There’s so much debate on whether your dog should heel on walks or not. To be honest, who cares? Walk your dog however you see fit. It’s your dog and you “should” know what’s best for your individual dog; but I will pose a few questions below that may help your decision.
If you like your dog to heel the entire time you’re walking-cool-that’s a great accomplishment, keep it going. Just be sure to provide plenty of sniffing opportunities whether on leash or off leash. That’s the important factor, but sniffing does not have to be during your actual walking time. Also, check your dog’s energy- are they OK with heeling for the majority of the time? Are you feeling like it’s a forced heel or is your dog happy and relaxed? If you let go of the leash, would the dog maintain that heel for longer than 3 seconds? My Rhodesian Ridgeback falls into this category. He is happy to just be next to me all the time.
If you like for your dog to just maintain a loose leash while you are walking – cool – that’s a great accomplishment too, keep it going. Perhaps if you are in this category, you like to allow your dog to go in and out of position as they please. You may find that the choice to sniff when they choose actually reduces some of their anxiety. My Doberman Falls into this category. Unless he has had a run off leash before our walk, I don’t require that he walks in a heel the entire time, it is more frustrating for him and me. But that’s on me – because I have not given him what he needs in that moment, so we compromise and I allow him to walk on a loose leash. But here are a few factors to consider: Is the leash truly loose or is your dog pulling? Is your dog zigzagging all over the place and scanning the environment or is he calmly, joyfully sniffing? And most importantly-without conflict-could you easily get your dog’s focus at any time with or without distractions around?
So when I say do what is best for your dog, it’s important that you actually know your dog and his limitations and that training is a non-negotiable– we cannot use either one of these walking styles as an excuse for not providing proper leash training.
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