Help! Leash walking a hound

[allyatlanta]

I have inherited a 2+year-old "Bagle" (Beagle/Basset mix). She is a delightful dog in almost every way, and has proven easy to train. However...walking her is a real chore, and because of that, no one in the family wants to do it. It's not the typical dog-pulling-on-leash problem; it's the reverse. Because she's a hound, she goes wherever her nose leads. Which means we can't walk 10 feet before she wants to stop and sniff something. We can tug, pull or coax: sometimes it works, sometimes not. I know we need to switch to a standard leash from the retractable leash we inherited with her, but that won't keep her from frequent sniff stops on the walk. Any advice?

[Ari_RR]

Just out of curiosity - what's so wrong with stopping and sniffing things, even if every 10 ft? Are you really in a rush to get to some destination when walking her?

[Nettle]

I agree - it's her walk to enjoy her way. It's ever so important for a beagle to sniff scents.

What I suggest is that you train her to walk smartly and properly on a loose leash with no sniffing, then when you get to where sniffs can be had in abundance and safety, you give a command e.g. 'Go sniff' and run her out on the longer leash. I recommend a proper leash as extenders aren't all that safe and they do teach dogs bad habits like pulling.

[allyatlanta]

Yes, it's her walk to enjoy....but (a) I don't have hours to spend on her walk, and (b) isn't exercise supposed to be one of the primary reasons for walking?

Quite seriously, it takes 30 minutes to walk to the end of my block (a *very* short block) and back, when she's given free rein. I don't want to curtail ALL sniffing, for heaven's sake. I'd just like a few tips for helping her to walk better on leash.

If anyone has tips to offer, I would be very appreciative

[jacksdad]

Yes, it's her walk to enjoy....but (a) I don't have hours to spend on her walk, and (b) isn't exercise supposed to be one of the primary reasons for walking?

Quite seriously, it takes 30 minutes to walk to the end of my block (a *very* short block) and back, when she's given free rein. I don't want to curtail ALL sniffing, for heaven's sake. I'd just like a few tips for helping her to walk better on leash.

If anyone has tips to offer, I would be very appreciative

couple thoughts for you....30 minutes is hardly much of a walk time wise. my small dog, 16 pounds, gets close to 2 hours daily of physical exercise. BUT to be exercise the walk doesn't have to be at a super fast pace and highly aerobic. not all dogs are built for that...yes they need some physical exercise but within reason for their breed, size, physical make up etc. And lastly sniffing is mental exercise. no joke. we humans...our noes are frankly useless decoration compared to a dog's nose and even more so for some breeds such as your dog. sniffing is a dog's primary means to explore the world. Allowing your dog to sniff not only tires her out mentally, but it is a life enrichment.

we have to work with the dog in front of us and sniffing is going to be HIGHLY rewarding for your dog. And given the breed mix, something selected for at the genetic level. Meaning while it is technically possible to teach your dog to be a bit less nose to the ground all the time, and achieve a bit more balance between "aerobic" and "mental" (aka sniffing) exercise, there will be a limit to what you can achieve. You don't have a Lab and it would be unreasonable to expect your dog to love the physical exercise as Labs do.

The big challenge is going to be your ability to be patient and view success in small steps. if you get frustrated over just a 30 minute walk, then how are you going to be able to handle putting in the training time?

my two cents, the BEST solution is to change your expectations and assumptions and find activities that naturally bring balance to your dogs exercise needs. One example is to learn about nose work. think search and rescue without the rescue. this is where you dog has to move around AND use it's nose and find things. would be a great activity for your dog AND you to do together.

[mansbestfriend]

Agree that the outside world of smells to many dogs, is like a library to a book lover, or an art gallery to an art lover, and that working with the dog's 'natural' characteristics rather than fight against them, makes the task of training easier for everyone (especially the dog).

Part of my dog's mix of characteristics is sniffer/explorer/chaser, and with enough Positive Reinforcement training it's now possible for her to walk on a loose leash most of the time. My wanting a loose leash is mainly for our safety and my convenience while walking from A to B, BUT A to B may be 30 metres or may be 4 metres or 2 metres. She's not a show or competition dog so doesn't have to prance or be 'most perfect' at anything. Just a nice loose leash for a few to many seconds (between stops to sniff/whatever) at a time is fine.

So assuming the dog has limited training I'd suggest Positive Reinforcement training for basic obedience/bonding/communication/etc.etc. keeping always in mind the dogs' need to sniff and track.

Maybe use a well fitted body harness with front-attach point, and standard 5' or 6' leash, in tandem with training for loose-leash, recall, lets go, go sniff, etc..
Cheers.

