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Hiking with your dog - The training of Jade



Today was my 4th trip with Jade to a park and trail setting. The first three were to Smithville Lake in Kansas City. This trip was to Tiffany Springs Park. I used to run my old jeep on the trails until the police started cracking down. It's a series of overgrown trails in a canopy of trees with deer everywhere. Needless to say if your dog runs off, you will spend days finding the dog. Eventually you have to keep challenging your dog and your skills as a dog trainer. This is one of the tougher venues I take my dogs to. The dark area behind Jade is the entrance to the trail.


If you want to hike with your dog you need great Stop and Recall control over your dog. If I lost Jade at this park, I would not be writing this blog just 2 hours after hiking with her. Smithville is much more controlled. When I walk the shore, the bluffs act as a natural barrier, but it's a great spot to start with hiking. Before I took Jade to Tiffany Springs we worked on a Recall and Leave it exercise. I lined up 2-3 bowls with soft food in them and sprinkled a few milk bones on the ground. I put Jade on a stay on the opposite side of all these distractions. Then I called her to me. If she stopped to sniff or eat, I said leave it and called her to me. Before I tried all this I have been working on a recall and also leave it separately. This combines both to teach your dog to ignore distractions and to come without hesitation. Today at Tiffany, on many of the random recalls, Jade had to cross over deer trails and a variety of other distractions. Due to my training this week, she hesitated very little seemed to stop less on her route back to me. Now some trainers would use an e-collar or really correct the dog while working on this, but I think that's overkill. You may not want to start with bowls of wet food or milk bones, but practice calling your dog past distractions. It will make a more solid recall and cause less command repeats. Overall Jade did wonderful today. She saw a deer running into the woods and stopped without my prompting and then looked my direction. I recalled and rewarded when she came to me. I figure that was worth a reward. She still had the e-collar on today, but I never used it. After the deer incident I took it off. I'm on may to training naked with her, I figure a few more months and I will feel confident her skills are where they are to "train naked" with her.
I've created a very cool "no twist" leather leash. Check it out on my website. I can do custom order!


Two paws up!

KC Dog Guy

www.kcdogguy.com

Want to do cool things with an Akita? Jade is a rescue!
www.akitas.org
www.bluemoonakitarescue.com

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