Walking my Dog 🐕

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Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    jm216 wrote: »
    Confession time...
    I started this post because I LOVE ANIMALS! I love seeing pictures of animals, my Instagram is filled with dogs, cats, rabbits, etc. When I see a picture of someone’s fuzzy fur baby, I immediately feel happy and stress free. Feel free to post pics of all of your fur babies.

    I used to have 2 cats before we had Roxie. When the cats were younger, we tried to walk them on leashes... and the would literally flop over and refuse to go anywhere. It was so funny to watch!

    Anyway, this is my zen, happy place for spending time with my dog, walking out stress, and hanging out with animal lovers!

    🐕🐈🐰🐠🐴🐥

    Jill

    Pete the Cat is a champion leash tangler.

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    We eventually successfully cat-proofed the fence. The white mesh did not work; but the green stuff did. It is 36" plastic chicken wire cut in half and supported by one bracket on each fence post, with a little extra support on the gate.

    Here Pete is attempting to scale the fence while my OH is replacing the white mesh with the green fencing.

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    Loving the pictures!!!

    If someone could help me by recommending a harness that would keep my dogs from pulling? Right now I just have a very short gentle leader type leash for each of them because they used to pull and get away from me. But the leashes are too short for enjoyable walks; just used to get them to the yard and back. So if anybody could offer advice, I'd really appreciate it!! My neighborhood is filled with dogs now so every outdoor excursion can be quite the exciting trip. :/

    Years ago, my ex rescued a 75 pound husky who was completely untrained on a leash and unsocialized to other dogs. We didn't get a special harness (although that might have helped.) We just used a regular collar and retractable leash. When he pulled, we stopped. Huskies can pull a LOT, lol.

    I learned the best thing to do for working dog breeds is to give them a ton of exercise. So I walked him before work and at twilight, and my ex took him to dog park during the day.

    I watched a lot of "Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan" and my ex was naturally good at establishing his position as pack leader. Eventually The Baby was much better on the leash and all his behavior issues, both outside and in, went away. It was worth the work!

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  • brittanystebbins95
    brittanystebbins95 Posts: 567 Member
    edited February 2020
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    Loving the pictures!!!

    If someone could help me by recommending a harness that would keep my dogs from pulling? Right now I just have a very short gentle leader type leash for each of them because they used to pull and get away from me. But the leashes are too short for enjoyable walks; just used to get them to the yard and back. So if anybody could offer advice, I'd really appreciate it!! My neighborhood is filled with dogs now so every outdoor excursion can be quite the exciting trip. :/

    Harnesses that are recommended for dogs that pull actually really restrict movement in the shoulders, and are uncomfortable for dogs to wear and can cause structural issues in the muscles and joints after using them regularly over the years.
    They sell gentle leaders that you can attach a regular lead to. Or, look up halti. I use that for my dog. It's got a secondary part of the headcollar that attaches to their neck collar, so that if they slip out of the head collar, they are still attached to you.
    I cannot tell you how many times that feature has saved me with my reactive male in one of his episodes.

    Otherwise, there are lots of helpful YouTube videos on how to train your dog using positive reinforcement not to pull :)
    It usually involves a lot of turning around and abrubtly changing directions, or stopping entirely. I know its worked for a lot of people to train their dog to walk on a loose leash. Unfortunately, my own dog simply does not care and its never worked lol
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    I liked this video (with the possible exception of the harnesses part - I don't know enough to comment and think the poster above made some good points about harnesses.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mv2yf-yfOI

    I used the stop/turn around method. Did not use clicker, treats, or harnesses.

    I did the compromising about sniffing thing mentioned in the video. She also mentions off-leash time - we lived in an area with an off leash dog park in just about every town and my ex used to take him at least once per day and let him run around. As a working dog breed, he had lots of energy that needed to be burned off.

    It took a few months, maybe 6 tops, before he was a good walker. But the poor guy was a real mess when we got him.
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