Night time walk

[crysania4]

We bounded out of the apartment tonight. Me with happiness over going for a walk with my dog; Dahlia with a big grin at the sight and smell of more snow. We rushed down the steps as we often do. You see, walks are fun. Dahlia gets to race through the snow, stopping to sniff when she wants to and then rushing to catch up to me or racing ahead to find the next bit of interesting snow to stick her snout in.

And me? I get to laugh with pure joy at watching her. She makes me happy. Walks with her make me happy.

When we got down off the porch I saw my next door neighbor coming up the sidewalk with her German Shepherd, Krieger. "Stop," I said to Dahlia. She froze in place. Even her big doggy grin froze in place. I came up next to her and asked her to wait. We waited.

My next door neighbor has her dog on a choke chain or a prong collar. I can't recall which, but it ultimately doesn't matter. They serve the same purpose. Krieger stepped slightly away from her and toward us. She jerked him with the leash. Not instantly. But a few seconds after he moved.

He whined.

She jerked him again and turned to walk in the opposite direction, again jerking him when he didn't follow her.

Dahlia and I stood frozen to the spot for a moment and watched them walk off. Each time he moved away from her, she jerked him with it. And he whined. We would hear his whine from several houses down.

Finally, when they were far enough away, I released Dahlia. She immediately headed in the direction Krieger had gone.

I didn't want to go in that direction. I called to her. "Dahlia, wrong way!"

She turned on a dime and rushed back to me and then past me, sticking her face into the snow as she went.

And then we started the race down the path. Dahlia pausing to sniff, me calling excitedly to her and watching her race with joy to me.

The grin had returned.

As had mine.

Walks are a joyous time for Dahlia and I. We race along snow covered sidewalks. We trudge through snow-choked fields 2 or more feet deep. I let her off leash in the park to play the "wait/come" game and to play fetch with a snow-covered tennis ball. We jump and play. We meet other dogs and she plays.

I walk along with a smile on my face that matches Dahlia's. Walks are her time, but they're also for me. It's my time to watch my dog be a dog, my time to watch her enjoy herself.

Krieger doesn't have that joy. He moves with much anxiety, his back legs bunched up awkwardly as he moves down the sidewalk. My neighbor once told me that she's working "very hard" on his training. She walks with a scowl on her face and is continually fighting her dog. It's a war of wills. She's been told she has to be alpha. She believes it. And so it's a constant fight between her and her dog. She MUST win, you see. Or else he will control all.

I believe Dahlia and I are companions, that I take care of her, that we are partners in our joyous walks together. Training is fun. It should be fun. When it becomes not fun it's over.

We returned to the apartment the same way we left it, with smiles on our faces. Dahlia raced up the porch and into the house. I followed slightly behind, shutting the doors and turning off the lights.

My neighbor is still out with her dog, still struggling with him somewhere on her walk. It's not his. Never his.

Dahlia and I are happy and content inside after our lovely, companionable walk.

I like it that way.

Comments

[thd3.livejournal.com]

I despise those prong collars. We trained Mason with an EZ Walk harness and treats. Now, I can walk him with a regular leash, and he seldom pulls unless he sees a squirrel. (My partner, on the other hand, seems to have some difficulty walking with Mason.)

This morning, Mason let us sleep in until 8:45, almost a record.

http://thd3.livejournal.com/tag/mason

[petulant.livejournal.com]

Aww, this makes me want to go take Darce for another walk, haha! I love walking when the snow is falling and everything's quiet. And I love running when they plow the sidewalks to that consistency where it's almost like running through sand on the beach. Just, you know, with numb fingers. :P


And that is sad about Krieger and your neighbor, but prongs and choke chains do not serve the same purpose. Obviously whatever she was using, she was using incorrectly, but they don't serve the same purpose.

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure which she used...I thought they were kind of interchangeable -- which is the one you're supposed to jerk to get their attention/correct them? Chain I think? I guess I thought prongs were used that way too. Either way, I personally detest them both as most people here know by now!

