What’s That Smell?

The ‘sniff’ walk

Lets face it, you probably wouldn’t have got a dog unless you quite like walking. If the weather is nice and you have the time, a long dog walk is a great tonic for both of you. Whether your dog needs long walks or short ones, they all need to get out of the house at some point to check their ‘pee-mails’.

No matter how much you both enjoy it, we are getting to the time of year where walks may not be quite as much fun (for us at least).  I’m looking out of the window now and its pouring with rain – with 3 long haired dogs and lots of cream walls at home, winter dog walks are not as much fun as usual.

I talk a lot about using our dogs’ brains. I believe that a dog that is given a chance to use its brain is a happy dog. They are less likely to get bored and potentially develop behaviour problems.   (If your dog does have a behaviour which is difficult to manage please get in touch!  I’m sure I can help.  Have a look at the services I offer).

Let them use their brains

I believe that a dog walk should be just that – for the dog!  All too often I see a dog being walked at a marching pace from point A to point B in the hope that the physical exercise alone will tire them out.   I’ll let you into a little secret, if you let them have a really good sniff at lampposts / recycling bins and blades of grass,  you don’t have to go as far.

Dogs noses are immeasurably more sensitive than ours and its how they get alot of information about who has been around, where they were going, whether they were girls or boys, etc. To us it just looks like our dogs are snuffling around in the grass but their brains are in overdrive processing all the information they are picking up.

I’m not advocating letting our dogs drag us over to every lamppost and wheelie bin. You can use sniffing as a reward for walking nicely on the lead or sitting when asked. By using it as part of our training we are doubly the effect.  If Amos (my Catalan sheepdog, you can met him here) walks nicely on a loose lead I give him his release cue “Gobi” (as in “Go be a dog”) and away he goes to sniff for a few seconds.

If the weather is really bad and neither of you want to go outside check out these indoor brain games ideas.

Give it a go and let me know how it works. Share it in the comments below.