[3doglady]

Ok, so I don't enforce a great deal of obedience on our walks. I walk the 3 together, to save time and because they enjoy it more. I call them 'go sniff' walks. Some days it's good and relaxing, other days not so much (like today). But.....in the end, it's my fault because I chose to let them be, well......dogs

So today was not so good for me and went like this:

3 dogs varying ages, sizes and personalities. Leann (my Lab) just moves forward and sniffs the occasional bush, tree, plant etc. Pebbles (my E setter) is not walking, she's hunting! She's looking for rabbits and gets VERY excited at the prospect of finding one. She knows who's lawn they will be on and looks forward to getting there with great anticipation.

She looks to the left, then darts across the sidewalk to the right. Crosses 2 dogs, tangles the leashes. Leann and Galaxy are sniffing something interesting on the ground. Pebbs realizes there is a scent and dashed underneath plowing under Leann's legs and knocking Galaxy over.

We stop, I breathe deep, untangle the leashes and start up. Leann is ahead, (in my right hand I'm holding my lab's leash and my 12 year old, smallish dog Galaxy's leash). Galaxy stops to pee, gets dragged a few inches by Leann's leash. I tell Leann to wait, Leann stops to wait. Galaxy finishes. We all move ahead.

Leann finds a bush scent and surges ahead. Galaxy stops to poop and gets dragged a few inches. I tell Leann to wait. She stops. Galaxy finishes. I move all the leashes to my left hand and dig out my bag. The dogs wait patiently. I clean up. Pebbles is staring, looking for rabbits.

I give the command to go forward. Leann forges ahead. Pebbs sees a rabbit and darts to the other side tangling leashes and my feet. Galaxy wants to eat the grass. "Wait". Untangle. Move forward. Pebbles sees another rabbit. Galaxy sees a trash can and pulls towards it. No, wait a minute. she has to pee again. Gets dragged a few inches. Pebbs darts over cause she caught a scent. Plows Galaxy over.

Stop. Untangle, move forward. Someone walking their dog ahead, off leash. Cross the street. Me commanding them to move forward. (Telling Leann to "avert"). Leann looks away, Galaxy stares at the dog. Pebbles is looking for rabbits/ Galaxy wants to eat grass. Neighbor comes out. Greets Leann. Leann is thrilled to greet a human. Pebbs catches a whiff, darts under Leann. Stops under her. Leann's back feet are in the air. Pebbs sniffing the ground. Galaxy has to pee.

Untangle leashes. Get to the house. They see the house and begin to move at a snail's pace. They stop in front of the door. No one wants to go in. They beg to go again.

Sigh.....

What was your walk like today?

 

[hargyle]

WOW! you are skilled in patience! I only have one puppy and I was ready to give up today.
Not only was it cold and raining but I thought it would be a good idea to take Loki with me to campus to pick up my diploma, and get him some socialization on campus.

Let him out of the car - DARTS for the squirrel. Loki leave it! sits in the middle of the parking lot. take him over to the grass so he can do this thing ... not once. not twice. but 2 micropoops! First time. ok lets find a garbage can... herm. none around. Well Ill just double bag and leave it in the car with him I'll only be gone a few minutes.

BAD idea ... car stinks up ( learning experience for sure! ). Loki is sniffing and trying to lick my papers. Loki leave it! Lets go for a walk.

First person to walk by BARK BARK BARK. Loki shhhhh! walk on. Goes straight for the huge group of highschool students on a tour. Gets lots of attention. Ok now its time to do some learnin! Sit. Stay.... good. move on. Sit. Down. Stay.... good.

30 min later ... ok I'm cold lets go to the car NOPE I MUST CHASE THIS PERSON! I WANT TO MEET HER! Loki makes a new friend.

Back to the car. Car as aired out ONLY for loki to fart *sigh*

Typing it out doesn't seem so bad! haha, but thinking about it makes me tired.

 

[3doglady]

Lol -Sounds like some of our earlier puppy days. They just love that attention, don't they? Not so much fun in the cold rain though.

 

[Crantastic]

Not bad today! When we went by a neighbor's house, he was outside with one of his three papillons -- a tiny black and white named Oreo. Talked papillons for a few minutes while Casper tried to stomp Oreo (I held him back -- he plays too rough). A few dogs barked at us from their yards as we passed their houses, and Casper really wanted to chase a kid on a scooter, but other than that it was uneventful.

 

[3labs]

At least your three dogs don't weigh 70-90 lbs each like mine! I looked like the dad in Marmaduke flying down the road hanging on to the leash before we bought a training program haha

Sidenote; Have you ever seen those retractable leashes with two leads that swivel so they never get tangled? I can't remember where I saw it but I wonder if they have a three lead model...

