Do you walk your dog?

It is so easy to make a dog happy- feed them and take them for a walk. If that’s what you believe, please stop reading this post because it will spoil all the fun.

I assumed that walking a dog means holding the leash and walking the dog around. 30–45 mins of this activity twice a day and everything is right with everyone’s world. Apparently not. Our trainer, Paramita, gave me lots and lots of tips and advice to make the walks fun; which I promptly ignored. The other day I sent her a video practicing the initial steps of “heel” outdoors. I was extremely proud of it since we’ve been working since March and it has been very, very hard doing it indoors. Basically, when I say “come here” and tap my thigh, Barfi comes to me and sits with her ass next to my feet and looks at me. She now does this OUTDOORS. Paramita’s feedback on the video was “She doesn’t look happy coming towards you. Her body is leaning away. She has to WANT to come to you when you call her”. Ok, wait. How do I make a dog WANT to do something? I wanted to cry.

This post is about everything that I am doing on walks with Barfi based on advice from Paramita, webinars and podcasts I’ve been watching/listening to. We are still in the initial stages in the journey but atleast I have an idea of what we are doing and where we (I) want to go.

The big change in my mind was when the realization hit that the walk was for HER mostly and our relationship, to a certain extent. A lot of things fell into place after that.

Barfi gets 2 walks in a day. Morning walk is with me and evening walk is with KC. They are inside our society where we have different ground textures. We start off with her morning business. Sometimes, it takes us 30 mins to get to her poop area which is less than 50 steps away. If there is a dry plant she can chew on, well, that’s the best part of her day. I let her. She lounges on the wet grass, rolls around, chews on leaves and then we move forward. After her morning business, she may try to steal biscuits, rotis, bread etc that residents leave for birds, cats and street dogs. We walk away from the grass and towards the parking. This is a low traffic area and we can practice sit, down, stay, stand. But only 1–2 times so she doesn’t get bored. Then we walk, walk, walk with lots of sniffing, watching people, trying to meet dogs, demanding pets, navigating through street dogs, trying to chase cats and come back home. Takes an hour in the morning and 30–45 mins in the evening.

This was sufficient while we were working on loose leash walking (a whole different post) but now am adding variety to the walks. So, here are things I am working on with Barfi.

Disclaimer-

Step 1 : Get your dog to look at you

Step 2 : Get your dog to look at you when you call their name

Step 3 : Get your dog to follow commands when they look at you

Step 4 : Get your dog to follow commands when they are not looking at you (I will shed tears of joy the day we get here)

Step 5 : Get your dog to come to you when you call them

Step 6 : Get your dog to come to you when you call them on a long leash

Step 7 : Get your dog to come to you when you call them off leash

Step 8 : Get your dog to come to you when you call them off leash no matter how many distractions around

6. Rewards. When Barfi was on kibble and we didn’t have access to any treats, she wouldn’t look at kibble outdoors at all. Now, we have special rewards for walks. These aren’t treats she will get at home. If she wants the fish jerky, she will only get it if she looks at me outdoors. Or the beef green tripe will only come to her if she does a sit outdoors. Ditto for the chicken liver or any treat. If she comes to me when I call her, she may get 2–3 treats instead of one. If dead animals are what make me interesting, then am willing to go and kill a few myself. *Just kidding, guys. I wouldn’t harm a fly. I may make Barfi chase it for fun, though* I have become VERY generous with rewards after listening to Disorderly Dogs podcast. Of course, the praise comes first, followed by the treat. Sometimes I put the treats on the grass or in different areas for her to search them out. Who says hide and seek can be played only indoors with your dog?

7. Another big change was letting her choose which way to go. A lot of podcasts and webinars talk about this. When we walk inside the society, how does it matter which route we take or where we walk? I let her choose. Sure, she chooses to follow the smell of poop, bread etc. but that’s ok. Part and parcel of having a golden retriever. If you haven’t removed poop from a dog’s mouth, have you even had a dog? There is a little give and take happening here. I let her choose where she can go on these walks and she will be happy to let me choose where I want to go on other walks. Atleast, that’s the hope.

I don’t know even 2 people who interact with their dogs on walks so all the above is absolutely new for me. But, walking a dog like a zombie is very boring and I can’t wake up at 5.30 am to do it if it isn’t fun and challenging. This is why we can’t have a dog walker for her 2 main walks. Plus, I need to see what her morning poop looks like. That’s just how I start my day now.

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