[nagdu] walking faster

[GARY STEEVES]

Hi Hana:

I have this problem with Bogart sometimes. I have especially noticed it when I'm anxious and in a hurry and really need to get somewhere. What I've learned to do is to really get excited about us going wherever and try to get Bogart excited about it as well. It works about 75% of the time.  Sometimes he also takes a block or two away from the house before he kicks it into gear. But an example is last week I had to get out for lunch, get to my bank and then bus and train it to my office where they needed me to sign something before the courier came at 1:30pm. It was 11:30am when I left the house. Normally we'd walk to the restaurant, 5 blocks, but bogart was working so slow that I hopped onto a bus for two stops to get me there. once I had lunch and we headed to the bank he was fine ad working at his normal speed.

The other thing I do with bogart is be sure that to get out once a day with him in harness. Even if it is just the 3 block walk to the wine store, or corner store for milk. He gets to walk around the block in the morning and at night on a leash with me using my cane so he can sniff and be dog like so I think, to keep him understanding that working is required too, I try to get him in harness every day. some days it is for 15 minutes and some days we travel all over the city.

Be patient but keep working with Princess. If I recall though, wasn't she just  sick? this will take her a bit of time to recover from as well. Also, as  a side note, bogart had pretty loose  stools for quite a long time after I got him. It's only since we've been on our current food that he mostly has nice firm stools. I think poodles get really stressed with change. When I travel with bogart I now know that he will eat about half of what he eats at home. So now I pack 3/4 of what he eats at home to save some space and still usually bring  food home.

Poodles are poodles.

Gary


----- Original Message -----
From: Hannah Chadwick <sparklylicious at suddenlink.net>
Date: Thursday, February 9, 2012 4:10 pm
Subject: [nagdu] walking faster
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>

> Hello all,
> I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Princess 
> sometimes walks
> super slow, almost like at an ants pace. Just wondering if this 
> is part of
> the bonding? I've done a lot of praising, and encouraging her to 
> go faster,
> but nothing seems to work. It seems like she just wants to relax 
> at home -
> lying in the sun and sleeping all day long. Is there anything, 
> anything at
> all that I could do to get her to walk faster?
> All the best, Hannah and Princess
> 
> 
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