Three Needs Beyond The Walk

SPEAKER_01 0:00

So number one would be going to the toilet. Number two would be something for their mental health. And number three would be something for their physical health. So can you do going to the toilet physical and mental health and sort of giving them some exercise without taking them for a walk? Hell yes.

Why “Ditch The Walk” Works

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sex in a Squirrel podcast. I'm Lauren Langman. I'm one of the world's leading dog trainers, and it's my mission to help owners become their dog's top priority. In each episode, you'll discover how to gain trust and communicate with your dog like never before, creating unbreakable bonds that make you the most exciting part of their world. Ditch the walk. People are not sure about it.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Oh, absolutely not. And I think it's controversial. Oh, hugely. So I get we get we get clients coming here and lots of feedback, really good feedback. And when you say to them that we think that you need to stop walking your dog, they're horrified at first. And in fact, I think they take real personal offense. Absolutely. They're like, but but I'm supposed to walk my dog. This is why I got a dog. I should walk it every day. And my dad says, my neighbor says, my friend says, I must walk my dog, and I'm cruel if I don't walk my dog. And I would say it's one of those areas that we have the biggest breakthrough and make the biggest transformation with owners is we show them that actually there's other options. Like I see you first thing in the morning. Do you you go out for walks with your dogs? But what about your own fitness? How do you stay fit?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Yeah, I mean, for me, walking isn't my fitness. Actually, maybe going in the swimming pool might be my fitness, or maybe going on the treadmill might be my fitness, or maybe going on the bike might be my fitness, or and actually also my mental health. So there might be something that I do for mental health. Now, if I think about some of my dogs, because I obviously have multi-dog household, I have 10 dogs. Actually, Katie doesn't really go out on normal walks, and not just because of Katie. Never seen your tweak. Yeah, I I we took Katie to the beach a few months back, and it was because Eliza

Off Lead Dogs And Real Risk

SPEAKER_01 2:05

really wanted to take Katie. But Katie was put in so many situations I don't think are right for Katie. Yeah. And yet she handled them really well. A dog charged at her, she kind of looked offended and then kind of carried on and mooched, and then looked offended again, and then carried on and mooched, and the dog kept going at her. She was really, really good. I just don't know how many situations like that I'd want to put her in. And if it keeps happening, I feel like she'd have a much less tolerance than a dog like Skittle for that. And I was walking on the bridal path only the other day, and a lady, I say a lady, loose terms, she walked past and let her dogs off at the same time as walking past me. Oh my god, that was so rude, like so beyond rude. And Skittle got jumped on, and uh there's only a few of those jumped on moments that you can go through. And then I had another scenario, and this was a nutty scenario, actually. This was a lady with a collie and a retriever, and loads of people said, Oh, retrievers don't do that. I'm like, Retriever did that. She walked past me, and as I walk, went up to towards her dogs and to walk past, I said to her, Are your dogs friendly? And she said, Yes. So I carried on walking. I had two on, two off. So two dogs on lead, two dogs off lead. And as I walked past her, the retriever absolutely landed on Brave and then bounced off Brave and went for Nell. So Brave is my previously paralyzed dog, now back to walking, and Nell is my sheep dog. And really, really horrendous, like really naughty attack. Neither of them had any punctures, but the dog was pretty like loud and a bit shocking for them, like a bit much for them both. And the lady, I said as I carried on walking past, if I walk past you again, please would you put them on lead? Yeah. And she was really rude. She was really rude. And for me, I won't even repeat what she said. It began with F and it's uh the second one was beginning with who. And I was like, this is nuts. Like, I'm asking you really politely that we can pop them on lead as we go past each other. I'll pop mine on too. Like, I'm not asking you to, I mean, mine are good under close control, but I'm not asking for any different. I just don't think our dog should have to tolerate that. And that for me is the single biggest reason that I personally will not walk my dogs in public open spaces when they're naughty but nice and difficult, potentially, with scenarios, because Katie has got really good skills, like Rachel Foyer, one of our brilliant students, or Pam. She's amazing, they've got good skills. The problem is those dogs are not going to tolerate multi-dog dog issues. And the problem is when you're walking your dog, you almost need your dog to take a lot of responsibility.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

And part of the issue is we can't control Joe Public. We have absolutely no control over the people.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Not even a lick people do. Not even a lick. So you can't throw Harry Bow at them and slow them down, or like there's not much you can do to stop them.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

But the the bit that I struggle with is we've got this double standard. We've got the standard for people who own dogs that they must walk their dog. Yeah. Yet when you do your fitness, nobody questions that you go to the pool. You I see you in the gym some mornings, I see you on the bike, you're weight lifting weights, you're doing a bit of yoga. Nobody questions that. Nobody says actually, the only way that you can get exercise is if you go out on a walk.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

And if you think about what the exercise is is to serve, so if you think about how how the exercise is serving you, to go to the toilet is a number one.

