Guest Post on Intellidogs

Hello!

Some of my readers may have found your way here through my guest post "10 tips to find a GREAT dog walker" on the Intellidogs website, and not know who I am, so I'd like to introduce myself.

I'm Linda Ward, a dog walker from Brentwood in Essex, and I've been doing this job (more like a vocation) since 2006. First unpaid as a foster mum for rescue, and walking kennelled greyhounds, then from 2008 as a professional dog walker. I usually blog about the dogs and cats I look after, but also include tips on dog & puppy care, training and advice.

Here are some of my favourite Diary of a Dog Walker posts:

• Dogs with Jobs - introducing my dogs and my thoughts on how dog walks work best
• Shocking truth about exercise - what I do with clients dogs while I've got them
• Safe travel - how to keep dogs safe when travelling
• How to teach your puppy to pull on the lead - prevention is better than cure!
• Games for the garden - Kong Ice Suprise and the Sandpit

I hope there's something there you find interesting!

If you didn't find your way from Intellidogs, go visit!

How to Teach your Dog to Pull on the Lead

Let your new puppy drag his new lead around behind him

To get your pup used to his new lead, clip it on and let him drag it around behind him. He'll soon learn that having a lead on doesn't restrict him in any way, and he can go where he likes. If it gets stuck on something, a good pull will set him free, or he can rely on his owner to release him.

Let people make a big fuss of your puppy while he's on a lead

Every time you take your new puppy out on the lead, (some) people will go gooey and mushy and want to make a fuss. Make sure they squeal and/or make silly noises and say hi to your puppy while they are standing just out of your puppy's reach. When your excited puppy launches himself at these exciting people, move forwards so he can reach them.

Buy a flexible/extending lead

Your dog will learn that to get to that interesting smell, other dog or person, all he has to do is lean into the lead, get that pressure on the collar and move forward, and he'll get where he wants to go with little or no difficulty.

Let your dog stop you to sniff everything and anything he fancies

This is a good one if you want your dog to pull in a sideways direction. When you're walking on a lead, let your dog drift to the side of the path to sniff something just out of reach, follow him aimlessly as he wanders from side to side. Let him cock his leg on every vertical surface he fancies.

Never let him sniff or investigate anything, ever, and never let him off the lead

This is the one you need if you want your dog to slam on the brakes (ie pull backwards). If you never let your dog run free off the lead, and never let him stop and enjoy the area he is walking in, he'll soon learn to throw his weight backwards, often sitting down, to force you to stop or drag him.

Always walk to really exciting places

Put your dog's lead on, and walk him to somewhere he loves, or drive to the car park, and lead walk him to the good bits. Never walk anywhere dull, such as your own front door, without going somewhere lovely first.

Make sure to really excite him

Get your lead out, and say something such as "Walkies!", "Who wants to go for a lovely walk?" and make sure your dog is leaping all over the place in excitment before you've even got the lead on. Then once it's on, carry on with the exciting talk and be sure he runs out of the front door, with you hanging on behind.

"How do you get your dog to do that?"

Whatever 'that' is, the answer is generally 'I painstakingly taught him'.

I was asked how I could make my dog stop walking when I told him. I was on my way to work, so I couldn't go through it, so here it is.

Not every training method works for every dog, but this is how I usually start, and may start tweaking what I'm doing if it's not sinking in. Also it can depend on whether their relationship with you is a good one, or if they like other dogs better, but try it and see.

There are three essentials every dog should know - stop doing that, stop moving and come back to me. Of these, stop moving is probably the most important, because if your dog manages to get himself on the edge of a cliff, or escapes and rushes across a road, a recall may not be appropriate. Each dog really must understand how to stop moving, the emergency stop.

If you go to a training class, this is usually taught with your dog facing towards you, but if he's off the lead on a walk, he will often be facing away from you as he's pottering about, or they are so used to obeying commands at your feet they will carry on moving until they get to you, and only then stop, which is not what you want.

It's reasonably simple. When you take your dog for a walk on the lead, every time you stop walking, say 'wait' (or whatever you choose to use). When you start moving again, use another word to say they can move - I use 'forwards'. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Stop lots of times, when you need to pick up poop, to have a drink of water, to stop and chat with someone, when you fancy stopping to take in the view, or rest halfway up a hill. Stop more times than you need to, every time.

The dogs soon pick it up - if you've got an under-exercised dog who is a maniac on the end of the lead you'll need to start giving him the right amount of exercise, or at least, don't start doing this until he's had some time to have a leg stretch. Once he seems to have got it, start doing it off the lead, and try to time your Waits until he'd have to stop, somewhere like a gate, or walk up to a fence, just to give him the extra help.

