Thinking that walking a dog will cure behavior problems is just as silly as thinking walking will cure your fear of spiders. Exercise is not teaching. However, it is required for a good quality of life.

When you sign up to care for a pet, it is essential to know how to care for him. At the most basic of basic levels they require food, water, physical & mental stimulation, shelter, and medical care. These are required at the appropriate amounts as well. You’re not going to feed a Chihuahua three cups of food, five times a day. That’s retarded. So why do so many people think over walking a dog is a good idea?

Many cases Sit Stay & Play takes on, sadly we are not the first trainer. And in a good majority of anxiety & aggression cases, prior trainers gave bad advice. About 90% of our clients prior training advice was to over walk their dog, so it doesn’t walk ahead of them, with about a nine inch leash. So let me translate this. “Walk your dog right next to you to create a huge blind spot, with a short tight leash so it feels like there is no flight option, a whole bunch for long periods of time to make sure the dog is over threshold.” Sadly this only increases stress, fear, anxiety, frustration, and aggression. And behavior problems get worse. I truly don’t understand where the logic is.

Client: “Hi. My dog hates other dogs”
Faux Trainer: “Well just physically exhaust him. That’ll fix it.”

Can you see the lack of actual teaching? If we take an example and apply it to another species, us, maybe it would make more sense. If your child doesn’t like getting a shot at the doctor’s are you going to exercise him and think that will make things easier? Or will you go out for ice cream when the doctor’s visit is finished? The consequence determines the emotion connected to the behavior. And the walk has nothing to do with the process. Now let’s pretend to do what a lot of uneducated trainers advise: which is to “resocialize” (their words, not mine). In this case you would walk your kid up and down the halls of a hospital around lots of doctors with lots of needles. Again, way over threshold, and hardly humane.

One case we had was with an anxious dog who was a destructive chewer. His owners were given the walk advice. And they listened. And the dog got worse. What happened is this cycle of: anxious dog, over walked and pushed too much physically, creates more anxiety, creates more chewing, creates owners to walk dog more…..

Now question the other part of “the walk.” Why is it necessary to walk behind the person? Where is it written that dog owners are not allowed to have a casual stroll with their dog? As long as the dog isn’t pulling and is walking where you want to go, what is the problem?

Think. Question.