Love It: Ruffwear Flat Out Leash

Last week we popped into Green Dog Pet Supply to check out their selection of dog gear.  While paroozing the leash and collar section, one of the store workers showed us the very fancy Ruffwear Flat Out Leash.  We decided to buy the leash because of all its amazing features.

Flat Out leash in the color 'Klickitat'

At $30 this leash comes in a variety of colors and patterns and is made of quality materials (as are all Ruffwear products like our favorite Ruffwear Approach Pack).  After much debate, B and I decided to get plain black so that it won't show dirt.  The 'Topo' and 'Klickitat' colors were a close second and third!

Athena likes to make sure that I didn't ditch her!

The leash is a standard 6 feet and can be used as a standard leash if you choose.  Our favorite feature of this leash is its ability to be worn around the waist for a hands-free walk.  Athena can be a puller on walks, so weren't sure if the hands-free walk would work well for her.  However, she has gotten much better at walking politely since enforcing the heel command.  Since using this leash feature for the past week, we have had very enjoyable walks!  Athena walks so nicely at our side (for the most part, unless another dog walks past us).  Watch the video below to see Athena and B in action:

The other great feature of this leash is that it has a traffic handle close to the collar clip to give control when waiting at street corners.  Even though we have been practicing heel with Athena while we wait at a crosswalk, she sometimes will get distracted and get up from her sit.  With this leash we are able to hold onto the traffic handle to ensure that she doesn't step into the street.

The final feature of this leash is that it can be a fixed leash to allow the dog to be tied to a tree or a table when on a picnic or when out and about.  So far, we have used this feature to tie Athena to the front porch when we were outside washing our cars, but didn't want Athena to get in on the action!

Talon Clip to attach leash to dog's collar

Overall, we love this leash and have been using it every day as our go-to leash!

Off-Leash Dogs Are Crampin' My Style

I am sick of off-leash dogs.  It seems that many of the neighborhood dog owners just really don't care if their dog gets out and chases a pitbull down the street.  Only one of these off-leash dogs has been larger than Athena, so I worried for her safety during the encounter (the dog went in for a neck bite).  All of the other off-leash dogs that have approached us have been small dogs, so in these cases I worry about Athena possibly turning aggressive and injuring the dog.  We don't need to be in the news for owning a pitbull that attacked a stupid helpless small dog.

Every time we take Athena on a walk, we encounter at least one off-leash dog.  About half of the dogs that have chased after us haven't had an owner anywhere in sight.  The ones who do have owners present don't seem to really care that their owner is screaming their name to stop chasing after us.

Maybe I wouldn't mind so much if Athena wasn't so leash reactive.  But when a dog comes running after us, Athena starts hopping off of the ground trying to play.  I really don't want her to play with an unknown dog that approaches us, especially when the off-leash dog goes in and tries to bite her (this has happened to us twice now)!  We have only had Athena for one month so I don't feel like we totally know all of her behaviors.  We don't know if certain situations will bring out any aggression.  The owners who adopted Athena for two weeks prior to us labeled her as "dog aggressive" towards their other pet dog.  This makes us cautious of her interactions with other dogs.

I want Athena to learn how to be calm when we walk by other dogs who are on or off leash.  I feel like her excited energy gets the other dog excited an then they are both trying to get to each other.  I think that most off-leash dogs actually approach us because of Athena's body language when she encounters another dog.

We would love it if Athena could be calm like this when walking by an off-leash dog!

The bloggers over at Two Pitties in the City have mentioned in multiple posts that they carry SprayShield Animal Deterrent Spray in case they are approached by an off-leash aggressive dog.  I think that it's about time that I order a can of this spray to carry with me on walks.  The only thing that I worry about is if I would even be able to get to the spray in time if an off-leash dog did a sneak attack and riled Athena up.  I checked at Petco and Petsmart and both stores said that they don't carry any type of dog deterrent spray...the employees actually looked at me like I was a mean person when I asked if they sold it.

We are looking for some suggestions.  How do you deal with off-leash dogs?  Is your dog leash-reactive especially when approached by an off-leash dog?  We could use some help!

-A

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Is My Dog Normal?: Bike Reactivity

Yesterday B showed me a new route to take when walking Athena.  Sometimes we get annoyed walking around the usual neighborhood because there are so many dogs that live outside and like to majorly bark at us through their fences, off leash dogs, and just bajillions of people who do weird things (like the time a PERSON barked at Athena!).

B thinks Athena is saying "save me!"

Our new route takes us along the Springwater Corridor which stretches 40 miles from Portland to Boring (yes there's a place called Boring, OR!).  We are lucky enough to live only a few blocks away from an entrance to the corridor.

Most people who use the corridor are bike riders who like to say things like "one your left," and "on your right" while we are walking and I have to quickly remember which one is my right and left so that we don't get ran over!

Check out that view of Mt. Hood up ahead!

When we first got Athena and began taking her walks in the annoying usual neighborhood, we would encounter quite a few bike riders and people on skateboards.  I don't think Athena had ever seen any of these devices because she was very reactive to them.  As soon as a bike or skateboard zoomed by us she would be pulling to chase after them!  This was a bit frustrating when we were trying so hard to train her how to walk on a loose leash.

