Weaning a dog off afternoon walks

[JudyN]

Some may have heard me moan about my gammy knee once or twice... It's had a setback after stupidly doing a bit of gardening at the weekend, then needing to carry about 40kg of frozen dog food from the front door to the freezer.

I've been taking Jasper for his afternoon walks but they're very short, and pretty boring for him. Just when he thinks, 'Yay, we're going to Upton Heath/the woods/the golf course' I turn for home, and he is so disappointed (Occasionally having a lie-down protest so I just sit next to him and enjoy the rest.) I'd love to think of some games to entertain him in the garden and get him to accept them as an alternative.

But...

- Games that involve me running about the garden are out.
- I'm not sure J particularly enjoys food-based interactive games - he just enjoys the food!
- I've tried agility-type games with him but for some reason he gets waaaay overexcited - two jumps over a pole and he starts jumping all over me instead
- Tug is out, he's far too strong for me.
- Digging out the ball chucker is a possibility, but it might be a bit too twisty-turny for his joints.

'Find' is a good one, which he does like in the house.

Any other ideas? And is there really any chance of me entertaining him enough that when we come back inside, he won't say, 'That was fun Mum. Can we go for our walk now?' He is very fixed to his routine.

 

[Buddy1]

I've tried agility-type games with him but for some reason he gets waaaay overexcited - two jumps over a pole and he starts jumping all over me instead

Oh, yes that sounds very familiar!

When you say ‘find’ do you mean treats, toys, you?
We can entertain our dog for quite a while by hiding a tennis ball for him to find, but then he is quite tennis ball obsessed. He also enjoys ruining a good game of hide ‘n’ seek by finding the hiders, much to the children’s annoyance: not easy to hide with a flat coat bottom and waggy tail sticking out from your hiding place.

One thing I wanted to try, but have never got around to, was ‘scent work’. Saw a demonstration at a dog show. They were just pet dogs that had been trained by their owners, and a real mix of breeds (think there may have been a lurcher). They were sent to find purses, mobile phones etc from the audience that had been hidden under boxes. Apparently, you start out training with an object that has a strong scent (e.g. cloves, vanilla). The thought of my dog finding my car keys (which I am forever losing) seems very appealing. Unfortunately, I never got any further than buying a carton of cloves!

 

[JudyN]

Yes, 'find' (or 'hide and seek') involves me telling him we're playing 'hide and seek', asking him to wait, going to hide something, then saying 'find' - if it's a toy, he then brings it to me in exchange for a treat. In the garden though, I'm very limited in places I can hide things without him seeing me hide them, and if I made him wait in the house he'd probably start howling because he's shut away from me. Though it would be a good foundation for reinforcing 'stay'.

We tried hide and seek with people in the woods once, but when one of our party disappeared to hide he got stressed at his 'pack' being split up, so that didn't work well! I should look into scent work and see if there's anything that might work.

 

[Ari_RR]

how about this?

 

[JoanneF]

I have a book called Brain Games for Dogs (I think - I'm not at home this week) that has quite a lot of good ideas for tricks and training. When I get home I'll see if anything might suit.

 

[JudyN]

Ooh, I might have to google for remote control dog toys... Though it's a toss-up between whether Jasper would catch and destroy it, or I'd drive it into the pond.

Hmm, my son might have a spare quadcopter......

 

[JoanneF]

 

[JudyN]

Perfect!

 

[leashedForLife]

.

I can think off So Many THings that could go wrong, LOL, when a dog is casually clipped to a drone-walker & sent off... ...

Getting tangled around a shrub or traffic sign-post
Reacting to their neighborhood nemesis
Seeing a dear friend [human or other], & galloping over to “visit”
Entering a shop with an automatic-opening door...

Anything can happen unexpectedly, & even with a properly-fitted headcollar to help redirect the dog, i very, very much doubt that any drone thus far created, could effectively restrain a dog bigger than a 4# Chi.
They’d just take it along, like a strange kite floating in their wake.


