Whether your dog is merely a yard dog, or a dog that is meant to be outdoors, there are several elements that must be considered when you want to take your dog for a walk outdoors. Quite a few of these elements include:
Leash Training
No matter the purpose of your walks, the right dog training is a pre-requisite.
Many dog owners don’t have the time or patience to do the type of training that is required, which leads to an unhappy dog and an unhappy owner. When it comes to walks, many dogs like to explore, which can mean that they leave their owners to go see the world around them. This is not always a unwanted behavior, but it is annoying and may need to be corrected if you want to enjoy your walks.
Especially if you live in an urban or suburban setting where you have to take your dog for a walk almost every day, it is important to have him or her fixed. This is because they often return to the same “habits” no matter what their training is.
Dog behavior training can also be high effort and can take a long time, but it is well worth the effort. There are many hours of hikes, and climbing, on and off of cliffs, that can be ruined by a naughty dog.
An important point to remember in all of this is that you need to be patient. If you are leaving your dog for the first time in a while, it is probably not a good idea to be leaving without him or her for a long period of time. If your dog is a puppy, you will need to take into account how large the dog is going to be when fully grown.
Large dogs can pull very strong especially if they smell food cooking on a pellet smoker, and if you are going for long walks, you may want to wait until he or she is quite ready for regular, longer walks.
Guarding. Dogs can hear things from far away that you can’t hear, and they are guarding the area in which they are walking. This is not always a bad thing, especially if they recognize a strange dog approaching. You may be able to patch things up by reassuring the dog that it is okay while he or she is getting used to the unusual presence, but you should be doing some effort to discourage excessive guarding.
Dogs need to be allowed time to sniff out the area, and determine whether or not they want to “ethere”, which is a small area of land they have to protect. After sniffing the area, they will either decide that it is okay for them to pass this way, or they’ll decide to step up their guarding.
Aggressive behavior. While it can be adorable and funny when dogs show their affection towards strangers by jumping up and barking and such, it can also get tiresome and annoying if the dog does not calm down quickly.
You see, dogs are very much like people, they can be either proactive or reactive. While people don’t particularly like to be jumped on or sat on, some dogs do. This is why it’s important to let your dog mix and mingle with other dogs, and make sure that he or she knows what unacceptable behavior is.
cornerstone of dog training. If you’re going to do any type of training with your dog, it’s important that you establish yourself as the pack leader, or else he or she will feel that he or she has no pack direction.
There can be some tests you can do with your dog to see where this comes into play. Take some time to read the section on Obedience Training, as that is a good way to determine if your dog thinks that he or she is the pack leader.
Whenever you’re exhibiting alpha dog behavior, you’re saying to the dog, “I’m the boss, go ahead and do as I say.”
Another example would be something like this; the couch is your territory, and if you’re sitting then it’s your responsibility to force the dog off of the couch.
Sometimes a dog, or at least a dog owner, will treat the dog as a human, even going so far as to allow children to sit on the dog, this is something you definitely don’t want to do.
The reason it’s so important that you establish yourself as the alpha is because, if your dog does decide that they are in fact the alpha, they will try to dominate you and take over the house.
How can you actually prevent this from happening? Luckily, it has some easy solutions, and these are as follows:
When feeding or giving your dog its dinner, insist that they sit in a corner and stay on a single piece until it is their time to eat.
Try not to allow your dog to jump on chairs or lay on the sofa.
Do not allow your dog to bark in the middle of the night.