Holly has a great life and loads of country walks. We realized this week that she's not getting much experience in crowds so we took her into Hereford. She was quite relaxed being around lots of people, but her lead work was not very good. She pulled us around from smell to smell, and had to be calmed down several times. She was quite happy to sit and wait outside shops, and didn't mind when a few people came up to make a fuss of her. She was not very good walking around the shops, even in relatively quiet areas. We did the usual distraction tactics, for example holding a small bit of treat in our hands to get her walking to heal. I think the lesson is that we've neglected this aspect of her training and need to do a few more trips like this. Does anyone have any tips for walking dogs in crowds?
A good attention getting noise, I'd say. Charlie is good now in crowds (we are in London, plus he goes to a lot of events on the town quay in Cornwall which are always packed). At first, he'd try to say hello to people, but a really well trained attention getting noise returned his attention to me. Mind, left to his own devices, in a crowd of people in a good mood, and he finds friends.... crafty ear lick by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr sneaking a pat by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr
I have to say being rural taking Hattie into town is something I have neglected to do, I only recently took Hattie into town on a Saturday when the market was on and she was great. I went armed with my clicker and cheese and she didn't leave my side looking to me for instructions for over an hour, sitting outside shops, ignoring puppies and dogs, walking round food stalls etc. I think she really enjoyed it and all the fuss she got as we stood outside shops. I think it largely depends on the dog. I guess practise is the only way and of course good treats x
I've only taken Dexter once into town and he surprised me by being really good. I also need to do this more often but our town isn't the nicest of places . We haven't any dog friendly shops or cafes either, that I know of
Being rural I made a special effort to take. Juno into town on a regular basis so she was used to all the different noises and smells. I I would just say to try and take her into town as part of her walk/outing for coffee and she'll soon get used to it, not forgetting the treats of course.
Our visits into town are a bit fraught and we resort to the "good behaviour" figure 8 lead as a pre-emptive strategy. The issue is with food opportunities at nose level, mostly. She is pretty good really, but whines if waiting outside a shop (with one of us, obviously)
I have lots of attention-getting words which don't sound stupid in crowds, and which I regularly 'charge' at home. Like "there we are" and "here it is" I find having a good variety of them stops one or two words getting 'stale'. (We are supposed to use 'look at me' (!) I only use that when no-one's around lol! I use dried salmon strips for Twiglet when in shops - it's not quite as smelly as other treats but very effective. The worst shops are carpeted ones - they, no doubt, hold the enticing smells much longer! We did some pigeon ignoring in town today and, for the first time, Twiglet managed to look at me instead of them. Yay! .
Ive never taken Harley into Bristol town centre as even I don't like shopping! In our local town centre in Bradley Stoke (lots of shops, a cafe, a restaurant and of course pets at home), I take Harley at least one a fortnight as it has helped with consistency, and have really worked on her lead walking around there........it's one of the only places she will walk lovely on lead. We start by walking around stalls / shops then head to PAH to get a treat. We then go to costa and sit outside having a coffee whilst Harley enjoys her reward for being good. I usually let her have a quick sniff then say 'let's go' and she comes back to heal. I started with really high value treats walking and also when sat watching the world go by. Sorry, not much help as I'm sure Holly is much better than Harley already
I live next to Aztec West roundabout - on tne border of Patchway, Bradley Stoke and Stoke Lodge......small world
Not necessarily .... Holly tends to pull us around between interesting smells, and looks for dropped food to scavenge. When she settles outside a shop or in a pub she's fine.
Some of the London streets are awful with rubbish and food, and a seaside town in August has a ridiculous amount of food dropped on the street. This isn't about loose lead for Charlie - it's about a proofed tight heel. I started by walking around bowls of food in the garden. He is normally on a loose lead and free to sniff, but if there is food on the ground I use a cue that I've proofed against that.
You can imagine how hard it is for guide dogs. Their owners can't see the food to avoid it and the dog is walking ahead of them. Their food refusal has to be 100% for them to be able to work. .
It's incredible that Labs make good guide dogs Ella isn't too bad in busy areas as we live in a reasonably busy area. I've learnt to read her body language to see when I think she may struggle to maintain control passing people. If this is the case, I step to the side, stop and make her watch me as people pass, treat and continue. I'm slowly decreasing the number of times and situations that I have to do this in
I think it's actually easier if a dog is never allowed something - never allowed to put their head down to sniff or pick anything up on walks (which is why Mags describes walking guide dog puppies on short leads to prevent them doing this) - than if they are sometimes allowed (eg to switch between loose lead, sniffing, and heel). Certainly, if you are able, it's much clearer for the dog that they don't sniff, don't pee, poo or pick anything up (including food) on lead. That's not how I want to live with my dog though, so have to struggle through the harder, not easier, route of training two potentially confusing behaviours.
By co-incidence we did some crowd work yesterday. Unseasonably warm and walked with Sis and her dog, her daughter and nearly three year old grandson at a park. Lots of other people out of the same ages and lots of doggies on leash. Oban did work a lot at that for his obedience and CGN but not for a long time. At risk of sounding like a broken record, Leslie McDevitt's book, "Control Unleashed" the Look at That game, really helped. Especially when passing the other dogs. I too make leash walking a mostly No Sniff acitivity. For us it's pretty easy, we are off leash more than on. When trail conditions make us move to leash walking along the road I have a section where sniffing (checking the peemail) is allowed.
This is something I need to work on too. Not a lot of crowds around here to practice on, mind you....however I think Simba would cope quite well with the people aspect, not so much on the picking up food
