How Do You Walk Your Dog?

[KumaAkita]

I'm after a bit of advice...

I have a 6 month old Akita and I walk him every morning. He's already weighing in at 33Kg and puts on about 1.5Kg/week. He's going to be a big boy when he's done growing, probably only 10Kg lighter than me! Yes, I knew all this when we were considering the breed, so it didn't sneek up on me!

My problem is that some mornings he is easy to walk than others. He is starting to pull like a train and I fear that I'm not going to be able to control him on my own. We use a Rogz adjustable lead, which is kept to the shortest length (think it might be 1m long) and I normally try to keep him at heel to one side, but I also let him walk "free" on that length lead - which seems to work better, he normally stays to one side and doesn't zig zag. If he gets a scent up his schnoz, he's sniffing like he could be a customs dog!

So - how do you walk your dog? always at heel? bit of free reign? what's best?

[corvus]

Free reign, but we have a "hold up" cue that acts as a reminder if they start pulling. It reminds them to ease up. We also have a "hang about" cue that is an informal heel. It doesn't matter which side they come to. Just the nearest one, where they should hang out until released with "okay". We use it mostly when we are sharing the path with someone. We have heavily practised and reinforced "hang about" so that it is quite reliable, but sometimes if they get distracted by something "hold up" and "hang about" falls on deaf ears. Then we call them or use "leave it", which tends to work.

I think what is best is whatever enables you to enjoy a walk with your canine pal.

[Aidan]

If you want a dog to walk fairly freely but not to pull, one way to do it is to make any tug on the collar a cue to come back to you. You can probably get the idea from this clip:

http://www.positivepetzine.com/loose_leash_youtube

Note that I click more or less as soon as Tess turns to me, this is important in the early stages. So is the high rate of reinforcement.

Gosh, every time I watch that clip I notice new mistakes but funnily enough they all seem to pick it up.

[Tilly]

I tend to walk my dogs on the left side but I am not strict about in front/close etc ... just as long as they don't pull.

They are taught to heel nicely on the left and stay in that position when asked to "stay close".

[Agility Dogs]

I have to admit this is one area I have been a little bit slack in - they walk in front at the end of their leads unless I ask them to come back to me. They will, but it is work to keep them there. We spend so much time training for other stuff that this doesn't really bother me too much.

I'm getting another dog next year so I'm thinking it might be time to fix this issue - three on the end of a lead might just be a little bit too much.

[Tay.]

Jess walks up in front at the end of her lead, and Bailey is at my side.

[KumaAkita]

Thanks everyone... appreciate the info. Good to know that I'm on the right track!

[piper]

I have to admit this is one area I have been a little bit slack in - they walk in front at the end of their leads unless I ask them to come back to me. They will, but it is work to keep them there. We spend so much time training for other stuff that this doesn't really bother me too much.

I'm getting another dog next year so I'm thinking it might be time to fix this issue - three on the end of a lead might just be a little bit too much.

I walked 3 BCs like that without any hassles agility dogs. I actually found it less hassle to have them all in front but the rule was no pulling and people would be amazed that I could literally have all 3 leads on 1 finger. I found they had their preferred positioning as to who was next to who and rarely deviated from it. The "rule" I had and rarely used (didn't need it) was if you try and pull you can come back and walk at heel for bit. If we had other people approaching we just moved off to the side, I never found an easier way to manage than that as even if they were all by my side we took up too much space on the footpath for another person and dog to pass. And this way they all had more freedom to move and sniff and enjoy their walks.

At 1 time a firend went OS for a few months. Her partner walked her 2 BCs a little but not a lot so I took them with with my guys a few times and ended up ith 5 BCs all calmly walking in front of me (hers were used to being out in front as well). I will say that all 5 dogs were obedience trained and able to heel if needed.

[TerraNik]

Ahsoka walks... err... charges out front. She sets the pace. I don't mind her being there just so long as she doesn't trip me over.