[Sweetie's Human]

This is more of another question than anything (sorry!), but I wonder if, once she's gotten the lie of the land, whether she'll walk the known parts of your track with fewer sniff-stops? My dog is a completely different breed so this may not apply to a beagle, but Sweetie stops for sniffs much more frequently in new territory. In areas she's been in the last day or two, she really only stops at trees and lampposts that seem to have been freshly, er... visited by others. I also take the view that the walks are about her (no way I'd be up at 5am if she weren't so bloody cute!) so sniffing is OK, but I admit it took me a while to grasp that notion . And I agree that a mentally tired dog is a happy and quiet dog. I was so surprised at how much she can be tired out by a puzzle or mental training such as learning a new trick.

Could you try a few days of stopping whenever she likes to see if she goes further and further if her own volition? I'm just thinking that once she knows who's been around it might be a little less interesting to her.

I'm still learning about having a dog too, and mine's not a hound, so I'm happy for anyone with half a clue to correct me

[Nix1234]

Whilst I totally agree with the all the advice you've been given I can imagine it must be a frustrating feeling to go and walk the dog and not get to the end of the block

So I'm thinking of ways to make what she wants to do (sniff), match what you want her to do (move forward).

How about teaching her to follow a specific scent, and then going out in advance, and laying a trail for her? Or you could play several variations on what I call 'find it', where the dog has to find food. This could be as easy as throwing some treats in the grass a couple feet in front to get her moving (show her the treat first so she gets the game!), and you can build it up to more advanced versions where you can put her on a sit-stay, then cover an area with treats and let her run wild looking for them. I play variations of this game almost every day and my boy loves it.

Her scent capabilities are actually a blessing in disguise, like everyone said. Sniffing really does tire them out mentally, and there are loads of great games you can teach her, to find objects other than food. This is especially great for rainy days!! I'm sure there must be a nosework post on here somewhere, but if not there will be loads of ideas on the internet good luck x

[Maxy24]

I agree with the others to an extent. I stopped viewing walks as physical exercise a while ago, the main purpose of an on-leash walk is mental exercise/stimulation obtained through sniffing and exploring. Playing off leash/on a long line (tug, fetch, rough housing, chasing/playing tag, getting zoomies) is usually more physically demanding so I use that for physical exercise. So I don't generally rush him, I don't need him getting a work out and the walk is for him, not me.

That said my dog does have a "let's go" command I can use if he's been sniffing something for a very long time and I need to move him along either because I need to get home by a certain time or because I need to get him out of the way (he's dog reactive and stranger aggressive so sometimes we need to cross the street to avoid dogs or run away from approaching children). I taught it through classical conditioning mostly but it likely won't work for every dog. When I knew he was about to move on from what he was sniffing (after he marked something or as soon as he started too move away from what he was sniffing) I would say "let's go!" and then pick up the speed for a little bit (jog a little), he LOVES when I run with him so it easily gets his attention and encourages forward movement. That is the only time I said it at first, when I KNEW he was about to move. After a couple of weeks doing that I started using it when I needed it. For us, because he's small and I walk him on a harness, if I said "let's go" and he didn't come along I'd simply pull him away from whatever he was sniffing and jog along for a little bit. For a dog that's not sniffing a specific spot but is just sniffing the whole ground it might not work so well. Now if I say "let's go" he comes along right away 99.9% of the time.

Of course that's just what worked for us, but he gets stuck on "spots", he's not following a trail or anything, so if I pull him away from the spot he's not longer glued to the ground. He's also easy to motivate forward by jogging a little, if your dog ignores your movement it would be harder to train him the way I did.

[allyatlanta]

Thank you, all — for the empathy, mindset adjustment tips (!), walking suggestions, and stories

[minkee]

I agree with all of the above, that sniffing is most certainly the most tiring thing my dogs do. They could run all day and still be ready for more, but if I take them somewhere - particularly somewhere they haven't been before - they sniff like crazy and are crashed out for the rest of the day. And for a dog like a beagle, that's literally *built* to sniff, it must be even more of a work out, not to mention rewarding.

So, assuming you're going to let them sniff to their hearts content, you still want to be able to move out of the way / along when you need to / get home at some point!! For this I'd recommend this video, which is geared towards reactive dogs, but you could certainly take aspects of it for your own use. It's called 'Giving into leash pressure' by Emily Larlham (Kikopup) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4vEayrRyB0

What you'd want to do is teach your pup that moving with the leash is a fun and rewarding game - and you'd want to do this at home first where it's boring and she would rather work with you than sniff. Once she gets the 'game', then you can progress and make it harder and take it outside, and eventually between learning this as a skill, and getting used to sniffing outside, she should be more happy to listen to you once she realises that moving along = good things happen AND she still gets to sniff.

Hope it helps!

[Nix1234]

Ah yea that's a great video!