Toilet Cues And Home Setups

SPEAKER_01 5:11

So you take the dogs out to go to the toilet outside. Well, for me, I've got gardens, I've got space, I've got dogs at toilet on queue, all of my dogs will go on gravel, all of my dogs will go on concrete, all of my dogs will go wherever they're told to go because we train that as babies. For me, it just makes it really easy to live with a dog that will go to the toilet on surfaces. So number one would be go to the toilet, number two would be something for their mental health, and number three will be something for their physical health. Yes. Can you do going to the toilet, physical and mental health, and um sort of giving them some exercise without taking them for a walk? Hell

Scent Work As Daily Enrichment

SPEAKER_01 5:42

yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

So let's give some examples. So many things. So scent work. Scent work is my absolute favorite. So teaching your dog, they've all got noses, they all know how to use them in theory.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

In fact, you've got a naughty but nice week that's at the training center coming up where people can come and learn about scent. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

And it's brilliant for naughty but nice dogs because you something you can do at home. So we get owners, it's almost like they've got this relief, like a weight's been lifted off their shoulders. I don't actually have to walk my dog. I'm thinking of the um boxer, the boxer, what do you call them? The box boilers. The box boilers. They the husband, he was saying how relieved he was because he has stressful days at work and he gets home, and the last thing he wants to do is walk his dog. He just knows it's all gonna go bad.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

And he said it's gonna go badly, but also he's like, I just don't want to set myself up for that because I've actually just finished work. And he said it's it's basically ruined his relationship, it's ruined his his family. He really doesn't like the dog some days. Like he's like, it's all tough. Like it's all tough.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

And he said, if I'm in a bad mood and I've had a bad day, it's just not gonna end well because I can't help my dog out like that. So showing him that he can do something like scent work and the dogs did amazing, simple things like just hiding food under some cones, and he lit up, the dogs lit up, and he's like, I can do this in my garden when I get home from work. This this can be what we do instead.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

And there's outlets that don't mean you have to go to the park. So for me, that's really important. There are outlets, but you don't have to go to the park. So I don't go to social clubs or I don't go to sort of I'm just not that person. But I have lots of outlets where I can socialize or chat with a friend or hop on a phone call or get on a zoom or jump on a messenger or like go and I don't know, take the dogs for a walk. Like different dogs. Like for me, there's lots go for a horse ride. There are lots of ways to do it, but for me, it's not going to a rave or hanging out at a party.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Those are different scenarios. Do fitness, home fitness, basically. So you don't need fancy equipment. We've got equipment here at the center because we're a dog training facility. But I teach online with people all over the world. I get them to get their brooms and mops out. Yeah, absolutely. And the dogs do exercises over brooms and mops on the floor, and the owners love it. So they've got options. We've got a couple here that's this week here this week with a young lad. He actually broke his leg in, I think it's three places because he had the dog out on a walk. He had it on a long line. The long line got wrapped around his leg and he's broken his leg. And I would I would say that dog probably shouldn't have been put in that situation. But what they've been doing until they've come to us is they've been having somebody else walk their dog. So now you've got somebody else who's giving input into your dog. It's not a big thing. Well, it's anybody isn't also qualified to do that. Yep. And you just don't know what's happening. So everything that dog's learning, you don't know what it's learning.

A Safe Day In Katie’s Life

SPEAKER_01 8:31

So ditching a walk, what are the benefits to ditching the walk? And I'm going to start by saying you actually can minimize your dog having any bad experience. Yes. So for me, the biggest reason I do it for Katie is I don't let her have a bad experience. If I give you a day in the life of Katie, so Katie got up at six, she went in the garden until about half six. Our garden's quite large, clean. It's got an undercover bit so she can get out of sunshine or sort of direct rain or anything like that. It's got a good undercover bit and it's right next to a heater, so it's quite warm under there. And then she's got the whole garden to do what she wants, and she normally patrols the garden and stands on the wall and looks for strangers, which she does quite enjoy. At half past six, I took her out and I did some training with her for about 20 minutes. So she had about 20 minutes, she had most of her breakfast. Then she walked around the yard with me, let the chickens out, went and checked the sheep, and made up daily sort of supplement meals for some of the others because they had their aocainine supplements. Then she went back to the garden, sat in a paddling pool for a bit, then she went for a bit of a snooze, a bit of a nap. Jamie's done a little bit of cooperative care with her, so she's gone out and done a little bit of cooperative care with one of our trainers. You might have got the cooperative care badge, it's Mega. And then she's back in the garden now. She'll go into another training session this evening whilst Matt's having a sports adjustment. And then after that, probably back in the garden for a little bit later and then back to bed. Other than that, hanging out, being a dog, you know what? I think she lives a really great life. I think it's a really great life. Like she gets a lot of what is a working dog life without actually being a working dog. Yeah. Because she's not really a working dog. Like for us, she's a pet dog, but she gets a lot of working enrichment.

