Training High Energy Dogs – Part Two

Part Two – The Structured Walk

Do you have a dog that is manic for the first 5-10 minutes of your? Dog they pull you down the street? If yes then, make sure you pop over and read PART ONE in this series to see how “Pre-walk” training and games can help you before you even leave the house hereHow To Train High Energy Dogs Part 1 – Now let’s look at two types of structured walk you can do after you have set aside fifteen minutes to do something e,she with your dog (see previous post).

The Structured Walk Number One

Let’s remember why we are walking the dog, first and foremost, I would hope everyone would agree, it’s for the dogs benefit. It’s your dogs walk and yours second. If we keep that at the front of minds we can then also remember that what we might want to do in that walk might not actually be what that dog wants to do on that walk.

What is a structured walk I hear you cry? It’s a very distinct set of things we are actively trying to encourage at specific times of the walk for a very specific reason. It’s not very complicated I promise. It will however require a little bit of pre-empting on your part, that’s all.

There are five questions I want you ask yourself before we start;

1- What type of personality does my dog have (boisterous, confident, shy, nervous, under confident)?

2-What’s does my dog love to do (digging, sniffing, movement, praise)?

3-What training do they already know?

4- What can we be working on to ,are this more enjoyable for us both (does my dog know- “Yes”, “Drop”, “This Way” “Look”)?

5- What venue can we walk in to achieve our structured walk today (do I need the car?, is there a quiet open field I can use? Will an extended walk in my local area suffice?).

That’s it five things to consider and I will come back to the last point in a minute.

Id your dog number ONE who might really really enjoy sniffing , they get in “trouble” for constantly

Why these five things?

Firstly knowing our dogs personality type and their likes and dislikes means we can start to see the walk from their perspective. You might think that “around the block” walks are boring to you but to your dog who might be shy it could be a way of getting and using their nose in a familiar environment one in which you’ve practiced how we move away from anything that is scary or perhaps we have done a lot of look/look away training on this route so they no longer have to be super vigilant, as an example. On their hand overly confident dogs who need to learn to be calmer might benefit from “setup” walks in real life places but with very little distractions. They might not be ready for the dog park just yet but perhaps they can cope if they look at the dog park from far away.

It’s important to know what your specific dog likes to do because we can use that to our advantage to make their walks more interested h and also can help get more engagement when we are out and about trying to train. For example if my dog is a superstar sniffer I would incorporate almost the entire walk to Scent-work so that I could wean them off of high energy activities all together or my crazy spaniel might not get a lot from walking around the block on a lead but might excel of search and find activities in a small pocket of woodlands that may require very little “walking to the venue”. I could let myself off the hook for the dreaded lead walk for this dog and begin training AFTER they let off steam in the woods.

Utilise what they already know. Does my dog know a sold “drop”, brilliant let’s play some retrieve games in the woods (proper search and find games). My dog reliably knows “hand touch” awesome, let’s ask him to do that as part of his loose lead training so we can reduce the amount of treats we give him or lastly my dog knows “find it”, brilliant let’s play “Find it” on the way home – work with what you’ve got and add skills in.

Which leads me to – what can we add to make this more enjoyable. There’s a lot to be said for basic life skills with your dog, my top ten go to cues I use every single day in multiple groups of dogs are “yes” as a marker word, “This Way”, “Look” “Walk On” “Wait” “Here” (for loose lead) “What’s This” “Drop” “Come” & “Find It”. If your dog doesn’t know any of these , get working on them very soon. **

** I would also say number one thing is to learn to handle a lead better and work on your ability to give rewards precisely and in a timely fashion, without getting tangled**

Lastly we need to set our dogs and ourselves up for success. If our dogs find the front door duper exciting try to desensitise it or change the exit you are using. If we have a nervous dog don’t force them to go on busy loud street walks without building up to it and also don’t take reactive dogs to a place that they might see a plethora of people or dogs in high frequency. Also find quieter places for over excited teenage dogs so they can learn to stay calm and don’t expect them to make go decisions in that last five feet or so between meeting new dogs and new people. If in doubt create space by moving on. Be vigilant, look for you exits and entrances , look for street furniture you can use to calm your down down behind whilst people walk past and start thinking about your walks from your dogs perspective and not your own. Sure it’s convenient to go to the nearest green space and throw a ball a hundred times to create a tired dog. I would then say have they been physically and mentally challenged but the time you spent with them? If not then some simple mindful things can be added to get a dog that loves their walks with you and that you enjoy more as a result.

Structured Walk Number Two

We should also remember that with a structured walk we are getting rid of the “stress” having to take our dogs on a super exciting adventure or rushing the walk just to get it out of the way for forty five minutes instead let’s say that forty five minute looked like this-

PRE-TRAINING (15 minutes) – GO SOMEWHERE QUIETER – FOR OUR WALK OR EVEN AROUND THE BLOCK SNIFFY WALK (15 minutes)- TRAIN ON THE WAY BACK TO THE CAR OR FIND IT ACTIVITIES ON THE WAY BACK (15 minutes) – HOME TIME.

