Many of our clients tell us that when they take their dog out for a walk, he is already going nuts because their other dogs that aren’t going out are barking and running all over the house. They have a hard time controlling him just to open the door. He then yanks them out the door and pulls on the leash for the entire walk.
I was at a follow-up visit in Gainesville with an prior Home Dog Training client a few weeks ago that I hadn’t seen for over a year. He told me that the reason he hadn’t called me for so long was because Willie, his German Shorthaired Pointer, was doing really great. Then his dog started to go crazy anytime he would go for a walk. This started to happen when they adopted a new dog (they now have six dogs!). For some reason, the new dog just got nuts when ever anyone took any of the dogs on a walk.
I told him not to worry because the problem was easily corrected. His dog was at “full adrenaline” as soon as the door was open. That made it impossible to get his dog’s focus to properly direct him on the walk. We had to set up a new “exit strategy” that allowed for a calm and focused beginning of their outside walk. We came up with a plan.
I had him place a leash on his dog, and on queue, the rest went crazy. We ignored this distraction by exiting through the laundry room into the garage. The garage door was closed and nice and quiet. The rest of the “crazy dogs” were left in the house with a family member keeping them busy. I told him to have his dog sit and stay. We walked the dog in a circle once or twice and then had him sit again. Once he was calm and focused on my client, we could proceed.
I then asked him to open the garage door. His dog began to loose focus in favor of “everything outside”. I told him to redirect his dog’s focus back to him by having his dog execute come commands such as sit or walk. The dog’s focus returned to my client.
Now, we slowly walked the dog to the driveway. We had him sit and made sure he was still focused on my client. We now began the walk slowly and calmly. The dog was perfect.
The client exclaimed “Wonderful! This is a a completely different dog!”. I told him that he wasn’t a different dog, we simply provided the appropriate environment to allow him to give us focus and respect. My client became the leader and Willie became the follower.
Please call Robin or me at (770) 718-7704 if you need any dog training help. We are blessed to have been your local dog training professionals for over fifteen years. We have trained over 5,000 great dogs and loving families and are ready to help you.
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