When I take Harper B on a walk, I call it a Sniff. When I take Sparkle, it is a Roly Poly.
My goal is exercise. Her goal is to find disgusting things to roll in as fast as possible so I am caught off guard. If that is not possible, rolling very close to the disgusting thing is an acceptable second choice (as above).
There are a lot of baths involved in Roly Polies.
I typically do not walk dogs together and this is especially true for leash walks. It is so much harder to create, maintain, and reinforce desired behavior for multiple dogs when on a walk, and so I usually like to take one dog at a time (and yes, I walk a lot).
Who knows what Sparkle would find to roll in if my attention was split?!
Oh — I actually know the answer to that as sometimes I do walk Sparkle and Capella off leash together. The list so far this summer includes:
long dead deer 🦌 (multiple times — usually while I am talking to Suzanne)
smashed and dried up frog 🐸 (twice — no excuse)
coyote 💩 (a lot — it is hard to spot)
God Knows What That Was — but I don’t
“Who, ME?!”
I also do not typically train dogs together. When I am training a dog, I want 100% attention and focus on me — and so I need to give the same to the dog. There are, of course, exceptions.
Sparkle, Claire, and Capella
I do a lot of micro training in my kitchen, and that usually happens in groups. It is a perfect way to teach and reinforce some of the basic behaviors.
It also makes great use of FOMO (fear of missing out). If I say “down” and two go down and one is still sitting, two get cookies and one is left contemplating the wages of sin, so to speak.
Capella, rePete, and Pozy
Dogs do seem to learn from each other, and so basic training in these groups of two or three can be useful both in learning behaviors but also picking up from the older dogs that training is SO SO exciting and fun.
Capella and Pozy. Capella is in season and thinks nothing is exciting at the moment.
Some things I tend to teach in small groups include touch, stay, sit, and down — but only together as a group, and not individually with an audience. I would not, for example, expect Sparkle to stay while I had a quick session with Capella.
No way.
Sparkle would take full advantage of my lack of attention and find something else to do. You know, like roll in a dead deer and emerge with hairs sticking out of her.
Capella to Sparkle: “You are the coolest grandma ever!”
Socrates said, “Know Thyself.”
I say, “Know Thy Dog.”
❤️