Does Your Pooch Mooch?
What Do Your Walks Look Like?
Walking our dogs can be one of our favourite things to do right?
For some folks, yes!
But for others it can be an absolute nightmare!
Dog wont come back
Dog pulls arm off
Dog barks at other dogs/people/traffic/the world!
Dog jumps up people
Dog bothers other dogs
And many more…
In this article I want you to have a think about where you take your dog and why.
Our dogs are very much a product of their environments and as such will respond to what is on offer in said environment. I often talk to my puppy owners about not spending too much time in places like Little Aston Park, why? Because it’s a small space FULL of dogs. Put a puppy in this environment and the odds say that pup is going to grow up to LOVE other dogs and will likely struggle with choosing his/her owner as much.
Place a dog in a field of [Insert small furry critter here] – providing that dog is wired for chase that owner isn’t going to get much of a look-in.
For me, I want to offer my dog a good old fashioned mooch. That’s right, a mooch! I love to see Opie my Cocker flush out the rabbits on the field, and similarly help Jasper my Collie herd up a bunch of tennis balls, because that’s them doing what they were wired to do right? But that’s high arousal, highly demanding stuff for them and for myself to try and be part of. It’s important that I offer them something calmer, something slower, something more… moochy!
Never has this become more apparent until now with Opie since his back injury. As he’s getting back into exercise and walks, it’s important that he does very carefully monitored exercise and for him switching from a mooch to a Spaniel flush can be a matter of nano-seconds.
So, I found my area for mooching a long stretch of road with a grassy bank on the side and we went for a very relaxing walk on a long line. He got to peruse all the smells and scents the world had left behind, stretch his legs and work his brain and I got to enjoy a calm, gentle walk alongside him.
For some of you this might be a walk on the roads, it might be in an enclosed field it doesn’t matter WHERE it is, but it’s worth finding that area for yourselves and enjoying it for what it does for your dog. Walks needn’t be high octane, high stress for you or your dogs.