Are you having fun walking with your dog? Many dog owners are struggling with making dog walking a fun activity. Making a fun strategy for walking exercise should be able to solve your problem at the start.
However, not all strategies work immediately, as domesticated dogs are generally untrained at first although they learn quite fast. When walking your dog, you should know the ins and outs of walk training in order to establish an enjoyable exercise for you and your canine companion.
These are some of the tips that every dog owner should know about with regards to dog walking.
1. Prevent pulling
Usually, dog owners have experienced their dog tugged hard at their leash at some point. Dogs will pull hard and even aim to go to different directions. Although there could be other reasons why dog do this, it is very much speculated that this is due to the lack of dog’s focus because of his overflowing excitement.
Also, this is because when you are walking slowly, your dog will not pay attention to your walk, but to other stuff around them.
One tip that could prevent your dog from pulling the leash is to make your dog pay attention to you and your walk. It is recommended that you keep the leash short at first and to make unpredictable actions, like stopping, starting, and turning around.
This will make the dog realize that he does not know what is going to happen, so he has to pay attention to you and your walk.
This will also make you more interesting in the eyes of the dog and in result, he will follow you more often. It’s good to start the walk training if he is still a puppy since this is a sensitive time for their growth and understanding.
You will be able to obtain a good result if you begin training in a safe and quiet off-leash area where you can test what things can arouse your dog’s attention. You may be able to determine if it’s a squeaky toy, a baseball, or even delicious treats that will keep his attention to you.
2. Diminish sniffing
There may be instances that your dog would frequently stop in almost every meter and sniff. You might even notice that your dog will almost always mark his territory especially in the park with all those trees and lampposts around.
One common reason that your dog will do this is because of the curious nature that is innate in our dogs. However, there are times that the reason is you are using a retractable leash. This makes it that the leash is too relaxed, and you will have less control for your dog. You have to train your dog to follow you by your side, so he would not pull.
One recommendation for these dogs that likes to sniff around is to control the times for sniffing. You may allot a certain time in your walk that you will give your dog for sniffing. Make it that the sniffing break is only at a fixed duration, so it would not make your dog realize that he is spoiled.
Giving a sniffing break seems rewarding for your dog so if you would give your dog a frequent sniffing break times, he may misunderstand a previous action and think that it is rewarding. As an example, try giving your dog a sufficient sniffing break in the park if only he followed you at your side directly without sniffing along the way.
If he starts to sniff while walking, stop and go back home. Since your dog loves walking, he will eventually realize that it is not yet time to sniff. This should be repeated until your dog learns to stop sniffing along the way and gives time until you reached the area for sniffing breaks.
3. Make your dog move
There are dogs that would even stop along the way for some reason. This will disrupt walking and will reduce the training time for your dog. If your dog does this, there are certain things that you should not immediately do just to coax your dog into following again.
Try not to feed your dog if he stops. This is a wrong step that most dog owners would usually do just to make him walk again. This will make your dog misunderstand and he will think that stopping during a walk will make him rewarded and fed with a treat. This will cause him to stop more frequently just to get some food.
Also, do not pull the leash towards you. If your dog stopped, then his mind could be focused on stopping. Pulling will only make him think that you are challenging him to a game of pulling, which will make him pull also and stay more in his place.
Instead of doing the mentioned don’ts, first try to think that their minds are stuck in that position. Try to distract them using some attention catching items that was discussed in the first tip. This could be a toy, a command, or even a certain action that would make your dog get their minds out of staying in a place.
But, do not give the toy. This will make it that he is rewarded instead of just getting his mind out of a daze. Also, another thing that would make them get startled is to touch a body part where he doesn’t expect. Like the tail perhaps. Do not touch anything else as it could be mistaken for petting.
Petting your dog is also a rewarding experience for them which will make them misunderstood the notion that you are just distracting him. Touching an unexpected part will make him think that it is weird, so he will get surprised.
4. Proper leash etiquette
The sooner that you can teach your puppy the right etiquette, the better. As you get your puppy to learn proper leash etiquette, you will observe that your dog will be more amiable in walks. If your puppy starts pulling, you immediately stop. This will make it seem that you are not doing what he wants.
This method should only work with puppies and not with adult dogs who are already accustomed to the puling behavior. Usually, it is already too late if your dog is already pulling because he will only think that it is just a game of pull and stop.
As much as possible, start at a young age to shape his mind and make him be friendlier to walks. By following these steps above, you are surer to achieve success in getting your dog to be more comfortable while walking.
Do you wish your dog would walk on a leash calmly and quietly without pulling? CLICK HERE to watch this FREE Step-by-Step Video from Doggy Dan’s Program!
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