I wonder if anyone has actually used a drone-walker? - I haven’t seen any articles or feedback on them, in my tech news.
- terry

.

 

[JudyN]

I'm assuming it was a joke at, LfL - at least, I very much hope it was

If the drone was strong enough to hold the dog, you'd have to be really careful to monitor altitude

 

[leashedForLife]

.

OTOH, @JudyN , if it *could* hold the dog, U could deliver the dog to the groomer from home & fetch them back after, or send a dog by “air” back to the owner when their pet-sitting visit was over...
There’d be all sorts of ways to send a dog at low altitude, with a proper body harness & a remote controlled drone to hoist them.

- terry

.

 

[JudyN]

I dread to think what the state of Jasper's brain would be once he'd landed - he'd need more than a groomer to sort him out, that's for sure!

 

[JoanneF]

Erm - sorry all, it was a 1st April joke *slinks off with tail between legs ...*

 

[Mad Murphy]

I once had a very bold totally daft cat called George. I was outside one day when George decided to jump on a huge seagull...... it took off with him just clinging on for grim death.
It landed about 100 yards down the road George fell off and just laid there in the grass as if he had had an electric shock..
Good news was he never bothered the birds again ! Lol

 

[JoanneF]

I once had a very bold totally daft cat called George. I was outside one day when George decided to jump on a huge seagull...... it took off with him just clinging on for grim death.
It landed about 100 yards down the road George fell off and just laid there in the grass as if he had had an electric shock..
Good news was he never bothered the birds again ! Lol

I am soooo sorry, it is completely inappropriate for me to be giggling at that !

 

[JudyN]

I tried making a flirt pole this afternoon, out of an old broom handle, some garden string, and a toy tied on the end. It worked well... for a couple of minutes!

Jasper's reactions are fast enough that he caught it within seconds, though he certainly enjoyed those seconds. But I'd forgotten that one of his favourite thinks is chewing through toys' 'appendages', particularly toys with rope legs. Within a couple of seconds of catching the toy, he had chewed through the string. After a couple of attempts, the string was too short to reuse!

I could tell him 'leave' as soon as he's caught the toy, but if I do he'd soon get fed up, I suspect. I could use stouter rope, but then he'd just settle in for a longer chew, and my feeling is he's a bit too old to bother training new 'game rules'. Short of using a metal chain instead of string or rope, has anyone any bright ideas how I can make this game work for him?

 

[Rinkydinkydo]

When I use a flirt line on a lurcher or terrier I use a lunge whip. They are a lot more responsive,but that's with pups and young dogs. There's only one thing I'd be having your big boy do...thats chasing a lure. Best thing I ever made was the lure machine.

 

[JudyN]

Yep, he would have adored lure coursing, but he didn't have the temperament - being held by the slipper alongside another pumped-up lurcher scared the wotsit out of him and I reckon is why he's collar-shy now.

How long is the lunge whip? I'm worried that with me being small with dodgy shoulders, I wouldn't manage anything that big, and also space in the garden is limited. And he might still chew through it...

It's not something I'd want to do with him too much as it would probably be really bad for his joints.

 

[Rinkydinkydo]

I tend to run lurchers solo on the lure,main reason is just to keep them fit,but more important.. they love it and so do the terriers. How old is the big boy,what is he tts

 

[JudyN]

He's 9 years old, and30" tts. We had to give up using the ball chucker with him because it played merry hell with his joints - he regularly used to have unexplained limps, but when we stopped using the ball chucker, and also balls on ropes (as he could retrieve them with his muzzle on), he was much more sound. So now it's a compromise between avoiding knackering his joints and letting my already knackered joint recover!

Prior to the 'incident', he had a solo run, and a run against a lab where OH slipped him, and he was perfect. But he did guard the lure when allowed to play with it as a pup and we were advised to alpha roll him, and we were told the same thing when he freaked out and launched himself at the slipper We didn't follow their advice