"Some of our greatest treasures we place in museums, others we take for a walk." Roger Caras
I've always loved that quote and I keep it on my bulletin board above my desk as a reminder of how nice it is to leave my office and walk with my dogs. While it would seem that we can all agree that our dogs need to go for walks, how long those walks should be, how far our dogs should walk, and what they should be doing on those walks does seem to vary between dog owners. I know I've talked about walking adolescent and adult dogs several times before, so this time around, I'd like to focus on puppy walks.
Many new puppy owners are afraid to walk their pups in public because they've been told that they shouldn't until their puppy's vaccine series is completed. While it's true that you shouldn't be walking your minimally vaccinated puppy in a busy park or on sidewalks frequented for toileting purposes by other dogs, this does not mean you need to keep your puppy cooped up inside the house! While you can certainly practice loose leash walking in your house, it is a skill that does need to be practiced outdoors, with distractions, for best results. Walking your puppy around your own yard or property will work just fine to get your puppy outdoors and on a leash. If you can add in some new people (friends or neighbors works just fine) and some friendly, well-behaved, vaccinated dogs of other ages to your yard for these walking practice sessions, all the better.
Another big mistake puppy owners make is walking their puppies too far or for too long. A good rule of thumb is 5 minutes of walking on leash per month of age, twice daily. Thus, an 8 week old puppy can be walked twice daily for 10 minutes per walk. I find that most of the new puppy owners I meet are walking their puppies 1-3 miles each walk for a minimum of an hour walk each time! No wonder their puppies are sleep deprived, mouthy, and over threshold! These puppies are being over-exercised! We all know that too little exercise is a bad thing, but so is too much. Even if your puppy appears to want to walk further or for a longer duration than outlined above, don't let them. Keeping those walks short and sweet also ensures that you aren't stressing your puppies bones and joints which could lead to injury.
Leave yourself and your puppy enough time to, well, just be a puppy. Puppies like to sniff and explore on their walks, but they also like to stop all the time to assess their surroundings. Some puppies, quite literally, take 5 steps and then sit down for a few minutes to assess their surroundings, before getting up, walking 5 more steps, and then stopping again. I realize this can be quite frustrating for the human on the end of the leash, but this walk isn't about you! Puppy walks are about social experiences, sniffing, exploring, and assessing. If you drag your puppy along, you'll make them hate their walks and you keep them from fully assessing and absorbing their surroundings which increases their comfort and confidence while on leash.
Do work on good behavior while on leash right from the get-go. Don't allow your puppy to jump up on people, even if those well-meaning folks say that they don't mind. YOU mind! Stand on your puppy's leash to prevent jumping up. Use treats to redirect your puppy away from sniffing or picking up things they shouldn't. Work on "leave it" and redirecting to the treats or toy you've brought with you for this purpose. If they've already picked something up that they shouldn't, have your treats ready to do a trade while saying "drop it."
Make the focus of these short outings with your puppy be about sniffing and exploring while you maintain a loose leash. This is actually harder than it sounds given that puppies race off, then slam on their brakes for those assessments! Do your best to keep the leash loose, work on keeping your puppy walking on the inside of your body, away from street traffic, and allow sniffing. Don't worry so much about the "perfect heel;" worry instead about the quality of your puppy's exploration time away from home.
Finally, don't neglect mental exercise for your puppy! When your puppy isn't napping, out for a 10 minute walk, eating, or training, they should be doing some independent activity that keeps them busy. Interactive toys such as those from the Kong company, Busy Buddy, Starmark, and Outward Hound are designed to challenge dogs of all ages, rewarding them with treats/kibble for their efforts. Each of these manufacturers has a rating system for their interactive toys, allowing you to choose the ones that will work for the age of your dog. For puppies, begin with the easier interactive toys, like a basic Kong, for example. As they have success and gain confidence, you can work up to the harder puzzle toys. A good balance between physical and mental exercise is the key for us all, including our puppies.
As always, if you have questions about your pet's behavior, you know where to find me.
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