Tips On Walking 2 Dogs

[MissLotus]

Hi,

I have two small dogs and walking them individually hasn't been a problem.

Today was the first time I took them for a walk together... total disaster.....

I had the two dogs in my left hand with individual leashes, one kept on pulling and zig zagging across. I found it very hard to do the quick pull and release motion with the dog that was pulling without tugging on both of the leashes. So within the first 3 minutes around my court, I had to put one dog inside the house and just took each dog for an individual walk.

Any helpful hints to get them to walk with each other. If I can get them to walk with each other, it would be a lot easier on me and longer walks for them :rolleyes:

[Bjelkier]

How well do they walk on their own.

Do they pull, zig zag, act up?

I found that getting my pack to walk together was to get them walking well on a loose lead first, a heel command was very helpful and then got help from my OH.

Each of us had a dog and were able to correct each if they were being silly.

We practised this until the dogs were comfortable with each other while walking and then transfered to a single leash.

Edited November 15, 2009 by Wolfsong

[Tiggy]

Why don't you walk one on each side. That's what I do and I rotate them so they're both good to walk on both sides. It sounds like you have them pulling ahead of you on a long lead if they can zig zag. I like my dogs to walk at my side, not pull ahead of me. I have a 'go on' command which means they can go to the end of their lead without pulling but 99% of the time they're at my side.

[MissLotus]

I walk one with a head collar and he walks by my left side loosely. The younger one, I have her on the harness and majority of the time I can have the lead loose, however she is still getting distracted now and then. When my partner and I walk each dog together, there may be the occasional "I don't want to be left behind" case. So when the footpath allows us, we walk side by side, with the dogs slightly in front but not pulling on the leash. When one pulls, we stop walking.

[mish13]

I walk all my four at once but I only have two leads, the two big ones are joined and the two little ones are joined. It is hard if one is miss behaving but I just stop and have a stern word to that one and we are good to go again. I dont let them walk in front of me, they must be beside or behind so that way they cant criss cross in front.

[kiesha09]

I have two small dogs who walk nicely onlead and the first tip I would give is to get them walking nicely on a loose lead individually first. Once they are rock solid then you introduce them to walking together.

The second tip I'd give is have one walk on either side of you. That way they don't criss cross etc.

Goodluck!

[poodlefan]

I walk one with a head collar and he walks by my left side loosely. The younger one, I have her on the harness and majority of the time I can have the lead loose, however she is still getting distracted now and then. When my partner and I walk each dog together, there may be the occasional "I don't want to be left behind" case. So when the footpath allows us, we walk side by side, with the dogs slightly in front but not pulling on the leash. When one pulls, we stop walking.

I had the two dogs in my left hand with individual leashes, one kept on pulling and zig zagging across. I found it very hard to do the quick pull and release motion with the dog that was pulling without tugging on both of the leashes. So within the first 3 minutes around my court, I had to put one dog inside the house and just took each dog for an individual walk.

If you are going to walk the dogs with both leashes in the same hand, I'd not be walking your older one in a head collar, particularly if he walks well on a loose lead. Keep the leashes separate or remove the head collar and walk both on flat or martingale collars. Tugging on a harness isn't going to accomplish much I'm afraid.

Edited November 16, 2009 by poodlefan

[corvus]

I like the waist belt. I don't often walk my two dogs alone as OH usually comes and takes one, but if I do take them both I usually put my older one who has good leash manners on the leash that attaches to the waist belt and then I can concentrate on my younger dog, who is still kind of in training, although he walks on a loose leash as well. He just needs more reminders and rewards at the moment. They rarely get tangled up as the waist belt rotates around your waist if the dog on it decides to go to the other side.

Another thing I really like is voice directions. It's incredibly useful to be able to call the dogs in close and get them to pass an obstacle on your side of it and get them to stop at curbs and so forth just with your voice. I spent about 6 months classically conditioning voice directions with Kivi and it was totally worth it. It's not taking as long with Erik, though, because he's quicker, and I'm not doing it just classically this time.

[lappiemum]

I walk my two lappies on a brace lead every morning. It took a day or two for them to get the idea about staying to the left of me, but it works well now.

[Ms Genki]

I walk my large dogs with both of them on either side of me, attached to one leash. The leash wraps behind my back so that I don't get suddenly thrown off balance. I set them small tasks beforehand so that they learnt to earn their walk:

1. Walk nice and slow around the carport and we'll go out the gate to the verandah.

2. Walk nice and slow under the verandah and you can go to the driveway.

3. Walk nice and slow on the driveway and maybe, just maybe, we can actually get to the footpath sometime before I have to leave for work!

It was going surprisingly well (seeing as one takes very long strides and the other is a chronic sniffer of all things gross) and eliminated the need to get up early to walk both separately, until they decided to have a silly scrap fight towards the end of this morning's 30 minute walk. Back to the carport....sigh.

Edited November 16, 2009 by Ms Genki

[Tatelina]

I walk my two lappies on a brace lead every morning. It took a day or two for them to get the idea about staying to the left of me, but it works well now.

What's a brace lead?

I walk my 2 girls on my left together. I found the stop-start method on a leash with nothing else really worked. It's VERY tedious though..as soon as one of them makes the lead go tight I stop dead and either wait for them to come back closer to my side so the lease is loose, or I encourage them to come closer by patting my leg or similar.

Didn't take them long to figure out that if they want to progress at a quicker rate down the driveway, they had to both be in line with me.

When they get a bit excited (or sometimes at the start of a walk) we have to stop-start a couple of times but it's great!

No jerking on their necks, it's more enjoyable and I don't risk hurting my back.

[MissLotus]

Hi,

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I tried again for the second time and this time with more luck . I went back to the basics and took each dog for a walk individually around the block with the aim of tiring them out, which worked.

I then took both of them to the driveway with each leash on my left hand. I didn't use a head collar for the older one, this time I used a choker chain (surprisingly, this worked well and no pulling was involved, I head the head collar on standby incase he was pulling way too much). I didn't budge until both dogs were calm and sitting by my left side. I found that if one leash is slightly shorter than the other, both dogs were easily manageable. If they were getting too distracted, I would sprint into a run to get both dogs to run loosely on the leash again then slowly go back into a walk.

It's early days so we are not the perfect walkers yet, but it was nice to go for an hour stroll without having to hurry up the walk to take the other dog for a walk.