By Barry Woods ('Mr Bones')
I recommend thinking of a walk as containing four quadrants that increase responsiveness, promote calm and build a great bond between you and your dog. These quadrants are interspersed liberally throughout the walk, don’t worry about focussing on each one individually.
I tend to teach new activities at home with fewer distractions, then gradually take them outside to quiet locations. You’ll find that once your dog really understands what’s going on, and has had lots of practice, the techniques will become second nature in new and stimulating environments.
Games with You
Devote time on the walk to playing with your dog, finding games that they love. I avoid high-arousal games that release extra adrenaline, such as repetitive ball chasing. This is because adrenaline is a stress hormone that impairs learning and prevents our dogs from making good choices! They are far more likely to run off, ignore you, chase wildlife when already amped up on adrenaline.
These are some of the games that we play:
Find It! – Simply scatter treats into the grass and ask your dog to “Find It”, praise for finding them. Sniffing and seeking lowers adrenaline and releases calming endorphins. It is highly enriching and also tiring. When your dog understands the “Find It” cue you can make the game more difficult. Ask your dog to find one treat, when they’re searching for it throw a second so they can’t see where it lands. Praise for finding the first then immediately ask to “Find It” so they need to use their nose to locate the second. Don’t interfere while your dog is searching, only help if your dog stops and looks to you for assistance.
Cheesy Trees – amaze your dog with your ability to find the amazing trees that grow cheese! Mild cheddar is great for squishing and sticking. I squash three small pieces around a tree at slightly different heights to encourage my dog to search up and down. Recall your dog and then give the “Find It” cue. You’ll be surprised how your cheese finding skills start to improve your dog’s recall.
Doggy Parkour – we know how our Eurasiers love to climb. Encourage them onto tree stumps or benches, lure them up with a treat if necessary. Teach them to jump over logs by following a treat initially, put it on cue, “Over!”. Eventually work on your “Wait” and then cue them “Over!”. Dogs under 18 months shouldn’t be encouraged to do too much jumping as their growth plates won’t have closed. We can teach them to commando crawl under benches by asking for a “Down” and then luring them along while in that position.
Hide ‘n’ Seek – pop behind trees when your dog isn’t looking, wait for them to notice you’re no longer there and then call them. You’ll find they start checking in a lot more often when they realise you can disappear!
Fun Training
Be sure to put some fun training into your walk to build value for when you really need it. Keep it light, remember training is something we do WITH our dogs, not TO our dogs. It should be enjoyable for both of you.
Recall – scatter lots of mini-recalls throughout your walk, especially when your dog is most likely to succeed. Reward highly then tell your dog to go play again. Don’t make the mistake of only using recalls to call your dog away from fun, this will make your recall toxic. Avoid asking your dog to sit when they return as you will then be rewarding the sit, not the recall.
Wait – build lots of value in your waits outside. Start in very low distraction environments. You may need to just build some duration before even trying to move away. I love to join up our skills so will combine waits with recall, or call my dog into heel position and reward for walking to heel, or simply return to him to reward for remaining still.
Can you teach my favourite, a stand/wait? I love working in the stand position, when dogs are on all four paws they’re more likely to do something undesirable.
Spin/Twist – lure your dog in a circle with a treat, reward when they complete the circle. Repeat this a few times, then move your empty hand as though you still have a treat in it. When the dog completes the circle reward from your other hand. You have now taught a spin to a hand signal. Teach a twist by turning the dog in the other direction, you don’t want a dizzy dog!
Distance work – when your dog really responds to the three positions outside, (sit, down, stand), then try giving your cues one step further away from them. Once successful, try two steps away. Over time build your distance so your dog learns to respond when you’re a couple of metres away.
Settle
Spend some time just sitting and relaxing, read a book, look at your phone, check out from your dog. We want them to learn to be calm while you’re busy doing something else. Teach them to settle close to you by keeping them on lead. I often just step on the lead. You may have to reward calm behaviour intermittently at first. I do this by just placing a treat without looking at my dog. I try to do this when he’s not looking at me as I don’t want the exercise to be about anticipating food. As always, set your dog up for success. Start teaching this somewhere quiet. I start all of my training at home before taking it to different locations, gradually increasing distractions.
Let a dog be a dog!
Our final, and highly important, quadrant is to simply let a dog be a dog. Give them time to sniff, take in their environment, explore, run off-lead, visit new locations. Watching my dog doing what he enjoys brings me most joy on my walks.
