Exercising with my dog- it's not working!

joyfulchick · July 2021

Hi! When I walk with my dog, she pulls at first and wants to go so fast that it's a little like skipping a warm up. I'm ending up with calf cramps. We're having trouble too with off leash dogs coming at us on the sidewalk. Twice they've attacked my dog (super traumatic!) and I'm in the middle of it because my dog is leashed. If I walk by a fenced dog, mine is scared immediately of the barking and we're changing routes. Twice this week an unleashed German Shepherd left its owners side to come check us out and I'm so scared I'm yelling, "no! Go home!!!" I hardly want to walk mine. Suggestions for walking with the dog or the calf cramps?

Lietchi · July 2021

I can't give you any tips myself (I'm a cat person 😁), but I'm wondering if @wunderkindking can't give you any, I believe she's a dog trainer. If she sees this, I hope she can give some advice.

IllustriousBee · July 2021

I live in a very rural area, and tons of people like to just leave their dogs out with no leash or fence. It's super annoying, and it goes against county law, but I just do my best to avoid them. We live on 2.5 acres and I let my two small dogs out to potty on a long lead. They do their business and come back. I do like taking them on walks, but it means dealing with other dogs. I do have a bit of walking that I can do with them that avoids the other dogs, but it's not much. I definitely don't rely on that for exercise, but it is exercise for them since they're tiny dogs. Maybe you could try a park instead or just walking without your dog for your own exercise. I personally prefer to workout at a gym, but I know that's not an option for everyone. I mainly just wanted to express my shared opinion of people who let their dogs free roam. I hate it. It's not safe for the dogs, and it's a potential threat to others.

wunderkindking · July 2021

Lietchi wrote: »

I can't give you any tips myself (I'm a cat person 😁), but I'm wondering if @wunderkindking can't give you any, I believe she's a dog trainer. If she sees this, I hope she can give some advice.

Thanks for poking me.

There is. A lot going on here. Best actual advice I can give you via internet is to say that you can use a front clip harness (there are a few options, the ring the leash goes on is at the chest) or a freedom harness which has two attachment points to lessen the pulling, and to walk either very early or very late or in a different location and avoid other dogs.

More exposure to other dogs after being attacked is probably going to make the fear worse right now and if the fear is worse the pulling is worse and it's a problem all the way around. If it's not TOO bad yet you can just stuff food in front of your dogs face (ie: treats) and move quickly past fenced dogs but the lose ones worry me.

Otherwise I'd probably see a local trainer in person and tell them what the issues are and your goal is. This works better when you can see the dog and person and provide feedback to someone willing to commit to some homework and a few weeks. (leash stuff is super unnatural for dogs and takes a while to build - fear stuff is REALLY a thing that needs some careful work just like fear in humans - to avoid making it worse, and I don't want internet advice to make it worse)

Also do your warm up before you leash the dog either way so you're ready to take off at a decent pace.

IndyFitAgain · July 2021

First thing that came to mind when reading your post is that your dog has not been trained to walk on lead; she should walk at your pace, fast or slow. Training will also help give confidence again.

The same thing happened to my calf muscles and I'm still recovering. Once I'm recovered, I will start with light stretches, then move on to calf raises; here's one article that may help: https://www.verywellfit.com/how-to-do-calf-raises-4801090

Good luck, let me know how it goes!

spiriteagle99 · July 2021

Our dog, a golden retriever, loved everybody until he was attacked a couple of times out of the blue. Then he got fear aggressive with large dogs. He would pull and lunge, barking. We learned to wrap the leash around something, a tree or me, so that he wouldn't pull free or pull us to the ground. Over time, he became less fearful, but there were certain breeds he wouldn't tolerate. We did manage to keep control over him by teaching him to sit instead of lunge.

We had a neighbor's dog come out of its yard and attack our dog twice. I called the Dog Warden who talked to them and said that if it happened again, the dog would be put down. After that, they made sure the dog was tied up in the yard and couldn't get out. (He was going under the fence.) Can you call Animal Control in your area about the loose dogs?