A thinks Athena is saying, "weirdo!"

The weird thing is, this bike reactivity only lasted a couple of weeks.  Now that Athena gets out on at least two walks per day, she seems to be more used to the everyday distractions that pass us by.

We got to really test Athena's bike reactivity while walking on the Springwater Corridor because there is always at least one bike in sight.  Athena didn't even bother with ANY of the bikes that we saw on our walk!  Yay!!

Here comes the bike......no reaction!

Since it seems that Athena might not mind bikes too much anymore we have been thinking about how great it would be to start bike riding with Athena.  B bike rides, I don't, so this can be his little project.  A trainer had suggested bike riding with Athena as a way to exercise her to expend her excess energy.  The trainer suggested using a Springer Dog Exerciser to attach to B's bike that would allow Athena to safely run next to him.  We plan to look into this fancy device in the coming months.

Is your dog bike reactive?  Do you bike ride with your pooch?

-A
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Love It: Gentle Leader

Athena is a pretty big puller when we take her on walks, especially if there are distractions in the environment.  We have been working to eliminate this pulling behavior by teaching the heel command and encouraging her to walk at our side rather than in front of us.

For the past 4 weeks we have been using the Easy Walk Harness when we take Athena on walks.  However, Athena's underarms were irritated by the rubbing of the nylon from the harness and she got a hot spot.  We are currently treating it with a steroid/antibiotic spray for the next two weeks, so we can't use the Easy Walk Harness during that time.

We have been wanting to try the Gentle Leader head collar after hearing about how it gives the most amount of control for dogs that pull on the leash.  It was on sale at Petsmart for about $17.00 so we decided to give it a try.

When first putting it on Athena we gave her lots of treats and praise.  She clearly didn't like the feeling of the collar on her nose because she kept pawing at it.  We distracted her from doing this pawing by having her do commands (sit, down, stay) for treats.

Athena wearing the Gentle Leader head collar

Once we had the collar attached to the leash, we took Athena outside.  She did a few gallops and tried to get the collar off of her nose.  The person at Petsmart who helped us fit the collar on Athena told us that we should keep her in a trot rather than a walk when first introducing the collar.  This is because the dog will lose it's balance if trying to paw at their nose at the same time as trotting.  We took Athena on a quick 10 minute walk to get her used to the collar.  For her evening walk we took her out for 20 minutes.  Today we were able to take her on an hour walk in the morning and she didn't seem to be bothered much by the collar anymore.

Overall we have seen a big difference in the amount of control that we have when walking Athena.  If she begins to pull we can give the leash a gentle tug and she is back at our side.  The control of the collar allows us to gently lift her nose if she gets too focused on sniffing and it also allows us to keep her mouth closed if needed.

Although the collar looks a bit like a muzzle, it allows the dog full range of motion with their mouth.  They can pant, drink, eat, and bark.

We plan to keep using the Gentle Leader and are hoping that it will continue to eliminate Athena's leash pulling behavior!

-A

Training 101: Learning to Heel

One week after adopting Athena we enrolled her in a beginning obedience class at our local Petco.  Last week we learned about teaching Athena to heel.  This walking command is different than teaching a dog to loose leash walk which is our ultimate goal.  As of now, Athena is a pretty big leash puller when we walk her because she is so interested in investigating all of her surroundings.

Athena in her heel position

 For the past week we have been working with Athena to learn the heel command.  We practice with her off leash in the house and also practice this command while on walks in the neighborhood.

To teach the command, we first started by holding treats in our left hand and encouraging Athena to walk on our left side.  We took two or three steps, stopped, and said "heel."  Once Athena sits, we rewards her with a treat from our left hand.  The goal is for Athena to walk at our left side and get in a sit position every time that we stop walking no matter the distance between each stop.  This requires the dog to constantly "check in" with the person walking them so that they are focused on the walk.

Give me that cheese!!!!!

Once Athena became proficient at obeying the heel command off-leash in the house, we began to practice off-leash in the yard which provides more distractions for her to practice with.

We are currently working with Athena to heel on leashed walks.  As of now, Athena will respond to the heel command 90% of the time on our walks.  If there is something super distracting in the environment she will ignore us.  We are very proud that Athena is starting to recognize that when we stop walking, we want her in the sit position even if we don't give the verbal heel command.  She will put herself in a sit when we stop walking without a verbal command about 50% of the time.  We treat this behavior every time that she is successful.

One tip that our trainer gave us for perfecting the heel was the position in which we hold the leash.  She suggested that we have Athena walk on our left side and hold the leash in the right hand.  As you can see below, B has wrapped the leash around his back to hold it in his right hand.  Our trainer said that this can work for dogs who often pull when walking because it allows the walker to pull forward on the leash in their right hand to give the dog a gentle tug signaling them to back into heel form.

B holding the leash around his back with this right hand

B really likes the control that this leash position gives him.  However, I have found it harder to manage and have resorted back to holding the leash in my left hand.

-A