Walking Kipawa - need your ideas

[Kipawa]

We now have a greyhound style collar, and that is working extremely well for tugging. However, Kipawa spends most of the walk sniffing the ground. I'd like his head up more.

So, ideas from you folks on what to do? The new collar does go quite high up on the neck, but his nose is doing most of the work on our walks.

[Mojo's Mom]

Mojo is a sniffer too. Cannot keep him from it. We live on the California Delta, and have a lot of ducks in the area- he sniffs them out of the bushes and tries to chase them. Lucky for them they can fly!!

[sonnyboy]

I notice that Sonny often walks with his nose on the ground when we go for our early morning walks for some reason…the bad thing is he isn't very good at it....he walks into things all the time :p

[tanza]

In your puppy classes are you doing things like "watch me?"… or have you tried doing targets? If you search the Forum, lvoss has posted many time about using a target (usually a finger). Or both can be done with clicker training. Also, many of us have this problem with puppies when we first want to show them... nose to the ground in the show ring (a big no...no... LOL). I use the watch me command along with a short correction and then praise when the head come up....

[DebraDownSouth]

I do 2 kinds of walks with my dogs, both do no permit pulling. On most walks, I like to use a longer leash and I allow them to sniff and do whatever… it is what is fun for them. On exercise walks, I make them heel and keep head up. That way they get that sometimes they can meander and sniff, other times it's business.

I have never tried it, but I suspect you can teach sniff, then NO SNIFF lol.

[sharronhurlbut]

A treat in your hand, making your pup watch you when you walk, will help.
But I do think our dogs need to get a chance to just walk/sniff…

[lvoss]

There is a 3 part series of videos on You Tube about loose lead walking that is good, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSmOOcELgxU

The high rate of reinforcement for head up should really help.

[Kipawa]

@lvoss:

There is a 3 part series of videos on You Tube about loose lead walking that is good, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSmOOcELgxU

The high rate of reinforcement for head up should really help.

Thank you Ivoss. I will watch those.

[Kipawa]

@sharronhurlbut:

A treat in your hand, making your pup watch you when you walk, will help.
But I do think our dogs need to get a chance to just walk/sniff…

Yes Sharron! When I hold a treat in my hand he really has his head up. I will work on this with Kipawa.

[Kipawa]

@DebraDownSouth:

I do 2 kinds of walks with my dogs, both do no permit pulling. On most walks, I like to use a longer leash and I allow them to sniff and do whatever… it is what is fun for them. On exercise walks, I make them heel and keep head up. That way they get that sometimes they can meander and sniff, other times it's business.

I have never tried it, but I suspect you can teach sniff, then NO SNIFF lol.

We do both on our walks, free leash and then heeling. But I would love him to have his head up more during free leash walking.