 

[3doglady]

I know the leashes you're talking about. That would work if the two in my right hand were getting tangled on their own. It's my crazy huntin' dartin, dashin setter, looking for those wascally wabbits! Her leash is in my left hand (the other 2 in my right) and she's crossing over and under, oblivious to anything but the scent she's following.

Three 70-90 lb dogs must be fun.

 

[3doglady]

Not bad today! When we went by a neighbor's house, he was outside with one of his three papillons -- a tiny black and white named Oreo. Talked papillons for a few minutes while Casper tried to stomp Oreo (I held him back -- he plays too rough). A few dogs barked at us from their yards as we passed their houses, and Casper really wanted to chase a kid on a scooter, but other than that it was uneventful.

Do you walk Crystal with Casper?

 

[hargyle]

Puppies are a pretty fantastic way to meet new people and he LOVES it. He will do anything to meet someone new!

OMGOODNESS 3 70-90lbs ... one thing I was told and I will hold on it - two hands- two dogs You guys have way more endurance that I ever will. haha. But it sounds like it could be fun some days!

 

[3labs]

Three big dogs can be a hassle when it comes to things like buying food, walks, sleeping in your own bed, cleaning the house, etc but they make up for it with 70-90 pounds of love and affection!

 

[Crantastic]

Do you walk Crystal with Casper?

Yeah, I do, but she pretty much ignores everything and walks along nicely (unless it's a dog that gets too close)!

 

[sscott87]

Geez, and I sometimes think my experiences have some rough moments. Jax has improved greatly on-leash, but when at the park and spotting a larger dog, he will squat down and end up in an all-out attempt to dig into the ground and drag me to the best of his ability. We've begun running almost daily, 3-4 miles throughout the neighborhoods, and the first half mile is often rough. He'll be leaping around, into me and around me, trying to chew on his leash or his harness, until he'll finally settle into the run and take the lead. It can be rather irritating.

Oh, but let him see a squirrel. THEN IT'S GAME ON and he'll try to dart any direction through anything.

 

[Tankstar]

I didnt walk them. But the boyfriend did. I assume its much like every day.

Dogs in the car.
dogs notice we are getting close to park.
dogs start whining in excitment.
pull in parking lot.
open door.
leash dogs. walk the 30 feet in to the park.
unleash dogs.
both go flying in to the woods as boyfriend starts his run.
whole time they are runing every which way chasing birds and such.
run a few KM's.
walk dwn to the creek for a swim and play.
go for another run.
another swim and play.
then back to the truck.

they get about 5-10kms of runs a day plus swimming and play with other dogs at the park.

They hardly are ever walked on a leash. that doesnt do much for them. I do walk them early AM on a leash if I have time before work. and after work. all depends on sun light hours.

 

[Greater Swiss]

Today Caeda was shockingly good, despite me being bad and only taking her for two short walks because I'm hurtin pretty bad today (thanks to yesterday's walk...which I'll get to).
First walk I took her on her short leash (her "practice" walk for being good on leash), and she stuck right by me, only tugged a little at some really awesome smells. She restrained herself well, and I'm proud of her for that! Second walk was her "go sniff" walk on the flexi. Again just like an angel, if I said "eh eh" she knew she was getting close to the end of the leash and either stopped moving forward and waited for me or doubled back towards me, exactly how I want her to be on the flexi or long line!

Yesterday's walk, not so good. About 20 feet away from the house, on the flexi, she caught a scent or something and bolted. I said eh eh, didn't even pause, she actually gained speed. All 65lbs hit the end of the flexi at full bolt and for the first time she truly took me off of my feet. I've got a neck/shoulder issue to begin with, so she flared me up a bit...to be honest I think she knows I'm hurtin so she was nice to me today

For those of you walking multiple dogs (especially the big ones!) WOW, I don't envy you! Actually big kudos for that I wouldn't have the patience or strength!

 

[Cheetah]

The walk with mine was quite peaceful today. I usually have Eevee and Shippo's leashes both in my one hand, and we have polite leash-walking exercises on the way to our destination, where they have to walk politely without pulling before I will let them have the rest of the length of the leash to walk on. When we get to the park (and this is out in the country where it's safe), I let them both off the leash and play fetch with them till they're tired. Then we walk around off-leash for a bit after they're tired, and leash up and walk home. Today I also took Shippo to the park by himself for some fun clicker training. It was an awesome session and I'm still happy about that. =)

 

[dagwall]

Jubel didn't get a walk yesterday as he was at daycare all day and got sick in the car on the way home, poor boy is still not feeling well. But I have the foster puppy so she needed a walk. I had just planned on a few laps around the neighborhood but ran into a neighbor walking their dog and ended up joining them for a walk in the park trails too.

