S/O Dog walking vs. dog meandering

[unsinkable]

How can we teach our dog (23 lb. JRT/beagle mix) that walks are walks and not sniffing opportunities?

 

Some days, we want to a nice fast paced walk and he (rightly so) wants to sniff, explore, rub himself :tongue_smilie: on every patch of grass.

 

Is it possible to distinguish a exercise walk from a sniffing/meandering/marking excursion?

[unsinkable]

Anyone?

 

:bigear:

[Ellie]

Cesar Millan does "the walk" with all of his dogs. If your local Blockbuster has the "Dog Whisperer" DVDs, those would be the best, especially Season 1. Of course, you'll be seeing whole episodes, with the walk being just one element of the dogs' rehabilitation, but you'll still learn stuff.

[Hockey Mom]

I use a pinch collar with my mastiff (and I used to use one with my labrador when she was younger). I teach the "heel" command, and expect their noses to be next to my knee when we walk. As soon as the nose starts to move away from my knee, I pop the leash to correct. If he walks correctly during the command, he is rewarded with a bacon bit and lots of praise.

 

My lab is elderly now, and no longer needs a pinch collar for the heel command. She would rather not go on walks at all, so we just go on "potty" walks now.

[Mejane]

We use a halti collar with our lab; it directs the dog's head where you want it to go. We also taught him to heel with treats. He walks very nicely now, even for the kids.

 

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Our dog is only allowed to sniff, roll around, etc when he is off the leash.

[Aubrey]

You mean...he wants to stop & smell the roses? Maybe he's trying to teach you to slow down...enjoy life...scratch that itch! :D :lol::lol:

[emubird]

When I see people running with their dogs, the dogs seem to be all business, loping along as if they think they're going somewhere. I don't know if it's wired into a dog's brain that moving fast means no stopping, or if the runners out there only try this with dogs that don't stop every 10 seconds.

 

When I've been nipped by dogs when out on my own walks, it's always by dogs who are walking. The running ones hardly notice me.

 

Yep, we do get dogs going after our ankles more than one might think. I always give dogs a wide berth, which makes some dog owners look at me weird, but I guess they don't have this problem because they've got their doggy guardian with them.

[smrtmama]

I'd be glad for a little more meandering and a little less freight train. ;)

[Impish]

I don't know how accurate it is, but I've heard that halti leads can end up injuring the dog's neck, so I would avoid those.

 

Other than that, the only thing I would suggest is to look at it as his walk, lol. He's doing what he wants :lol:

[hornblower]

beagles view life through their noses so it's normal for them to want to meander.

 

But you can teach a more 'we are trying to get someplace' business like walk two ways:

 

a) you can train a competition style heel behaviour. (boring as heck for the dog & requires a lot of attention from you)

 

or

 

b) you can teach a more modified loose leash but introduce the concept of what I call 'with me'. When dogs are 'with me' they're not in a competition heel, but they need to stay close. Your dogs reward for being with you is going to be the best reward that he can imagine: the chance to sniff.

 

 

How many steps do you know now he will walk a bit more briskly before wanting to slow down & sniff hither & yon? Is it three steps or 30 feet or 3 minutes? Whatever it is, pick a distance much shorter than that - I'd start with 1/2 or even a 1/3.

 

 

Start your brisk walk, using an energetic step, cheery voice 'with me' and pat your leg like you do when training a puppy to walk with you. When dog is walking near you roughly like you want him to be, get yourself really close to an area he'll want to sniff & say "GO SNIFF!" and let him do what he wants to do. Be patient and wait until you think he's pretty much exhausted that area, call him to you (I'd reward with a yummy treat here), start your happy brisk walk again, say y our cheery "With me! Good boy! What a good boy! With me!" & WAY BEFORE you think he's going to lose interest in being with you, again stop & let him "GO SNIFF!" with the full length of his leash.

 

You're actually using something called Premack here. It's about using a more probable behaviour (sniffing) to reinforce a less probable behaviour (walking quickly & ignoring all the smells).

 

 

 

This is a youtube of a trainer using Premack on dogs who want to fence fight (run along the fence line barking at the other site). She is constantly releasing them to GO do that activity but gradually, they spend more and more time focused on her instead. She's not asking them to focus on her at all - she rewards when they reorient & then releases them right away.

 

I like how she says in her description "It's very much a zen exercise for the human actually: in order to get the dog, you must release the dog. :)"

 

Harness the power of Premack. :D There are many situations where trainers will of a sudden say "HEY, couldn't I premack that?!" because it's such a nifty tool.

 

p.s.

(I'd also use a clicker & high reward treats (liverwurst, pepperoni, cheese etc) & reward heavily for walking briskly with you - like every few steps at first. I think you could skip this & try relying on just Premack. The problem might be that the nose is too strong on beagles. There's really not much left in their brain after the olfactory receptors are discounted LOL so you may find that the addition of stinky rewards from you for walking briskly + the Premack release to sniff the ground will give the fastest results.)

 

Happy training!

[Nature]

I just use a harness with my dog and I’ve taught him the “heel†command. I make sure I talk to him also and tell him what a good job he’s doing. When I first taught him, I would have him heel for a very short time (a minute or two) and then give him the release word (ok) and let him sniff and do his business. Over time, I increased the amount of time healing and less time sniffing. Now, he’s learned to heel and only sniff around when I give him the “ok†command.

 

How can we teach our dog (23 lb. JRT/beagle mix) that walks are walks and not sniffing opportunities?

 

 

Is it possible to distinguish a exercise walk from a sniffing/meandering/marking excursion?