If not, figure out which routes are likely to have loose dogs and which keep their dogs in the yards. Our area has a lot of dogs on e-collars, which work most of the time for most dogs, but not always. I know which streets to avoid and where I want to make sure I have mace in hand if I can't avoid them.

springlering62 · July 2021

I’m so sorry. We had an older guy who owned a very aggressive pit bull and a Heinz 57 who always followed the pit’s lead.

He walked these things on twenty, thirty foot ropes, and they would attack anything that moved, before he had a chance to react.

They attacked me and my sweet sweet dog and had us both on our backs while they went for his neck, and the guy just stood there and stared while my screaming husband tried to pull them off.

They also attacked a couple pushing an infant in a stroller, and we saw the pit grab a little chihuahua by the neck and fling it all the way across our pocket park. In front of the little girl who owned it and was out playing with it, dammit. That was heart breaking to watch.

My dog was traumatized, and so was I. We knew the man’s schedule and avoided walking when he did, and would always go out to look up and down the street and park we live on before we even went out.

The whole neighborhood literally high fived one another when he moved. He was just outside our neighborhood, so we couldn’t put the HOA on him, and animal control never followed up on any of the multitude of reports, “because he wouldn’t come to the door”. His house is still known as “Pit Bull Guy’s” house.

I absolutely feel your frustration.

kshama2001 · July 2021

I can address the pulling because we rescued a large husky who had never been trained on a leash and pulled like, well, a dog bred to pull heavy loads

I conveyed that we were not going to walk if he was going to pull. He pulled - I stopped. Then I'd try again until he pulled again and I stopped again. He learned that he wasn't going anywhere if he was going to pull. Our initial "walks" were not focused on walking but training. It took a while before he was great on a leash, but eventually he was The Best Dog in the World.

I walked him a half mile in the AM and longer at sunset. My (now ex) boyfriend had him during the day. He took him to dog park at least once per day. That helped him burn off some excess energy, and was necessary for our dog, an adult working dog breed with not a drop of training before we got him.

Dog park might also help both of you with the fear. I know I'm leery of strange dogs, and dog park helped me with that. Our dog was not socialized to other dogs, and dog park helped him with that.

I watched a lot of Dog Whisperer / Cesar Milan back then but cannot find any videos on point right now, except for the part about burning off excitement.

Now that I've found this video I remember the part about practicing changing directions, which this guy does to build engagement, but it also short-circuited the pulling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU1Kz7NWrWc

The "I'm in charge of this walk" attitude was something I had to work at. My ex, on the other hand, had no problem with that, LOL.

Zoomie402 · July 2021

I have a smaller dog than yours, a corgi, but he HATED learned to be on a leash. I got a harness with a chest clip to help with the pulling, as well as one of those leashes where you control how far they can go. I worked with a friend who is a trainer. I was given a snack pouch and made my boy walk next to me, periodically handing him treats as we went. It took some time, but it helped!

NorthCascades · July 2021

I don't have any useful advice, but if misery loves company, I'll tell you about walking my cat. He gets super excited, sometimes he manages to slip out the door when I'm not trying to take him. He basically just wants to walk back and forth around the parking lot for 20 minutes, then sit on the fence while I ask him what he sees and if it's birds.

sveltey · July 2021

I have similar issues with my dog pulling ( I use a gentle leader to reduce that) and she also likes to stop and sniff at everything, so walking her for MY fitness wasn’t working. I decided to walk her for her needs, and I use an elliptical machine for MY needs. This turned out to be a win-win. I look forward to a medium level walk with my dog (my heart rate never goes above 75) and I also look forward to working out on my elliptical where my heart rate gets up to 160. Both activities are enjoyable.

kshama2001 · July 2021

NorthCascades wrote: »

I don't have any useful advice, but if misery loves company, I'll tell you about walking my cat. He gets super excited, sometimes he manages to slip out the door when I'm not trying to take him. He basically just wants to walk back and forth around the parking lot for 20 minutes, then sit on the fence while I ask him what he sees and if it's birds.