Belle, the foster puppy, is fearful and barks her little head off at new dogs and people. She actually did much better about that as the walk progressed as we ran into about 4 different people with dogs. She doesn't have much concept of where her body is in relation to others though and constantly risks getting stepped on as she darts underfoot. She also followed too close to my neighbors dog wanting to sniff what he sniffed and came close to being peed on a few times, saved only by my noticing and pulling her away. If she was more than 9# she'd definitely need work on not pulling but I hardly even notice the force she makes with all her might trying to go forward faster.

 

[Vicky88]

Holly didn't get one today, she was sick this morning, and she is not feeling great, she has been sleeping all day and asking for even more fuss, so not like Holly to sleep this much, she is a BC after all, yesterday i had her and my 1 year old nephew, so we went for quite a long walk, down some hiking paths, then for a play in the park, so my nephew could have a walk around, Holly got some fuss from a man aswell so she was happy.

 

[Gally]

Anyone who has read my Fear of Fireworks thread will know night time walks with Gally have been fairly stressful lately. Luckily he still gets 2 to 3 good day time walks but him and I usually go for a good walk before bed to get the last of our energy out.

Our walk last night didn't go great but it ended on a high note.

So we head out the door, me with a pocket full of treats and Gally not looking very impressed by the idea of going outside. For a week or two after hearing fireworks he seems to generalize that all night time walking is not safe. So getting him out for even a pee can be difficult.

I don't want to force him to walk but I do want to show him that the night isn't a terrible thing. He puts on the breaks right outside the door, I lure him down the steps and over to one of his typical pee spots. He's a little nervous but with lots of treats and encouragement he makes it over to his spot and does his business. Yay small success.

He bolts for the door but I don't want to end the walk with him in this state of mind so I bring him around to the backyard and sit on the bench. We run through his tricks and he starts to calm down as I click and treat. I really just want to help build his confidence, get some positive associations going again and help him ignore the other sounds he might hear.

So eventually he's getting really into the training and he seems to be getting calmer and focused on me. I decide to walk him back to the building, hoping he wont go back into fear flight mode and pull the whole way. I ask him to heel and he walks nicely at my side all the way back! Yay another success.

This is basically how I rebuilt his confidence the first time we had an incident with fireworks so I hope it will work again this time. Hoping we can continue with successes.

 

[Moxie]

Geez, and I sometimes think my experiences have some rough moments. Jax has improved greatly on-leash, but when at the park and spotting a larger dog, he will squat down and end up in an all-out attempt to dig into the ground and drag me to the best of his ability. We've begun running almost daily, 3-4 miles throughout the neighborhoods, and the first half mile is often rough. He'll be leaping around, into me and around me, trying to chew on his leash or his harness, until he'll finally settle into the run and take the lead. It can be rather irritating.

Oh, but let him see a squirrel. THEN IT'S GAME ON and he'll try to dart any direction through anything.

I am going through this right now, too! I have two, one is older, great at running, easy pace, no hassle. The newer pup is constantly changing gait, trot/gallop/trot/gallop, charging ahead, crossing the path, looking backwards. It's driving me nuts, and has on numerous occasions nearly injured us all! It's like she races forward when we start running, then relaxes a second, then gets all thrilled and races again. Consequently I'm frequently running in a sideways fashion, old one behind, new one ahead; the neighbors must think I'm loony. They're probably right.

 

[Abbylynn]

The dogs and I have had a bunch of car rides this week instead of our hiking excursions. This weekend looks a little more promising to get back into the swing of things around here. I too have been ill for a couple of weeks. :/

 

[3doglady]

Today was good.

3 mannerly and well adjusted dogs walked together in unison. They all sniffed the same bushes, went potty at the same time. No darting or dashing (no rabbits either). Loose dog promptly caught by owners and escorted home. No reaction from my guys. As bit of a "treat", we turned onto a street we rarely walk on and extended the walk a little further. Bit of a hiccup when we walked past a house with a GSD statue, (Leann has an obsession with statues), and the bag of crumbled potato chips on the sidewalk followed by a leave it command. Not too bad. But then again, I was in more of a relaxed mood today, too. ( I feel like I just walked out of a Disney movie. Still waiting for the bluebirds of happiness to chime in and sing Disney tune.)