How does your dog walk?
 

So while walking my staffie,a lady walking the other way says "you should learn how to walk your dog! they are susposed to be beside you!"--

I dont like the dog walking beside me,I have her walking infront of me for a reason...She has been trained that if I drop her leash she stops and sits and waits till I pick it up and give her her "you may continue command"...I walk the dog,it is in no way a case of the dog walking me...

But it does bring up an interesting question:

When you walk your dog do you have your dog walk beside you,or in front of you?
(or does the dog walk you)

He'll walk out front of me, he gets to the end of the leash then just stays there. I HATE what we learned in obedience class, was required to walk dog on left side, which is impractical for everything but the show ring.

tall depends, when we"re alone my dog is in front. but when we encounter people or crowds he is at my side. right now he is on my back garden staring at me ,he wants me to throw his doggy frisby.lmao

Where ever I want him to be depending on situation.. He is a good little doggy http://www.pitbull-chat.com/images/smilies/smile.png.

Left side....

Depends on the dog. Ripley hates the leash and usually walks behind me. Ronon walks beside me. Pongo between my feet and the rest in front of me. As long as they don't pull or get in my way, I could care less where they walk. Never been big on formal obedience.

I allow most of my dogs to walk ahead of me, but they all know the 'heel' command and will walk beside me when I ask them to, like when we are walking past people.

I keep Umah in a heel most of the time because when she is at the end of the leash she tends to pulllllll really hard. She thinks being in front = drag human!

My dog usually walks in front and to the left. I don't like him crossing back and forth in front of me. When there are joggers or walkers around I call him to my side where he walks on my left.

Mine are pullers, we are working on it still. http://www.pitbull-chat.com/images/smilies/frown.png

Actually it's also practical if you're in an area where you need to walk on the street. Since pedestrians need to walk against traffic, this puts the dog on the grass and thus out of the traffic lane and out of harm's way.

That said, I let Bentley walk in front of me or wander around in front or behind me. I know it's not the "proper" way to walk a dog but honesty, I really don't care. http://www.pitbull-chat.com/images/smilies/lol.gif

I almost always make Henry heel loosely on my left side. We live in a suburban area, so lots of vehicles and other foot traffic, and I don't want him darting out in front of people or cars. Because I spent a lot of time on leash training, even when he walks in front of me he rarely pulls. When out hiking, depending on the area, I determine the distance he's allowed to get from me before I give him a "wait" or "easy" command.

Lol I would have told that woman to mind her own business. U less your dog is out of control it's not her problem. Usually I allow my dogs to pull a little, but Willow wears an easy walk harness which makes it easier to get her back to a proper heel when needed.
I prefer to allow my dogs to walk a step ahead of me, I just find it easier that way.

I put Boo on the right side. dammit. I'm going to flunk obedience school. My left side is pretty much weak and retarded so I put her on my right. I do demand she walks at my side for control though. I wish she would look where she was going instead of looking at me the whole time with a big goofy grin.

I also walkydog her on the right. My reasoning for this is the bike trails. When bikes pass, they pass on the left and I do not want my dog stuck out there for some moron to smash into.

my boys walk on my right side mainly (and almost exclusively now since I had my baby because the IV went in my wrist...its not good anymore) my right shoulder has had surgery and is sound...my left has not and I don't want it to get injured (genetic weak rotator cuff) anyhow they walk beside me 99.99% of the time Goren knows "go" for hiking where I will let him get in front and kinda pull but Logan just knows next to me at this point, I actually use a few commands weirdly...I use "Fuse" (however its spelled, German for heel) for a lazy heel where the dog is able to look around but stay at my side...then "heel" is for the full heel where the dog is supposed to make eye contact, its not as good as shutzhound training but its not horrible and can sometimes lead Goren by a dog or cat without him getting all worked up if I get him in it in time

My dogs know "heel", left side. They know" with me" right side heel. The rest of the time they walk loose on the long line. We do lots of long line work. But in heavy foot traffic they are on a heel at one side or another. That's just good manners.

Petey mostly walks on my left side, but he'll often walk ahead a bit too and sometimes even fall back on my right side. When we walk out at the beach, the bridges we cross have very narrow sidewalks, so at that point I prefer him to to walk directly in front of me so people can pass more easily. He's not 100% reliable on that, but he's getting better. At any rate… I don't mind him being in front as long as he's not pulling.

I'm in the "I don't care" boat.

Ethel is lazy, and always has, and probably always will, walk either right next to me, or fall behind when she starts sniffing things. She'll walk on whatever side the leash hand is, but tends to drift to the left, so that's usually the hand with the leash.

The other 3 I keep the leash kind of short, and we haul ass because that's how they like their walks. They walk in front of me, and a little off to the side so I don't kick or trip on them.

You're walking on a bike trail and they're morons? Got it.

I try to train a dog so that they know 2" collar or harness means we're hand walking and they can pull. Prong collar means we're walking in a heel.

Sunny is allowed to walk ahead of me and pull, he's always been allowed.

Serenity, some days I'll let her ahead of me to pull. Some days she needs to walk beside me, just depends on the day/my mood.

I don't really care as long as they aren't yanking me around. When I walk the girls they are on short leashes and one on each side, otherwise one at a time they are in front or I would be tripping all over the leash or having to hold it up. I've been working on heel at home but not out and about yet.