I do think she's using a chain, but I can't remember what she said she was using and we don't get too close to them anymore. She won't let Krieger DO anything that dogs do.

She's apparently using the collar the way her trainer told her to use it. Ugh.

[petulant.livejournal.com]

Nope, they're not. The one you're supposed to jerk around is a choke chain. Even when they're used properly they can do some seeeerious damage. Prongs are self-correcting. As in, the dog pulls away, the prong action kicks in - you are NOT supposed to jerk a dog around when it has a prong on. Usually people aren't told how to use them, though. So they do. Just like they'll (CRINGE.) try and slip a prong on OVER A DOG'S HEAD instead of unlocking and re-clipping around the neck. Usually they're told to put it high on the neck, too, right behind the ears - "where it's the most sensitive". Also incorrect.

Neither are optimal, obviously, but even though a prong looks like a medieval device, it's actually preferable when used properly. Both can damage the neck - but so can using something like the EZ walk head harness like what was mentioned above, you know? Anything is bad in the wrong hands (well, except for choke chains, which are bad whenever!).

Either way, it's sad that she is just blindly listening to a (n incompetent) trainer's advice instead of doing her own research and finding her own path. If she had read up on everything and decided that a choke was the way to go, I'd still think she was an idiot, but I'd have the smallest bit of respect for her as well.


And by the way - I view my friends page in my style so I rarely see the journal layouts of my friends - until I come back and reply to a comment in my inbox. That new photo you have of Dahlia as your top photo is GORGEOUS!

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I change the photo up there every couple months, but I just love that one so it's been there for awhile.

I view everyone's in my own layout too so I miss stuff like that.

I do think it's a chain not a prong -- from a distance it didn't have the outline a prong would have, seemed more buried in the fur like a chain.

What kills me is she signed up for a positive class at the same place I took an agility class. But then her fucking VET told her that she needed a different trainer, someone who could show her how to be alpha because "GSDs are alpha dogs and need a controlling pack leader" or some such other BS. So she quit the class and found this other trainer who uses old style techniques and chains and buys into all the alpha ideas.

Krieger is just unhappy. I want to steal him from her for a few weeks and work with him on positive training. She has such an awesome thing to do it with too -- he is SO ball driven that it would be a huge reward for him. He's a very smart, very driven dog. He'd be easy to train. Instead she's in a constant fight with him and it just saddens me to see him so anxious.

I don't trust him around Dahlia anymore, sadly. He's being treated too harshly and that makes me nervous.

[petulant.livejournal.com]

The more I read about various vets (on these here internets, haha) the more grateful I am for mine. She knows her stuff and respects that I know (at least sort of!) what I'm doing and that I've done my research so if I have an idea or I'm switching foods or whatever she listens, and the entire office - she's in a practice of six women - endorses only truly awesome boarding kennels, only positive training training facilities, etcetc. It doesn't hurt that Darce adores her!


Anyway, I hear you. My parents' next-door neighbor that I wrote about? Their dog, Guinness, is ALWAYS on a prong. Not only that, but he's on a chain leash. Like, you'd think you were on a city block with an unneutered bully with a guy at the end of the leash trying to look as badass as possible when in reality it's a Chocolate Lab who's basically still a puppy (maybe almost two years old?) who they just haven't bothered to train.

Luckily now that things have cooled off between us a bit, she's taking me up on my offer to bring Guinness out to the tie-out I have for Darce in my parents' backyard (yeah, yeah, I know your opinion on tie-outs, too. :P He's only ever out there on it when I'm mowing the lawn for them or something and can't keep an eye on him off-leash.) so he can romp around in the snow with Darce.
She actually asked me, when we were planning on having me pick him up the next time I'm over, if she should put him on the pinch or his leather collar - for a TIE-OUT. Good lord, lady. Anyway, I'm going to bring my clicker and see if she'd be down with me using some chicken to teach him a few manners when I have him for an hour or so. Of course I can't word it like that because she'd be horribly offended, but whatever. I'm just hoping he's like most labs - dopey and strong but intelligent under it all with good bidability - so that he learns quick and she asks for some at-home help.

