A good trick to get my mutt to walk nicely at my side is to give him something to carry in his mouth. Since he is a retriever, carrying is serious business. I try to avoid tennis balls and give him something like a stick or water bottle. Carrying the stick becomes Ace’s job, and he does not pull ahead or stop to sniff. His whole walk changes when he is “working.” His head is up, and he carries his body proudly.
Ace is doing well heeling with me. Now he needs to learn to heel when someone else wants to take him for a walk. It makes sense, Ace heels better with me because he’s used to walking with me. It’s an event if Josh or someone else comes on a walk! We’ll be working on that in the next week.
Ace’s cairn friend Radar is staying with us for a day or two, so that will be perfect for Ace to practice heeling with another dog.
This is day 18 of my 30-day challenge to work with my dog on loose-leash walking. Click here to see my other 30-day challenge posts.
I’m still cracking up because Gus really does NOT want to walk at all sometimes. Yesterday for our morning walk, he just stopped. Period. I either have to say “let’s go” or pet and hug him and tell him what a good boy he is to get going. It is usually the latter. I’ve never had such a stubborn guy!
Haha! He is lazy!
way to go Lindsay! Nice job getting creative and using Ace’s ancestry to your advantage.
This is good advice. People are always wondering how they can give their dog a job. Sometimes it’s as simple as giving your dog something to carry.
Personalizing your training to fit your dogs needs and likes is so important, good job!
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