A few weeks ago I started taking a morning walk with Freighter.
I have a few goals for our walks:
- Get some exercise.
- Work with Freighter so that he walks with a loose leash at heel.
- Work on his sit command.
During field training, he spends a lot of time walking off leash, but he also needs to understand how to correctly walk when he is on a leash. Because these walks are also training walks, I make sure to air Freighter before we start. I want him to stay at heel so he isn’t allowed to sniff or go potty and he needs to stay in the correct position at all times.
If he starts to surge ahead, I simply turn and start walking in the opposite direction until he falls back into heel. This is a technique we saw demonstrated at the Bill Hillmann seminar and I thought it would work for Freighter and walking on lead. I don’t want to be constantly repeating commands or yanking on him, but I want him to understand that he can’t pull if he sees someone else walking or a squirrel or bird or he smells something interesting.
We hope that practicing walking on lead will translate into a better behaved dog coming to the line at a test. We all know that Freighter’s line manners could be much better.
For the first week or so, we really didn’t see anybody out on our walks and that was OK because Freighter was just excited to get out so we did a lot of reversing direction. My husband is much taller than I am so the dogs are used to walking at a faster pace. The first week, I purposefully walked at a slower pace so that Freighter would also have to slow down. I have been speeding up a bit each time he masters a slower speed.
He is really doing a great job, but as every dog walker knows, distractions can cause even the most obedient dog to lose its mind. We have had a small dog charge across the street at us, seen squirrels and birds doing squirrel and bird things, had to pass other walkers, and dealt with a super loud street sweeper.
All great distractions. Normally I just continue walking, or in the case of the charging dog, I put Freighter in a sit and told the person to get their dog (grr).
Don’t get me wrong, I welcome most distractions because the idea is for Freighter to understand that heel means walk at my side no matter what else is going on, (say ducks being launched at a test), and sit means don’t move until you are released.
Speaking of sitting until released, Freighter surprised me one day on our walk. I was messing with the camera on my phone so I put him in a sit and when I finished I started to walk but forgot to give him a release. I use “heel” for my release. He just sat there and would not move until I walked back and gave him a command. I know my husband has been really working this with him so good job.
I took a short video of the two of us walking and so you can see what I mean by reversing direction. I have to say it is really hard to take pictures or video and walk at the same time. At least it is for me. 🙂
If the video won’t play try here.
I will admit that I am a fair weather walker though. If it is raining or looks like it might storm, we are not walking which is a disappointment to Freighter because he really enjoys them.
This weekend we have lots of training planned. Hope you have a nice weekend too.
We are joining the Fit Dog Friday blog hop hosted by Slimdoggy, Peggy’s Pet Place, To Dog with Love.
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I saw it too :o) I’m not sure if someone could hold me on the leash in front of a squirrel…
Free at last! Even on a leash walking provides all means of training. With two dogs, and narrow sidewalks, the older sets the pace. If we are in the park and see other “unknown” dogs headed our way, we move the pups off the towpath, into a sit and allow the other dogs to pass. As time progressed we had two civilized Chessies who were able to participate in a dog walk for cancer, without any incidents. And that was a pack of hounds! Not all so well behaved. It is the daily reinforcement.
Macha would go to the door, look at the rain and say, not a day for a walk! Your perfect companion.
Happy cool training! Happy Father’s Fay to Jim!
LOL Storm is not fond of walking in the rain either. Think they are related? 😉
In our neighborhood, the deer are just as distracting as the squirrels. And I, too, welcome the distractions so we can practice walking and heeling.
–Wags (and purrs) from Life with Dogs and Cats
We tried the reversing technique ages ago and it never worked for us. Lucky for us the squirrels are in the park and not on the road. Peeps would have a dislocated shoulder. Have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
Hey, a little rain never hurt anyone – especially a water dog! Our trainer taught us the same reverse direction trick and I have to say it worked like a charm with Jack – he is a great loose leash walker now. Doesn’t work with Maggie – she doesn’t forge ahead, she lags behind…
Thanks for joining the Hop!
