What to do when your dog is misbehaving at his walk?
Especially when they are young, and their breed is supposed to be energetic, a new dog owner has some serious problems.
The problem is not as important in the case of having a dog that is a small sized breed, but if you have chosen to have a big sized dog, then you are in for a significant test of your patience.
Everything is linked with your dog's age.
If our case is a puppy, then he/she has some huge amounts of energy to exlode, so taking him/her for a walk once or twice, in some cases even three times a day for a walk can be life saving for the rest hours of the day that he is in the house.
After the walk you will observe that he/she feels full, relaxed, ready to have a nap, drink water or eat if his/her hours of eating are after the walk. It depends how you have arranged it and when he/she is used to eat.
Dog's usually kind of relax of that enormous energy after the one year and a half of their life, maybe two, in some cases even three, depending of their breed.
So in those first years, we have to be pattient. This is the magic word, but not the only one.
If you have a big strong dog, patience is not enough to handle him/her. You have to bring along all of your dog psychology knowledge along with some good ol' instict to be able to have a descent walk with your beloved dog, and not dragging you around like you are his big toy.
I had multiple cases in my daily walks where i saw -usually older women- fall down on the street been dragged by the dog that they could't handle in the first place. Noone knows why they had chosen such a big dog that it's difficult to handle even for big stronger persons.
With Miles, the dog i rescued from the fires in 2018, i didn't realize that i would have such an issue when i first brought to him home as puppy.
As he was getting older and stronger, this guy was dragging me around like a muppet doll and i was feeling helpless and incapable to do anything about it. He just didn't listening to anything.
He had such an urge to go out and smell that whatever i was saying to him ot thought that i was ordering him wasn't working.
So i brought in the big weapons.
I brought a trainer, who he was also very surprised at first from his energy.
He even told me that after the first class, he was warming up to be able to handle him in his second class!
But he was for a surprise, because i was an obedient student and for a whole week i was doing the exersices he told me in the first class.
In the second class he saw a different dog. Much more calm, much more relaxed, ready to have a nrmal walk and not be the enjoybale moment of the afternoon of others that day !
I had realized even from the first class the the behavior of the dog comes first from me and then from him.
The ordinary life in the hiuse is what makes the dog be more relaxed in his walk.
A thing that you can accomplish with exersices.
Using treats and learning the basic obedience is fundamentaly important for your dog's behaviour outside the house.
Orders like "Sit", "Stay", "Come", "Hand" etc have very positive outcome in his behaviour in his walk.
There are more complicated exersices as time goes by, but for starters you can begin with those and see some significant difference.
But this is not enough of course.
Dogs understand people by their body language.
Since they are pack animals, coming from their ancester, the wolve, htis means that need a leader.
Usually when a dog runs off from you towards the grass for example it means that he has surpussed you.
He doesn't see you as his leader.
Dogs need a leader to be happy, it's in their nature.
This doesnt mean of course that you have to be rough or mean to your dog. The opposite actually.
It means that with the right guidance and behaviour your dog repsects and accepts you as his leader, so he is ready to follow you and protect you.
Make an experiment and when your dog is trying to run, just sit stable in front of him without saying anything, for a little while. You will see that he is going to relax, and stop trying to escape.
Of course there are many techniques that you can use, and we will talk about them in our future posts.
Another thing that it can work though, that many don't expect is the leash.
There are special leashes for good walking behaviour, that helps the dog have a much better collaboration with his owner during the walk.
One of those types is the Firestary Gentle Halter Dog Leader.
Many trainers use this to train their customer's dogs and they are experiencing some great results.
You can find it in https://www.firestray.com/products/firestray-gentle-halter-dog-leader?variant=32259351740519
Having a dog contains much of practicing yourself in how to communicate with your dog.
One can not stretch enough the importance of the well being of your dog but of yourself too.
The relationship is double sided. It's not only about your dog, but you have to feel happy in your walks too.
So, with some advise of a trainer and some reading, along with your best effort for understanding your dog needs and generally his personality, you can expect some postive resutls, that of course don't thinkthat they will come overnight.
It takes time for your dog to understand you and you your dog.
Be patient, willing and enjoy the process as much as you can, it's also fun!
"Achievement comes through persistence, patience, seeing life's obstacles as stepping stones to success." Byron Pulsifer
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