Oddly, our cat will do a walk walk on the leash in the woods, but this time of year we stick to the street, and he just wants to poke around and flop.

wunderkindking · July 2021

sveltey wrote: »

I have similar issues with my dog pulling ( I use a gentle leader to reduce that) and she also likes to stop and sniff at everything, so walking her for MY fitness wasn’t working. I decided to walk her for her needs, and I use an elliptical machine for MY needs. This turned out to be a win-win. I look forward to a medium level walk with my dog (my heart rate never goes above 75) and I also look forward to working out on my elliptical where my heart rate gets up to 160. Both activities are enjoyable.

Okay I am going to say something.

I even got out of a hot bath to say it because it's a big thing:

This. Is. So. Important. Walk on the leash walking skills, but also acknowledge that the dog also has needs to do dog things sometimes and you are responsible for seeing those needs are met. Lots of sniffing is so calming for dogs. It is basically yoga for dogs. Its mentally stimulating, enriching and just plain good for them. Make that happen. You can use different gear from actually teaching loose leash walking (I use a ruffwear harness for sniff-y walks). If walks aren't safe and you can't find another location throw a handful of their food into the grass in your yard. If you don't have a yard, use a snuffle matt (google with inform you) or hiding some kibbles around the house and make a game of finding it..

The dog also needs exercise and training, yeah, and... you may need to meet the exercise need before you get far with the leash training, but that's a whole lot more complicated. Let the dog's sniff sometimes. Have a walk and a wander to follow their nose or - just something to get them sniffing.

My dogs are really pretty well trained and have titles to prove it. They also get daily time to wander around directionless with their noses to the ground.

(Also a human paced, head up, walk on a leash is not much in the way of physical exercise for most young, healthy, dogs. Sniffing can be pretty mentally stimulating, more interesting and tends to be more effective for making them tired, too.)

Maxxitt · July 2021

Walking a reactive dog is a lot of work. I've been working hard with mine for the past few months (we moved downtown and there are literally dozens of dogs on every walk and I no longer have a back yard for him to relieve himself so we are walking multiple times a day). He's gotten much better, but is not yet to the point where he can manage to keep from completely losing his mind with close encounters. Basically the strategy has been to treat him as soon as he notices a dog and keep treating him until the dog has passed, keep myself and my voice calm, reverse direction if necessary, and try to stay far enough away so that he is never overwhelmed, but just "whelmed" enough lol to build some tolerance. So at this point there can be a dog across the street, or a half block in front of him, and he will notice, dance a little, but keep his wits about him. He gets a short walk in the AM, a looong walk mid-day where there are fewer dogs and where he gets to sniff around and explore, a short walk late afternoon and a longer one in the evening that is part business trip and part rabbit spotting. I've noted which areas seem to have owners that let their dogs roam off leash and we just don't go there at all. For pulling, using the pull=stop and changing direction methods have helped a lot, as has a front-clip harness.

The other part is that I stopped trying to achieve "exercise" for me with dog walks. He truly needs to stop, stare, sniff, explore, check his pee-mail. We're covering about 5 miles a day now, meandering about. Not too aerobic for either of us but quite satisfying. He goes two full days a week to doggy day care where he gets pretty exhausted

Megan_smartiepants1970 · July 2021

Here are my 2 babies ....Dakota the German Shepherd and Aspen the Husky (she is my walking partner along with my daughter ....we walked 10 miles today because a German Shepherd came out of nowhere so we walked another route today ....My German Shepherd isn't able to walk long due to his hips

OnceAndFutureAthlete · July 2021

I can't address the off-leash dogs other than to say, sorry, that sucks.
My JRT (on leash always, they're notorious bolters) was mauled by a Mastiff (off leash) a couple years ago and it was super traumatic for the both of us.

For the pacing/pulling, I walk my dog with a long (20') extending leash when it's an exercise walk. This allows me to keep a pretty steady walking pace, but allows my dog some leeway to stop and sniff and do doggie things. I don't let her get too far ahead - keep my thumb on the button - and I reel her in when we cross a street or anyone else is nearby (not often, fortunately). It's probably breaking all kinds of training rules, but it works for us. Not sure if this is something you could try.

Exercising with my dog- it's not working!

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