Walking the Dastardly Duo at the same time is like watching Lucy and Ethel try to pack candy. It’s a comedy of errors.
Oh it’s not totally their fault, I am after all their handler and trainer and it seems like I’m not actually very good at either task.
Try as I might, I can’t quite get an handle on how to train two dogs to walk nicely together. There’s a woman that has been seen around our neighborhood walking three dogs. They walk along at a good clip, and don’t seem to have any issues.
I hate that woman.
In contrast, we look like we’re doing an episode of Who’s on First?
Right out of the driveway it’s a contest to see which way we will go. Once that is decided, it’s going either one of two ways. 1) The two of them take off, each trying to get ahead of the other, with me puffing behind and trying to keep my arms from dislocating from my shoulders. Or 2) Delilah is ahead of me, taut at the end of her leash, while Sampson is behind me, receiving or leaving some pee mail.
When they walk side by side Delilah always takes the inside route. (Truthfully I think she’s got an ulterior motive to always find the crap on the side of the road first.) Eventually one of them will find something interesting to sniff and the other dog will dart over. This is when their leashes entangle, or someone gets clotheslined, or worse, Delilah’s leash is tight across Sampson’s butt, urging him forward. That’s when I get ‘the look.’
You know which one, the one that says, ‘Hey the Chamber of Secrets is closed. Stop pushing on it.”
Dude it ain’t me.
Of course, there are times when I’m the one getting clotheslined and the leash is behind my knees, propelling me forward and I can’t keep up.
Or worse yet.
Remember how I said, she’s trying to kill me? Well Monday she put forth her best effort.
It was slightly windy on Monday and Delilah thought every leaf that blew in the road was something to be chased. I can’t tell you how many times I said leave it. Which I found amusing, since it was a leaf.
Get it?
I would treat her when she left it, but still the majority of our walk, her ears were up and she was alert.
I’m sure it’s not a leaf, I’m sure it’s a mouse.
Finally I gave up and gave her a bit of leash so she could check it out herself and discover it was nothing but a leaf.
Maybe that is where I went wrong. I don’t know.
Here’s what happened. Sampson stopped to poop. And I (doing my duty) stopped to pick up the doody.
Sampson was slightly in front of me and Delilah slightly behind me, I picked up the poop and stood up, and in those precious few seconds, when I loosened my grip on the leash, when I was vulnerable and not paying attention, that’s when it happened.
I felt a tug. It was strong enough that it yanked me and I felt myself falling. I heard the sound of plastic skittering across the pavement, my left hip and the back of my head made contact with the road.
And there I was, flat on my back at 6:40 in the morning on the side of the road.
I didn’t lose consciousness, it took a few seconds, but I sat up, I shouted at Delilah and then I thought, my glasses, where are my glasses? Gah! I Hope I don’t stand up and step on them. (That would totally be my luck.)
The next thing I realized was, I could still see, so my glasses, thankfully, were still on my head. It was the light I wear on the brim of my hat that had fallen off.
Delilah was off down the street, disillusioned with what turned out to be a leaf, (which I told her numerous times to begin with) and Sampson was right beside me. I got up on all fours, found the hat light and made my way to my feet. I felt my head, there were no bumps or blood. I grabbed Delilah’s leash and started back towards home.
Fuming the whole way.
I use a harness on Delilah, but usually I have the hook on the back, mostly because when I put the harness on the proper way, she manages to walk over it and get it stuck between her legs, and I’m constantly stopping to unwrap her. But since that little incident, she’s wearing it the right way and as soon as I get my income tax money, I’m getting her the harness I use for Sampson which is totally awesome and helps keep him from pulling.
Between tangled leashes, pulled arms, trying to maneuver past barking dogs, and dumb ass dogs that bite my fingers and chase leaves, most of our walks involve lots of cussing on my part. I’ve started to look at walking them as a chore.
Once upon a time, I loved walking my dogs.
I struggle a lot with trying to find the right title for my posts, so when I have more than one, ‘m going to share it with you so you can give me your thoughts.
Alternative titles for this post: She Rang My Bell , It Ain’t Me Babe and The Answer Isn’t Blowing in the Wind. Leave me your thoughts in the comments.
FYI I’m okay. I wear a ball cap with a pair of fleece ear muffs over it. Thankfully the part of my head that hit the pavement was covered by both the cap and the ear muffs.
The hat and ear muffs that kept my head from looking like last Halloween’s pumpkin.
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Firstly, I am sincerely glad that you weren’t seriously injured …
Secondly, Bahahahaha!!!!!
I completely lost it when you thought you lost your glasses but really, it was just that the light!
