[Elizabeth is a thirty-something-year-old chick from Seattle, Wa. who spends too much time blogging about her dogs at http://www.dogbloggingwithluna.com/. Although we wouldn't agree with her on the "too much" time part. We'd say more along the lines of juuuuuust right :)]
Walking Luna, Penny and Tucker (my mother's dog) = one big, tangled mess.
I wish I could say that I knew exactly how to walk my dogs perfectly. Okay, let's not say perfectly, let’s go with ‘correctly.’
Yes, I know the fundamentals of walking a dog, and yes, I know how to heel, cross the street, and walk past other people without having my Golden Retriever Luna lose her focus. What I do not know is how to avoid having Luna freak out when walking past a large parked truck with its engine running, or walking on a gutter drain.
Luna avoids these things at all costs (read: she panics), and in a purely frustrated state I have even resorted to picking her up and placing her on the drain grate so she will understand that she is not going to fall through and get washed away like the little rat character ‘Remy’ does in the movie “Ratatouille.”
Lets now add Penny to the pack. I have heard that all Dachshunds pull on their leashes, and let me just say that when Penny is on her leash she pulls like she is competing in the Iditarod. My pleas of “slow down, Penny” must translate to “Mush, mush, mush” in Dachshund-speak, and she obliges as her little feet carry her on like a sprinting rabbit.
So here I have a dog that is fairly consistent on her leash except when passing by large parked trucks and drain grates, and another dog that behaves like a wind up toy. So what's my solution?
I place them side by side and ‘pack walk’ them either on my left, or directly in front. Something changes when I put the girls together like this; it somehow calms Luna down, and Penny tries to match Luna’s leisurely pace.
All in all, it makes for a much better walk!
Finally, all dogs in sync.
[Have a dachshund story you'd like to see here? Click over to our submissions page to send in your guest post! Need to warm up before a full post? Get started by uploading your dachshund photos to our Flickr group!]
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Friends
Posts
6 comments:
I absolutely love this post and you've inspired me to write one of my own walking tips! Thanks for the push to do so!
Also? You've got an adorable pack over there :)
Gretel pulls like crasy too. When hiking my tired butt up a trail it is helpful. When decending with creaky, sore knees it is not :)
I only have to walk all 3 doxies and one lab when we go camping. I have better luck doing it by myself than when hubby "helps" by walking two of them. I have no idea why.
So happy to have posted here! Love this site and always look forward to reading cute Dachshund stories!
Great post :)
My dogs walk me. I have an 11 year old shihtzu who I usually let off leash as he is so reliable and a follower. These days too MUCH of a follower as he has to pee on each and every post, hydrant or smelly thing.
Finn is my 9 month old mini dash. Since getting a martingale collar is a little dream walking on leash, most times.
Add Abby our 5 month old long haired dashie who is still figuring out the leash thing and well.. we have very interesting walks!
Lately I drive to a remote park and just let them go (provided there are no other dogs/people around). Let them frolic and do their thing while I walk the loop.
Other than that they are walked singly for now which sucks! Kids back to school so working on getting everyone on leash and figuring it all out :)
I didn't know this was a common doxie thing, we call it sled dogging but boy do people look at us funny when our 12 pound dog is walking us!
Post a Comment