Teaching your dog to walk politely on its leash takes time, practice, consistency and patience. In addition to training you need to think about the equipment that you are using to walk your dog. If your dog pulls a lot when you are walking them, one of the tools that is very effective is a harness where the leash attaches to the “D” ring on the dog’s chest. The harness I usually recommend is an Easy Walk Harness. Traditional harnesses where the leash attaches to the dogs back encourage them to pull harder because of the opposition reflex which causes the dog to pull against the pressure. When the leash is attached to a dogs chest this helps to stop pulling by steering the dog to the side and redirecting his attention towards you. The most important thing is for the harness to be fitted snuggly, meaning that you can only put two fingers underneath the harness all the way around. Once it is fitted correctly, the harness will sit properly on the dogs body and will move in motion with the dog whereas if it is fitted loosely can cause uncomfortable chaffing. Additionally once fitted correctly for example, if your dog pulls out of a six-foot leash, the harness will pull them to one side and the dog will soon learn that pulling does not get them to that smell or to that thing any faster and encourages them to walk beside you.

If your dog pulls, lunges or jumps at people, other dogs, joggers or cyclists that go by, then you need to think about trying something else. What I recommend to my clients in these cases is the Gentle Leader Head Collar. The Gentle Leader is not a muzzle so your dog can eat, drink, bark and pant while wearing it. But as it is a head collar, you have complete control of the dogs head so if your dog wants to jump or lunge or pull, it simply can’t. The fit of the head collar is very important and the straps fitted high behind the dogs ears must be snug in order for the head collar to do its job and to prevent chaffing around the ears. Also, with this type of equipment how you acclimate your dog to wearing it is equally important and should be done over a period a time. Once your dog gets accustomed to it, it will be so much easier to redirect them away from triggers helping your walks to be more pleasurable. You as the owner are empowered to communicate positively and effectively what you want your dog to do and therefore making you feel more confident about walking your dog outside rather than stressed and worried.

One of the most important considerations that you need to take into account when thinking about getting a dog or when you have a dog is that no matter what size your dog is, they all need daily exercise. If you are considering a pure breed dog, think about the exercise requirements that the breed type requires and be honest with yourself about whether you can sustain those requirements for the rest of the dogs life or if you have the resources to employ a dog walker or send it to doggie daycare or a combination of both. Similarly, if you are looking at a rescue dog, get as much information about the breeds that the dog may be mixed with to give you an idea of the amount of exercise it may need. In terms of actual exercise, a good walk around the neighborhood allowing your dog to sniff is great. Remember to change your routes daily as some dogs can become territorial over a particular area if you only walk them there. Take them to the local park, walk them around and maybe play a game of fetch. If you take them to the dog park remember to give them about a twenty-minute brisk walk beforehand so that all of their pent up energy doesn’t get thrown onto the dogs in the dog park, especially first thing in the morning when they have rested overnight and are full of energy!

Hiking is also great activity for dogs particularly as they have an opportunity to take in plenty of different scents, which for a dog, would be like going to Disney World! Remember though that you should only start to hike with dogs after the age of one-year old when their joints and bones have formed properly.  Jogging is also a good form of exercise but here again, only start jogging with your dog after it is one-year old so that it’s bones and joints are formed properly.  Remember to build dogs up to the distance that you would normally run. Don’t assume that your dog can just do it automatically. Just as humans have to begin to jog gradually, dogs are no different as they need to build up their stamina. Also, before you begin jogging as you do with yourself, remember to warm your dog up first by walking them briskly for about fifteen minutes. This allows them to toilet and maybe get a little sniffing done. Then after your jog has finished, cool them down by walking  them for around fifteen minutes again so that you bring down their adrenalin levels and avoid having a highly aroused dog afterwards.  Other fun activities to consider are agility, flyball, swimming (a great activity especially for senior dogs), tracking and many more.

Dog’s are very intelligent animals and as well as physical exercise they also need mental enrichment.  Ways in which you can mentally enrich your dog can include obedience training, puzzle toys, a stuffed Kong, agility training, nose work, playing hide and seek, and trick training. All of these activities engage your dogs brain getting them to think about how to solve something and if you are doing this along with the physical activity the end result will be a tired dog. Exercise and mental enrichment are such an important part of any dog’s life for them to stay healthy, well balanced, prevent obesity, and it also helps with preventing behavioral problems such as barking, chewing, digging and other destructive behaviors and also helps to alleviate stress and anxiety.