Jedi walks beside me. I don't care what side - he chooses.

[ruthless]

Ours all walk beside me, Cesar Milan style. They aren't allowed to pull/sniff/mark. I stop in two places on the walk to let them wee. It's all a bit military style, but our pack was out of control and it took quite stringent rules to get them into line.

[luvsdogs]

I would teach him to not pull on lead by only moving forward while the lead is loose, & stop when it's tight. Reward him for the loose lead. If you can't manage that because of his size & strength I would try using an easy walking harness. When he pulls it turns him towards you, praise & reward.

I don't let my dog pull me. She's allowed to sniff around as long as she's not pulling. She does walk ahead of me most of the time & I just have to remind her if she goes too far. My previous dog used to lunge at dogs running around at obedience & agility training & I have a torn shoulder because of it.

[Adele]

I started off having Sooty in front as we were practicing loose lead walking, which she can do, but I find having her on my left a lot easier and when we are walking on-lead we are walking, like ruthless she is not allowed to pull, sniff or mark. We can pass a dog with no problems when she is walking on my left but if she was out front she would think she has the right to greet.

[Black Bronson]

If you want a dog to walk fairly freely but not to pull, one way to do it is to make any tug on the collar a cue to come back to you. You can probably get the idea from this clip:

http://www.positivepetzine.com/loose_leash_youtube

Note that I click more or less as soon as Tess turns to me, this is important in the early stages. So is the high rate of reinforcement.

Gosh, every time I watch that clip I notice new mistakes but funnily enough they all seem to pick it up.

Aidan, that video just seems like a food lure and essentially, the dog's all over the place, lunging at the camera man etc etc. I don't really understand what is being taught in relation to loose leash walking???

[Black Bronson]

Ours all walk beside me, Cesar Milan style. They aren't allowed to pull/sniff/mark. I stop in two places on the walk to let them wee. It's all a bit military style, but our pack was out of control and it took quite stringent rules to get them into line.

Mine too

[corvus]

Aidan, that video just seems like a food lure and essentially, the dog's all over the place, lunging at the camera man etc etc. I don't really understand what is being taught in relation to loose leash walking???

Oh boy, what fun.

Maybe I'm just biased because I love Aidan's methods, but try looking a little more closely. Clicker training is often shaping order out of chaos. The high reward rate means your hand is in the food pouch most of the time, and the dog naturally watches your hand. As the reward rate lowers, IME the dog starts watching your face instead.

[Aidan3]

Aidan, that video just seems like a food lure and essentially, the dog's all over the place, lunging at the camera man etc etc. I don't really understand what is being taught in relation to loose leash walking???

I don't see any examples of food being deliberately used as a lure (although she does become interested in the food in my hand at times), but I do see change in the dog's behaviour. At the beginning she doesn't have much clue about where she should be, at the end she has a very good idea. The response I was looking for was being increased through +R, i.e we got more of the response we were reinforcing. Every time she got to the end of the leash she brought herself back. In the early stages I don't really care where they are so much so long as they learn very strongly to come back from a tight leash without thinking about it. Believe me, Tess had had no shortage of more traditional training before this.

This is Tess' third 10 minute session. The camera person has a small dog, Tess is dog aggressive and has picked up and shaken a small dog before. She actually looks pretty happy to see the dog in this clip, not threatened at all - and why would she? It's a positive, non-threatening environment with only good outcomes. Pavlov is always on your shoulder.

What you need to take note of is what exactly is the dog doing at the time of the click? At first it looks like I'm teaching her to sniff the ground! She figures out pretty quickly I'm clicking for something else. She starts to prance there for a bit, so I click when her feet hit the ground. If you're not paying attention it looks like I'm rewarding her for prancing, but the clicker makes it very clear to Tess, it happened precisely when her feet hit the ground. I click for her head in all sorts of positions, she gets clicked for eye contact a lot, but I also deliberately click when she's in position but not looking at me. This is not heeling, after all. I also click before she hits the end of the leash at one point, probably looks like I'm reinforcing lunging but again, you have to take a snapshot of exactly what happens at the time of the click. It can be hard to get your head around at first, and I'm sure even a lot of clicker trainers will have questions about what I'm doing here (and maybe they would be right, too, I think I make a lot of mistakes in the clip).

