Re: How do you walk four dogs?
I get asked the titular question every time I pass with my dogs through the streets of the nearby village. Ever since I started walking the puppies, I try to frequent the built up areas to expose the young ones to people, noises, smells, and visuals that are not familiar to them.
Dogs need to be socialised to overcome their natural hesitation towards strangers and boisterous places. Otherwise they are fearful, stressful, and aggressive whenever they do not feel comfortable. In effect, socialising dogs is how you empower them to be more confident in their abilities and to better discern the likely dangerous situations: those which truly are irregular.
Walking four dogs is no mean feat. If you do not know what you are doing, you are in for a frustrating experience. Each animal will pull in a different direction, throwing you off balance and testing your patience. There is a good chance you will injure yourself, such as by getting a dislocated shoulder from one of those sudden pulls. Dogs do not just “want to please their human” nor are they “human’s best friend” by default. These are cute words we use when we are not prepared to discuss the power dynamics in a human-canine relationship. Dogs respond well to authority and, conversely, will do what they think is best where there is a power vacuum.
If your dog is not listening to you and if it is making a mess out of everything, the fault is yours for (i) not gaining its trust, (ii) not earning its respect, and (iii) not showing it what you expect. The authority I allude to pertains to drawing boundaries and of setting your dogs up for success. The requisite leadership is based on clear communication, consistency, and patience.
When you get a puppy, for example, you want to condition it to your touch: gently grab it by the tail, hold its paws, open its mouth, pick it up slowly and put it back down with care. In short, let it know that you are not hurting it and that you are in complete control of the situation. If you yourself are uncertain, stressed, and are fumbling around, the dog will notice and will correctly consider you unreliable.
Understand energy levels. When they are high, the animals need an outlet for their exuberance. Let them expend that built-up ferocity through playful behaviour and then, once they have calmed down, engage with them in a more structured way. A moderately tired dog is more focused on its interactions with you and, thus, learns better.
“Do you train dogs?” one lady asked me the other day. I replied affirmatively, while explaining that I am only interested in making them good canine citizens rather than preparing for the show ring. She then went on to say “I want you to tell me how to teach my dog to sit calmly at the couch and to not bark”. I explained that there is no such training. Or, to be more precise, peaceful behaviour is what you get after the dog has gone for a walk, spent enough quality time with you, and had its meal. Whether the dog barks or not will depend on the kind of breed it is and the situations it encounters. Some dogs (“watchdogs”) are meant to bark when they notice something irregular, effectively working like an alarm mechanism.
Before you even walk the dog, you must have already established yourself as the leader through consistency and clear communication. This is also true if you are introducing new dogs to the pack, like I did with my two puppies recently. Otherwise, you are not in control of the situation and you will not have a happy outcome.
Consistency is key to the conditioning you will be doing. This is not formal training, but the totality of actions you perform while sending a message to your dog. For example, from day one my puppies learnt the way that leads outside, where they are supposed to pee and poo. Similarly, as soon as I would notice that they wanted food, I would always bring it from the same spot, leave it at the same place, and repeat the familiar sound (namely “food” in Greek). Within a few days, the puppies would tell me what they were in need of by choosing the direction they wanted to go to. They even scratch on the door, thus asking me to open it. The same principle applies to every single interaction with the dog. Be consistent with your body language and fully confident in how you handle the situation. If you are unequivocal and precise, the dog understands you know what you are doing and follows along. Else, it will rely on its own devices and you will not like the results.
Coming to the point of actually walking the dogs, this is the continuation of the aforementioned. You get them used to walking on a leash by (i) not making a big deal out of it, (ii) not showing signs of frustration or impatience while dealing with the dogs natural reluctance to be on leash and (iii) leading them to walk by your side by guiding them gently yet decisively. The dog does not go wherever it wants: you are setting the direction as well as the pace. But you are not dragging it along either. You are both on the road as a team. As such, you let the animal sniff around, do wait for it, and go to the other side of the street if it feels more comfortable there (or is just curious to check things out). While walking, make the dog stay next to you and get accustomed to your pace. Do not have it run in front of you, as then it gets confused about who the leader is plus you will not be able to control it.
Remember that dogs respond to body language, which you disseminate at much greater volume than verbal cues. If you master that, you will be able to walk as many dogs as you can endure. No matter the training, you still need to have good balance, be quick on your feet, and sufficiently strong in your upper body. More so if the dogs are large.
Dogs ultimately follow your lead because they like you and you are actually taking them somewhere in life. The more you deepen your trust with your dog, the easier it will be for them to cooperate with you, as they will know you have everybody’s wellness in mind.