Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Spice Up Your Walk – Walk Your Dog Week

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Way back before Sampson tore his ACL I walked the dogs once a day for about 35 minutes or so. On the weekends we’d often walk twice that amount of time. For us, it’s not about the distance, it’s about the time.

Once he tore his ACL that all went out the window. Recovery from the surgery required three smaller walks per day. Initially they were only for five minutes each, but eventually we worked our way back up. Of course, five minutes wasn’t enough for the D-Dog, so it took some juggling on my part, but we managed.

The dogs liked having two walks per day and they got used to going out, so now we walk twice per day, every day.

When I heard about Walk Your Dog week, I knew it would be something we could easily do because we are already doing it.

I work full-time (as I’m sure many of you do as well) and squeezing in almost an hour of walks a day can be hard. Because of time limitations, we sometimes have to be creative. I don’t have the time to load the dogs in the car and drive some where to give them a different place to walk. But walking the same path, day in and day out can get boring.

I thought I’d share a couple of ways to spice up your dog’s walk to help change things up.

I mean, you wouldn’t want to travel the same path, twice a day every day for your entire life would you?

If your walking area is limited, you can try leaving a few minutes earlier or later, or even walking at a different time of day. First thing in the morning gives your dogs all the smells of the night animals, while later in the day will give them the smells of other dogs and people.

If route options are limited, try going in the opposite direction of where you usually start. We always walk on the side of the street facing oncoming traffic, so when I switch direction, we are on the opposite side of the street, which means there are different things to investigate.

Bring some treats with you and throw them ahead of you when your dog is not looking and let them use their nose to find something yummy. If your dog is not motivated by treats, bring their favorite toy along and stop along the way for a quick game of tug, or if room allows a bit of fetch.

Work on your obedience commands while out on your walk. When you stop to pick up poo, have your dog sit, stay or down, or as you’re walking along ask your dog to touch your hand, heel or watch you. Keep switching things up, keep it interesting.

Those are some of our tips to spice up your dog’s walk and here are some of our favorite reasons to get out and walk.

  • Get the weight off.  If you’ve got a pup that’s getting a little thick around the middle, you’ll be doing them a favor by helping get that weight off. Extra weight puts stress on joints and organs and can really shorten your dog’s life.
  • Mobility. Keeping your dog active keeps their joints and muscles active as well. Active muscles and joints will help your dogs stay mobile as they age.
  • Bonding. The time we spend walking (and training) together, helps strengthen our bond.
  • Stimulation. Most dogs spend a portion of their day alone. Getting them out of the house where they have an opportunity to smell other dogs, encounter new people and experiences helps keep their mind active.
Hot on a trail.

Hot on a trail.

A physically and mentally stimulated dog is usually a pretty well-rounded, happy dog (and tired too). And a tired dog is a good dog. And a good dog makes for a happy owner.

Do you walk your dogs every day? Tell me what kinds of things you enjoy with walking your dog.

We’re joining our friends at Wag ‘N Woof Pets, Cascadian Nomads, and Dolly the Doxie for Dog Walking Week. Stop over and see what our hosts are up to.

Team Sampson – #MultiPetMania

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How do those of you with multiple pets manage your training?

Let me just say when you are working with a food motivated dog like Delilah, training two dogs is not easy.

The first time I took out the clicker I was determined to teach her high-five. Of course I knew nothing about shaping a behavior, I simply put the food and clicker in one hand and held up my other hand and said, “High-five.”

Delilah looked at my hand with the treat and focused on that. Sampson meanwhile was sitting on the sidelines observing my feeble attempts.

I tried again and again and all Delilah could focus on was the food in my hand. Finally Sampson’s patience was wearing thin (like mine wasn’t?). He got up, walked over, high-fived me, took the treat and went back to the sidelines.

Schooled bitch.

Delilah still didn’t get it.

I reached out to a positive trainer and asked, “What do you do when the dog is too focused on the treat?”

“Try using a treat of lesser value,” she responded.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her I was using a green bean.

What I learned from that experience was this: When you first start working with food and a food motivated dog, you need to let them get used to the idea of food/clicker before you actually start shaping the behavior you’re looking for.

Delilah is so siriusly food motivated, she will push Sampson aside in order to dive under the counter for a crumb.

Don’t get me wrong, Sampson has his moments as well, as can be seen in my “I heeled my dog with a chick pea” blooper below.

When I really want to work on a challenging task, I need to separate the dogs. Things like nosework in the house is easy, I put one dog in a room with a gate and work with the other dog and then swap them out.

Working on walking behaviors is a bit harder. After all, walking two dogs separately is twice the time, which I never seem to have of late.

When Sampson had his ACL injury last year, the dogs got separate walks as Sampson just couldn’t do the same distance as Delilah.

Delilah was highly reactive to dogs barking at us from their yards. When Sampson was on the DL Delilah and I focused on getting her past these yards while walking.  Before we began working on this skill Delilah was constantly trying to prove she was a bad ass dog that took no shit. Delilah’s philosophy was I’ll get you before you get me. You could see the change in her demeanor as she approached the yard. (Whoever said dogs don‘t remember, is full of shit. She remembers quite well, thankyouverymuch. Much better than some people I know.)

I worked very hard with her to stop being on such high alert and we were successful at it. We reached a point where she would look to me for treats instead of looking for trouble with another dog.

Sadly Sampson has still not learned this skill. He sees another dog or a person and he starts bouncing around like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.  Just Sunday he was ready to jump up on a parked car because he thought someone might be in there.

Because of this, I have to be on high alert.

I’ve come to know which homes have dogs and do my best not to be on the same side of the street as those dogs, especially if the dogs are in an e-fence. There are a couple of dogs contained by these fences that love to charge to the edge of their yard, causing me to just about shit my pants and my dogs to jump and lunge.

It’s easier to cross the street when we approach these houses. The dogs have learned when we cross and it’s almost automatic. It doesn’t stop Sampson from acting the fool, but it helps me maintain a semblance of control.

The things dogs see

Do you see what I see?

I don’t know about you, but when I’m walking my dogs, I talk to them. Which is how I get some crazy commands.

A couple of weeks ago Sampson started his schtick and I don’t know why but “Team Sampson” came out of my mouth. And he looked at me and I said,”Come on, Team Sampson, we got this. Look at me, watch me, we got this. I’ve got cookies.” Once we were past the distraction the dogs got rewarded.

And that’s how Team Sampson was born.

Being watchful allows me to start the “Team Sampson” routine before he starts acting up, it prevents me from looking like a complete buffoon.

Which is how I found myself with Sampson bucking like a bronco this past weekend. And as I focused on “Team Sampson” I realized that Team Delilah knew the routine and was dancing along beside me, like a dream on a leash.

Now I just have to find the time to walk them individually so we can work on walking past dogs who are walking past us.

2 Crazy Dogs

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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.

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 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.

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.

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?

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