THE PROPER DOG-WALK

Correction and physical control based dog training is experiencing a revival these days thanks to popular "dog training" TV shows and an eager group of followers with various degrees of education, experience and dog knowledge, that jump on the bandwagon of the dominant-alpha philosophy.

Old school training is not new, but the emphasis on "correct" dog-walks, which means that the dog is always behind the human "leader", unless he/she is permitted to track or sniff. This, proponents say, is the natural position for dogs, and one that dogs have to learn, if necessary with the help of a choke collar, choke type collar or a rope that is looped around the dog's neck. Failure to enforce the proper dog-walking rule leads to the dog dominating the owner; reluctance to obey is a clear sign that the dog is already the alpha.

Check out the misconceptions about wolf behavior and dominance and what L. David Mech has to say. Click on search, type in L. David Mech and you'll find an article from 2000 about wolves and dominance.


CLAIM: it is natural for dogs and wolves to follow the alpha.

If that would be true dogs would not have to be trained or forced to walk behind. It is natural for dogs to stay in close proximity to the people they are bonded to - their social group. Dogs that feel a social belonging do exactly that, dogs that don't can't be made to feel a social belonging by a leash-pop-correction.

Your dog follows behind if you jog, run or rollerblade because he has to keep up or he'll be left behind. This has nothing to do with submission or choice, it it simple survival instinct. This is especially true if the pooch is off-leash. The leash is a safety tool for you and your dog. Once detached from it, your dog is very aware that it is up to him now to keep up. He follows out of fear, not submission.

If I go for a stroll on the beach, and my dogs are off leash, and they stay within a 6-8 foot range despite other dogs, people, gulls and sandpipers, kids running and playing, then I have the closest to submission I can get, provided I want to use the terms submission and dominance in relation to dog-walks, which I don't because it simply means that they are attentive; mentally connected to me.

Dogs bond to their owner in a similar way as children bond to their parents. Wolves, even hand-raised, captive ones bond to the pack. Big difference in their social evolution - see results from a comparative Hungarian Study


CLAIM: dogs are instinctively in a migrating mode and walking behind a human several hours per day is fulfilling their natural need.

Some dogs historically have migrated with humans. Dogs' domestication may have begun as livestock guardians that traveled with nomads over great distances as they changed pastures. But, migrating is a seasonal event and does not happen all the time. Travel alternated with time spent at one place. During migration dogs followed and stayed close to the group of other dogs, livestock and humans. Close does not mean behind. I'm sure that early human shepherds, nomadic tribes, and hunting groups had more important business to tend to than to put a bunch of dogs on a rope and making sure they follow behind. Dogs, as a group might have voluntarily stayed behind to forage on human garbage nomads left behind, and then caught up with them again. That, of course has nothing do to with submissively following the alpha or dominance. Some dogs stay with the flock during a season, rather than traveling back and forth with the human shepherd.

It is not natural for dogs to migrate each day, certainly not in a structured, follow behind dog-walk where every sniff or pee is by permission only. That does not mean that dogs shouldn't be walked. They should - walking and exploring the environment together strengthens the human/dog bond. Mental stimulation happens when dog and owner discover new areas and check out known places together. That is bonding. According to a German study, dogs that are walked/trained/exercised between 1-2 hours each day exhibited the least amount of stress. Dogs that are forced to run behind a human for up to six hours are exhausted. Exhaustion is not the same as submission, although to the untrained eye a tired and correction subdued dog can appear submissive and well behaved.

Let's also keep in mind that when domestication began, some 12.000 years ago, it was also the dawn of the mesolithic, and soon after the neolithic era. With that began early agriculture and settlements, and dogs became even more stationary. The human controlled and leashed dog-walk is not natural for dogs, because evolutionary speaking that is not what happened.

Some dogs migrated; some hung around settlements; some stayed with the flock; some joined hunting parties; some stayed behind and cleaned the human garbage dump; some where culled, used for food or died because they couldn't keep up.


