Join Me For a Dog Walking Tutorial!

I'm excited to announce that I will be doing a one hour, dog walking class with a select group of dog owners!  We are likely to do this more than once, so if you can't make it the first time around, I'll try to set up a second outing.  This tutorial will be held on the weekend, likely a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to accommodate the most people and pups.  Here are the details on who can join me and how to sign up:

1.  No aggressive dogs this time around, please.  We will have some impressionable puppies on these walks, recent graduates of my puppy class.  We want them to have a positive group walking experience!

2.  Any aged dog is welcome!  If you are coming with a puppy, please make sure your veterinarian is okay with you bringing him or her to a group event.

3.  Multiple humans welcome!  If more than one person in your family walks your dog, please feel free to have them join you.

4.  Yes, if you are a multi-dog household, all of your dogs can attend, you will just need to have one human for each canine and sign them up individually to participate.

5.  We will be meeting at a centrally located park in the East Bay, just a few minutes off of Hwy 680.  I've chosen this park because it has shade, grass, trees, walking trails, ample parking, and lots of activity for us to work around. Specific details and directions to the park will be sent out to the participants once they've signed up.

6.  All dogs will need to be on 6-8 foot leashes, non-retractable. Any collar or harness is fine, but if you haven't found the right one yet, bring everything you have and we will try to figure out what will work best!  

7. Definitely bring treats (high value and low value, as defined by your dog, of course).

8. We will start our meetup with introductions and a warm up exercise.  When you arrive, please stand on your dog's leash to keep them from pulling and give each other space to group together comfortably.

We will be together for an hour which will actually be a lot for your dogs, so bring water!  We will talk about expectations versus reality when it comes to walking dogs (they want to sniff, and you want to walk!).  We will practice maneuvering around obstacles and each other, how to pass other humans with and without dogs, and how to stand and have a conversation with someone without your dog getting antsy or losing their mind! We will practice polite behavior around bicycles, skateboards, etc. and learn how to keep our dogs from jumping on people they meet, tangling us in the leash, and pulling us down the street.  We will focus on lure training, that is luring our dogs into the behaviors we'd like them to demonstrate.

Finally, you don't have to be an existing client of mine to be able to participate in this experience.  If you know me, follow me on social media, or are a friend of someone I know, that's great!  The more the merrier and I love working with new people. 

To sign up, simply comment on this post or message me through Facebook, Instagram, or Threads. You can also just email my office directly, k9freud@gmail.com and I'll add you to my list. I think this will be a fun, productive, and entertaining way to kick off the holiday season.  My plan is to get this under your belts the beginning of November before you get really busy, and then do a second group walk after the New Year.  Hope to see you there!

As always, if you have questions about your pet's behavior, you know where to find me.

Here's Henley, post-walk, taking some quiet time to chew on a bone, loose leash visible, while I visit with a friend and have a cup of coffee.  We've been working toward this moment for months and he's getting really good at chilling out and hanging out without constantly pestering me for attention.