"Luc" Leash Walking (Part 1)

Those of you who know me well know that I love to walk (and run and bike and be outdoors). One of things I was most excited for in adopting a dog was having a partner who would happily accompany me on outdoor adventures. I tried to reframe Lucy's unexpected level of energy as a good thing: it would mean we'd get to spend lots of time together being active.

I quickly realized that this was a naive idea. I mentioned that the description on some dogs' Petfinder profiles of "walks beautifully on a leash" was a foreign concept to me. I had thought that walking on a leash was something hard-wired into dogs. NOT TRUE. Granted, Lucy had never walked on a leash before I brought her home AND was used to being a stray--so totally on her own and accountable to no one when outside.

This meant that our "walks" were basically Lucy pulling me with all her might up and down the sidewalk. No amount of my calling her name, snapping my fingers or making strange sounds could redirect her attention to me. This was especially the case in my neighborhood in Columbus where there are TONS of "distractions" (to use the Dog School terminology): I live relatively close to the University campus, so there is trash and debris (and therefore amazing smells) lining the sidewalk; we constantly run into other dogs and runners; cars loudly speed by us as we go; and there is a bike lane right next to the sidewalk--a particularly challenging distraction for Lucy who hates bikes and motorcycles more than almost anything (basically more than anything other than my next-door neighbors).

Early morning walk at a park

I became keenly aware of the extent to which these environmental distractions were part of the problem when I took Luc home to Bethesda with me one weekend. Walking her in my residential, calm, quiet, trash-free neighborhood was a totally different experience. In some ways that made me hopeful: she obviously HAD the capacity to walk nicely, but at the same time what could I do about the fact that my Columbus neighborhood was full of ALL OF THE MOST challenging distractions?! For a short time, I tried to do all of our walks in more quiet, clean spaces in Columbus. I started to get up earlier in the mornings to drive us to different parks and green spaces. I loved exploring with her in these ways, forcing myself to find new parts of Columbus. She was somewhat better at walking there, but it still wasn't a sustainable solution. During the school year and after dark, I had to be able to walk her in my neighborhood without it being a miserable experience for both of us. I felt trapped: I knew she needed exercise, especially before I left her alone for my work day, but I hated those walks and they weren't even tiring her out.

One particularly stressful afternoon early into my new life with Lucy, I got a call from my very close family-friend/"second parent," Rick, who has dog-whisperer type skills. Rick has been hugely helpful in getting me to understand and contextualize Lucy's behaviors, in turn reducing my frustration. Snippets of our conversations will undoubtedly be featured in other posts. In terms of Lucy's walking dilemma, Rick was very supportive of my desire to enroll her in obedience school. In the short term, he suggested that I find a tennis court or fenced in area where I could run Lucy around off leash. Hopefully this could get some of her excess energy out and could also be a good place for us to practice walking on a leash.

Panting happily and trying to find the shade

I do have a semi-fenced backyard... the gate was broken and Lucy usually just howled when we were outside, especially at our neighbors (the ones who she hates more than anything else on the earth). With a little research, I found an outdoor roller hockey rink at a Rec center relatively close to our house and took Lucy there. I'd brought a tennis ball and some treats with me in hopes to starting to teach her fetch. Now, I'd spent about 3 weeks when I was much younger trying to teach my adorable and wonderful family dog, Mickey, to fetch to no avail. With Lucy, I unhooked her leash, threw the ball and she immediately ran after it, go it, brought it back to me, and dropped it at my feet. I laughed out loud. It seems that even though leash walking was not something in her DNA, RETRIEVING definitely was. I'll take it!

Pouncing!

She gets SO proud of herself

Usually does a victory lap before actually bringing me the ball 

What's that you see? She's laying down! And panting! Out of breath! Perhaps even TIRED!?!?!

Daily runs around the tennis courts were an excellent addition to our routine, but were still relatively burdensome (took about 15 minutes of driving each way, which is only feasible once a day at most) and did not solve the walking issue. It was for this reason that I was SUPER excited about our first day of Dog School. I had researched three different programs recommended by our vet, and as luck would have it, one of them was about to start a 4 week "Polite Walking" program!

The first I thought given how intelligent and wonderful Lucy is, she would be the star pupil. Bahahahaha.... to be continued!