HOW CAN I WALK TWO DOGS SAFELY?

Walking two dogs at once can be a pretty tricky task especially if those dogs are scanning and hunting for triggers and behaving reactively. Eliminating reactivity (mental arousal) before it starts by not allowing them to ‘load up’ (stare) on triggers is how we want to keep our dogs calm and tuned into the handler. By also keeping the dogs in command at all times, we can make that job even smoother for ourselves by not allowing the dogs the freedom to wander around or get distracted by the environment when they should be working for the handler.

It takes a lot of work from us handler’s to cultivate a calm, structured and polite walk but the benefits are ten fold because we are also conditioning the dogs to function in a much calmer headspace which will translate to other areas of their lives! On the flip side, if we the handlers are allowing pulling/excited/impulsive/reactive/rudeness on the walk then these behaviours/attitudes will translate to the other areas of the dogs life as well. So, we need to be very conscious of how we are conditioning our dogs to behave based on what we allow and don’t allow them to do.