Walking 2 dogs

[Tamara & Giada]

Hi!

We have a 6 year old Shih-tzu besides our 6 month old LD and as of now I still can not walk them together by myself. Giada gets so hyper and just wants to mouth and play with my older dog and the walks are not fun. I hate to leave one behind, and going for several seperate walks is getting to me. I'm hoping this will just take maturity, but does anyone have any tips for me.

[KJ]

my friends that have two golden retreivers go separately, their hubby takes one..could you do that or do you have a friend that has no pets that can take one. Before I had Paddington I would've gladly had a dog by my side running and I walked my friends just for fun, and she was a SAHM that could clearly walk him herself, but it was fun to for me...ask around :)

[Adina P]

I can walk all three of our dogs at one time without any major problems. However, the key for us has been that each of them have been trained individually to walk in heel. When I walk all three I do not demand a precise heel, but they have each had so much practice at walking in heel, that their "loose leash walk" is like an imprecise heel.

If you can walk them separately in order to use your time with Giada to train her to a high level of reliability around various distractions that will be your best bet for a permanent solution. The wanting to play will probably subside with maturity, but it sure helps to do the training now while her little mind is growing so that she can be solid once she's mature.

However, in the meantime you could try a Gentle Leader or Halti to give you more control over her head...

[Tamara & Giada]

No that is not th problem--she is an excellent walker on her own, and both do heel on their own-- giada just wants to play with Summer when she's along! I'll wait for her to mature.

[Adina P]

I guess what I meant is that she has to be almost "beyond distractability" and committed to the heel position on her own--that is when she is ready to walk with another dog.

By beyond distractability and commmitted to heel position I mean this:
You should be able to walk her up to a squirrel a few feet off or another dog (who is holding steady not lunging or acting crazy) or kids playing ball and she should be able to hold heel position as you walk toward that distraction (whatever it is) and she should sit automatically when you stop near that distraction. She's young and I wouldn't expect a pup this young to be ready for that yet...but something to work towards.

If someone is playing with your older dog in the yard and you have Giada heel...will she hold the heel for several minutes as you two heel around the yard together (while the other dog is playing and zipping around)? If not that might be a place to start...or have someone else walk your other dog near (but not within leash distance) and work on heel with that lower level of distraction, gradually getting closer and closer each training session.

Sounds like you two are off to a great start and you probably know this already...half of what I write sometimes is generic in case anyone else might be having the same problem and needs a different perspective--not because you, Tamara, are in grave need of my amateur advice ;-)

[Tamara & Giada]

That is right she just needs more time and practice. Probably the more I do walk them together, she probably will get use to it faster. Thanks:)

[ClarkP]

As Adina said above, the key to this is have each dog be able to heel quite well on their own. For me, the ultimate course to teach proper heeling is the Command Performance system. (Check out the Review section... I wrote about it there.)

Here's me in Cannon Beach, Oregon with three loose leash, non-pulling dogs:

Thule is naturally our most precise heeler. And because she's so conscientious, she likes to be on the inside right next to me. So try different positions with the dogs... they might like it better in a different order.
-Clark

PS. As a bonus, while you are training each dog separately, you will get in great shape from the additional exercise! ;-)

[Tamara & Giada]

Yup, been doing that for 3 months now--just gets to be too much sometimes.