Walking in front of me- is that bad?

[CiCiJ]

So we took Kaiju out for his first successful walk today. The first 10 minutes he did his usual thing of fish-tailing and crying like he was being murdered. But then he finally caught on and we did a short walk to the end of the block and then back. I posted a picture on my facebook to boast about our first successful walk (he's 10 weeks old, by the way) and was kind of slapped on the hand for letting him walk in front of me.

Is this a thing? Maybe I missed the memo. Our other dogs have always walked (loose-leashed) in front of us as we walk with no problems, but is this a red flag for giant breeds? i had no idea. Are you militant about your mastiff walking next to you, or is it okay for them to walk ahead of you provided they are at a good pace, still know their heel/sit/leave it commands, and do not pull?

Just wanted to know if its an entirely different ball game with mastiffs.

 

[musicdeb]

IMO, walking in front of you is no big deal. The hardcore dog people will tell you that he needs to heel at all times and that's fine if that is what you are but IMO, it's no big deal. Titan walks in front of me some of the time and beside me some of the time.

Kaiju is walking, I would be happy with that accomplishment.

 

[ruthcatrin]

Lemme guess: "omg!!! you let him WALK IN FRONT OF YOU!!!! You're going to RUIN HIM! He won't EVER OBEY YOU NOW!!!!!"

If you want a strict heel in perfect heel position then cool.

Personally my dogs are required to not pull when we walk. I don't care if they heel. I do care if they literally walk infront of me cause then I trip over them, Arty in particular has that issue, he's a work in progress.

Now, where Kaiju is so young you may want to keep him on a shorter leash till you're sure he understands how to pay attention to you while walking. IMO thats where the real problem comes from. SOME dogs who range ahead don't pay attention to their owners well enough when ranging ahead like that, and with a dog the size of a mastiff that can be a problem.

 

[musicdeb]

When Titan walks in front of me, he has been taught to not pull, which took some time to train him to not pull.

That's a whole training session on not pulling while walking. When you are ready to start that training, just post on the forum and there a few of us who have through the training with our dogs. My first bit of advice, take a shot of whiskey before you start this training. You'll find out that shots of whiskey are necessary with a mastiff for this training and when they hit the "teenage" stage. hehehehehehe

 

[DDSK]

When Titan walks in front of me, he has been taught to not pull, which took some time to train him to not pull.

That's a whole training session on not pulling while walking. When you are ready to start that training, just post on the forum and there a few of us who have through the training with our dogs. My first bit of advice, take a shot of whiskey before you start this training. You'll find out that shots of whiskey are necessary with a mastiff for this training and when they hit the "teenage" stage. hehehehehehe

I totally disagree with deb on one point.
The wiskey, you see with a dogs sense of smell he will detect the wiskey immediately and he will feel you may become an alcoholic, with this fear he is more apt to become troublesome and belligerant.
I would suggest Rum as it does not have that strong wisky odor, the rum will remind him of laid back Jamaica and he will become much more plyable.

 

[musicdeb]

hahahahahahahahaha! Great point, DDSK!

 

[CiCiJ]

y'all are awesome! haha Thanks for the tips and advice. And I always keep a bottle of fireball in the freezer, just for those occasions.

 

[musicdeb]

What is fireball? Cinnamon schnapps?

 

[CiCiJ]

cinnamon whiskey!

 

[musicdeb]

cinnamon whiskey!

Ok, I've never heard of that and guess what I'm going to buy?

 

[Hector]

It's not a big deal if you can get the to respond to you. The puppy is 10 weeks old so not a big deal yet, but you need to start and write down some training goals in walking as he gets older. Always good to start with engagement exercises such as responding to his name.

 

[DennasMom]

Walking in front is not a big deal in our house, either.
And, considering the puppy is 10 WEEKS old... ah, no worries!! Be happy that you have a such an outgoing, confident puppy!!

It took Denna quite a bit longer to stop following on my heels when we were out walking.
Now, she does range ahead, but I make sure she "checks in" on a regular basis. One way to get that habit formed, is to just drop the leash and start walking backwards... clap your hands or do something to make the puppy look if he's not paying attention. He should come RUNNING back to you! Good Puppy!!! Praise for coming back to Mommy/Daddy!!
You can also just randomly provide treats anytime the puppy looks at you - he'll get in the habit of looking at you often that way.

At that age, I was all about keeping walks fun and exciting - encouraging curiosity and a sense of adventure, and just bonding with the puppy by doing fun stuff together.
You have plenty of time to add structure to the walk later.

 

[Siloh]

Walking in front is not a big deal in our house, either.
And, considering the puppy is 10 WEEKS old... ah, no worries!! Be happy that you have a such an outgoing, confident puppy!!

It took Denna quite a bit longer to stop following on my heels when we were out walking.
Now, she does range ahead, but I make sure she "checks in" on a regular basis. One way to get that habit formed, is to just drop the leash and start walking backwards... clap your hands or do something to make the puppy look if he's not paying attention. He should come RUNNING back to you! Good Puppy!!! Praise for coming back to Mommy/Daddy!!
You can also just randomly provide treats anytime the puppy looks at you - he'll get in the habit of looking at you often that way.

At that age, I was all about keeping walks fun and exciting - encouraging curiosity and a sense of adventure, and just bonding with the puppy by doing fun stuff together.
You have plenty of time to add structure to the walk later.

I completely agree with this. I do require a heel only from my large breed, but at 10 weeks there is a good deal of time to slowly build on structure. I think it's great your dog is walking on a leash at 10 weeks and being curious as well.

Definitely after a couple weeks of being comfortable and confident on walks I would introduce working on recall. I would probably use treats, but if praise alone is perfectly motivating more power to you!

After that it will be fun to see what other kinds of attention games you can introduce as Hector mentioned.


"Nothing is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so."
Hamlet Prince of Denmark

 

[Sadies Mom]

Your puppy is very young, so just encourage and praise if he walks on the leash without pulling. I have a structured walk with Sadie for the first 15-20 minutes of our walk, after that I "release" her and I let her sniff, walk in front, walk behind or what ever she wants to do, but she also knows to sit before we cross any street, so if she is in front and we come up to a street crossing, she will stop and sit. If she gets too exited and starts to pull, I will put her back in a heel for a while.

 

[babyjoemurphy]

Im the same. I use structured walks for the first 20 mins, then I take Linc to a grassed area of our local school and its a free for all but no pulling on the leash. With him being now 8 mos old (where did the time go) I don't want him to freely walk all the time. I have started teaching him STOP at the corners and he goes into an immediate sit (work in progress of course)
My husband on the other hand expects a leftside heel end of story.

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[babyjoemurphy]

Of course I only allow Linc to be ahead of me if I am in a calm relaxed state of mind. Sometimes I find after that ankle biting yappy dog has finished having a meltdown in the window I am alittle tense

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[QY10]

We are not super strict about the dogs walking in front of us. Like most of the others said, we focus on the dogs not pulling or dragging us around. Sometimes the dogs are in front of us, beside us, or even a bit behind us. As long as they are not pulling me around, which they could easily do, I'm okay with it.