[nagdu] pace and pull in harness and a bored dog

[Deanna Lewis]

Kerri,
Could you try to make the lunch break walks more fun, by challenging her a bit? Can you have her target certain objects, like a pole, bench, door, or curb? I'm not sure if Pilot had you do any clicker training, but you can introduce her to that and make a fun game out of this lunch break walk. If you don't use a clicker, you can try high value treats that she likes. 
On my morning break (15 minutes) I work my dog around my work building outside, down and up steps, and then we work inside and he guides me through the building. I always vary it up a bit and visit different areas of the building, go down different hallways, etc. Just to keep him on his toes. Plus, it's a little bit of exercise for both of us. 
Hope this helps a bit!
Deanna and Mambo

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kerri Stovall via nagdu
Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2015 2:45 PM
To: the National Association of Guide Dog Users NAGDU Mailing List
Cc: Kerri Stovall
Subject: [nagdu] pace and pull in harness and a bored dog

Hi all,
Here's a question I really need suggestions on.  I work a desk job from 8 to 5, and therefore my pup only gets work in the evenings when it's not sweltering out while we walk home from checking the mail, otherwise she has to wait till Saturday and Sunday to get a good old fashioned walk in. Well, here's my question. Is there any way I can increase her pull during our little walk at lunch? There are very few sidewalks at work and only on one side of the street; so I have resorted to just walking around the building. Well, understandably, of course she'll be getting bored with the same old walk, day after day. Even if I skip a day she'll still lolly gag around the walk, with almost no pull, and a lot of the time it's where her harness handle will jiggle in the clips because there's such little pull in the handle at all, and it makes it hard to feel her movements. I guess I could just suck it up and walk in the gutter of the street but I really, really don't like the idea of doing that unless forced to by circumstance, because with me and a dog it makes our path wider and more likely to get clipped by a moving car, which is not my idea of a good walk. lol. So, how can I make this walk fun for her? I have no problem with her excitement on other walks, and if I had an alternative way of taking her for a walk at work, I would, but I just feel like this may be the only option to get her a little exercise during my lunch break, unless, like I said, I resort to curb travel or something, because the grassy part of the curb is too uneven to walk at a decent pace. Our pace is very slow also, and I wish I could get her to pick up the pace and pull a little harder, like she does at other times. Poodles are very, very intelligent and I have heard, and I'm finding out, they can get bored easily and need something to occupy their minds and bodies, so that's what I'm trying to do. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated to get this girl going in the middle of our workday. By the way, at work, she's not really interested in playing with any toys that I have seen so far, she just lays there with nothing to do and no interest in chewing a bone or anything. Thanks all for the tips and suggestions. Hope to hear from many of yall soon.
Kerri and Sadie
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