1) Myth - If your dog exits the doorway ahead of you, he/she is being dominant.

The main reason to train a dog to wait behind a door before you release them for the walk is for safety not to show your "dominance" over the dog. You don't want a dog make a habit of charging out of a door, especially if the leash has not been securely fastened.
Because going for a walk is what I call a "life reward," I use this fact to my advantage and ask the dog to perform a behavior such as a "sit" or "wait" before I open the door and let them outside. By doing this, I reinforce their training (sit and wait) and the great thing is that the reward is not food, but the walk itself.
2) Myth - A dog that walks ahead of you on a walk is being dominant.
If you have a leash aggressive dog, however, you may want to train your dog to walk closer to you because giving an aggressive dog too much space ahead of you makes it harder for you to control and work with your dog if he/she becomes reactive when he/she sees another dog or person. Again, keeping a dog closer to you in this scenario is more for safety and training purposes rather than rooted in notions of your dog trying to dominate you.
3) Myth - Your dog should not be allowed sniff the ground on walks.
In a casual walk, I allow my dogs to smells things and they manage to keep walking with me in a straight line and on a loose lead. Akitas and shibas were bred for hunting and I am not going to deny them the pleasure of smelling things. Moreover, my dogs do not need to look up at me adoringly for our entire 45 minute walk. I am not training them for competitive obedience and neither are 99% of average dog owners. If my dog lingers too long at a spot or if we need to keep moving, I have a verbal cue "let's go" and she knows that we need to move on. If I need to her to go to a heel position and focus on staying close to me I have a verbal cue "heel." But, the bulk of my walks are leisurely, loose leash walks and keeping a strict heel for the entire walk is not necessary. My view is that when I attach a leash to my dog, the walk around the neighborhood is for her pleasure just as much as mine. Would you go on a hike without admiring the scenery? Well, going on a walk without being able to smell things would be the equivalent deprivation for a dog.
Now if your dog is zig zagging back and forth or pulling you around to smell something, that is an issue of training your dog to walk in a straight line without pulling. This is a separate issue from letting your dog smell things once in awhile on a walk.
So, next time you go for a walk, enjoy the sights and sounds. Stop and smell the roses (or in the case of your dog, the hydrant).
Los Angeles Dog Trainer
www.pawsitivefeedback.com
A well pawed post indeed. We don't like talk of dominance, honestly it's pretty silly. Love, care for & respect us and we will do the same,
ReplyDeleteRA, Isis & Nanuk