really “got” him and whatever was bothering him about the car.
And I think that might mean the most to me. 🥹
We may never know what it was about the car that bothered him so much. He couldn’t tell us that part.
But he could tell us that he wasn’t comfortable — we just had to listen.
Behaviour change isn’t always about teaching a dog to do something.
Sometimes it’s about slowing everything down, removing the pressure, giving them choices and helping them feel safe enough that eventually…
they choose to do it themselves. ❤️
Absolutely over the moon for this lovely boy and his owners.
Here’s to many, many more adventures together. 🐾💜
