Dog owners - is it possible to walk three dogs alone?

geebusuk

Would it not be better to have your dogs come back when called?

My dog does after training. My dog doesn't venture where he shouldn't because I either use "come here"/"Heel" or "not too far" which means he shouldn't be going around a corner/out of might sight and should come back a bit closer but doesn't have to come to me.

Not that I'm saying there is or isn't justification for using them.

As far as 'containment' systems I believe it's been shown they can cause considerable problems and often not actually solve the issue - for instance a dog is walking past, they feel fearful so go towards it barking. They then experience pain.
Pain is associated with seeing the dog.

Or there's running towards the zone and experiencing the 'flight' bit of fight or flight - they are in pain, so they keep running to get away from it.

Greytfish

You can walk many more than three, if you take the time and effort to properly leash train them.

Shock collars with a hand held remote. Found in the hunting/training section of a good sporting goods store. Expensive investment, but dogs all respond and will be putty in your hands.

Spoken like a true novice. Shock collars are for people who have no idea how to train dogs, no desire to learn, and no interest in building a good relationship with their dog. In short, these are the people who should never have dogs. Ignore this advice please. Any other respectable trainer will tell you the same.

My dogs are rescues who clearly have no prior training. I've tried to train them but been unsuccessful. And beagles are especially difficult.

Beagles are very intelligent dogs, but notoriously stubborn. However, they are also well known for being highly food motivated. Use treats when working with them.

Also, I suggest enrolling in a positive reinforcement group obedience course. Do it with one and you will learn how to train the others. I also suggest getting 2 couplers so you're not holding 3 separate leashes. Here's a pic of me out walking with 4 of my dogs ranging in size from 70-85 lbs.

:drinker:
Thank you.

Causing an animal pain because you cannot be bothered to train it, is a terrible human vice. Even worse when the expectations have not even been made clear to the dog.

Also, your pups are beautiful.

Spoken like a true novice. Shock collars are for people who have no idea how to train dogs, no desire to learn, and no interest in building a good relationship with their dog. In short, these are the people who should never have dogs. Ignore this advice please. Any other respectable trainer will tell you the same.

Not true. My labs are well trained bird hunting dogs and I never have to shock them, the warning tone is all that is needed if they get too far out of range. I trained them without the collars, but use them mainly to protect them from other hunters and them getting too excited by various wildlife that they may give chase to when out on the hunt. There is no leash law in my town, but dogs must be walked and "in control". Having the collars to use the warning tone in case they are tempted to venture up into a yard or out in the street has worked for 10 years when I walk them off leash. It's also a common use for pet containment systems in yards that don't have fences. We don't have the pet containment system in our yard as the dogs are well trained and will not venture outside of the yard.

Collars are one more addition to a trainer's toolkit for controlling animals. Be it for pet containment systems, hunters, or dog walkers in areas that allow off leash dogs.

Myths of shock collars here...

http://www.chicagonow.com/training-the-wolf/2013/07/shock-collars-myths/

You actually made the previous poster's point.

ebayaddict0127

I don't believe in shock collars. I use harnesses on dogs who pull, and have tried basic commands but it ain't workin. My ultimate plan is to take my girls to a full training course.

BrianSharpe

yes, be the leader and train them.

^^^ This.....

I have a 125lb Shepherd/Great Dane mix and an 80 lb Lab/ ?? (I suspect Husky) mix and can walk them both at the same time.

geebusuk

I don't believe in shock collars. I use harnesses on dogs who pull, and have tried basic commands but it ain't workin. My ultimate plan is to take my girls to a full training course.

Have a look on youtube, there's loads of techniques.


First, I may have mentioned but think it was another thread... I'd start with 'clicker training'.
This works on the "Pavlov's dog" principal and is an excellent way to be able to tell your dog that it is doing the right thing. Because we can't directly communicate as you can with (some) adult humans you generally need to be more precise when confirming they are doing the correct thing - if five seconds after doing a command properly they get a "good boy", it maybe they were just going to sniff some leaves and associate that with praise. It's also less distracting than giving a treat in a lot of situations.

For loose-leash walking I have used a basic 'walking in circles' technique. Generally the dog who is pulling wants to be walking forward, to see the next bit of park, to be making progress.
So, when the dog to start with has it's rear legs get past my legs, I stop and turn around, walk back a couple of meters (dog on the outside of me) and go back to walking forward. Any time the dog gets past me, repeat.
You may walk in circles a LOT. But slowly the dog should realise that the only time they actually get to carry on walking is when they are close to you - if they stay close to you they continue to get what they want, while it gets boring seeing the bit they just saw if they aren't.
YOU do have to be patient doing this. Some dogs pick it up quickly, others slower. Not found a dog it hasn't helped yet.

Greytfish

A standard harness (vs. say one of the trick harnesses that apply uncomfortable pressure to obtain compliance) actually encourages and can worsen pulling because it gives the dog more leverage. If you have small dogs with sensitive tracheas, however, harnesses may be a necessary short-term evil until you can begin proper training.

geebusuk

My friend with the Akita did just that - got a harness which actually encouraged pulling, if anything!

I'm not sure which ones you mean by 'uncomfortable pressure'.

You do get normal designed harnesses that you attach the lead at the front, which means the dog tends to get turned around a bit if they try and pull, as it's more an out of line 'push'.
Then you get haltis which work like horse stuff - so it turns the head around if they try and pull, which naturally slows them.
Doing Krav Maga (real world self defence martial art), one of the exercises was doing this to people and it actually works pretty well on us - put someone's head where you want them to be and the rest follows.

Greytfish

My friend with the Akita did just that - got a harness which actually encouraged pulling, if anything!

I'm not sure which ones you mean by 'uncomfortable pressure'.

