A while back I did a home visit with a client. I do not do a lot of those since most
problems can be diagnosed and dealt with in either my private lessons or in our
neighborhood pack group sessions. But
this dog was bought from a puppy broker/trainer who seems to deliberately make
his puppies and students dog aggressive.
That is because he is also a trainer who specializes in dog
aggression. And your dog always needs
lots of extra lessons.
Since the behavior
wasn’t improving as quickly as I wanted I decided to see the dog on his turf.The walk was a success and I spotted what was delaying improvement, but I also saw something I realized a lot of people do. They don’t let the dog get as much out of a walk as they do.
A lot of us take our dogs for a brisk walk. We are getting exercise as well as exercising the dog. So we tend to keep the dog on a short leash next to us. We will however, stop and chat with a neighbor or maybe pause to look at something interesting. We even stop to smell the roses.
Yet we don’t let our dog do the same.
A dog gathers a lot of information through its sense of smell. They in many ways use their nose to gather information the way we use our eyes. So for a dog a walk is much more about what you can smell than what you can see.
As we walked the dog I had the owners give him six foot of lead rather than one pull him in next to them. And he was able to keep up. He would bound ahead, almost to the end of the line, to check out an interesting smell. He would finish his information gathering, and then bound ahead to the next great smell.
He never tugged ahead, nor forced them to slow down when they went past him to the end of the line. Manners in Minutes training teaches your dog never to have a tight line.
As the walk progressed he got to be a dog doing dog things. And as a result he was much more relaxed. And since he was relaxed and having a good time, he did not spend the whole walk worrying about other dogs. He even went up to a fence where there are other dogs. With a short line, this sends him into a barking frenzy. But with a relaxed line he said hello and kept going.
So the next time you go for a brisk walk with your dog, give him or her a little line. Let them get as much out of the walk as you do. Your dog nose what to do.
