On Decompression Walks and Training (Patreon)

One of the members of the DoggyU community recently sent in a video with some notes that included a note saying that they believe their dog isn’t getting enough exercise (which bravo for recognizing this! We’ve all been there!) . This is primarily because they are struggling with focus/reactivity on walks, which makes walking unpleasant (punishing to the human, for sure!).

I get it!

While I don’t struggle with reactivity, I do have a dog (Jake) that doesn’t appreciate being run up to by other dogs, and will end any fight that’s started with him. This means I have to be judicious about where/how/when I walk him. Jake is nearly 12 and he is who his is; well-trained but still cranky about strange dogs in his personal space in his old age. This means I’m constantly on a quest to find little gems of places that aren’t highly-populated.

I also have plenty of clients (both dogs and humans) who find walking on a 6 ft leash relatively unenjoyable. You’ll never see a dog naturally walking for long distances in a straight line without stopping to sniff and veering off course. Can they be taught to do it? Of course! But it’s just that, something that has to be trained, maintained and worked on constantly.

At the same time, walking, exploring new environments, etc. is a critical part of a dog’s well-being, and a component of my daily training plan. Dogs live through their noses and satisfy their curiosity that way helps them be more available for me to train. An under-exercised dog has a harder time focusing and being available for training.

You may be surprised to know that my own two dogs rarely walk in heel position with me during walks. In fact, they nearly never do except for short bits while we’re out if I’m passing people and am unable to move off-trail. Training walks are separate from our daily walks, and training walks are in public with specific training goals. Daily decompression walks are for the dogs (and for me) and that means making them pleasant. A pleasant walk for me includes a little bit of training, but mostly soaking in my environment and decompressing. So a daily walk is nearly always on a long-line (or off-lead if safe/legal), 10-30 ft in length, attached to a non-restrictive harness. Using a long-line significantly decreases pulling, and I can even use up to a 50 ft line (with good line management) if a dog needs extra space. I drive to a place where I know there are few dogs, at weird times if possible, ideally on a wooded trail or open field space where I can see other dogs approaching and move off the trail or change direction. I walk the dogs for 45 minutes to a couple hours but most typically for 60 minutes on weekdays. I want to walk for long enough for the dogs to start offering and soliciting my attention. That means they’ve really had a good sniff. During that walk, the dogs sniff, roll, jog, run for short bits, stop, splash in water and occasionally get recalled to me, or asked for a short stay. But mostly, the dogs are dogs. When the walk is done, the dogs are satisfied, and so am I, and I did very little work/management which is what I want after a long day of making money to pay for dog food!

Is it annoying to have to load the dogs in the car to go to a spot where I can accomplish this walk? You betcha!

Do I like doing it in the rain/snow (insert crappy regional weather here)? Well, not the rain so much but I love that no one else is out there when the weather is less than ideal! (There’s no bad weather, just inappropriate clothing for that weather ;))

Do I expect you to do this daily? Not at first. Even a few times a week is a great start! But be careful because it can get addicting!

But honestly, when I got Jake 11+ years ago now, this type of walk was what he needed. I brought a 2 year old working dog (we’re talking the kind of dog that could run 7 miles with me and come home and ask me what we were doing next!) into my house, he didn’t chose this for himself. And at first, it was a lot. But when I saw the benefits of decompression walks on building his confidence, bonding with me, and the result of a better-behaved animal to live with, I was hooked. Now I feel weird if I don’t get in my daily decompression walk with my dogs.

So if you’re not getting in regular decompression walks with your dogs, I challenge you to give it a try. Buy a 30 ft line (I’ll put a link to the one I use in the comments), find a trail, (or even some empty soccer fields to start!) and let your dog do dog stuff, and you do human stuff, and see how you feel :) Would love to hear about it!

Tips for finding areas for decompression walks:

• Start at schoolyards and soccer fields that are likely nearby and easily accessed with good visibility
• Look for town land, open space, national forest, state land and similar
• Find local reservoirs and check to see if they have wide dirt paths around them
• Look for bridle paths (tend to be wider), as well as areas where organized hunting happens. These tend to have open fields with good visibility
• Hunting spots tend to be great in the off-season as they are usually very lightly traveled.
• If you can’t find these spaces, look for little-traveled roads in your town, or even large company or industrial parks.
• Other ideas? Drop them below for the community!

Happy Walking!