Don't let your dogs walk in front of you, says Cesar

puppydog

puppydog

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#21
Doberluv said:
It's no safer having them in front......that is, if you pull straight up on the leash, holding the dog's head high and close to your body, cutting off at least 1/2 of his air supply. That keeps him subdued and out of trouble. Don't forget: You have to be the alpha of your pack. It's people who let their dogs to be the leader, run their lives and allow them too much slack in the leash or :yikes: no leash at all who have unhappy, insecure, undisciplined dogs with no sense of pack leadership!
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Mmmmmmmmmm. Good point. I am going to have to work out how to throttle them with an H harness now. Any suggestions?

Come to think of it, I am wasting my time. Travis was sitting with his paws on my shoulder resource guarding me from Riley about 10 minutes ago, it is pretty clear who is in charge, wouldn't you say? :lol-sign:
 
T

Toller_08

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#22
Off-leash, I really couldn't care less where my dogs are, as long as I can still see them and they're still watching me every once in a while. On-leash, I don't like my dogs in front of me. Not because of Cesar Milan's theory, but because I just feel better having them beside or slightly behind me. They follow direction better, and are paying more attention should I change direction suddenly for whatever reason (like yesterday, when some idiot on a bike almost ran me and Ripley over). That's not to say they're poorly behaved if they're slightly ahead of me, but they're definitely a little more distracted. They also tend to be more exciteable ahead of me, which I don't like. I prefer they be content and relaxed beside me.
 
Doberluv

Doberluv

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#23
And that's just it Toller...it goes to show that it's all about training and personal preference and NOTHING to do about dogs social organization or a hierarchy system. There are times I prefer the dogs to be next to me and times where they have more leeway. It depends on the context. That's when on a leash. Off leash, they have even more leeway. In any case, regardless of where they are relative to me, they are not dominating me or being a "pack leader." They're just taking a walk, too busy sniffing, peeing and checking cool things out to be thinking up ways to climb the social ladder. It's just absurd to equate that with rank. If that were true that it's about rank, you couldn't have search and rescue dogs, or any number of trained behaviors. It's all a bunch of made up stuff that really needs to be put to bed once and for all.
 
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MPP

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#24
I like my dogs to be in front of me where I can see what they're doing.

BTW, my dogs know perfectly well that I am not another dog and thus could not be the leader of the pack in any case. What I am is Controller of All Resources and the love of their lives. Works for us.
 
Dekka

Dekka

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#25
Toller_08 said:
Off-leash, I really couldn't care less where my dogs are, as long as I can still see them and they're still watching me every once in a while. On-leash, I don't like my dogs in front of me. Not because of Cesar Milan's theory, but because I just feel better having them beside or slightly behind me. They follow direction better, and are paying more attention should I change direction suddenly for whatever reason (like yesterday, when some idiot on a bike almost ran me and Ripley over). That's not to say they're poorly behaved if they're slightly ahead of me, but they're definitely a little more distracted. They also tend to be more exciteable ahead of me, which I don't like. I prefer they be content and relaxed beside me.
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hee hee that is why Dekka knows Left and Right. Its how you train, my dogs unless in a formal heel are more distracted at my side (more sniffing etc) Also if they stop I might not notice right away and yank them. But if I spent most of my time teaching them LLW beside me then they would likely be more focused there. But I spend time teaching them to talk in front, to 'go' (faster) on cue (for when I run with them) to turn left and right on cue etc... It likely has to do with where YOU are comfortable and have trained them to be then where they are comfortable. (as most dogs choose to be out in front, or behind, or all over the place lol)
 
Maxy24

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If Phoebe is ever behind me I can't see when she squats to pee so I keep walking full speed ahead and yank the poor dog over while she's trying to pee. If Tucker is behind me I end up kicking him in the face. I like them in front of me.
 
Sweet72947

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#27
My dogs walk in front of me. Daisy is pretty well leashed trained, although Benji could use some more work (but my family lets him get away with stuff). I always figured that dogs walk in front of us because they walk faster! lol

Sometimes when I'm driving through the city of Haymarket, I see this guy walking these two huge black great danes on flat collars (a lot of dane owners around here use headcollars). They walk slightly behind him, in perfect step with each other like two ponies hitched to a carriage. I'm always very impressed by this, because I always marvel over how much time and training he must have put into these dogs to get them to walk like that!
 
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StillandSilent

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I want Argon by my side or in front of me, so I can moniter his reactions to approaching dogs or tasty looking critter.

I just want Jenna to get outside quickly enough so we don't have any accidents!
 
Doberluv

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#29
On our hikes, my dogs are off leash and I pretty much let them walk/run where they want, as I've said...with some guidelines though. (there aren't any other dogs or people out there) They switch from in front, behind to beside me intermittently. Yesterday, at one point, Jose` was in front and Chuli was right behind me. If she goes behind me, she's usually right on my heel practically. She is very apt to stick pretty close. Well....yesterday, I turned my head to look... to make sure she was still right there, as I do frequently if there's a dog behind me. And she wasn't! I looked all around and no Chulita to be seen anywhere! :eek: (to make matters worse, she had her camouflage outfit on!) I called her...nothing. I went back about 20 ft...the distance since I last saw her and here she comes, out from behind some tree off to the side of the trail. She must have been pooping or something. It kind of freaked me out for a minute in the dark woods. So, the rest of the hike, I tried to encourage her to stay in front of me. It took some doing. It's funny....on the beginning of the hike, they tend to run ahead of me a little or sometimes stay right along side me.... and on the way back down, they tend to lag a little behind off and on.

Gee wiz...could it possibly be that they're a little tired or a little less exuberant at this point? It was about a 4 - 5 mile hike. Or should we believe the most complicated answer and skip over the simplist? Is Cesar really to be believed... that they're being the leader of the pack, the "alpha" on the beginning of the hike and "allowing" me to be the leader on the way home? Yes, that's it! "Let's take turns!" :rofl1:
 
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