CLAIM: it is necessary to umbilical cord (tie a leash around your waist) and have the dog follow you around the house and yard for at least one hour per day.

A socially bonded dog will want to be close, and I have dogs because I want to have them near. With a new puppy, or a newly adopted dog, umbilical cording to give the dog no other choice but to be close is a good idea. I want to know where my puppy is, and my new dog I don't know yet, to keep her out of trouble. But more importantly to give her ample opportunity to bond to me.

One hour a day makes absolutely no sense, because bonding, training and raising happens all the time. If you kick your dog out into the yard for a couple of hours, put him in a crate away from you for another two hours, and give him the free run of the house most of the time, and suddenly clip a leash on him and coerce him to follow you, you teach that he is on his own mostly, and whenever you show up with a leash you become this erratic person on an alpha trip.

Instead, leash-keep your pup and new dog close as much as you can and have her move with you when you change places, or have her in a stationary down beside you when you work on the computer or watch TV. Make follow the leader a fun training exercise in your home by unclipping the leash and encouraging her to follow you voluntarily. Use your voice, clap you hands, run away from her or hide, change directions abruptly. Whenever your dog is within a 4-6 feet proximity, reward with attention or play with her. That will give your dog opportunity to bond and she will learn that being near you is the best place to be. Soon you don't need the leash any longer to have an attentive dog that stays close by voluntarily, in your home and on the dog-walk. And because this is voluntarily offered, she'll also come when you call her.


CLAIM: if my dog pulls on the dog-walk he is the alpha.

There is only one reason why your dog pulls. He wants to be somewhere faster, or get away from something faster, than you do. Chances are that at one time you, or another human, followed him when he pulled. Because pulling worked, was or is self-rewarding, it is repeated and becomes a learned behavior. It is simple cause and effect and has nothing to do with status.

That doesn't mean that pulling is okay. Constant pulling is a clear sign that your dog doesn't give a rats tail about you on the dog-walk. The reasons are either that he is not bonded because you are inconsistent and reinforce rules and commands only when it suits you. Or your dog is alone a lot, and, especially when in the yard, is forced to and has learned to run his own show, so he does it on the dog-walks also. Or you ignore him when he offers attention and he has learned that you are not worth to be attentive to.

A pulling dog is inattentive and has set his own rules and boundaries, but that has nothing to do with dominance and questioning your authority. A walk is a resource for your dog, something he wants, and like any resource you control that. Not by forcing the dog behind you, but by reinforcing attention to you.

If you have a pulling dog you need to work on your relationship. You need to teach him that he has to stay connected to you, because you make all stuff he wants happen only if he stays attentive to you. Connection within a social group is mutual. Offered attention reciprocal. If you work on that, you won't need a choke chain, rope or leash.

Until you accomplish that, lay off the choke chain or nose-type harness. Both are detrimental to a mutually enjoyable dog-walk. Instead use the Sense-ible harness.


A little story at the end. My usually very polite dog-walk pooches pulled me out the door each time we had a break during the Calgary CAPPDT conference. They were stuck in a hotel conference area with some 40 dogs and 150 people.

The whole day they were very well behaved, minded their own business, slept while I listened to the guest speakers, didn't steal food from the lunch buffet, didn't mark the rug, and performed at a training exercise. The only expression of their stress was that they pulled me out the door like a sled dog team.

Two other dogs, belonging to high profile competitive trainers, had impeccable leash manners on a normal buckle collar. Picture book and seemingly non-coerced dog walking close by their respective owners. They were stressed as well, and displayed it by lashing out at other dogs. One pooch in their vicinity got punctured.

An always pulling dog is indicative of a human/dog relationship that needs work. A perfectly dog-walk obedient pooch is NOT indicative that he is well behaved. Dogs are not machines. Their behavior always has to be evaluated in context with other behaviors. I have met a few obedience titled dogs that behaved badly once the owner laid off the control.


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