When I compose myself, I will try to write a better comment.
But to recap: BAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Okay, I’ve had a pretty good night’s rest and re-read your post and I stand my original response. This was hilarious!!! (Only because you were not seriously injured. I’m not a complete jerk.)
I am SO glad you’re okay!!! Seriously! Ouch.
Honestly, I know your pain with walking the two dogs. When I was stuck with strictly leash walks only, I HATED it. I’ve always struggled with loose leash walking with Zoe because the environment is way more rewarding than anything I could ever offer her. There are squirrels, rabbits and deer oh my and she couldn’t give a crap about what I’m doing. I also get the whole front clipping harness woes. They step on them and get even more tangled in them and it freaking sucks. I have not found the magic answer. We work on it as much as possible and moving back to Oregon and right next to a big off leash hiking place has seriously helped because I can just let them run free and be dogs without being dragged around. Pulling on the leash is my biggest pet peeve it drives me absolutely up the wall. Being able to just walk at my pace while they walk at theirs has really helped me get back to enjoying our walks together.
I am so sorry about your fall. I hope the new harness works out!
Ouch!
I have a pretty cool tandem leash from Xtreme pet products that doesn’t get tangled in itself… but that doesn’t keep Mia and Leo from wrapping me up in it. They did it today while we were trying to take pictures in front of a field of tulips, they managed to tighten it all the way around my legs, tying me up. Those jokers.
Glad you are OK. We know just how frustrating it can be. Have a tremendous Thursday.
Best wishes Molly
I hope you’re going to wear that head protection in the summer as well!!!
You are lucky! Mom only falls when running and always lands face first on the pavement and it is a bloody mess. We rarely walk in an orderly fashion on our walks, but we all like it that way. No one else is around and it is just how we do it. Occasionally we hear, “that’s a handful” or other “cute” comments, but it is our way of walking. Now introduce the super slow, trouble walking Katie to the mix and that spells trouble which is why Mom very rarely walks the three of us anymore. She can do three with cousin Lena and it works but it is difficult. Main thing is you survived physically unscathed!
You poor thing, I’m so glad your alright yeah for the hat, your going to have to wear it 365 days a yeast. I liked she rang my bell, I struggle with titles too.
Oh gosh, so glad you are ok! This sounds like one of my episodes walking my three dogs! One morning this woman was walking her teacup Chihuahua and thought it was a good idea to cross the street and greet my crew. Well of course the dogs thought it was nothing more than a chipmunk, off they went dragging me behind them. I still don’t know how I managed to get the dogs and walk back home. My husband says I need a helmet, so glad I can laugh about it now! lol
We are glad that you were NOT INJURED…
Aw, Jodi, I’m glad you weren’t seriously hurt!! Maybe you should start wearing a bicycle helmet instead of that baseball cap, just to be on the safe side. As for the alternate title, I kinda like “The Answer Isn’t Blowing In The Wind”. And I have to ask: which brand of no-pull harness do you use for Sampson? I have one each for the Golden Girls and Ducky but have the same problem with them that you have with Delilah’s. In fact I just gave up on them altogether and went back to the head collar for our walks at the park. Ducky? I just attach her leash to her collar, but she doesn’t pull me at the park…she’s too busy attaching herself to my legs.
I saw cute helmet on facebook the other day you could get. But seriously, I’m glad you didn’t get hurt.
I think a football or motorcycle helmet should be required for your walks.
Gosh I am glad you are OK. I have a review coming up next week of a book about how to train your dog to walk on loose leash. I am hoping there will be a discount or even a free sample. I am waiting to hear back. I like the trainer’s approach to training and especially since loose leash walking is something all dog walkers struggle with now and again. 🙂
I totally feel for you, and I admire you because you keep trying. I only walk one dog a time and even that can be a fiasco sometimes. I’ll never forget lying flat on the ground with our neighbor’s German shepherd in my face (thank God he’s friendly). I was holding onto the leash and Luke’s harness and Luke was no longer in it. Then the other neighbors drove by and later Facebooked me to ask if I was OK. Talk about embarrassing! We are not at our most glamorous when walking our dogs, are we?
What kind of harness do you use for Sampson? I like the front clips for slowing the dogs down, but they are always between their legs for me too, or Sheba constantly walks into it and jerks me on and off the whole walk. She does not want to be slowed down.
Ouch!! I’m so sorry you bumped your head, but we’re glad you’re ok.
Any chance you could practice some solid walk training with each dog one at a time? Sounds kind of like a trip back to the basics would really benefit you guys and help you to regain control of and enjoy your walks again.