In the last few classes we had Tess was walking on a loose leash past other (reactive) dogs in close proximity. We also had her heeling around other dogs dragging a long line. It's probably not something you are used to seeing and early on, as you point out, it looks like she is all over the place. How long is the clip, a couple of minutes? And does she look the same at the end as in the beginning? If you'd seen her on a check chain you'd think even the first 10 seconds was an improvement Admittedly, despite all the classes, her owner was not competent with a check chain but the point is she became competent with my method very quickly and her dog started to enjoy being good.

Edited May 12, 2010 by Aidan2

[Aidan3]

The high reward rate means your hand is in the food pouch most of the time, and the dog naturally watches your hand. As the reward rate lowers, IME the dog starts watching your face instead.

The dog in the clip spends a good amount of time watching my face, but if you notice I also click deliberately for looking in other places as well. If I were teaching heeling and eye contact was an early criterion I'd be clicking that eye contact over and over and over. You get what you click and eye contact would be stronger than following the food in about 30 seconds.

Even despite the very high rate of reinforcement used in this early session the dog does not spend a whole lot of time following my hand because I click for other things. What anyone watching this clip needs to keep in mind is that we have 1:30 of footage, and in that time, despite not lowering the rate of reinforcement and having the treat bag on my left side this dog has already learned stuff that isn't "follow my hand around". She's learned to come back from a tight leash, and a reasonable proximity for casual loose leash walking. She is free to sniff, free to look at anything she likes, and is doing this with another dog who is, at most, 10' away who she is clearly very interested in. So with all this freedom, she is still spending far less time trying to check out the other dog than she had been prior to this session.

There is a lot of information for the dog there. A ton of things get clicked. Dogs are smart, seriously smart.

[Bundyburger]

Why do you have two logins Aidan? That's just confusing..

[Aidan3]

Why do you have two logins Aidan? That's just confusing..

It's stupid, but I just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong with my password on my laptop. I made both logins substantially similar, no deception. Although if I ever say anything really stupid I'll blame it on the other Aidan.

Edited May 13, 2010 by Aidan2

[Agility Dogs]

I have to admit this is one area I have been a little bit slack in - they walk in front at the end of their leads unless I ask them to come back to me. They will, but it is work to keep them there. We spend so much time training for other stuff that this doesn't really bother me too much.

I'm getting another dog next year so I'm thinking it might be time to fix this issue - three on the end of a lead might just be a little bit too much.

I walked 3 BCs like that without any hassles agility dogs. I actually found it less hassle to have them all in front but the rule was no pulling and people would be amazed that I could literally have all 3 leads on 1 finger. I found they had their preferred positioning as to who was next to who and rarely deviated from it. The "rule" I had and rarely used (didn't need it) was if you try and pull you can come back and walk at heel for bit. If we had other people approaching we just moved off to the side, I never found an easier way to manage than that as even if they were all by my side we took up too much space on the footpath for another person and dog to pass. And this way they all had more freedom to move and sniff and enjoy their walks.

At 1 time a firend went OS for a few months. Her partner walked her 2 BCs a little but not a lot so I took them with with my guys a few times and ended up ith 5 BCs all calmly walking in front of me (hers were used to being out in front as well). I will say that all 5 dogs were obedience trained and able to heel if needed.

I find in front is the easiest way for my two to walk. While they don't compete in obedience they are loosely obedience trained (just not as pin sharp as they would need to be in the ring) so walking at heel is not really a hassle. When I did have a third dog living with us that's the way all of us walked, but Morgy is a bit calmer than my two. you're right though, you do get some great looks when someone comes the other way and you are not panicking about the 3 dogs.