Who’s Walking Who?
Written by Pam on December 5, 2014
Our HGT KokoBo puppies are 9.5 weeks and will soon impress you how they will walk nicely on the leash. I have talked about the ‘come’ command that I combine with the walk nicely on the leash command in a prior blog. In this blog I want to talk about where the dog should be walking while on a walk – should he follow, should he lead or should he walk by your side and feel very proud of you as you are of him! Yes, he should be taught to walk along side of you on your left side. (This too is up to you but because I need our dogs to be handled in future shows, I need for them to walk directly on the left side of the handler.) I normally tell our KokoBo families to have the puppy train on the side where you have more strength – if you are right handed – this is your dominant hand so the puppy should be on your right for more control over him. This all comes with time, but once you reach for the leash, the only thought your puppy should be thinking is the click of the leash means we are going outside together to explore a new place with his new family
Just remember this basic but valuable lesson, should he pull and tug at the leash, immediately stop and walk in the opposite direction. Dogs love going forward – they see what is ahead and cannot wait to get to it (anything) ahead, but if you suddenly change his direction, he will know that something just happened that you did not like. Tugging back on the leash only creates our muscles to tighten and our blood pressure to rise – so don’t play a tug-of-war game, just change the direction, have him sit and continue going whichever direction you want.
The next step is ‘how much sniffing should I allow my puppy to do during the walk”. Well, my answer to this is it depends on his age. At 9.5 weeks, the puppy should not be going on ‘pavement walks’ just yet. He is still not fully vaccinated and he can be sniffing something that could cause lasting damage – like that of Parvo. Walk the puppy in your yard, there are plenty of scents there and both of you will get enough exercise especially when he is learning to walk by your side. (This can be challenging – but be patient and with time and treats, he will ‘get it’ and walk wherever you want him to – right by yourside.) After all his vaccinations or at 16 weeks, I take the pups on pavement walks – confidently and also stopping to smell the roses and those not so nice smelling things..
Below are some pictures that we took tonight – not on-leash walking pictures – but those that show us that our puppies know what to do to gain our attention. We have two very small stainless steel bowls and they seem to gravitate to them because they are small and they can carry them in their mouths without any problem. But tonight we placed a small swab of peanut butter on one bowl and the winner takes all. Well one bowl was very popular and was carried from one side of the mudroom to the other by each puppy. Everyone got the chance to taste the peanut butter, but it was Pablo who was very clever – he knew where there was a safe place to enjoy this bowl with a wonderful scent and taste – undisturbed… that place would be right next to me :*) Enjoy, Pam
