Walking Tips for You and Your Dog

Walking Tips for You and Your Dog

[Music] hi everybody i’m katie i’m the behavior entraining lead at the animal humane society with the nice summer weather we’re all looking to get outside a little bit more so I’ve got some walking tips for you and your dog today one of the most frustrating things for a lot of folks coming in our doors is getting the dog to walk on a leash with a lot of stretch ins happening that’s we’re using something that can motivate your dog to stay near you and teaching them the expectations so our dogs are going to be dogs until we tell them what the rules are leashes are a very human thing it’s a very foreign thing to our dogs and they need to learn what that’s all about so that’s usually where we start what we try and work on is teaching the dog that the space right immediately next to their handler is the best place to be so using rewards like small bits of hot dog peanut butter on a spoon you know something that’s really motivating to the dog to help motivate them to stay close to the handler using a handful of treats like a magnet on the nose too can be very helpful the positive reinforcement the the rewards the praise the pets if that’s something they enjoy is super important to continue because if that stops they don’t know that they’re doing it right and they’re gonna decide to do something else to see if they can get it right so it kind of breaks down the learning process but in reward-based training it’s important to fade out those especially food rewards because going to a random reinforcement you know every other sit or every couple of steps you know fading out the food actually strengthens behavior so that’s a really important part of the process but it’s important that they always get wonderful feedback from us if you’ve got a particularly challenging dog some great tools to use would be a gentle leader or a freedom no pole harness I like to use those for dogs that are particularly bouncy they go from zero to 60 and half a second like some of our terrier breeds do those are great tools I like to share with people that dogs and humans have a reflex to pull in to pressure so when the dog is pulling on their leash they have pressure on the front of their neck or the front of their harness and they have this reflex to pull into it so you’re kind of working against that reflex which not a lot of people know about so that’s where using the freedom no-pull harness the general leader that can kind of take that other equation but you know when your dog pulls out on the leash feeling that pressure is a cue for you to stop and wait for them to come back to you or you know pat your leg and encourage them to come back to you before you move forward if you’ve got a dog that is dog reactive so they start barking and lunging at dogs or even people at quite a distance what they’re saying is they’re uncomfortable and they need space so the best thing to do is to go around a corner use a parked car if it’s safe to do so to create a visual barrier to decrease that stress and give the dog space as much as possible I want to watch the dog for making the right choice on their own and be ready to pay it we find that the learning is much more permanent it’s faster when the dog is making the choices on their own and it tends to create a dog that is a problem solver and willing to try things so as much as possible I watch for the dog to be making the right choices if I have to set that up which we do when the dogs are first learning it’s that reinforcement history if the dog is being rewarded over and over and over for the you know walking on a leash close by the handler that’s what they’re going to offer to do more often because it pays dogs do what works [Music] sniffing is a really really good activity that helps release anxiety and is a good mental workout for your dog so you may want to choose some times where your dog gets to take you for a walk and you just follow wherever they want to sniff as long as it’s safe to do that [Music] in conclusion remember those rewards are super important in the beginning when your dog is first learning something new you want to set them up for success minimize the distractions as much as possible in the beginning to help them be successful and remember if you go out in public remember where they’re at in their learning if you’re interested in going further in your dog’s training all of our information is available online at animal humane society org slash training prices schedules everything is online you can even register online you can also call our free behavior helpline at seven six three four eight nine two two one seven