Walking with two reactive dogs isn’t easy. Sampson reacts to everything. He sees a person he wants to greet them. He sees a dog he wants to greet them. He sees a car parked on the side of the road and he wants to look inside it to see if there is a person or a dog that he can greet.
Delilah reacts differently. Mostly I find her reacting to dogs who are reacting. It also depends on the proximity of the dog. For instance a dog far off in their back yard who is barking their head off is easy to walk past. A dog who is right at the front of the yard, is not as easy.
I’ve been working on different things with the dogs. For one I’ve been using “Look” to distract them, when they look to me I treat them, and keep pulling out the treats as we walk past the distraction.
Truthfully Delilah’s far easier to distract with a treat than Sampson is, but this past weekend I decided to add something new in. Two or three times per walk I “Heel” the dogs. I say “Heel”, shorten both their leashes and with one on either side of me walk past a house. Once past the house I treat them both and release them to go about their sniffing business.
So far we have only “Heeled” past people working outside, but having both dogs focused on me has made me a feel a little more comfortable and made our walks a bit more enjoyable for me.
So much so that I can enjoy a bit of the scenery.
A few years back we had a heavy snowfall at the end of October. Some people call it “Snowtober” while others called it “Frankenstorm”. Regardless what we called it, the snowstorm dumped lots of heavy, wet snow and caught many of our trees still with lots of leaves. The heavy, wet snow on the leaves brought down so many trees, and left most of our area without power for a week to ten days. In fact, the area was declared a disaster zone.
Since that storm, I’ve been very observant of the trees and their leaves. The trees held on to their leaves quite late this year.
Even now, some of the trees are hanging on to their leaves.
In general I’ve been watching the Japanese maples. I was wondering when they’d be dropping their leaves.
Finally, yesterday I was rewarded.
The red of the leaves is a different shade of red than the tradition maples.
The Japanese maples leave a beautiful red carpet wherever they fall.
Mixed with other leaves, the Japanese Maple beckoned me to take a closer look.
So I did.
The leaf reminded me of a beautiful flower.
How do you enjoy your walks? Do you dogs behave enough for you to enjoy the scenery?
Sampson just loves everyone! So sweet. As I have said before, Gus is like Delilah on walks and reacts to the barking, lunging dogs. I love your idea of heel and treating past the house when they walk nicely. I am definetly going to try that. I’ve done something similar, by shortening his leash and quietly talking to him as we walk past the “offending” animal. I praise and pet him, but will try the command and the treat. Sounds good! Thanks
Those leaves are stunning. My favorite time f the year.
Gus’ Mom
Mom has nothing to do EXCEPT enjoy the scenery. I am SO SLOW walking and sniffing and sniffing and sniffing and sightseeing and staring at the air. Sometimes, when I’m finished doing business, she brings me into the street where there are only car smells so we can make some distance. What’s her hurry, anyway??
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Luckily, I do a lot of walking BD out in the country where he can be off lead and so I can enjoy the moment, being with him and the beautiful countryside. Mity is just such a little star I don’t need to worry about him reacting to anything, so again I can just focus on being in the moment with him!!
We well remember your FRANKENSNOW.
It is so good that your walks are getting easier. BRAVO to ALL of you.
If I keep the dogs on a leash, I can enjoy my walk. Otherwise I am calling to them to catch up, slow down, stop chasing the birds and squirrels…..You get the idea.
We have a huge water oak outside our back-porch door. It’s still holding onto some of its leaves but has shed many more. Years ago, my Mom had planted a Japanese maple next to our driveway. I don’t know if it’s still there or not … the people who bought the house made a lot of changes around the yard. At the park, I use “with me” instead of “heel”. Just personal preference. And that way I can enjoy a bit of nature while I’m relaxed.
Funny for you to mention Japanese maples. We just got back from our rainy walk and even in the grey day, those red maple leaves really popped.
I’ve also found bringing Honey to my side helpful. I tell her “with me” when I need her close and “go sniff” when she can move ahead. It does make a walk more pleasant when our dogs cooperate with us being able to stay by our side.
Good on Sampson and Delilah for learning such an important skill.
Mom enjoys seeing what is going on around wherever we are walking but she spends a big part of her time looking for wabbits and squirrels so we don’t see them first and pull her over!
It must be hard to walk two reactive pups! Rita sounds a lot like Delilah. She only reacts to certain dogs, mostly the reactive ones that get too close. If there’s no other reactive dogs around, I get to enjoy the scenery! We are also working on look, and I started carrying turkey hotdogs! Beautiful pics of those leaves!
I get to enjoy the scenery, because I’m not brave enough to walk more than one of my crazy dogs at a time! LOL
How pretty. Trees here still have some leaves, but not for long I suspect. At the cabin…nada and I think they are getting some significant snow.
Beautiful leaves, I just love leaves.