Hi Ppl,

Sorry I haven't posted for such a long time. Yuki keeps me busy.

I'd like some advice about zoomies. Yuki has been doing these more and more frequently when on her lead. In fact, on one occasion she pulled me off my feet in the process and the same thing almost happened to my husband, but he dropped the lead to prevent getting a serious injury. When she pulled me off my feet the lead fell out of my hand and fortunately she didn't run off on either occasion, but zoomed back and forth and eventually calmed down. More recently Yuki started zooming in the yard at our house and I just dropped the lead, but we don't know if this would be wise when we're out along a country road when she starts zooming. On the one hand is the likelihood of putting ourselves in danger if we try hanging on to her and on the other hand that of endangering her if we just let go, also the likelihood of her running off.

I found a thread on this forum about huskies zooming when on a lead and people thought it was hilarious, but I find it scary every time it happens.

Gillian

Since falls at our age be lethal, I strongly believe in doing whatever needs to be done to keep oneself safe while walking  dogs.  From your other post, I'm wondering if you're from Ireland or Britain... Which in that case,  suggestions might not be legal where you are .. Which is to use prong collar and ecollar training.  At the very least work on getting rock solid obedience.

Also, zoomies usually reflect a dog who is in need of more exercise... What kind of distance are you giving Yuki?  And frequency?  Any chance of doggie day care a few times a week?  Also, how old is Yuki?

I've also found using a long lead can be more dangerous .. Gives the dog a lot of leverage which translates to mechanical advantage for puppy and major disadvantage to human.

After a bad fall/drag last October, I switched from walking on long lead and harness to prong collars and 6 ft lead.  Also, no more hip belt/hands free.  A broken hip or bleed to the brain  NOT worth the risk.  I'm lucky.  We have 30 acres  land and my son has a husky that is my boys soul mate... They come visit a few times a week, doggie stays overnight and the two romp, wrestle and zoom until  are both so tired, they sleep like they dead.  It is not unusual for a call to be made by either me or my son..."puppy needs some doggie play time"

Good luck.

Here is a resource I found immensely helpful.

https://thegooddog.net/training-videos/free-how-to-training-videos/learn-to-train-the-good-dog-way-intro-to-prong-collars-part-1/

Another possibility is using a bike attachment such as the walkydog and biking with her.

https://www.thedogoutdoors.com/walkydog-dog-bike-leash.html

Yuki is 14 months old. She gets a 1 hour or slightly more walk each day plus a couple of shorter walks. How far she gets in the 1 hour depends who is taking her. For instance, my 2 sons both get further with her than I do when either of them is walking her. The idea with the 1 hour walk is to walk along a rural road close to where we live and turn back after half an hour. I would mostly cover about 1.6 miles while they would do closer to 2. The shorter walks are fixed routes and my sons manage that in less time than I do. Unfortunately, we don't have an enclosed space where she can zoom and run to her heart's content, but do play a lot with her indoors. I usually take her round our front yard for several 5 minute sessions in the mornings so she can stretch her legs and pee and poo.


The zooming is getting more worrying. Up until today she was confining her off-lead zooming to our front yard, but this morning when I had her out in the yard she charged out the gate when the postman came in his van. I thought it was because he had arrived and thankfully she came back in again, but I had to take her out one last time tonight and unfortunately this time she ran out the gate and across the road and wouldn't come in again. It's a rural road which can be quite busy during the day, but tonight it was quiet. I ended up having to ring the house to get help because nobody heard me yelling for them. My husband came out and sorted her out, but now I am worried about taking her outside if her zooming is going to take her out on to the road again, because, as I said already, it can get quite busy.

I have noticed that the zooming sometimes happens just after she has pooped and also if I am trying to persuade her to come back into the house when she doesn't want to do so.

I do not wish to use a prong collar on her, nor a bike attachment at aged 70.

We are in Northern Ireland.

Gillian

I guess I have nothing more to offer you.  You do seem to have a worrisome problem... Like me, , we are rural, people drive fast.  Dogs  been killed by cars across  the road. We put up invisible fence, I am too old to be falling and for me, with a breed  as  energetic as a husky, the prong  collar and ecollar give me safety and my dogs get to go where i  go and see the world.