Secure Fields And Recall Practice

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Yes. I took my dogs to secure field today.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Nice. So I actually have a great group of dogs that I can take out on walks. But I'll be perfectly honest, I've been seeing Facebook posts this week talking about it earlier with people posting about bad experiences they've had with offly dogs attacking their dogs. And I've got such a nice group of dogs, and there's so many people out walking around where I live. I go to secure fields because I just don't want anything to happen to my dogs.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

And anyone who is anywhere close to us and coming on a holiday or with us, Holly Hawkfield is the field that Michelle is talking about. She's keeping it shh, it's Holly Hockfield. It's available for our clients only. So if you're staying with us or if you're training with us and you'd like to use Holly Hockfield, please do. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

It's two acres. You've got a beautiful view of the moors. It's really quiet. It's peaceful. You can hear the geese, you can hear the ducks. There's horses around. It is just so lovely. So so nice. And every time I've gone there, there's never been anybody there. I just take the dogs in, I turn take my dogs so I match them up appropriately. Not all of them can go.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Say, for example, Lego is like two kilos and feather is like 17 kilos. They don't walk together. You don't want to walk those two together. And and feather is really obnoxious and like brutish when she runs. Yeah. And Lego is like pretty confident that he can keep up with her. They're just a bad combo. Whereas something a little bit older, a little bit more sedate, or something a little bit younger and a little bit smaller, they would suit Lego very, very well.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Definitely, definitely. And the dogs have a great time. I practice my recall, I do my training, I make sure that the dogs are connected with me. Like dog. And I was thinking you should go on, you've got one dog. Oh, I've got one dog that I'm working on a recall with. So her recall's not perfect. And when I take her to the secure field, I use the secure field to rehearse the behavior I want. So she goes on a long line.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

And massive, isn't it? Just like it makes a massive, massive difference that you've got the opportunity of a long line without actually having to keep her on leave. Absolutely. Um so she can be off and loose. The other thing I was thinking um with the secure fields is you've set yourself up for success because you know nobody else is going to come in that space.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Absolutely. And I can make it as easy or as hard as I want to. And I'm passionate about the use of secure fields because I see people using them because they feel guilty.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Yeah, and I also see people using them where they just get towed around the whole field and the dog ignores them for two hours. Yeah. Like for me, those are not the reasons to walk them in those spaces.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

But they're on their phone and the dog's just running around like a hooligan, digging holes and trying to crawl under the fence, and they're just Facebook messaging their friends.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

But they're not actually learning anything good. And they're not learning the direction we want them to learn in.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

No, so it instead of going for a walk, I went to the secure field. And one of the things I'll do is I drop hands folded of food on the ground on purpose. The dogs start eating and I walk away and I see what they do. It's meaningful scatter recall. Oh, absolutely. Because you're out in the real world. I want to see that they ditch the food and they come to me when I get a certain distance away. And we play games like that, and I love

Be Selective About When You Walk

SPEAKER_00 12:59

it.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

And the biggest thing, and and this is the thing we want all of you at home to realize is that ditch the walk is very, very individual. It's very, very personal. I might choose to walk Katie, I don't know, to the beach on a one-off, like random winter Sunday when nobody's going to be there. And at the same time, I might choose to not walk her on a day like yesterday where it was glorious sunshine. There were hundreds of people on that beach. I actually think you really could have ruined her on a day like that.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Oh, absolutely. And it's not that I never walk my dogs. Lego and I like an evening walk around my neighborhood. He loves it. I love it. And we go for a little toodle. You've seen some of the videos I've sent you of us doing it. And I really like that in the evening after I've had dinner. So it's not that I never walk the dogs. I just am really selective. And I also make sure there's skilled up for it.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

