To The Woman Who Hates Dog Harnesses

This morning I got a pretty hateful comment on one of my old reviews for some leashes. The comment was in regards to my dogs wearing harnesses:

"oh god... harnesses.. great way to teach your dogs to pull are you too stupid to actually train your dogs to walk CORRECTLY on a collar?!?!?!?"

Usually I don't feed the trolls but today I decided I wanted to talk about this, since there's a huge misconception about harnesses.

Harnesses DO NOT teach dogs to pull on leash. Humans teach their dogs to pull on leash by not teaching them what they would like them to do instead of pulling. It can also be an impulse control issue as well. A "back clipping" harness **can** give a dog more leverage to pull if they have not been trained and the dog can be more easily reinforced for pulling because the owners might have less control. This is a training issue. It's NOT about what sort of gear you choose. Dogs can pull in any sort of gear at any time, even aversive equipment.

Now let's address the "too stupid" part. It is actually much more challenging to train a dog to walk nicely on a harness than it is a collar and if I can train a dog to walk politely in a back clipping harness, surely I can teach a dog to walk nicely with the leash attached to collar. My dogs can and do walk nicely in their collars all the time and I spend several nights a week helping other owners to achieve this as well, you know... at the dog training facility, where I work...

I **choose** to use harnesses on my dogs because I feel they are safer and more comfortable for the dog to wear. If a squirrel were to run across our path and they do lunge for it, their necks and tracheas are protected. Even the most well trained dogs might go for a squirrel or something and I'd rather the dogs not hurt their necks. I think a harness can be a great piece of equipment to use on a dog, especially for hiking and other outdoor adventures and we will continue to use ours.

We are product testers and I am fully aware the harness on Phoenix does not fit her very well. I didn't feel like bringing her home, putting a different one on her and re-filming.

My video response while walking the dogs.

For further reading about harnesses you can check out my friend Emily's post here:

http://dogmantics.com/is-it-harmful-to-attach-a-leash-to-your-dogs-neck-2/

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask. 

Playing Pokemon Go while Training Dogs!

Hi everyone! Long time, no talk! I know it's been a while and for that I apologize. I sort of ran out of words and have had some other things going on that have really kept me from blogging. The girls have been great and we have been doing some "unconventional training" which is also the theme for this months Positive Pet Training Blog hop!

With the launch of Pokemon Go, a lot of people have been playing it and we are no different. The original games were my favorite video games growing up and it's been so much fun for both myself and my husband to get back into it. If you have not heard about Pokemon Go, it's a game on smart phones that has people out walking and looking for Pokemon, basically "pocket monsters". This game is very similar to geocaching! As you walk along, a Pokemon will pop up and you're supposed to catch it with Pokeballs. There are Pokestops that are on landmarks all around the neighborhood where you get Pokeballs and other things like Eggs which you have to walk a certain amount of distance to hatch. Then there are the gym battles, which are super fun too. I actually became a gym leader and held a gym overnight before another team took it over.

What does Pokemon Go have to do with dog training, you ask? I'll get to it, I promise.

There are so many benefits to playing Pokemon Go and one of the major ones is that we are getting out more as a family and to different places! Since we started playing the game, my husband has joined us on every single evening dog walk. He's even been walking the girls on his own when I'm at work. The dogs love their dad so it's been awesome that this game has motivated him to walk them more. Zoe and Phoenix are getting more walks and longer ones. We've had so much fun exploring our neighborhood and it's nice to have my husband with us. Not only are the dogs getting more walks, they are also getting more training and more socialization.

Those of you who have been following me for a while probably know that I don't like training loose leash walking, it's tedious and can get boring. Playing Pokemon Go has motivated me to work on it more and has made it a lot easier for me do it. Even my husband has been willing to help out! He has been walking Zoe and following my loose leash walking rules. We are wandering around looking for Pokemon and looking at the cool landmarks the game has and I'm not focused on "just getting the walk over with" or "hurrying from point A to point B". I generally use the "be a tree" method and "turn around method" for leash walking. Playing this game has helped me because I'm not focused on how annoying and tedious it is to stop every single time someone puts tension on the leash, we are taking our time. I'm finding that I'm not as aggravated and I actually do want to work on leash training. Both of my dogs are doing awesome and their leash skills have greatly improved in the past two weeks.

Phoenix has made some new human friends and it's been awesome to take her out because people are more focused on playing the game than staring at her and it's not intimidating for her. She's even allowed a few people to pet her and she's happy to greet anyone who wants to say hi. She even met a nice lady who was driving a motorized wheel chair. We have also come across a few dogs and it's given me a huge opportunity to work on counter conditioning and practicing our escape training.

We've been working on a lot of "stays" and impulse control while we're out playing the game. I love posing the girls with all the interesting things we've found and taking their photos. One way I've incorporated stays is that when a pokemon pops up, the girls are asked to sit while I catch it. Any time we stop we ask them to sit and wait. When we go to battle a gym, we have the dogs do down stays. Zoe is the worst at waiting and she's pretty impatient so this sort of game is really helpful and it's been fun coming up with a training plan for her that utilizes the game.

