The comfort zone

does your dog have one????

ive just walked phoebe and needed to go to the post box aswell. so we go along our normal walk but where we normally turn around i carried on walking. We had to go about 700 yards further to get to the post box the whole extra bit and back again phoebe was really jumpy and stuck to my leg making walking very hard. She had got so confident on our walks as we do pretty much the same one 3 times a day i forgot what she used to be like.

Is your dog like this is you go somewhere new??

I have the opposite problem, If I go somewhere new they get all excited and act like a couple of hooligans who've never seen the daylight!

Theo is just nuts somewhere new. He whines, shakes and makes this weird high pitched sound but at the same time he's running about everywhere terrified yet excited like 'omg this is scary as hell but I NEED to look at this rock more carefully -omg what IS that? I wanna sniff it god mum im scared! Ooh look duck!'.

oh if only she would relax. she acts so weird when were somewhere new, she looks around alot and sticks to my legs. you can tell she wants to mooch about and sniff but cant quite decide so was doing this mad darting thing when we passed lamposts ect and she nearly jumped out of her skin when i dropped my letter in the postbox while she was sniffing it. LOL

We are lucky enough to be able to take Oz anywhere ,when we have slept over at familes houses as long as hes with me he seems fine. It makes holidays much easier..

As my dogs travel practically everywhere with me, they get to go somewhere new extremely often. So if they have a comfort zone, I have never found out what it is or what they may do when out of it yet.

But one is only 7 and the other is only 12, so plenty of time to discover it.

We've always taken Molly somewhere new at least once or twice a week. She's confident and relaxed wherever she goes (unless there's large crowds).

My two love going to new places and are over the moon if they go down a path we have never tried before. They are inquisitive to a fault. Any open car door, house door or gate is an invitation as far as they are concerned. I walk past a bus stop when one pulls up, both dogs have been known to think it looks inviting and are disappointed at me not allowing them on with the rest of the passengers. Neither have been on a bus in their lives, but not through the want of trying.

Their comfort zone seems to extend to the whole planet.

Ours are fine with new places, often I hear myself saying ''come close you don't know where your going'' we have traveled far and wide with ours so they are used to it.

Meg my old Collie was walked the same walk in the week and my friend had her whilst I was on holiday, when I got back my friend said....''I know your every move on walks Monday to Friday...then Saturday and Sunday you take a new direction'' I never gave it a thought at the time

Rupert was terrible if you took him somewhere new. Belly to the floor, tail between his legs, ears back, crawling along. Once you'd done the walk a few times he was just his usual jumpy self. He never really relaxed outside of the house.

Spen on the other hand is extremely excited to be going somewhere new and just wants to explore.