We love to walk although i’ll admit recently we’ve being doing soo much other training that our walks have gotten sloppy, and I hate being pulled down the street so guess what we’re doing this weekend? Yup, walking, training, one at a time. 🙂
Treats and clicker really do help, we just have to practice semi-regularly to keep the dogs in the habit of walking nicely. Hubby and I have a habit of “walks mean business” no sniffing, we’re walking, we expect our pups to ignore the cats, dogs, and squirrels while we’re walking – looking is fine. But we also take regular sniff breaks using a release command to keep the walk fun for them too. But I’ve found that business type walks are refreshing for me, exercise for them and good training to pay attention to me.
OMGoodness! What a comedy of errors. Thankfully, Cupcake is only 22 pounds. Otherwise, I’d be down for count a hundred times a day. Usually, she walks politely right next to me – that is until something scares her. There’s no talking to her when she’s afraid. All bets are off.
Maybe your pups need a weighted vest to slow them down! 🙂
Wow what an experience! I’m so glad you’re okay. Daisy may only be a fraction of your dogs’ sizes, but I still couldn’t imagine walking more than one Daisy. She earned her nicknames of “Nut” and “Lunatic”! 😉
Oh my gosh, so glad you’re ok and everything is in tact!! I kind of like ‘well, ring my chimes’ but what do I know. Once I was walking all 3 dogs I owned at the time (2 Old English Sheepdogs and Sam), and through no fault of the dogs-just stepped off the curb to cross the street, stepped into a small divot, rolled my ankle and went down like a ton of bricks and realized later than morning I had broken my leg. The dogs all looked at me like WTF are you doing down there? Now I never leave without a cell phone (in case I have to call an ambulance due to my clumsiness since I had to hobble 6 blocks home on that broken leg). With the addition of the much sprier Sam, we were the veritable 3 ring hairy circus coming down the street though in all fairness the OESs were very good walkers (so long as a cat or squirrel wasn’t within view, then all bets were off and I was on my own). They both walked politely on either side of me and Sam ended up walking next to the female. I learned early on, best to keep a tight leash and kept them all close to my side. A harness is definitely your friend with multiples.
Course now as I’m working on a post about leash manners with Sam…seems like something got misplaced during the years as he’s this crazed idiot on the walks nowadays. Please be safe out there-maybe you can find one of those sumo wrestling bubbles you see people wearing between periods at hockey games. At least you’d only roll around and not break your head. 😉
Jodi – two things … My hubby walks our three Chihuahua’s and they are pretty good about being good. When they have to do their thing he/we stop and then go on. But he is pretty good about keeping the retractable leashes straight. However when ever I try to walk them it’s like walking kites in a hurricane and by the time I get home the leashes look like we have done the May pole dance of the virgins without the May Pole. It takes me at least 10 minutes to untangle them. (like herding gerbles).
The second thing is … was it Sampson that had the knee surgery ?????
My girl Trixie a 6 year old Chihuahua jumped off the couch about 2 weeks ago and tore her ACL and and a seriously luxating patella so we took her to the vet because she wasn’t bearing any weight on it at all and she was put on Rymadyl and Tramadol and was told she needed surgery. So we made an appointment with the Ortho Doc for the practice and by the time the appointment rolled around she was bearing full weight and didn’t act like anything was wrong. We were told that on small dogs under 15 pounds the ACL can scar over and surgery isn’t needed. we all breathed a sigh of relief. So we now have to be careful not to let her do any jumping off of couches and no stairs for six weeks. That just saved us a bundle !!!!!!!!!
I always look forward to hearing what you and your “kids” have been up to. Love your Blog!!!!!!!
I’m so glad you weren’t hurt, Geez! I’m thinking Delilah was a bit confused on the day you taught her the Leave It command…I’m sure she heard “Leaf It!”
Glad to hear that you’re ok! I usually can’t walk Barley with other dogs because I need to focus all of my attention on her if we see another dog coming, but occasionally I’ll take her out with my parents’ dog in the quiet part of their neighborhood. Barley’s trained to sit while I get out the plastic bag and pick up the poop (she used to get a treat for sitting, then I’d tell her to stay, she’d get another treat after I got the back turned around the poop, I’d remind her to stay while I tied it, and then she’d get a third treat–now she does it without any treats) and when we have my parent’s dog, I expect the same behavior from her–she’s usually pretty willing to do whatever Bar’s doing because she knows that Barley gets a lot of treats on walks! It’s much easier to pick up poop without worrying about landing face first in the pile when you know the dog isn’t going to be moving until you’ve got the bag tied 🙂 Good luck with the training!
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