Walking a dog with a stroller

[anomaly13]

I have a 8 month old pup and have a few questions about walking him. I push a double bike trailer/stroller when we walk and am wondering where the pup should be exactly. I know he is supposed to be next to me, not infront of me but here is the problem. When he is right next to me he wants to get behind the stroller which just doesn't work so he moves over and that puts his face just behind the wheel which he doesn't like so he moves forward to be next to the wheel with his rear end/tail next to me but if he goes too far the leash is taught and he comes right back to where we started trying to walk next to me behind the stroller. He never walks infront of the stroller or with his whole body in front of me because I keep him on a short leash and we use a training collar so when he feels that tug of the taught leash he comes right back. Should I be keeping his head righ at my side, in line with my leg or is it ok for his rear end to be in line with my leg putting his head next to the stroller? I want to start doing it right so we don't have to try and correct anything down the road.

Also when he is off the leash should he be at my side the whole time or is it ok to let him go ahead of me and the stroller a little way? Right now he goes ahead a little ways but always stops if we stop and comes back when called.

[greenmagick]

Unless you are doing formal obedience competing, there is no reason to make him to a true heel. Even then I wouldnt use it on walks most of the time as a walk should be fun and engaging for the dog. You just dont want him to pull, which it sounds as if hes not.

[aurora_skys]

Dont worry so much about having him heal "just right." Its more about his attitude. Like if hes not trying to take charge, hes just trying to find a position around the stroller that hes comfortable with, I wouldnt worry about it. My little dog walks with me and the stroller, sometimes shes right next to me, sometimes shes next to the stroller but shes not pulling or trying to take over the walk so i let it slide. We are walking to relax, you know?

[ParisApril]

From the title I tought you were thinking about buying a doggie stroller to "walk" your dog in! LOL those are funny.

I would just let the dog walk beside me as long as it is not pulling the exact position isn't important. I used to tie our lab to the stroller because she would pull my arm making it difficult for me to puch the stroller. She wouldn't pull the stroller because it was too heavy.

Off leash, as long as you know your dog listens to you and will come back when you tell it to then let it have fun running around where ever it likes.

[Irishmommy]

Originally Posted by ParisApril

From the title I tought you were thinking about buying a doggie stroller to "walk" your dog in! LOL those are funny.

That was my first thought.

Originally Posted by ParisApril

I used to tie our lab to the stroller because she would pull my arm making it difficult for me to puch the stroller. She wouldn't pull the stroller because it was too heavy.

When our Lhasa Apso was 4/5 months old, she could pull an umbrella stroller with a 4 year old in it over grass.

[justamama]

We have two basset hounds and a dachshund. All pull, so we use the Gentle Leader harnesses with them. With those harnesses, they walk without pulling at all. I loop their leashes to the handle of the stroller and go about our business. If we take the wagon, I pull the wagon in one hand and the leashes with the other...and the dachshund usually hops in the wagon.

[limabean]

I agree that a true heel isn't necessary on every single walk. When walking our dog, we had a "heel" command and then a "let's go" command. During a "heel," her shoulder had to be lined up with my knee and she wasn't allowed to sniff, look toward distractions, etc. -- she had to be completely focused on walking next to me. But during a "let's go," she could do those things, but still wasn't allowed to pull on the leash. Most of our walks were "let's go" walks, with some heeling thrown in for training purposes just so she'd retain the ability.

Our trainer told us never to attach the leash to the stroller -- it would have been really easy for our lab to pull the stroller over if she bolted for some reason. So we just worked on teaching her to walk with a slack leash so that she wasn't pulling on my arm.

ETA: Speaking of heeling, my DS and I were in the grocery store last week and he kept walking up next to the cart, making it so I almost bumped him when we went around corners. Finally I told him that the safest place for him to walk was with his feet next to my feet and he said, "Oh, you mean I should heel?"

[ParisApril]

Originally Posted by limabean

Our trainer told us never to attach the leash to the stroller -- it would have been really easy for our lab to pull the stroller over if she bolted for some reason. So we just worked on teaching her to walk with a slack leash so that she wasn't pulling on my arm.

My dog was really good; she never tried to take off when attached to the stroller. It was so much easier to have two hands pushing and she just walked along beside.

She never pulled the stroller over execpt for the time she almost did but that was my fault. I tried to harness her up to the front of the stroller like she was a sled dog to pull the stroller for me. That didn't really work out too well as I wasn't interested in walking in the grass!

[limabean]

Originally Posted by ParisApril

My dog was really good; she never tried to take off when attached to the stroller. It was so much easier to have two hands pushing and she just walked along beside.

If she was a good walker, though, she would have walked just as well with the leash looped around your wrist (still leaving you 2 hands to push the stroller), so that if for some crazy reason she got spooked and bolted you could either grab or drop the leash and the stroller wouldn't be involved at all.

[ParisApril]

Originally Posted by limabean

If she was a good walker, though, she would have walked just as well with the leash looped around your wrist (still leaving you 2 hands to push the stroller), so that if for some crazy reason she got spooked and bolted you could either grab or drop the leash and the stroller wouldn't be involved at all.

What can I say? Dogs like to smell things and I'm not a fan of getting my wrist pulled every 10 seconds.

I also walk to do my errands leaving my dog tied up to the stroller while we go into the store. Having her tied to the strolled saved me having to tie and unties her 6 times. She would just sit and wait for me to come back.

[Red Pajama]

When the weather is nicer, I push a double stroller and walk my sheltie. He has been trained to heel (5 years ago!) but walks right next to the stroller on the left side. It looks like he's "heeling" with the stroller.
It works really well for us.