Socialization and building a reliable dog doesn’t have a perfect rule book of instructions for the simple reason that every dog is different. There are guidelines, but no “one-size-fits-all” approach. What one dog finds distracting, another dog can work around without issue. What one dog is afraid of, another dog barely notices. What one dog is confident around, another dog can barely take the first step.

​The key to overcoming this training challenge is learning what your dog considers to be of little distraction, moderate distraction, and high distraction. The level of distraction directly affects how much your dog has to overcome in order to pay attention to you and be responsive when you ask them to do things. In this post, I want to delve specifically into how distractions change when you take a country dog into the city for a training session, and vice versa if you’re wanting to take a city dog out into the countryside for a fun weekend or longer vacation. Thought and time should be given to any dog – working or companion – to allow them chances to be exposed to various differences between city/town and country/wide open spaces.

Take a look at the two lists below to get your gears turning about what a city dog might find overwhelming or tempting in the country, or a country dog might be overly stimulated by or afraid of in the city. Use these points to help shape your socialization approach for your own dog, taking into consideration what you may need to find in either place to help your dog be more confident and comfortable switching between the two environments.

10 Normal Aspects of City Life

  1. Busy roadways
  2. Public transportation; loud bus depots, train stations, subway platforms
  3. Crowds
  4. Dropped food and trash on sidewalks
  5. Sirens, Honking Horns, Misc. Traffic Noise
  6. Sidewalks
  7. All different types of people
  8. Lights at Nighttime
  9. Activities by Neighbors
  10. Something is always happening in background (city is alive)
  11. People frequently come to your house or walk past it
  12. Always some form of confinement; fences, leashes, etc.

10 Normal Aspects of Country Life

  1. Very little road traffic or traffic noises
  2. Tractors and farming equipment; noise, ground vibrates, monster rolling down road
  3. No sidewalks
  4. Roadkill
  5. Deer, coyotes
  6. Quiet; sounds of nature or farming equipment only
  7. More cattle, horses, and livestock than people
  8. Dark at Nighttime
  9. Immediate household may be the only people the dog interacts with or sees
  10. Gunfire is normal and not cause for concern
  11. Wide open spaces; must learn property lines
  12. Burn barrels for trash