What you have to remember is, lots of practice, lots of times. If you forget your Forwards word, your dog will learn to stop walking when you do, then as soon as you move, he'll start walking again. If you are trying to reattach the lead, or pick him up, or otherwise do something to him, for instance he's carrying half a bush in his feathers, this really does defeat the object.





You could also try - just falling over...




You may wonder what relevence this has to you - I walk dogs in small groups of around 4 dogs. Last week we were walking through a country park when the rangers came through in their land rover - all four dogs were off the lead. 'Wait!' I called. They all stopped walking. Had they kept going, they could have ended up under the wheels, as they were too far for me to do anything physical. This week, I came round a corner in a different part of the park, to find an electric fence not 10 yards ahead. The wait command stopped the dogs from getting a nasty shock while I attached their leads and walked them carefully past it.

I also teach Wait at the Gate.

X things all Dogs Deserve to be Taught

There are certain things that I think all dogs deserve to be taught - I call it X because although I have three specifics in mind I may think of more later.

As I may have mentioned I'm not a 'dog trainer' in that I don't teach dog owners to train their dogs and don't have hundreds of dogs or training hours under my belt [At the time of writing I was not dog training - just over a year later, I'm proud to say that I am now a dog trainer!]. But I have trained more than the average dog owner, and as a dog walker these are the little things that make it so much easier to manage the dogs I walk every day.

My good friend Joe, who is a dog trainer, does remind me that many of these things work for me because I am persistent and consistent and rarely let the dogs off 'just this once'. Also I haven't had many working breeds to work with, so obviously my experience isn't as broad as it could be. I am working on this! But in the meantime, here we go...

Wait at the Gate - Pause at Doors

The wait command has many uses, but waiting for permission to cross doorways and gateways I think is a biggy. It has so many uses, and could possibly save your dog from running off and getting lost, or worse, rushing an open door straight onto a main road. I use this so the dogs wait quietly while I get them in and out of crates in the car, open unfamiliar doors with unfamiliar keys, check for anything unusual (or livestock) on the other sides of gates in the parks or countryside, open the door to the postie, and open the door to strangers.


The basics are that to a dog, an open door should not be an invitation to rush through it. I teach them to wait quietly while I open the door or gate, and while some people prefer the dog to wait for them to go first, I prefer the dog to go first. Once they've gone through, they turn to check with me before continuing - this way they wait before and after going through the door, so they have two chances to get things right.

Nutmeg is my star pupil, because she's really good at this - you can see the door opening a little more each photo and she's just sitting there. I even took her lead off (it's not just photoshopped out, she really is just quietly sitting, waiting) and once released to go through she turns round (sorry for the blurred face, she's very quick!) for permission to go off. She's such a star she did this once when I opened the door to a delivery man! She knew something was going on that was exciting, but still waited!

This has to be practiced constantly, if you forget to reinforce the training, and the rewards! the dog will soon learn to forget. Here's some shots of some other dogs doing the same exercise.

Benson, the large GD X Mastiff, has been used to using his weight to get what he wants, but he learned this really quickly too!


Fred and Beauty waiting at the gate of their crates to be allowed to get out and go for their walks..



Also Inky:

Training a Reliable Recall for your Dog

Recall is one of the most important things to teach dogs, but often it's seen as difficult to train. You can get by without it, but with it, life with your dog becomes a joy, even if he can't do anything else.

Make sure you adjust your dog's dinner if you use food as a reward. How long this takes depends on how long your dog might have been playing 'chase me' every time you try to catch him!

Begin at Home

Recall training, as with most training, starts in the home.

Regularly call your dog to you, as many times as possible, using a high-pitched and interesting tone of voice. Pick a word to use and stick to it, making sure all members of the family are happy to use it. If time is hard to find, try doing it when the adverts come on during your favourite telly programme, or if you watch soaps and serials, call every time someone has a drink, an argument, or a snog! Don't try calling him if he's doing something far more rewarding, wait until he's lying down, or looking a bit bored and needing some attention. You want to start with success.



Reward your dog every time he comes with a treat, a game, throwing a toy, or just a lot of love and attention. If at first he won't come, split his dinner into small amounts, and call him for his dinner. Wait until he's given up hope of any more and has wandered off, and call him for the next 'course', and so on. Once he's had his treat or other reward, send him away, again pick one word or short phrase and stick to it, make it flat and a bit dull. He won't know what it means at first, but if you ignore him once you've said it he'll get the point and wander off after a while. This word shouldn't be another command, so don't tell him to go and lie down, it's just to make him leave you - what he does once he's gone is up to him. He doesn't get a reward for leaving you, he should be reasonably happy to go, but leaving his owners will hopefully mean things get a bit less fun once you are out on a walk.