Well, I've come up with a solution for the zooming - before taking Yuki out first thing in the morning, I close the gate at the front of the house. I then take her out and wait for her to do her pees and poos. Once she's done that, she immediately goes into zoom mode and I just drop her lead, at which point she charges across the yard to a grassy area and zooms to her heart's content. On the advice of a trainer I call her over every so often and give her a tasty treat and am eventually able to lift her lead and take her back into the house. When she starts zooming when we're out on the roads I pull the lead tight and in the best man's voice I can muster say, 'NO!' as many times as is necessary until she calms down.


Of course, she still pulls on the lead, but I don't feel my life is in danger with that.


Gillian

I have been teaching my Loki the command "focus" which seems to be helping to redirect his attention to where I want him to go, which is namely forward and not toward the kitty, horse, bird, sheep, bunny, etc. Basically I had to teach it at slow speed and during walks and use verbal reinforcement because for us it means to look at the road ahead. There may be an actual joring/sled command for that, but I have a hard enough time keeping command straight as it is lol. It works about 70 percent of the time right now and getting better everyday.

Ceoverton wrote:

I have been teaching my Loki the command "focus" which seems to be helping to redirect his attention to where I want him to go, which is namely forward and not toward the kitty, horse, bird, sheep, bunny, etc.  Basically I had to teach it at slow speed and during walks and use verbal reinforcement because for us it means to look at the road ahead.  There may be an actual joring/sled command for that, but I have a hard enough time keeping command straight as it is lol. It works about 70 percent of the time right now and getting better everyday.

I use the sled command "on by" for ignoring critters etc. It does require that I be highly focused on the environment, see the distractions either before or at the same time as the dogs. I also speed up a bit, particularly on the bike, as I use the command - helps direct their focus.

Kona will zoom strongly at one specific point on our morning walk - right after finishes a #2.

So far, the only thing I've found that helps is converting the straight line shock of his zoom into a lunge by directing him to either side and forcing him to circle.

Kona_18 wrote:

Kona will zoom strongly at one specific point on our morning walk - right after finishes a #2.

So far, the only thing I've found that helps is converting the straight line shock of his zoom into a lunge by directing him to either side and forcing him to circle.

It's the circling that scares me - she can have me running round in circles and going dizzy if I don't pull her lead short and shout 'NO!' several times. She sometimes does it after a no. 2, sometimes after barking at a car speeding along with its lights on. Sometimes she just walks on as if nothing has happened.

Gillian

Gillian wrote:

Kona_18 wrote:

Kona will zoom strongly at one specific point on our morning walk - right after finishes a #2.

So far, the only thing I've found that helps is converting the straight line shock of his zoom into a lunge by directing him to either side and forcing him to circle.

It's the circling that scares me - she can have me running round in circles and going dizzy if I don't pull her lead short and shout 'NO!' several times. She sometimes does it after a no. 2, sometimes after barking at a car speeding along with its lights on. Sometimes she just walks on as if nothing has happened.

Gillian

Kona does the same - bicycles sometimes, apres #2 everytime. By circling I'm referring to lunging him like an ornery horse. I don't think it's the best solution by any stretch, but it works for now.

Kona is roughly 85 powerful pounds right now, my teen daughter and Wife are both petite; so training this is/was a priority for us. My daughter takes riding lessons at a local barn - so she figured out the lunging method. I figure if my sub-100 pound daughter can control a 1,500 pound horse (even when it's frisky!), then this works for now.

I weigh considerably more and pretty fit, so when he has walks with a lot of zooming, I let him hit the bitter end a couple times - unpleasant for both of us but he usually stops zooming after the second sudden stop.

Good luck!

That said - Kona's lead is a thick double braid line (for comfort) that's stretched to roughly 10ft. That means that when he's lunging I need about a 25' diameter unless I can rein him in quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1UBnwcuMmM

I'm thankful to say that Yuki has not zoomed with me for quite a long time. She has occasionally done it when out with either of my sons, but they seem able to cope with it. I just need to keep an eye on her as she tends to lunge forward unexpectedly after nosing around in the grass for any length of time, which isn't funny if you're not paying attention.

Gillian