In replying on another thread , I remembered something I used to do when teaching Sam to walk nicely on his lead . I honestly thought he would never get there , that I was destined to a life of being dragged from pillar to post with a very large dog ! I then began to take him out every evening , when it was dark , I got him a high viz jacket, him being black and he hated it with a passion, but eventually got used to it ! I discovered very quickly , that there were far fewer distractions around in the dark early evening , fewer other dog walkers for sure . Sam went from being an absolute terror on his lead , to a pretty high level of lose lead walking very quickly , and due to the treats on offer plus much praise , he soon transferred this to daytime walks , might be worth a try for the more distracted dogs, as he was !
It’s dark now when a I walk Red early evening and our village has become empty of walkers with or without a dog - just more and more cars going through. Even though Red is a lightish colour, I have bought her a fluorescent collar so we can be seen. I miss the distractions but we get to have a lovely walk together .
Once the bears go back up the mountains I’ll give this a try. They just stroll down our sidewalks right now so I’m too nervous to walk in the dark Im so desperate for anything to work. I have a couple friends who recently bought choke collars and keep trying to get me to give one a try but I refuse. On a good note though I officially can walk him from the car to the door at daycare with no pulling. Yay! But the dog park he still pulls me the whole way. 98 pounds of muscle on one end and me on the other flying behind. Quite the scene for people to witness! Sigh.
Oh and I should add the walking to daycare doors is just with his flat collar, no harness or halti it’s only a 10 second walk but it feels so good
Yes, they are beautiful and magnificent but only when I’m in my house or a car. I took this picture on a walk with Axel, just in front of someone’s driveway, about 5 houses up from us. It had recently rained and there were some muddy areas in people’s yards. I must not have been walking too far behind him/her.
I've been working on our morning route to the park for over a year!! She's not nearly as big as Axel but she is a determined little thing! The exact same route any other time of day is nice walking on a flat collar!! We inch along, using her breakfast to try and keep her focus on me/not pulling every morning...maybe in a few years it will sink in!
Yes! Before getting axel I swear, they all used my backyard as their own personal toilet. Fully fenced backyard but that didn’t stop them! Lol
Murphy walks well, IF we do not hook the leash up to his flat collar. We got him a harness that has the connection point on his chest. It has the ability to slide a bit (the ring along the front of the harness). The harness is like magic. He just does not pull, walks along with a nice slack leash. All is good. I think that slidey thing helps him figure out where we are going, sort of clues him in that we might be turning. I am not sure what it is called anymore, we got it at PetSmart. The other day the neighbor wanted to show me their construction project, so I hooked up Murph real quick with his flat collar. What a mistake that was, it reminded me of how powerful he is. YIKES. I am a big guy and it was all I could do to keep him from going into full charge. Oh, he loves the neighbor.