Once he's understood this new game and is nice and reliable, drop the treats or games to every other time, then one in three, then randomly until finally you are rewarding only the very best, super quickest returns - aim for the 'whiplash' effect where your dog's head swivels to you when you call no matter what he's doing – his body should be following!

In the Garden

Now is the time to move into the garden, where there are more distractions – be prepared to start from the very beginning if necessary, and treats should be back to every time at the beginning. It shouldn't take long to get his attention back to what it was indoors, but if it does, persevere. Some dogs are more distractable or just more independant that others, while others still have to spend some time learning that fun comes from being with people. Once his recall is good in the garden, leave some distractions about, his toys, perhaps ask another family member to lurk around the garden, even a family friend. If it goes well, get the other person to play with your dog and work on calling him back from there. Don't take that step too soon though, you want to set yourself and your dog up to suceed. If you have one, you can use a long line in the garden, to encourage your dog back to you to start with.



Don't drag him - if you have to drag him you have gone too far too soon. If you don't have a garden, see if you can find an unused tennis court - early in the morning can be a good time.

Out and About

Once you're feeling confident, take your dog out for some practise in public. Try not to think of this as 'a walk', but recall training with some walking about. That way you won't get so frustrated if you don't get anywhere, and if your dog is being really hard work and you are not getting anywhere you can come home.

The scariest time might be taking your dog off the lead in a public place for the first time. Try to find somewhere safe, away from roads, and quiet without too many distractions – a country park just before lunchtime on a Sunday is probably not going to give you the results you are looking for. Don't do this just after dinner either. You want your dog to come back for food, if nothing else! You can use your long line to start with if you feel you need it.

Take some high value treats or a toy your dog loves with you. If you can keep this toy ONLY for walks from now on this will help a great deal. 'Tune' him into it with some very short, exciting games that finish before he wants to stop, and you always get to keep the toy at the end of the game.



Don't take the long line off until you are successful on a regular basis. Some dogs may never be able to be let off lead, but the vast majority will be fine.

Take your dog's (short) lead off. Then walk in the opposite direction a short way. If properly prepared at home your dog should stay quite close to you, or he may decide to scamper off, but as you are in a safe area, don't panic. Don't chase him either. Or call, unless you think he really will come back, callling fruitlessly encourages him to stay away as he knows you are still with him. Run further away, or make sounds as if you are. Sit down, lie down. Make noises as if you've just found the most wonderful thing in the world, and his natural curiosity should bring him to you.

Don't try to catch him. Go away again. He'll think this is a wonderful new game and follow. If he comes close enough, give him a treat and tell him to go away, ideally before he's gone, but while he's going will do nearly as well. Repeat this a few times, making sure to send him away again each time, and then begin calling him back to you - when he is already on his way to start with. After a while you may find it difficult to get your dog to leave you (possibly unbelievable, but true).



Now is the time to make contact, a pat on the head, flap his ears, if you can, stroke his collar, or even grasp it briefly if you can. Send him away again. Your eventual aim is to be able to call him to you and put his lead on. Once you've done that, walk a few steps, take the lead off, and send him away. This will stop any silliness where the dog sees the lead come out and knows it means the end of the walk and won't come to you.

While you're walking, occasionally hide behind a tree. Your dog will wonder where you are. Give them a few seconds, and call them (you don't want them thinking you've gone home and trying to run off home by themselves so don't leave it too long). Try to vary your route, or suddenly turn and go back the way you came, without telling your dog. Give him a chance to realise you've changed direction (without obviously waiting for him) and he will learn to watch where you are going, rather than going his own sweet way.

If you leave the area by the same gate, or always end up at your car, do the same thing there if it's safe to do so – call the dog, send him away, call, send away, on lead, off lead, send away. If there is a distraction your dog will not leave, try to call before he gets there, or even before he's made one pawstep in that direction. Keep your eye out, and sometimes you can call before he even spots it. If you have to put him on a lead to walk him past the distraction, he should be quite happy with this by now because he will know there is off-lead time coming again.

And Finally

Hopefully by now you will have a dog you can trust to let off the lead. Be realistic - for some dogs there are distractions simply too great for them to ignore in favour of you alone. This is where your toy comes in, or you may just have to accept that you need to keep your dog on a lead for a time. As your dog grows older, or gets more used to coming back it might be that one day the conditioning to return to you will override any impulse of his own, so keep up the work. Once he's learnt this, he should have a solid, reliable recall. But there's no harm in recalling him for no particular reason during walks all through his life.