You're selective on who, how, where, why, when, timing. I am not a winter walker. I'm a summer walker. Winter when it's dark and miserable. I am such I'm a fair weather rider. I'm a fair weather walker. For all of you guys who are like, I walk in every weather. I'm like you fool. I literally take my dogs to the swimming pool, the secure field, I take them to the arena, I take them to the fitness gym upstairs, I take them to uh some scent walls. Yeah, we train them inside in the arena. What we are not doing is getting ourselves absolutely drenched, bleeding rain. And also risking the dogs ultimately, because my dog is a sports dog. Michelle's got similar types of dogs. They injure themselves so quickly, you do not need to carry an injury either. But you know what? Most of all, nobody needs to get drenched and soaked for the sake of having to walk.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

And then what we are doing is we want to show you how to scale yourselves up so that if you do want to go for a walk, you are so well prepared that you take that back that fail to prepare, prepare

Handling Pressure And Having A Plan

SPEAKER_00 14:36

to fail. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

We really, really, really, really, really want you at the other end of the leash, making sure you've got this. You're like, I'm cool, I'm calm, I'm Laura Croft, I stick my chest out, I've got this. What I hate, and when I did take Katie for a walk, absolutely Katie was girl, she was golden. Yes. So what I really hate is you need to know as an owner what you're gonna do when you're in that situation. I need to know whether I'm picking her up, whether I'm putting her down, whether I'm changing and going A to B, whether I'm walking into the dog, whether I'm walking away from the dog, whether I'm throwing a ball in the water. You need your strategy. And some dogs are so much easier than others. Some dogs are so much more straightforward. Like I could walk like Brave all day long. Brave can't handle it, her body's not strong enough, but I could walk her all day long because she's so appropriate with every dog and every person. She's been so well trained, but naturally she's got a few. She reads the room. She reads the room, she reads the room. Whereas you walk something like trying to think of a different Katie. She's an accident waiting to happen. She's literally loaded missile. She's loaded missile. Yesterday, a pointer, huge pointer, very overweight, came charging at brave and it got towards brave. She stood still and it like hit a force field. It went like, but it didn't actually quite hit her, but it got very closer and then went, hang on a second. And then it went around and it went really still. Now, do you like the freezing or do you not like the freezing? Because I can tell you now I do not like the freezing. So the dog freezes. So I look at the dog and I'm thinking, hmm, how do I play this now? What's gonna happen? And so I didn't call her, I didn't do anything because in that moment, if you called her, it could blow up. She just stood and kept her ground. And with that, Skittle moved off and he went after Skittle. Now, Skittle doesn't particularly like dogs, so what I did in that moment is asked her to hop up. So brave, I let her eat. Skittle asked her to come up and I picked her up. And by that time, it was sniffing some seaweed and marking and weeing and thinking about girls, and it was all fine. Yes. The big thing is you need to know what you can do in the situation. And Katie would have hated it. Katie would have hated it. And what I felt was Lauren, you picked the right dogs to come to the beach on a busy day that's day.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Yeah, that's how I felt. And you've touched on a couple points on why we advocate for ditching the walk. You've picked up Skittles so many times away from that actual situation around the property here when you're doing agility. Everything rehearsed before you come out. How hundreds of times, hundreds of times. And that's one of the things we want to make sure our clients and our students are so well prepared. You took lovely Karen and Tam out owners. That that's the first time they've walked with you in that situation.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

The first time my dogs have walked with them in that situation. Like it was it was a first, and yet so easy. Because it practiced it.

No Guilt Plus Games Club Invite

SPEAKER_01 17:04

So the big thing we're saying to you guys is ditch walk. I feel it's a really good move.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Michelle. Oh, a hundred percent. And do you prepare so that you can go out on walks if you want to, but also no, you don't have to go out on walks to have a fulfilling, enriching life with your dog.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

And you're not being cruel. You do not need to feel guilty, you do not need to feel bad. You are an amazing owner, and your dog is so lucky to have you. If I'm looking at the dog in front of me and I'm thinking, what will you do with that happening? What would you do with that happening? What will you do with that happening? I probably am taking the wrong dog. So whether you've got another dog to take or you haven't got another dog to take, because that was one of our considerations yesterday, was who do we take? Blink's a little elderly now. Classic hates the beach, hates getting wet. Crafty's got a lot of training to do, so I don't really want to take her. Like I had to run through them as to see like what would be right. That is really important. So if you haven't got a second dog, maybe it's time. And if you have, on a serious note, got a reactive dog, a worried dog, a naughty but nice dog, a dog that fits any of those boxes, then both Michelle and I, we really say ditch the walk, right, Michelle? Absolutely, absolutely, because it's not going to be a fun walk. So ditch the walk, it's not going to be a fun walk. You've got better options. We've got this, you've got this. If you're not already part of Games Club, it's just one pound. Jump in and we'll help you take it to the next stages.