Before discussing this week’s walking progress, I want to touch on last week. Jazz’s recall is still tremendous! I am still using treats (we use the MilkBone brand), but she is such an angel in responding to me when I say her name, which was heavily stressed in the first YouTube video I watched. I will continue to use treats for a little bit longer than anticipated. I am not worried she will become dependent on them to listen, and right now, they are helping me teach her, and we still have a lot to learn. I am now not only using the treats for recall but holding them in the palm of my hand on the side I want her to walk on!
In this week’s news regarding my learning project, I consulted some web sources to follow a step-by-step process to walk Jazz. The most straightforward one I found was on Animal Humane Society, where the site is laid out in a list format of what I needed in terms of supplies and how I was to carry out my walks with Jazz. My initial idea was to do all the steps. However, once we started walking, I found that Jazz and I were not ready to move forward to the “off-duty” method. Jazz and I took three short walks (15-20min each) this week, practicing what I have come to call “with-me” walks. In the “with-me” walks, Jazz and I would practice steps 1 through 9. Step 10 was not attainable at Jazz’s walking level because she goes ahead of me and around me, and “free-time” cannot be understood before we get down “with-me” walking.
Most of the steps were completed really well, especially since Jazz is learning a new skill. However, I had a tough time keeping her on one side for the whole walk. Jazz wanted to be on the side with front yards so that she could sniff the vegetation. As advised, I wanted Jazz on my left side and the leash in my right hand. Jazz’s attention and mood were better when she had access to the grass versus being on the road-side because as soon as we crossed a street, I had to switch the lease from my right to left hand to satisfy her or else she was fighting me to be on the side with the yards. I was willing to compromise this hand/side positioning because Jazz was less irritated and more focused when she got what she wanted. I would not have made this change if she were being obnoxious when travelling beside the yards.
Since I was having trouble keeping her on the same side and ultimately gave up, I decided to consult my good friend, fellow dog owner and fellow education student, Paige Hamann, on how she keeps her dogs on the left side when walking! Funny enough, Paige’s best advice was to take a walking route that consisted of me making only right turns to keep Jazz on my left side and the side of the yards where she is happy. Obviously, this is not a permanent solution, and once Jazz is ready for longer walks, I cannot always avoid turning right. However, as we are still training, I think having a more set route will be beneficial. Additionally, dogs are creatures of habit, and I think having the same path for at least the duration of the next few weeks of training will help improve Jazz’s walking skills because she will know where we are heading and will be able to focus more on what I expect of her.
Further, I looked at this blog as well by Daily Paws, and I found a lot of similarities in the steps. However, I liked how Daily Paws stressed the importance of positive reinforcement and being a pre-service teacher, positive reinforcement is my middle name! But seriously, encouraging Jazz makes a considerable difference and gets her excited about learning to walk rather than me getting frustrated with her all the time, even though she does not know any better. I am significantly learning that this is a marathon, not a sprint!