Walking Multiple dogs
 

I am trying to figure out how to walk more than one dog. I am thinking to do all dogs on the left, leaving my right hand free to dole out "incentives".

In an ideal world: each would have their spot beside me and walk there loose leash. Doesn't' have to be a complete heel, just not all tangled. Ok in an ideal world i wouldn't need a leash and could call them to heel when needed. lol

In theory I would teach them to walk the same way I taught them to walk alone. One step, loose leash, mark and treat. and Repeat. Except now there are two dogs that i need to mark and sometimes i can't say it fast enough.

How good are dogs at cooperating? I am thinking to change to a clicker, because that is faster for marking, and only mark when they are both in the position i want.Would they catch on that I am looking for their position relative to the dog beside them? Even if I use a coupler (I have 2 different kinds long and short), I would still like them to not jostle for position next to me.

Maybe if i started with the shorter coupler so they get used to being side by side..then progress to longer one.

Anyone done this successfully before?

It can be done. I have walked more then 2 at a time together. To a degree, I usually let the dogs indicate their preferred position first, then go from there. How this will work will depend entirely on your dogs. Some dogs walk nicely together side by side with no training, some like to walk beside each other, others will resist and will prefer to have their own space... you may have one dog that walks nice and the other that isn't cooperating either by lagging or pulling ahead or trying to twirld.. you name it...

I think you are completely over complicating this. Teach them to walk the way you want them to one at a time. When they are ready, walk them together. Don't treat them as a pair, treat them as two individuals both learning a behaviour.

I don't know your dogs, no clue what their individual personalities are, how they act now, or are you just planning ahead to owning two dogs??

Putting them on a coupler will not teach them any thing, it will just restrain them.

We walk our four together but only with haltis, my dogs are big and and strong, so the haltis work wonderful on them

I walk two dogs and I put one on my left and the other on my right, it works well.

I just grab multiple leashes, depends on how many I'm/we're walking, never really thought about it, I just grab and go

You mean this is not a major herculean feat for most people??!!! Do you have terriers??

Maybe I should have clarified..I have 3 JRT/doxies..2 of them are less than a year old....recovering reactivity addicts. (See my other posts) They have a tendency to be all over the place and tangling with each other.

I would not even attempt to walk more than one in any place other than my backyard at this point.

Ha I know the feeling......my 2 terriers are high energy walkers, and I walk with a double stroller (although I think that may help) it keeps them on their own side.

might want to have one hand for each dog. and keep a generous amount of space between the two. 3 meters is good.

the last "multiple" walk I took was one lab/shepherd, one beagle, one chi and a sharpei/akita mix, I kept the chi in the opposite hand *L* didn't want him squished.

you should let them run a lot of energy off in your back yard before their walk.

Try to walk 4 or more shelties, :) and in that mixture include a couple that like to start spinning whenever the pace isn't fast enough for them. ROFL. You become an expert at untangling leads, fast. I think it all depends on the breed. Cattle Dogs pick their position and behave, where shelties are highly strung. I try not to handle that many shelties in public together and their saving grace is that at least they are as light as a feather on their leads. My sister's obedience trained shelties might be just fine at heeling together. I did notice some jostling for position though when she wanted to show me how Susie sits with a raised foot when she uses the clicker, Smokey Joe(her blue merle boy) was trying to squeeze into the heel position between her and Susie so he could be rewarded too.

Perhaps if I worked on training the puppies in particular not to be pushy that the circling to see who is closest will at least die down.

My girls are just over 1 year old and I mainly walk them 1-on-1 since their walks are also when I do much of their training.
One key thing to teach when training 1-on-1 is to not cross behind you. This will save you much frustration when you walk them together.

When I do walk them together, I tether one of them onto my shoulder harness (or belt if you want) so I can walk her hands free unless I'm correcting her and walk them other with a regular leash. They have settled on 'their' side when walking together 80% of the time. The rest of the time it's a happy mess :)

My husband used to laugh at me for tying leashes to my belt. Until the night he dropped a leash and the dog took off for a bicyclist on the other side of a busy road!!!

I have 2 Coonhounds. Strong girls, follow their noses non-stop. What I did ( and am still working on) is worked with the pup on heeling, etc.. she is getting better.. she used to pull like crazy. she is 7 months old. My older girl is a 72 pound, 15 month old, she is great on leash, especially after I introduced the gentle leader collar.. lol.. she despises it so much, she will now walk well with her prong collar.. I digress.. what I do is work with them at night, when there is less distraction.. they seem to both like walking on my left side, this is how we trained Myra, so I naturally trained Macey the same way. I give them "free time" near the end of our walk.. where they can go on whatever side they choose and give their noses a good workout.. They are starting to get really good at walking in unison, and I think Macey is picking it up easier because she really mirrors what Myra does. But, definately, doing it at night is a big bonus for me.. I live in a small subdivision with tons of other dogs and cats.. so its just easier.I do not use a coupler , though I have considered it, but in the end, when Macey is bigger,I will get her a mountain leash the same length as Myras. :dog:

I walk 7 dogs on leash daily ranging from 25lbs to 120lbs, and I am not sure how we got there, it started off with one and then 2 and then before we knew it we had 7 in total. I do have couplers but I don't like using them because the dogs like to break formation and walk beside someone else but they are always beside me or behind.