Today, we're talking about something that's both incredibly practical and absolutely essential, road and car awareness.

How does your dog handle cars? Let's talk about it today.

Welcome to the puppy training podcast. I'm Amy Jensen, founder of Baxter and Bella, the online puppy school.

Here, we are all about helping you create the best

possible experience raising a puppy, from training tips to practical tricks, all aimed at fostering

a happy, well-behaved dog who truly feels like part of the family. So, if you are ready to

enjoy the journey and strengthen the bond with your dog, let's get started.

Hey guys, welcome to the puppy training podcast. Thanks for listening. We haven't talked about this topic before.

So I thought, you know what, let's talk about cars. I know some dogs chase cars. In fact, just the other day, a dog in my neighborhood was chasing a car. I thought I haven't discussed that on the podcast. So maybe this will be useful to you. But our dogs, we are asking them to live in a human world, right? And that means cars, bikes, delivery trucks, movement. Now we even have the addition of e-bikes, scooters, one-wills,

you name it, right? And those things are quiet. They come up on you pretty fast. But while we

often focus on teaching sit, stay, and recall, one of the most important things we can teach our dog

is how to stay safe near roads and how to move thoughtfully through traffic environments

or where there's going to be moving vehicles, right? So today let's talk about how to teach

your dog to stay away from moving vehicles, pause and look before crossing a street, and then build

calm, focused behavior around cars and roads. So let's dive it. To start off with, I'll say this. For most

dogs, cars are either exciting or they're scary. Some want to chase the movement. That's that

hurting instinct or prey drive kicking in. And others might freeze or bolt because they're scared

out of fear. Now, especially if they'd been startled

before. Now, neither of these reactions is actually safe. Our goal is trainers and dog parents is to

help our dogs feel calm, aware, and responsive around roads and moving vehicles. Think of it like

this. You wouldn't let a toddler walk near a busy street without teaching them what stop means.

It's the same with our dogs. The more they understand what to do around the roads, the safer they'll be. You wouldn't let a toddler walk near a busy street without teaching them what stop means.

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