Post by tank on Dec 8, 2011 10:28:18 GMT -5
I need to change how I take my dogs for a walk. I have always taken them for walks together. Both Lucy and Jake are pretty good on a leash when they are alone but when they get excited or it has been a while both of them will pull. They are both obviously strong dogs being pit bull/pit bull mix. They both are really good with other dogs andOK with dogs approaching while we are on walks. They aren't perfect so I usually make them sit or if there isn't enough room on the trail I will walk them very close to me and make a game out of quickly passing by the dog and paying attention to me.
Sometimes though when I walk them together they feed off of each other. Lucy is a very compeditive dog and if Jake speeds up she needs to walk in front of him. When he gets attention from a person she needs to push him out of the way and sometimes will jump on the person to get them to pay attention to her. This is something we have been working on for a long time but it really is part of her personality. Because of the way they are together when I wasn't pregnnt and in good health I had a little bit of a hard time with them but was always able to keep them under control. Once I became pregnant I became nervous to walk them together. I did a few hikes with them but I stopped once I got bigger and had major back issues. The dogs still went to work with me and got plenty of energy out there though.
Anyway, now brings me to having a tiny infant. I really would like to continue hiking with my dogs. I just need to figure out a safe way to do it. When I take them for hikes I will pretty much always have to have the baby with me. I am feeling a little bit uncomfortable with the idea of walking 2 dogs and either having Elliot in a carrier or even having him in a stroller. If I have him in a carrier I will be wearing him in the front and I am worried about falling if they get out of control. If I put him in a stroller I am worried about them getting tangled up in it if I am trying to push him and hold their leashes.
So what I was thinking was taking one of them on a hike at a time to start and working on leash manners on a one on one basis. What this means though is that I will have to choose most times who to take on a hike and it makes me feel really bad. We live pretty far from a place to hike safely and I feel if we went somewhere and I left one of them in the car while I took the other one and then switched they would flip out about it. They are both fine in the car and waiting in the car but probably not if I took one of them out in a hiking spot!
If you got through my long explanation of my issue, here is my question. Any advice for eventually being able to feel confident with walking them both together with the baby? any specific training I can do to get them to walk easier together withough getting out of control? Would I need to do said training individually or should I walk them together and do some training? Any other ideas of walking them safely?
I know the perfect answer to this but I just don't see it being a possibility. Walking with someone who can either help me with the dogs or the baby. The problem with that is my partner hates to hike because he has really bad asma. I have 2 good friends that may help but one has a dog of her own (that gets along with my dogs) but is crazier than them and she won't want to come without bringing him too. The other one would probably help but she works a lot and probably wouldn't have much time to spend helping me although if she did it would be ideal since she is a dog trainer. If I had the money I would just pay her to come walk with us everyday lol!
Sometimes though when I walk them together they feed off of each other. Lucy is a very compeditive dog and if Jake speeds up she needs to walk in front of him. When he gets attention from a person she needs to push him out of the way and sometimes will jump on the person to get them to pay attention to her. This is something we have been working on for a long time but it really is part of her personality. Because of the way they are together when I wasn't pregnnt and in good health I had a little bit of a hard time with them but was always able to keep them under control. Once I became pregnant I became nervous to walk them together. I did a few hikes with them but I stopped once I got bigger and had major back issues. The dogs still went to work with me and got plenty of energy out there though.
Anyway, now brings me to having a tiny infant. I really would like to continue hiking with my dogs. I just need to figure out a safe way to do it. When I take them for hikes I will pretty much always have to have the baby with me. I am feeling a little bit uncomfortable with the idea of walking 2 dogs and either having Elliot in a carrier or even having him in a stroller. If I have him in a carrier I will be wearing him in the front and I am worried about falling if they get out of control. If I put him in a stroller I am worried about them getting tangled up in it if I am trying to push him and hold their leashes.
So what I was thinking was taking one of them on a hike at a time to start and working on leash manners on a one on one basis. What this means though is that I will have to choose most times who to take on a hike and it makes me feel really bad. We live pretty far from a place to hike safely and I feel if we went somewhere and I left one of them in the car while I took the other one and then switched they would flip out about it. They are both fine in the car and waiting in the car but probably not if I took one of them out in a hiking spot!
If you got through my long explanation of my issue, here is my question. Any advice for eventually being able to feel confident with walking them both together with the baby? any specific training I can do to get them to walk easier together withough getting out of control? Would I need to do said training individually or should I walk them together and do some training? Any other ideas of walking them safely?
I know the perfect answer to this but I just don't see it being a possibility. Walking with someone who can either help me with the dogs or the baby. The problem with that is my partner hates to hike because he has really bad asma. I have 2 good friends that may help but one has a dog of her own (that gets along with my dogs) but is crazier than them and she won't want to come without bringing him too. The other one would probably help but she works a lot and probably wouldn't have much time to spend helping me although if she did it would be ideal since she is a dog trainer. If I had the money I would just pay her to come walk with us everyday lol!
I look forward to learning much here