I mean, it's just common sense to me (and probably to you) - if you see a dog doing something your dog doesn't do that you want it to do, even if it's as basic as behaving nicely on a leash, or being off-leash in your own yard, or, I don't know, whatever! - why wouldn't you ask the owner of that dog how they did it? In other words (to sound really snotty) - why don't my parents' next-door neighbors ask me for training help when their method clearly isn't working and why doesn't your neighbor ask you for help with Krieger when her techniques clearly aren't working. It boggles the mind.

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

Oh I have no problem with tie outs unless they're misused. I put Dahlia out on one when we're out on the porch and my parents have always put their dog out on one (sometimes not paying that much attention which worries me but it's never been a problem). It's when people chain them out there for hours that irks me.

There was a GSD I found running loose recently with a prong collar on. Turns out they just leave him out back in a fenced in yard wearing that thing. And guess what? He can leap the fence. Wearing a prong collar. ARGH.

Some people are SO arrogant and that drives me nuts. I agree completely that if you see a dog doing something awesome, ask. I bet the owner would be thrilled to tell you how they taught Fifi to do X Y or Z.

[yesididit.livejournal.com]

i've always felt that the walks were for puppys benefit, so i walked him on a flexi leash and let him wander from side to side sniffing everything. i'd wait on him if he found a particularly good smell. he has a great recall on leash and would come back to my side whenever other people or dogs passed by. i just really enjoy his enthusiasm, you know?. now that i have molly i cant walk him on his flexi leash without getting tied up. i walk them on a shorter split leash, and i do try to let them sniff what they want even if it means walking ME back and forth on the path behind them. but the have to wear prong collars otherwise they'd both take off after a bunny dragging me behind them. even so, i dont jerk the leash. its uncalled for. my dogs will answer me if i tell them to 'wait' or to 'come' and they'll do it with enthusiasm. i dont have to be alpha or dominant. they listen to me because they like to please. they like being told they're good doggies, to get treats, or be petted. they think having my attention is reward enough. and NOT having my attention certainly seems to be punishment enough to train away bad behaviors. i prefer to have happy eager dogs than nervous frightened dogs.

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

Yes! Happy, eager dogs. That's what I want. I think I'd have to stop the flexi with more than one too as it seems like that's a disaster waiting to happen. But if I had two, I'd gladly let them stop and sniff still. I hate watching Krieger looking so darned anxious and unhappy. What a horrible life to be punished for acting like a dog. I mean, he wants to sniff, he gets jerked. He wants to stop, he gets jerked. He can't even be a darned dog without getting punished. What is the point in having a dog if you don't want it to be a dog???

[yesididit.livejournal.com]

exactly! i think its funny watching puppy try to sniff every single thing possible. he has to keep moving because theres OH! so much more stuff to sniff! i wonder how he chooses where to sniff, what makes him go from one side of the path to the other?

my dad told me that for dogs, sniffing while out on a walk is like reading the newspaper. they get to find out who has been where and whats been happening. i've always liked that analogy.

i suppose perhaps my idea of walks is different than some peoples being as i have a yard. the dogs can do their business whenever they like, so walks are for burning off energy and enjoyment. and in puppys case, sniffing as many things as doggedly possible.

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

We don't have a yard so walks are two-fold -- business + fun. We usually have a couple of short pee walks a day which are just for business (but she still enjoys those short walks) and long ones are for enjoyment and everything else too. Not having a yard doesn't mean walks aren't for fun!

[dogologist.livejournal.com]

I want to come walking with you!

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

I love walking with my dog! It's freaking awesome, even when it's 8 degrees outside with a windchill below 0!