I've also used the game to work on separation training because Phoenix does not like it when she's separated from Zoe. So I will often have my husband wander off a ways with Zoe while I work with Phoenix. Short periods of separation have really helped her to become more relaxed when Zoe does leave. Then when Zoe is on her way back to us, I work on keeping Phoenix calm and focused on me. It's really helped her to feel better about Zoe going off and she's getting impulse control training when Zoe comes back.

We've been having a lot of fun, Pokemon Go has gotten the whole family out together. I think it's a really awesome game to play and it's super easy to incorporate dog training in while I play. The dogs have really been enjoying their extra walks and attention. I've even heard stories about how animal shelters are taking advantage of the game and people are volunteering more to walk dogs for them. I've also heard stories about how people playing Pokemon Go were able to rescue some abandoned animals. I know there are also some stories out there of people being really dumb but I think that's going to happen with anything. If your dog is fairly decent on leash and doesn't bark and lunge at things, I think Pokemon Go is a great game to play on walks and it's very easy to incorporate dog training into it while you play.

Are you playing Pokemon Go? What team are you on? I'm on team Mystic and my husband is on Team Valor!

Are You Walking In A Straight Line? Loose Leash Walking Tip

Phoenix gives the most beautiful attention on walks! She's a dream!

Last week I told you all about how I am trying to work on my dog's leash skills. As I was thinking about a training plan, I started thinking about routines. We humans love our routines and it's really easy to get set in our ways. I am no different, in fact, I got super annoyed when a new neighbor moved in and promptly installed tie outs for her dogs directly on my daily path. Tie outs are not allowed in our complex but people do it anyways. Her dogs are reactive and they are now tied in the area Zoe loves most for pottying. Not cool, neighbor! Not cool! Not to mention Zoe is a pain in the butt about finding potty spots.

Anyways, I realized I was pretty much walking my dogs in a straight line, my route was direct and to the point. Just like Zoe and Phoenix, I had somewhere to get to. Without even realizing it, I was trying to get their walks around our apartment complex over with as quickly as possible. I was definitely set in my routine path and any deviation from this path annoyed me.

One big loose leash walking tip is to change directions or turn around and go the other way when a dog pulls. This is not meant to give the dog a leash correction or anything like that. It's to keep the dog from getting reinforced (getting to where they want to go) by pulling. I've been fighting the "turn around" method for 4 years and I just realized it. Turning around and going the opposite direction is not getting me to where I want to go. I was also unable to use this method back in the beginning because a lot of the walks we went on were with friends and their dogs. (Training is hard when you go on group walks and I don't recommend doing them when your dog is first learning.) Turning around meant the dreaded leash walks will take longer and we could be doing something else! (Like training tricks!) Turning around or changing directions was counter productive to my reinforcement (getting the walk over with and doing something else). Of course I love spending time with my dogs, going fun places with them and training them. I just don't like leash walks because they were so often frustrating.

I'll just walk myself.. No worries!

So now that I've realized that I've made a mistake by ignoring a loose leash walking method, I am trying it out! Every time my dogs pull, I turn around and walk in the other direction, then I mark and reward them for catching up to me. I am making sure to keep my rate of reinforcement high for keeping the leash loose, too. If a dog does happen to make the leash tight,  I do use a "no reward marker" which is the word "whoops" then I say "this way" as a cue to get them to turn around with me. My use of a NRM is not meant to be punishing but what it does is tell the dog that the leash getting tight is not the correct thing I want. They don't generally find their NRM punishing and it was trained more like an interrupter.

Another thing I am doing is trying to switch up our route and also not walk in a straight line. We are not in a hurry to get anywhere. It's about the journey, anyways. I make sure I am completely unpredictable about where I am walking when I'm going to change directions (I do cue it with a "this way" cue so they don't hit the end of the leash by mistake) and I am attempting to make walking with me more interesting and fun. I also reward them with a food treat when they are in the bubble of space I am looking for and keeping that leash loose.


This week I also received a question from a reader and that question was about sniffing. "Is it okay to let your dog sniff on walks?" The answer is that it really just depends. It's up to you to decide what your goals are for walks. You could let your dog sniff and I do allow it but being able to sniff is contingent on them not pulling. A lot of times, I will have them sniff and let them find a spot to potty and then once that's done I ask for a more structured walk. Then if they are able to keep the leash loose for a while I will let them sniff again. Sniffing is on cue so they know when they are released to do it. Our cue is "go sniff!"

I see you have some cookies up there!

So I bet you all are wondering how this training is going? So far, I haven't been able to do much work with Zoe because of her paw but the couple of sessions we've had have gone great! She's picking it up very fast and seems to be enjoying our solo walks, even if they are sort of short (to make sure we don't make her paw/wrist sore again). Last week with all of my solo walks with Phoenix, I used the "turn around" method and she picked it up immediately. Phoenix is already a great loose leash walker when her sister is not present so it was easy for her to figure out. Both of my dogs seem to really love their one-on-one time and I'm really glad we are doing it!

