Ruining your dog's walk

BY | July 30 | COMMENTS PUBLISHED BY

Image Credits: Pixabay

For your dog, the daily walk could be the highlight of its day. The walk provides your dog much more than a bathroom break. It enjoys mental stimulation and physical exercise. The activity also assists the canine to know what is going on in the neighborhood. Remember, you are there to accompany the dog in its walk. The comfort should come from the animal. As a dog owner, you have to avoid a few mistakes.

Make it do its thing in a hurry

Prodding the dog during its bathroom break. For dogs, doing its thing is an important decision. It is not simply about relieving themselves; it is also the matter of communicating with the world. A dog uses urine to signal their presence to others of their kind. When a dog smells another, a lot of information gets conveyed, like health, gender, and age. This system keeps the dogs of any neighborhood abreast of what is happening in their locality. Dogs like to sniff out where other dogs have been to. Then they leave a fresh poo on the top. It means that the dog was there. A male dog will lift its hind legs as high as possible to get the urine on the top of other dogs' deposits.

It the feces or urine is insufficient to leave a message, then the canines sometimes scratch the ground with feet to highlight the signal. Other than leaving an extra visual cue, the dogs utilize special glands between the toes to leave extra scents on the ground as they scratch. This adds even more impact to their scent mark. All these scratching and sniffing takes a lot of time along with concentration. You should give your dog the maximum opportunity to smell other dogs' pee and leave messages of its own.

Scent is important

Dogs have 300 million scent receptors and humans a maximum of six million. They also have the Jacobson's organ, which assists them to detect odors which are normally undetectable to the human senses. Dogs like to smell the scenery. Do not drag the animal away from any interesting scent or making the animal run when it actually wants to take a look around. This diminishes the dog's outing experience. A few dogs seem to be guided by their noses and ignore everything else while they walk. These dogs need proper training. You can reward short bursts of loose leash walking with sniffing sessions so that the dog learns good walking behavior. For dogs, humans walk too slowly. If a dog finds an interesting scent trail, the animals will drag their human companions as fast as possible. To stop this, practice walking with a loose leash. Teach your dog discipline and reward progress with treats.

Was this article helpful?