Walks, and The search for the perfect leash

We still haven't taken Maja to any classes, but we are trying as good as we can to teach her a little bit ourselves. You get thousands of hits if you for example google "walk dog", but we have some favorite web-resources. One is the webpage of the dog-trainer Ed Fowley - www.leerburg - which has an amazing amount of information about training, equipment, behaviour. Another source maybe not so much of information, but of Inspiration, has been the TV series Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan. Although his methods are discussed - and more about that in another post - watching him has learned us to to be more assured and to take more control over Maja. It has mad US happier, and it has made Maja happier.

One of the most important things we have learned, is HOW to walk. We always understood that a dog needs a lot of excersise, but what is the BEST excersise? We started having Maja on a retractable leash, so that she could run around us a bit while walking. It gave her the opportunity to sniff, she felt free, and by running in circles around us, she would cover more distance than we would - so more training for her, right? Still, the walks did not seem to be enough, she had plenty of energy that had to be used on something - like driving us nuts in the evening.

Now we have learned to use walks as a tool for fysical and MENTAL excersise, and for training discipline. Now, when we walk, she is on a tight leash, walks by the left leg, works hard to keep the concentration and position also when she sees a cat or another dog.. She loved these walks, and she is DEAD tired when we come home. As we understand, she gets enough fysical training, but she is maybe even more tired from doing a job, from being concentrated on walking where she is supposed to be. And we are happy owners that feel more and more in control, and therefor better and better communicating with Maja.

A part of this learning experience for us - which is far from over - has been to find the right leash.
There are so many leashes out there that it is sometimes even difficult to find out what people are talking about when they refer to this or that leash. A good resource is this wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_collar

We started out with a regular flat collar and a retractable leash Actually, the leash is very nice if the purpose REALLY is to let her walk around a bit while still having her under control. For walks, it seemed like a good idea in the beginning, but it probably was not.. She learned that there was a potential there for going quite far away from us, and if she pulled, it could be that we would actually give her some extra line. Bad learning..



When we understood that we really had to take some strong measures to teach her how to walk, we changed to a prong collar. Some people find that collar barbaric (just google it in dog forums!!), but it seems like many trainers find it a very good tool for training purposes. It is not painful to have it on if it is adjusted properly, and it gives a VERY clear signal if the dog is pulling. We started using this together with a normal leash and, like a miracle, there Maja was on the left side, walking like a pro and taking the signal very clearly when we gave a small pull. We walked for quite some long walks with that one, and it seemed to work quite nicely.

For different reasons, we have stoppped using the prong collar. First of all, it is a training collar, and we are not sure if it is a good idea at all to use it as a "walk collar". Second reason was that even though it didn't seem to hurt her in any way, she looked quite miserable when we put it one her, and third reason was that my girlfriend felt really bad putting it on. I think a leash and a collar should somehow be comfortable for both parts, and if we feel bad and unsecure using it, it maybe will reflect on Maja, too?
What we have ended up with so far is a very simple...., which is basically nothing than a thin nylon rope with a sling at the end. The rope has a stopper with which we can adjust the size of the sling. We slide the sling around her neck - which is not uncomfortable to her at all, and then we regulate. The sling should not be uncomfortably tight.At the same time it is important that the sling sits relatively high on the neck and doesn't slide down, and then it cannot be too lose.This is another thing we have learned: if the collar (or for us - the sling) sits too low on her neck, then any pull from us is just ineffective resistance to her. If it sits higher up on the neck, then even a small pull is quite a clear signal: "Hey,turn your head here and pay attention!"

There are many, many different kinds of NNNNNNN - metal ones, leather, nylon - but I really like this for its simplicity. The first walks with it was a small step back from the sprong collar, but now she has adjusted really nicely. Small, but very efficient corrections when she doesn't pay attention, and goodies when she walks nicely.

We such had a great walk today: First 20 minutes on leash. Then 20 minutes free walk, and the 20 or so on the leash again. We met 2 other dogs and even 2 cats. It was soo tempting for her to try to get to know them a little better (yea, sure, as if the cats would want that...), but she kept her calm and stayed in position. But it DID cost her :) She was so tired when she came home that she completely collapsed right inside the door, and I couldn't help laughing..

Now, if we only could teach her to come when we call for her, also...