I will keep everyone updated with how things go with Zoe and I have more tips on the way so stay tuned!

Getting It Together for Leash Walking!

Oh leash walking. How I wish it was easier to train with Zoe! Zoe is very environmental and nervous so it's not our most fun way to spend an afternoon. Zoe has a hard time focusing on keeping the leash loose because everything out in the world is so distracting and some things can even be a cause for concern! Phoenix is a lot better on leash and never got a chance to develop any bad habits even though she's generally great on leash by herself we still have some work to do with walking both of them together. They do tend to egg each other on when I walk them together and Zoe's anxiety rubs off on Phee. I would so much rather be training tricks or even training competition style heelwork than strapping a leash on my dogs and stopping every 2 seconds to "be a tree".

It's definitely not Zoe's fault that she pulls on leash, you see, I never fully committed to training her to walk well. For the first year and half she was with me, I used a flexi leash. I knew the hazards of using them but I thought that I was better than other dog owners because unlike most dogs my dog was trained. I could stop her on cue and have her come back to me. No problems at all there! She was under control. Yeah right. I was a little delusional and a lot dumb. I wish I could go back and give myself a stern talking-to. Flexi leads work by giving the dogs more lead when they pull. They pull and they get to go where they want and sniff all the things. So basically they get a huge reinforcement for pulling and it's the best thing ever because they get to where they want to go.

Fast forward a few more years and Zoe still struggles with leash walking because I allowed her to develop so many bad habits and didn't commit to fixing them. My excuse is that I got Phoenix and her issues were more important. It's a valid excuse and it is what it is.

One of the biggest problems with Zoe's leash walking is that she is very "environmental" and hyper vigilant. Certain places can cause her to be anxious and forget what she's supposed to be doing. We did take Deb Jones' "Focus" class through the Fenzi Academy and it was helpful. I am using some of her techniques to work on Zoe's issues. I would almost consider Zoe sort of reactive in the environment and I probably need to treat her more like a reactive dog. Just because she's not barking and lunging on the end of her leash doesn't mean she isn't fearful, she's just not "verbalizing" it.

To get really amazing loose leash walking you need a dog who is very gear aware, the dog also has to be aware of where they are in relation to you. They have to be taught what to do when they feel leash pressure and they need to know where they are supposed to be walking. It takes a ton of consistency to get loose leash walking and I struggle with it. I am planning to do some more posts on how to get your dog to be "gear aware" in the near future. These are all based in positive reinforcement, no leash corrections allowed. Any time the girls get a new harness to try out or a different length of leash they forget what they are supposed to do. Mostly just Zoe. Zoe also tries to get as far away from me as possible as a result of being allowed to wander around on the end of her flexi lead.

This year one of my goals is to really commit to Zoe and working with her on the issues she has. I will definitely have more posts about it soon and what we are doing to get the leash walking better! Right now I'm still resting Zoe for that paw thing that's going on so I'm going on walks with Phoenix only. The walks with Phoenix have been completely eye opening. She is nearly perfect on leash without her sister around! I will post more about that, too!

I will keep everyone updated on how everything is going.

What methods did you use (or are using) to teach your dog to walk on a loose leash?

Freedom Harness Review

Hi everyone! I hope you're all having an awesome Fit Dog Friday! Today I am so excited to share our review on the Freedom Harness from 2 Hounds Design! As you all know walking can be great exercise for you and your dog but when they pull it can be so frustrating! There are many challenges in leash walking and if your dog is reactive like mine and you're walking on a regular collar they could slip out of it or they could pull the leash right out of your hand! Not only that, it can really hurt their throat and the surrounding tissue when they pull. Contrary to popular belief, dog throats are very sensitive, just like ours! (See this article for more info on neck sensitivity) For that reason, I prefer using harnesses when we go on leash walks. The Freedom Harness is an awesome tool that helps provide extra control, while also being extremely comfortable to wear and allows the dog to move naturally. ZoePhee was given two Freedom Harnesses with their "training package" (training leashes included) in exchange for an honest review but we were not monetarily compensated.

Confessions of a Flexi Lead User - National Walk Your Dog Week!

I have a secret to tell you!! I use Flexi Leashes!!! OMD!!! I know...

There's a lot of hate going on regarding these zippy leashes and the name "Flexi Leash" can be a dirty word in the Dog Community. I will be the first person to tell you that Flexi Leashes can be dangerous and that they are not appropriate in most situations. I have a confession though, I hate and I mean HATE my long lines. They drag, they get dirty and wet then they smell bad. I seriously dislike using them, they are so heavy and I hate rolling them up. I will only use long lines if I absolutely have to.  Enter the Flexi Leash. The thing winds itself up and in the process can take your finger off or seriously injure you! So if you do decide to use them, proceed with caution.

Training Tips Tuesday - On Being Consistent

How many times have you heard someone say, "but I've tried everything!!!" If you frequent forums and other dog events you've probably heard someone say that. Maybe you've said it.