Dog Walking Considerations

I’ve been taking my youngest three girls on different types of walks lately, we’ve been going places which are more heavily populated by people and other dogs and it’s made me think about the skills my girls and I need to have to have to be able to navigate these environments without any issues.

 

Beach walks, great fun apart from the balls!!!

Summer the Flatcoat loves chasing balls, not just her own ball, but any ball she might see.

This makes walking in a big open space with dog owners throwing balls at every turn pretty challenging.

To prevent her from chasing other dog's balls I;

• make sure she has her own ball to play with and chase so she’s less bothered about other dog’s balls
• aim to keep her in close proximity to me when she’s off lead
• if she starts to move towards a ball I will call her back to me or use her 'leave' cue
  
• I might pop her on lead when there’s just too much ball chasing happening (I don’t want to be constantly calling her back over to me or to leave it)

 

Sometimes she does get hold of another dog’s ball, usually because it’s been thrown right into our path. So I ask Summer to bring it to me and let go (yey for retrieve training!). She then gets her own ball and we return the ball to the owner while making a quick getaway.

 When we’re throwing our own ball we make sure it’s thrown away from the direction of other people and dogs, usually into the sea. If a dog is coming towards us the ball is quickly put away.

 

Narrow paths  = spaniel trip hazards

My two youngest dogs are busy working cocker spaniels, so they love running around in the undergrowth, and while they are usually minding their own business, I can’t always predict when they might pop out of a bush and run across the path.

This means that if people are walking towards or past us I need to be mindful of where my girls are and have a strategy to prevent them from causing an accident (I have tripped over them many times!)

•  If I want to keep walking I’ll pop the girls on their leads or ask them to walk beside me off lead past the person.  
• Sometimes it’s easier if I ask them to move off the path and wait until the person passes.

We do get caught out sometimes,  if a bike is coming from behind and hasn’t seen the dogs, I might not get a warning and I need to act quickly so the girls don’t dart in front of the bike.

In this situation, I will either use my stop whistle (when they hear this they sit and stay until released) or whistle recall (they run back to me quickly), depending on which is the safest or quickest option at the time.

 

Passing other dogs

If I see another owner has their dog on lead I’ll pop my girls on lead too, there’s probably a good reason the owner has their dog on lead and they might not appreciate three excitable dogs coming into their space off lead.   

If the owner moves off the path with their dog and keeps them close, I take that as a sign to give them some extra space. I’ll move my dogs to the side furthest from the other dog,  keeping them close and giving the other dog as much space as the environment allows.

 

Our main walking routes have recently changed as we’re trying to avoid dreaded grass seeds (Quinn got one in her eye last year – stay safe!) and hundreds of young pheasants which have been released nearby.

 

If any of the above is familiar to you and you’d like some help with teaching your dog specific skills, let us know we might be able to help info@wellconnectedcanine.co.uk

 

Happy dog walking

 

Clare..plus Summer, Quest and Quinn