You do get normal designed harnesses that you attach the lead at the front, which means the dog tends to get turned around a bit if they try and pull, as it's more an out of line 'push'.
Then you get haltis which work like horse stuff - so it turns the head around if they try and pull, which naturally slows them.
Doing Krav Maga (real world self defence martial art), one of the exercises was doing this to people and it actually works pretty well on us - put someone's head where you want them to be and the rest follows.

There are loads of them, including the ones you described. There used to be only about a dozen, and I could succinclty lay out those options and differentiate them. Now it would take forever to summarize them all.

They aren't inherently bad, just overused, substituted for training, and too often a crutch. All of them work my making the dog phsyically uncomfortable when engaging in the activity the device is designed to prevent. They can be a very helpful tool to transition and provide relative safety while a dog is learning proper leash walking, but they effectively work on the sam proncipal as a citronella or shock collar.

Positive training teaches a dog to think and to make the choices considered desirable for life as a companion to humans. Devices that prevent or reduce unwanted behaviors by causing discomfort or pain just teach avoidance. More than that, when they are used in place of training (as opposed to as a stop gap while training) you get lots of bad associations as well as some phsyical damage to the dog which may not be noticeable until later (or in the event of shorter lived large dogs like labs and danes, the dog may actually pass from soemthing else before the damage become symptomatic in old age). This is only encouraged by people using them and thinking they are magic and have solved a problem. But, the problem is still there. The relationship of trust is diminished, the bond is less, and the dog hasn't learned choices, he has learned avoidance.

Krav Maga is a lot of fun, but no rules street fighting is probably not a good analogy for a healthy relationship with a dog. That said, it's generally true of any sighted mammal that where the head goes, it will follow - it's how we're built. It's also a pretty heavy portion of our bodies. It's one of the reasons I teach "watch me" with treats almost before I teach anythign else. It makes it sooo much easier to teach leash walking and almost anything else where you want a dog to stay somewhere or to follow you.

I was a bit bored with KM, but I do Muay Thai and BJJ and know so many pressure points and body weight movements to take control of a man almost twice my size it's almost unbelievable. I'm not saying that there aren't times when making a dog actively uncomfortable isn't necessary or useful, just that it does not teach a dog to make better choices, or really any choices at all.

mreeves261

I would walk them 1 at a time and work on the behavior. I did that with mine (rescues, lab/shar pei mix, lab/spaniel mix and Shepard/Wolfhound mixed, none of them are small.) When they start getting rambunctious I simply stop walking. They love going for walks but they HATE when I stop. There are so many ways to train them, just have to find what will work for the breed and the the individual dog. After you get them trained you should have no trouble walking them all.

Dear Mr. Shock Collar, I wonder how you would feel if your wife put one of those on your nuts. If you don't have a woman in your life, I'm not surprised.

kathystrauss1

I walk my 3 dogs together every day. They weigh 70lbs, 34lbs and 28lbs. I use prong collars when I have them all together and it works wonders. It doesn't bother them and I can still control them if they see a squirrel or a cat or something. Ive tried the no pull halters and those leads that go over their snouts and they HATE them. I know the prongs are controversial but it works for us and my dogs are happy. As a matter of fact when they hear the metal jingling it's mass hysteria happy time at my house.

jjennyb4

I used to walk two Rottweilers and a Pomeranian by myself.

PaulVan2

Yes, you can! Especially smaller dogs like you have.

Training your dogs is always best! And many trainers and professional dogwalkers will not like what I will say next as it is not PC.

Sometimes it's nearly impossible for the layperson to train 3 dogs to walk nicely together next to the handler. It could be a matter of lack of money for professional training, time, patience, perseverance, second helper, skills, etc. In this country there are 5.1 million households that have 3 or more dogs, and 12 million have 2 dogs. It's likely then that there are hundreds of thousands that have a team of 2 or 3 with al least one untrained or partially trained dog. That always means entanglements when walking them together. Training them one by one and then stepping up to walking them together is the best way but there will still be weeks of entanglements and maybe much longer. A dog may regress and the tangles start again.

My wife or I walk our 3 untrained 22lb cairn terriers every day with one person. When my daughter's 20 lb malkie is at our house I walk all 4 by myself. The tool is not a 3-way coupler but our own patent pending invention. It is a simple triangular 3-point handle, the UTurn or Uturner handle. 3-Way couplers with longer end leads will still entangle and when the coupler has short end leads the dogs are forced to walk side-by-side. In addition, with 2-way and 3-way couplers there is a main lead so the handler cannot easily direct each individual dog.

We use the handle every day and the beauty is that you, the handler, can untangle all entanglements while walking.
No other tool allows you to untangle within seconds while walking. You don't need a second walker so you can walk your dogs much more often. It's often hard to schedule 2 people for the same time. My wife and I love to help other dogowners walk their 3 dogs every day, like we are now able to do.
Please let me know what you think! :mad: :huh:

geebusuk

An untrained 22lb dog isn't a massive issue. 3 untrained 22lb dogs not too bad for most - I was able to handle a 210lb untrained St Bernarnd that had LOADS of energy.

Bigger the dog, more important it is to be trained.

If someone seems my 100lb dog bouncing towards them, or worse growling at another dog or a person, there's people running away and it's presumed I'm some evil dog-abusing-gangster
A dog a 1/5th the weight and it's kinda ignored.

I've been amused when walking my dog and the aforementioned Akita that is dog aggressive past a bloke that actually got spun around by one of his 15-30lb little white fluffy dogs, while I kept mine in decent control.
Definite loss of man points there - amused me .

In the end, I personally think dogs have a more fulfilling life if they get training - and certainly because he's trained mine gets a lot more attention from random people than he otherwise would, which he likes.