215643410424069 How Important are Walking Skills for you and your Dog? 215643410424069
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How Important are Walking Skills for you and your Dog?


Paddy with Hazel and our boys visiting Deep Ellum in Dallas.


 

The simple answer is leash walking skills are an important life skill for your dog, with them, you can teach your dog a variety of other behaviors like:

  1. how to walk inside without tripping people.

  2. how to go calmly outdoors instead of bolting outside.

  3. how to go to the car without drama

  4. how to walk calmly into the vet's office and wait in the waiting room without saying HI to everyone in the room

  5. how to walk on-leash is the first step to walking off-leash

So, even if you're not the going-for-a-stroll-around-the-neighborhood kind of pet family, being able to link up your dog and open the door without fighting for who goes first, just makes life go a little more smoothly. Walking to the car and getting in without drama is so nice, and taking your dog to the park for a lovely off-leash time works better when the on-leash time is going well.

When Paddy and I lived in Dallas Paddy would take our Cane Corso, Sullivan, to play fetch at Tietze Park in Dallas for some off-leash time every day. The parking then was a bit of a walk to get to the side of the park where they liked to play but Sully and Paddy we excellent on-leash walkers, they would pop out of the car, link up, and make their way across the park, the huge reward was the time they played together until Sully had had enough chasing the ball. So many tennis balls got left there for others. haha


Having rewards like places to take your dog for sniffing or going potty will make your walks better for you both, meandering makes them confusing so have little goals like one block stop at every driveway to give treats, or going to the fire hydrant for a sniff and a pee, just the dog though. Learning to walk on a leash is very rewarding for pet dog parents, making moving through this world built for humans easier for your dog.


So find a local or online dog trainer and learn a new skill with your dog. Incorporate your dog into your life, they will love it and so will you. When someone compliments your well-behaved dog you will beam like the proud parent you already are.





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