Wow, Freighter’s doing a great job! I try to work on this with Rocco too and I need to do it even more! We don’t always get very far on those walks though. Seems we’re going in the reverse direction more than we’re going forward! So many of the same distractions in our neighborhood. Happy FitDog and loose leash walking Friday!
Just wondering if we can bring Bailie to you for heel training? She does pretty well with Mom and her alone, but any distractions, or if I am around and it is all out the window. Mom learned the turn and go the other way thing in Germany and it worked well for Katie, but Bailie isn’t phased by it at this point. I was never really on a leash much until I was about 9 mo old but I was never a puller.
Good job Freighter! Woooooowooooooo!
I would say all in all, Freighter gets an A. After all he did sit until you gave him the command at least once. O.K., well maybe an A-! Love you Freighter.
Looks like some good walking to us sweet Freighter. Yep, we saw that little squirrel they love making distractions. lol Hugs and nose kisses
Mr. N is actually pretty good with squirrels. Other dogs? Ugh. He goes crazy.
Wow! Freighter’s doing great! Another thing that worked really for us when we were first starting our reactive dog training was a variation of “Find it” that we use in noseworks. I toss a treat out ahead of us (as long as no cars are in sight or we aren’t nearing part of the sidewalk that goes over a ditch) and tell Bar to find it. She dashes after it, but then she’s so excited to see when another treat will get tossed that she’s right back beside me, heeling nicely, and making eye contact. It’s our go to strategy after a major distraction–like an off-leash dog charging at us–when I need to get her focus back on me. After I toss 3 or 4 treats, she’s focused and able to heel again (and it makes the training extra fun for her).
Setting goal was a great idea
Oh, I might have to try that technique with Luke. It sounds like Freighter is coming along anyway. It looks like it takes a lot of patience on your part though, so I hope I can stick with it! I’m mostly a fair weather walker too….though I keep telling myself a little rain won’t hurt us. I’ve been out occasionally if it’s just lightly raining but for the most part I avoid it too.
Sounds like some great morning training sessions. And what a smartie for not moving until told. He obviously would fare well at “Simon Says.” 🙂
Uh-oh…our person played the video without muting the sound and all of sudden three dogs were charging around the house looking for the dog wearing the tags 😉
Great job with Frieghter! Veruca and I use the turn around in the other direction technique also when leash walking. It works pretty good. Chipmunks, Squirrels, and Deer are our distractions. Veruca has gotten really good at coming to my side when we hear a car coming down the road.
Hi Y’all!
Good boy Freighter! I heel perfectly when asked if I’m off leash, which is most of the time.
However, on leash my Human has to do that reversal thingy all the time. My Human Papa gets annoyed if they are trying to walk in a town park. I’ll heel for a bit, then start trying to hurry. My Human tried the head halter but I even have that whipped too. Oh it’s so much FUN!!!
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Sounds like a good plan–Silas had to settle down a lot before reversing directions meant anything to him. He just thought it was a race from the end of the leah on one side to the end of the leash on the other side. I’m glad Freighter doesn’t think that.
That technique works well with Huxley and his very distracted leash pulling. I don’t expect a formal heel when we are on a neighborhood walk (but our obedience heel requires an excellent “watch” which is hard to keep up on bump in the sidewalk/low tree branch ground.)
Ooops! I was also going to say that Freighters excellent sit until release made me laugh because my boys do that all the time… I just move on and forget to release them and they are like “uh, is this a test or are you forgetting something?” 🙂
Good boy frieghter!
Walking and taking pictures is super tough! I hardly have any sidewalk shots of Elka.
Great job. When I first started that turning around with Delilah it seemed like I’d take two steps and have to turn around, but she is getting so much better. There are actually times where I drape the end of her leash loosely across my neck and she walks calmly beside me. But that isn’t something I’d take a chance on doing all the time! LOL
Good Freighter! Donna is generally doesn’t pant on walks, so I’m always amused on days when somehow she gets more excited by I don’t know what and pants like Freighter in the video.
I notice a change in our guys when they’re walked, it’s like they have to “get out of the house” from being cooped up. As you pointed out, it’s a good time for a little obedience and it also creates a stronger bond between you.