CAT | Judy
Yesterday, I walked around Evergreen Lake with just Yazzie and Ryder. Good walk, confronted strangers with dogs and made it through without difficulty.
Today was a little different story… We decided to change it up, Claudia took Rookie, Relay, and Yazzie and I walked with the boys (Duce, Jax, and Ryder). The early going was a little rough and undisciplined. We were able to control the situation, and after a few yards they settled down and concentrated on the task at hand…the walk!!
We have started out by walking at least three times a week for at least 45 minutes. The first few times were a little crazy and the dogs snarled, jerked, pulled, and acted stupid, eventually settling down to walk. Today, we walked around the recreation center lake in the fog. The sidewalk is very wide and we were able to walk abreast! All six dogs side by side! WOW!!! They are still snappy towards each other, but while walking they are paying attention to what is in front of them, not who is at their side. This could be a breakthrough!!
Interestingly, some of our biggest challenges came not from our dogs, but other people who did not have their dogs under control (people talking on the cell phone, their dogs pulling on their flexie leashes, and generally out of control).
A good friend and I, both certified dog-a-holics, could not understand why our dogs did not like each other. Between the two of us, we have 6 fiesty Australian Shepards and one rescue dog (our honorary Aussie). All of our dogs are different ages with the oldest being nine years of age and the youngest one year old. We have three males and four females. Five dogs belong to Claudia (Breeze, Relay, Rookie, Jax, and Duce) and two belong to me (Yazzie and Ryder). We joke about the dogs’ personality shortcomings. Labeling them: “The Fun Police,” “The Paw of Justice,” “Goofball,” and other not so complimentary names.
If they can not be best friends, we hope our dogs at the very least would not try to eat each other. After reading many dog behavior articles and watching hours of Animal Planet programs on behavior, we knew that walking as a pack was one way to achieve stability. So we decided that long walks would be good discipline and one way to let the dogs get used to each other. We hope you enjoy following our journey!
Note: Do not try this at home. All of our dogs are highly trained in their home situations, knowing all of the Basic FUNdamentals and having advanced training in Agility. Both handlers have years of experience training their dogs.
