Walking the Dog

If dogs had a natural environment like their cousins coyotes and wolves, they would migrate through their territory every day. Here in the mountains, we sometimes get a glimpse of wild dog behavior with the resident coyotes.

One winter we had an adult male trot up the road every morning around 8am. You could just about set your clock by him. He was checking out the rabbit population which was rather sparse that year. We kept our gate shut, so he didn't bother trying to get the free range chickens behind the wire fence--just went about his business of survival.

Our Irish wolfhound cross, Duncan, thrives on his twice daily walks. One first thing in the morning after we feed the horses and another in the afternoon to the mailbox a half mile down the road. There's a place on the walk home where he's required to be before we get there. If we see he's off with his nose down a hole, we'll start running to the neighbor's fence corner to beat him. When he sees us moving faster, he starts like a greyhound and ususally beats us to the post. He's just so pleased with himself when he makes it and looks rather embarassed (if a dog is capable of such emotion) when we beat him to it. It's a game and one he likes to win.

When we make the behaviors that we require from our dogs into games, we all can enjoy the challenge. It's also hard to get angry when we're laughing and puffing--trying to beat a dog that was bred to run.

So make a game of your training. Your dog will learn faster and you'll both have a better day.