03/09/2026
🐾 BARRIER FRUSTRATION – one of the most common training issues I’m dealing with at the moment! 🐾
Barrier frustration is something I’m seeing more and more in training, and quite often it can start when dogs are very young.
We get a puppy, we want to socialise them, and naturally we think that means allowing them to meet and greet every dog they see.
🐶 Dog appears ➡️ puppy gets excited ➡️ pulls towards them ➡️ gets to say hello.
But what happens when that puppy becomes an adolescent or adult dog and suddenly they can’t go and greet every dog?
They’ve already learnt:
👉 “I see a dog = I get to interact with that dog.”
Now we add a lead that physically prevents them from getting there, and frustration can build.
That frustration can present as pulling, whining, barking, lunging, spinning around or becoming completely fixated on the other dog.
And sometimes what looks like aggression can actually be a dog struggling with frustration and restriction.
🦮 The lead itself also changes how dogs are able to communicate.
Dogs communicate through incredibly subtle body language. They use their whole bodies, movement and space.
They may approach in an arc rather than straight on, turn their head away, sniff the ground, pause, move away, come back, increase distance or completely disengage.
When we put dogs on leads, we can unintentionally remove many of those choices.
Two dogs are also often brought head-on towards one another because that’s the direction their humans are walking.
In dog communication, a direct head-on approach can be quite rude or intimidating.
The lead can prevent a dog from creating the distance they would naturally choose, and tension on the lead can restrict their movement even further.
🎥 The video below from Impact Behaviour is a brilliant example of this.
Watch the two dogs interacting off lead and look at how much communication is actually taking place.
Look at their bodies.
Look at how they move towards and away from each other.
Look at the space they create.
Look at the little pauses, changes in direction and opportunities to disengage.
🐕 ↔️ 🐕
These are choices they are able to make because they aren’t physically attached to one another by two humans holding leads.
Put those same dogs on short leads, bring them towards each other head-on and suddenly much of that natural communication can become restricted or completely missed.
Your dog does NOT need to meet and greet every dog they see on a lead.
One of the best things we can teach our puppies from the beginning is:
Seeing another dog doesn’t automatically mean access to that dog.
Sometimes we walk past.
Sometimes we create space.
Sometimes we check in with our human.
And sometimes absolutely nothing happens.
👏 Neutrality around other dogs is just as important as socialisation.
That doesn’t mean stopping your dog from having doggy friends or interacting with other dogs.
Instead, give them appropriate opportunities to socialise in safe, controlled environments where they have enough freedom and space to exhibit natural behaviour, communicate properly and, importantly, move away if they want to.
Socialisation isn’t about how many dogs your puppy can meet.
It’s about helping them learn how to behave and feel comfortable around other dogs — including learning that they don’t have to interact with every dog they see. 🐾💚
