Hi folks, this past week I was working with my friend Jordyn (http://myspace.com/dancingminddesign) and her dear dogs Petey and Noodles. Can you tell I love these dogs?
We set them up with step-in harness and double-end leashes, which we like to use in TTouch as these tools give us various options for configuring the setup to have two points of contact. This is useful especially for dogs who pull on the leash.
Petey is a long-haired mini-dachshund and Noodles is a mixture of beagle and other lovely types of dogs (seems like there must be some dachshund in there too). Both dogs are low to the ground, so the setup that works best for them is to clip the leash to the two side clips on the harness. This setup is also good for very small dogs, as we saw in the Santa Fe training with the little
Chihuahua Mr. Brown. You can see this setup most easily in the picture of Petey below. One can stroke one side of the leash and then the other if the dog starts to pull, or sometimes spreading the arms further apart can work as well.
Jordyn and I each walked one dog at first, walking side by side, and then switched, so each would get used to being with me. Both of these dogs can be pullers, and Noodles can decide he doesn't want to move sometimes, but I have to say that they were both quite cooperative on our walk. When Noodles did try to stop, I gently pulled the leash and called to him, and after a minute he did come along. Below you see a picture of me with both dogs. The leash we used for Noodles may be a little wide for him so we are going to try a thinner leather leash, and we need to tighten his harness a bit for next time, but both dogs responded very positively to having this leash setup. Below you see me with both dogs. Don't worry, my right hand does not have the leash wrapped around, that is a scrunchy around my wrist! I am actually holding the leash with a light touch.
Good job, Noodles and Petey!
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