How Do You Make Walking Your Dog Fun?

Mutt

Experienced Member
Well honestly the walking makes me happy :)
Nothing more relaxing than strolling of in the woods with only two happy dogs running alongside. :)

But if for some reason I feel frustrated/agitated because of something (when I still had problems with Mazzel and Boef hunting for example), I'd leash them and just walk them on leash. Making sure I avoided anything which could make my mood even worse and doing some braintraining at home to make up for it.
 

Mr-Remington

Experienced Member
When I'm having a stressful day and I have to walk Remi, I tend to hike in the most secluded area I can. With him being leash reactive I have to be carefully where we go. I will usually go jogging, and its calming for me to just run with my dog without having to talk to anyone or see another dog. I like to take treats and play 'find it' with him, it gets my mind off everything going on at home.
 

MaryK

Honored Member
Unfortunately where I live no beautiful trails or parks, so I have to 'make do' with what's available. I find just walking with my dogs calms me down if I've had one of those days, but I do take the route which has the least amount of dogs attempting to jump the fence etc. as this isn't conducive to a good walk for either of us.

I do a lot of what you have written in your blog, tricks, allow them to be dogs etc. and try to wear appropriate clothing.

At present we are walking after dark, as it's so hot the sidewalks would burn little paws and I'd be dead from sunstroke, so that adds a new dimension to our walks, because there's all those new shadows around.

I don't play music here, simply because at some point of time during our walk we always are on a very busy road, so traffic noise is something I have to take into account. Once I move to a more salubrious place, music will once more be 'on the menu'.

We also, if there aren't any kids around (parents complain) try out the few kids swings etc. Ra Kismet loves that but Zeus isn't interested in all that agility stuff!
 

madeleine

Experienced Member
Great blog.

What i do is walking with friends. It's fun for me to chat to someone during a walk but it even more fun for Dazzle to see her doggie friends again!
Walk in different areas, i tent not to walk in the same forest (of forest area when it big) more then twice a day.
And go sporting. Insteat of walking I jump on the bycicle and Dazzle will run alonge with me. Or walk to a my frisbee playfield, so we combine frisbee with a walk.
 

charmedwolf

Moderator
Staff member
I have a walking jar. When I get back from taking the dogs for a walk, I put in a dollar or some change in the jar. Positive reinforcement for myself!! At the end of the month I either toss it in my bigger vacation jar (Disneyworld anyone?) or I go out and buy something for the dogs with it. So far it's been worth it and I've been sticking with it.
 

MissyBC

Experienced Member
I do tricks on Missy's walks to keep it fun and interesting for both of us.

The other day, I was teaching her to "paws up" on a bench, I had wanted to see if she could jump over the bench... and she balanced on the back of it for a second instead - after a few jump over bench moments! :love: I never knew she would even try. :D
 

Mr-Remington

Experienced Member
I have a walking jar. When I get back from taking the dogs for a walk, I put in a dollar or some change in the jar. Positive reinforcement for myself!! At the end of the month I either toss it in my bigger vacation jar (Disneyworld anyone?) or I go out and buy something for the dogs with it. So far it's been worth it and I've been sticking with it.
That is genius! I am going to have to do that for myself. :)
 

648117

Honored Member
If I'm in a bad mood I tend to walk faster and further, that usually calms me down a bit.
And just being alone with Holly is good, then if we see one of Holly's friends and she has a play, her happiness and enjoyment makes me happy :love:
Randomly while walking I look down at her and she looks up at me and she always looks so happy and smiles so I have to smile back :D

I don't listen to music while walking her because it is me and Holly time so I like to be able to focus on her when I need to. We are walking together, not just walking in the same direction next to each other. I start to crave an "only me and Holly walk" if we have too many walks with a "guest walker" (usually my mum or my sister) joining us.
Also, I find if I'm listening to music I can't think as much, the music kind invades my thoughts so they become more jumpy and distruptive, then I don't feel calm.
 

Evie

Experienced Member
Walking Evie is always fun simply because of how much she enjoys it!! Watching her try and catch up to kangaroos is also quite amusing, or more importantly, seeing her absolutely exhausted after failing to catch the kangaroos is awesome :p

Butttttttt I obviously wouldn't suggest this for most people, but because we get to walk in a private property forest with no roads around it she's pretty safe to go roo chasing, especially since her recall when roo chasing is amazingly good.
 
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