Dog walks

[Jen]

What do your dogs do on walks?

On Stanley’s off lead walks he generally plods along beside me, stopping for the occasional sniff then he plods a bit faster to catch me up.

Unless he’s chasing his ball or playing with another dog he doesn’t do much running.

A couple of my friends who have dogs think that is a bit weird, their dogs do huge laps of the park and they’re always talking about their dogs “having a good run”.

Is it a lab thing that he’s pretty chilled? Or a Stanley thing? I don’t know whether to encourage him to run around a bit more but I like him safe and near me

 

[Kelsey]

Axel runs about 10-15 feet ahead then runs backs to me and he will repeat that for the entire length of our walk. He does stop to sniff and pee on everything and if I pass him he runs as fast as he can as though he may lose me.

 

[Joy]

Molly mostly potters too and usually stays fairly close, though she does expect some sort of game / activity from me at some point on the walk (might be tug or heelwork) and will start nudging me if I'm a bit slow to respond.

 

[HAH]

It depends where we are. On a ‘familiar’ walk with wide open spaces and LOTS of smells (popular dog walking spot for the first 100 yards ) Kipper will race around and run a long way off, although getting better at checking in.
On more ‘normal’ off lead walks (tracks, paths between hedges, across fields etc) he’ll gallop off ~20 feet to begin with, but once he’s got through the first 5 minutes of letting off steam he’ll trot back and forth between sniffs and me - generally because we’re playing a game, or I’m practicing rewarding him for being close, or asking for something like ‘two feet up’.

 

[HAH]

Just to add, I’d consider it a v good thing that Stanners trots along with you, proximity means he wants to be near you and finds it rewarding in itself, and lack of wild running suggests he’s content, well exercised and not over aroused

 

[Aitch]

My lot run around like mad things. I think dogs are more prone to do that if there are more than one of them.

 

[HAH]

My lot run around like mad things. I think dogs are more prone to do that if there are more than one of them.

Definitely - when we have Kipper’s friend Jambo to stay they’re off cantering, until Jambo gets tired

 

[Atemas]

Red is the same as Stanley. She’ll stop and sniff quite a bit and then trots to catch me up. She rarely runs. She is used to walking distances though - I often wonder if she’s pacing herself . Sky used to run like anything in her youth

 

[Ashley]

Quinn is a runner...she runs ahead, back to me, around in circles etc. She’s even crazier if she has a ball in her mouth. She only walks if she’s on leash!

 

[Plum's mum]

Plum is mostly like Stanley. Occasionally she’ll run off on one of our walks to look for a pine cone but always comes back within a few seconds.
There’s one place we go which means a swim and retrieve so, in great excitement and anticipation, she runs on ahead most of the way to the river but comes back regularly as if to get me to hurry up.

I have a friend with a Vizsla that runs on way ahead of her, runs back, runs on waaay ahead, runs back etc. for the whole walk.

 

[JES72]

If we are in a new place Homer may run off to explore excitedly for a bit then come back to us as we walk on. He doesn't go out of sight though, just runs in circles sniffing.
On usual walks he stays closer sniffing as we go sometimes ahead of me and sometimes stopping to sniff then catches up. The he stops I usually stop close by. On odd occasions he'll go ahead to greet other dogs on the walk, most dogs on the tow path are off lead and friendly. Homer does sometimes try to follow other dogs and sniff them a bit too much but with some work recently he's got a lot better about turning back to me after a few seconds of dog greeting. Our rule is he can have his ball on the way back so when we turn around I've usually got his nose stuck like glue to my back pocket until I give in and give him his ball.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

If we're with a doggie friend, Carbon will indeed do a good zoomie or three. By ourselves, he'll do an initial zoomie and then settle down into walking right next to me and mugging me for treats. Even though I say "mugging" I don't mind that as it started by me paying him for check ins. Again, I don't mind as I like him close.

 

[kateincornwall]

I dont like Reuben to range too far from me , since our escapade last month , I do let him go ahead but he checks in . If the ball is being deployed , he stays pretty close for play . On the beach he goes crackerdog, but he will come back to the whistle , most of the time .
Nelly just potters xx

 

[Jacqui-S]

Lilly off lead does her own thing. I just take her lead for a walk.
If oreo is there ON lead, she stays around and checks in. Off lead, Lilly leads her astray
On a long lead she is out there in front.
It's a lonely life walking a Lilly *sigh*.

 

[Charlie]

Hattie stays close to me always looking back at me or walking by my side. Sometimes she does a bit of ball retrieving, we always do a little training, stop whistle, long distance hand touch etc.

Charlie well Charlie There's no use pretending he stays close coz he doesn't but sometimes he does. He stays mostly within sight but always checks in for treats, catch a treat and a cuddle. We always do some training, off lead heel work, recall, hide 'n seek, water retrieving/swimming, loose lead work etc. xx

 

[Sophiedoodle]

Off lead, Lilly leads her astray

This drives me mad!.... Oreo is good at coming back to me when I call her though, even if Lilly doesn’t follow her (she usually does cause it means there’s a treat involved...)
Oreo is very good on a walk on her own, will stick pretty close to me and stop only occasionally for a sniff. I do things like changing direction etc for her to be focussed on me and know where I am, so I think that’s worked our pretty well - she always checks up on me too

 

[Lab_adore]

We pretty much can only let Maxx off the lead at a dog park or at the off-lead beach. So there are almost always other dogs there and he zooms off to play with them. Depending on the day and how much fun is he having, he may or may not come back when called. His recall is spotty to say the least (our fault of course)

If there aren't any other dogs he generally stays near us and sniffs and pees and sniffs and pees. His recall then is ok - it might take him a few minutes to wander back to us, but he does come. Evenually

 

[Granca]

My two stay quite close, always in sight. They’re usually quite close together too, except if one finds a more interesting sniff. I wonder whether it’s because when Wispa was a puppy we had two much older dogs, so she pottered along with them. Then, once they had gone, she stayed close to me and when we had Tuppence she in turn stayed close to Wispa. Apart from having to be aware of Wispa’s possible reactivity, they’re very dependable and (usually) have excellent recall too... so far.

 

[Shaz82]

I was thinking this same thing yesterday as Maisy was plodding along behind me.
She will sometimes start the walk by leaping about and wanting me to throw something but then loses interest quite quickly and continues just sniffing about. Or she will start the walk sniffing and carry on with it.
She usually only has a really really good powerful runabout when there is another dog to play with.
We do some retrieving which she enjoys and that gives her some good exercise but generally if none of her friends are around she will walk in front of or behind me just exploring and sniffing. I often wonder whether this is enough for her and do worry about it.
There are other labs that we know though that are completely fixated on their ball and don't want to play with other dogs.

 

[snowbunny]

On an average walk, Squidge spends 99% of the time by my side. Walks for her are definitely more about the two of us interacting than about the environment. I don't have to try to keep her close, she's the one pushing me to do stuff with her, which is lovely!
Willow and Shadow are far more environmentally aware, and will hunt up any smells they find. They zip around, left, right and centre, checking in very frequently, but they never stop running unless we are doing something.