You can see with this structure not only have we reduced the actual amount of “walking” we have had to down to thirty minutes instead but we have actually added more engaging activities.

The pre training has gotten that start of the walk energy out, going somewhere in the car or going somewhere predictable helps keep your dogs arousal levels to a minimum as much as possible and also sets you both up to have a less stressful walk. This part of the walk is the actual excersise part of the walk and can include sniffing to engage a different part of their brain so they can potentially be physically and mental tired to the point that they are more likely to concentrate (even in short bursts) on your training activity to have planned. The training/ Find It part of the walk calms their brain down from the previous high energy activity. It’s why I don’t encourage constant high energy games such as fetch or a ball flinger, not only does it injure knees and joints galore you are essentially creating a dopamine addict, who, without some sort of structure on his way back from the walk will sometimes go home and still be “wired” from walk because he hasn’t had chance to come down the other side of his high. I would offer that we do this with a handful of find it games & retrieve games to engage his nose, as calm licking or chewing can help bring those hormones back down below an unsafe threshold. *

*Please not I am not saying you should never through a ball for your dog again, but I am saying don’t spend the whole “walk” throwing a ball flinger or a frisbee until the dog is flat out tired. I am saying throw it a few handful of times and put it away in favour of a few different activities instead.

So structured walk one is for dogs that are not reactive in any way and are perhaps just a high energy working dog who often can fall into the habit of pulling, lead grabbing or needs lots of stimulation to prevent boredom. These dogs benefit from ; PRETRAINING/A FUN WALK WITH MINIMAL DISTRACTIONS AND LIKELY ONE-TO-ONE ATTENTION from the handler (no getting distracted with these dogs please a as they thrive from quick timing and lead handling skills. These dogs are quick learners and so much you be. THEN TRAINING IS MOTIVATING AND REINFORCING & LASTLY ANY FORM OF SNIFFING OR SCENT-WORK TO HELP THEM CALM DOWN.

Structured walk number two – is for those more nervous dogs that need you go slower or who struggle in new environments. I would like you to structure your walks so that they become SAFE & PREDICTABLE. By all means we want to build up to what these dogs can do and cope with over time but to get them there quicker we want to make them feel that this walk is safe because we do this then this then this. Step by step. Your walk might start with a confidence boost at home in the for, of training or an easy find task for fifteen minutes then if lead walking is scary then simply start with “look/look away” sorts of training on your front lawn or in the driveway. We want these dogs to just look at the world around them – they will naturally be hyper vigilant and look at everything in their environment anyway. Let them take it all in. You will likely not get far with these dogs in terms of distance but that’s ok too. These walks are about building confidence for the dog and your ability to handle them in “scary situations”. Graduate out into the street of to a preferred quite spot where they can sniff and explore at their own pace for fifteen to twenty minutes and then dog some training on the way back if they are feeling up to it. Don’t drag these dogs around allow them to stop if they hear a loud vehicle passing but or a boisterous child on the other side of the road, encourage “Look/Look away” on their own. They will walk on when they are ready. Actively encourage sniffing on the way home to let off some of their “mental steam”. You will find these dogs are mentally exhausted and you could add another game when you get home again when they feel safe to aid in getting them physically tired as well. Ending your time with a nice licki Mat or something similar. These walks look like this,

PRE-TRAINING (15 minutes)/ ENGAGE DISENGAGE WORK NEAR THE HOME AND PREDICTABLE WALK(10-15 minutes)/SNIFFING AND FIND IT ON THE WAY HOME (10-15 minutes) – PLUS AT HOME GAME /LICKI OR SNUFFLE MAT TO FINISH.

As you can see there could be so much more to the way in which you walk your dog. I want everyone to enjoy dog walks again. Instead of hiding your dog away from the world because they are too excitable or too reactive etc etc, let’s start to implement completely doable activities for your specific dog so that you can start to enjoy walks again with your best friend. Dogs are constantly learning so let’s help them to go out in the world again with structure that is on purpose for our high energy dogs that find themselves expected to be “pets” without having their own needs met first.

If you enjoyed this post please keep on eye out for the third and final part in this series of How To Train High Energy Dogs – next time I will be looking at places or venues we can utilise that will actually help our high energy dogs to work up to more distraction environments in regards to getting and keep their focus whilst on a walk. In the mean time please check out my previous post Pre Training High Energy Dogs here.

Love from your friendly neighbourhood dog trainer Sara. X

Ps if you would like to work with me in person or online please feel free to contact me here Contact Sara Here