Help! Tips For Walking 2 Dogs?

[Mari Bezanson]

I am starting to increase our walking time with the new puppy.  Up until the last couple of weeks a walk to the end of our street wore him out.  Now he can take on more and I want to start walking him with our 4 year old dog at the same time.  As many of you have probably experienced, it is not fun!    I am wondering if investing in one of those double harnesses would be a good idea or a waste of $.  My shoulder is killing me tonight from constantly repositioning the dogs for the ENTIRE walk.   Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

[Deborah Brown]

I have a lot of experience with this.  You will have to teach each dog to walk with a loose lead at your side before you can walk them together.  If they are pulling and wandering all over the place, you will have a rough time.

My personal opinion is that the double harness and/or any type of retractable leash is dangerous.  I like them on a 4' leash close to me.  For my dogs, Charlie and Wayne walk together on my left and Penny usually walks on the right.  Most of the time I walk Penny separately because she has leash reactivity and I need to give her all my attention.

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

I tried using a "coupler" with my girls because Lucy would walk so nicely by my left side and Daphne was a horrible puller. I thought having them together on one leash would be easier. Instead of having the desired effect, that Daphne would learn to walk nicely from being attached to Lucy, it had the opposite effect. Daphne still pulled and Lucy just had to go along with her. Now they each have their own leash again. I agree with Deborah, you have to teach each one to walk with a loose leash first.

[Emily, Bentley, & Maserati]

I agree with Deborah and Lori, teach them to walk separately and then add them together once leash manners have been established. Bentley heels to the right and Maserati heels to the left so walking them together is easy. Porsche doesn't have a specific side that she heels towards, so she gets coupled to either B or M depending on the day. 

Trying to couple them together before leash manners were established was an unpleasant experience. It takes more time in the beginning to walk them at separate times, but it pays off in the end! 

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Yep I agree. You need to train them separately. This means lots of walking at this stage I'm afraid. I use the cannycollar on both for the first ten minutes of every walk and can then just clip the leashes to their normal collar. My boys like to walk side by side which means I have two leashes at one side of me. It does actually work as they are nearly the same size and have the same energy levels. 

[Marie and Hoka]

Hmm, I'm odd man out here.  Maybe I just got lucky, but I just popped on an easy-walk harness and let the older one teach the younger one to walk nice!  LOL  Now that Hoka is bigger, I will introduce a gentle leader head collar soon.

Up until September, I was walking 3 dogs all together without an issue in the same way.

It probably helps that my little Moxie (older of the dogs) loves to walk and walks straight as an arrow. Hoka walks along with her nicely. We basically never go for a walk without the easy walk harnesses.

I also walk in the street facing traffic with dogs to the outside (we have a quiet area), so they do not want to sniff or stop to pee, etc. They are less distracted than when we walk on the sidewalk. When we walk, it is not for "doing their business", it is for exercise so I really don't let them stop and sniff around, etc. We will stop at a park at the end and then they can relax a bit.