Robin and I were at a new Home Dog Training Client in Marietta last week where we were helping him with his two young Golden Retrievers Yogi and Boo Boo.  They were generally great dogs and we had no problem in starting the standard obedience exercises and correcting most of their behavior issues.  The problem that caused our client the most grief was the fact that whenever he took both of them out for a walk, whey seemed to forget everything else he had taught them and whey were just crazy.  He couldn’t understand why walking both of them was so terrible when their behavior and obedience was otherwise very good.

We told our client that we encounter this all the time. The answer is pretty simple.  You have too many students in the classroom.  Teaching your dog to walk is not a group activity, but a one-on-one experience.  You must be able to give your dog your complete attention so that you can constantly determine if his actions are correct.  If he is doing something wrong, it you your job as his teacher to instantly gain his attention and direct him to the appropriate action.  If you have two dogs misbehaving at the same time, you won’t be able to do this.  So, what do you do?

As your dogs are learning to walk properly, you must walk them one at a time.  This will allow you to give complete focus on the training process with each dog on an individual basis.  Your corrections will be better timed and more consistent.  This will allow each dog to individually gain a far faster understanding of what he needs to do.  After you walk one dog, you will switch and go for a walk with the other dog. 

Once both are walking properly on an individual basis, you can then try taking them out together.  Initially, you should go out with one family member having one dog and another family member walking the other. For these walks, don’t go as far as you would have walked individually. Try to time them when the neighborhood is quiet.  Also, continue the individual walks for the next few weeks to help build a transition and to provide consistency and repetition within the training process.

Once they are walking well together, but with each having their own handler, start to hand off one dog to the other family member.  Now you will have one family member with both dogs while the other family member is present, but not actively engaging in the walk.  Continue this “hand off” process for a few days until both dogs are walking well.  Now, try handing off both dogs to one family member before you leave the house. If this is a little too much for the two dogs, go back to where you are handing them off outside, but slowly move the hand off closer to the house and finally inside the house.

Once the are fine with being handed off inside the house, remove the “other family member” so that you handle the complete walk.  All should now be fine.

Follow these training tips and you will look just like a professional dog walker in no time!

Please call Robin or myself at (770) 718-7704 if you are in need of any dog training help.  We have a lot of good dog training advice at Best Dog Trainers Marietta Georgia.  Find all our phone numbers, text addresses and email contacts at Dog Training Help Center Marietta Georgia.