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Walking Kipawa - need your ideas

Basenji Training
  • KipawaK

    We now have a greyhound style collar, and that is working extremely well for tugging. However, Kipawa spends most of the walk sniffing the ground. I'd like his head up more.

    So, ideas from you folks on what to do? The new collar does go quite high up on the neck, but his nose is doing most of the work on our walks.

    Fran Harder, BAB

    With Barney in my heart

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  • M

    Mojo is a sniffer too. Cannot keep him from it. We live on the California Delta, and have a lot of ducks in the area- he sniffs them out of the bushes and tries to chase them. Lucky for them they can fly!!

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  • ?

    I notice that Sonny often walks with his nose on the ground when we go for our early morning walks for some reason…the bad thing is he isn't very good at it....he walks into things all the time :p

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  • tanzaT

    In your puppy classes are you doing things like "watch me?"… or have you tried doing targets? If you search the Forum, lvoss has posted many time about using a target (usually a finger). Or both can be done with clicker training. Also, many of us have this problem with puppies when we first want to show them... nose to the ground in the show ring (a big no...no... LOL). I use the watch me command along with a short correction and then praise when the head come up....

    Pat Fragassi

    Tanza Basenjis

    www.tanzabasenjis.net

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  • DebraDownSouthD

    I do 2 kinds of walks with my dogs, both do no permit pulling. On most walks, I like to use a longer leash and I allow them to sniff and do whatever… it is what is fun for them. On exercise walks, I make them heel and keep head up. That way they get that sometimes they can meander and sniff, other times it's business.

    I have never tried it, but I suspect you can teach sniff, then NO SNIFF lol.

    Debra

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  • S

    A treat in your hand, making your pup watch you when you walk, will help.
    But I do think our dogs need to get a chance to just walk/sniff…

    Sharron Hurlbut

    BRAT, basenji rescue

    Evergreen basenji club

    Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue

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  • lvossL

    There is a 3 part series of videos on You Tube about loose lead walking that is good, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSmOOcELgxU

    The high rate of reinforcement for head up should really help.

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  • KipawaK

    @lvoss:

    There is a 3 part series of videos on You Tube about loose lead walking that is good, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSmOOcELgxU

    The high rate of reinforcement for head up should really help.

    Thank you Ivoss. I will watch those.

    Fran Harder, BAB

    With Barney in my heart

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  • KipawaK

    @sharronhurlbut:

    A treat in your hand, making your pup watch you when you walk, will help.
    But I do think our dogs need to get a chance to just walk/sniff…

    Yes Sharron! When I hold a treat in my hand he really has his head up. I will work on this with Kipawa.

    Fran Harder, BAB

    With Barney in my heart

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  • KipawaK

    @DebraDownSouth:

    I do 2 kinds of walks with my dogs, both do no permit pulling. On most walks, I like to use a longer leash and I allow them to sniff and do whatever… it is what is fun for them. On exercise walks, I make them heel and keep head up. That way they get that sometimes they can meander and sniff, other times it's business.

    I have never tried it, but I suspect you can teach sniff, then NO SNIFF lol.

    We do both on our walks, free leash and then heeling. But I would love him to have his head up more during free leash walking.

    Fran Harder, BAB

    With Barney in my heart

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  • S

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    @SNA: Thank you very much for your comments. I probably have been expecting too much of her. I had a think about what had changed for her to be so obstinate, and I realised that I had been going without my kids. Good for me as it's less work, but my four year old, I realised, was excellent at getting her going again when she stopped, simply by walking ahead, and, if needed, calling her name. Taking my four year old son also means taking my 20 month old daughter in the sling, but at least we can do our 20-30 minute walk around the block. Now I just have to think of a way of convincing my once enthusiastic son who now complains of being tired and who doesn't want to go, of coming on the walk every day! LOL at carrying Dallas, I have to do that with Jessie nearly every time at the end too! Does your puppy have a favorite toy? If so put it in your back pocket and then put the leash on your pet and see how that works. Just make sure your pet cannot get it by jumping. In fact you can make a game of it by playing in your home with the toy and the dog for a about 5 mins before you walk. If your dog likes squeekie toys then you can also buy a replacement squeekie and keep it in your pocket. When you are walking and want the dogs attention you can squeek it inside your pocket. We use Martingale Collar's. Our Basenji seems to tolerate this style well. I also have noticed that leash control is very important when walking my Basenji. For that purpose I use a regular type 6 foot lead that I can wrap around my hand when I wish to take more control of my dog. I also have a very short lead ( about 2 feet or maybe less) that I use when I want the dog to concentrate on walking next to me. After my dog gets his business done, we are all about a constant pace walking. My perception is that if we are out for a walk to exercise him that we should concentrate on that aspect. I also have a 20 foot lead that I do use when we go on a leisure type walk. On that type of walk, I usually allow him to sniff and explore but I keep moving. He might run ahead slightly but then he will stop and wait and then do it again. The only time I use a flexie type or retractable leash is when I am going to let him have the room to run in a circle. Of course like any dog, the more rope or leash you give them the more they will take advantage of. My puppy does not walk perfectly, but what he does is pretty tolerable. After he does his business and we get our first 1 1/2 miles in, he settles down and gets the next 1 1/2 mile in quite nicely. Of course we did not start at that distance but we did start with at least a 1 to 1 1/2 miles when he was a little over 8 weeks old. After the walk, we worked on sit, stay, come, and lay down for about 10 to 15 mins. I always treated him with a couple of cheerio's or something similar directly after the walk. Actually he refused to drink any water until he got his cheerios. Hope this helps, Jason