How much do your dogs sniff on walks? Mya and Kody are seriously driving me up the wall with the stopping to sniff the entire world! If they would just sniff and go that would be fine, but NOOO they a) drag me to the spots, b) refuse to move when I'm pulling them away (which makes me feel horrible for having to pull them so hard), and c) Kody MUST smell every single spot that Mya stops to sniff..she's not a fan.

AHHHHHHHHHHH

How much do your dogs sniff? Or better yet how much do you LET them sniff? I know it's in their nature to do this so I do let them do it often, but they are out of control with it! We're stopping every 15seconds!!!

Mine are just as bad but the beauty of living in a small town, I walk them in the road where there is nothing to sniff!

Aevyn actually doesn't sniff too too much, really. Sometimes something will really get his nose (and its always when its raining) and he'll drag me though a massive puddle to get to it. Always. Everytime.

I need to invest in some rubber boots. >_>

Libby is really bad at this when we walk a sidewalk or street, it's like she has to sniff every spot another dog ever was, I have to pull her constantly. In the past week I have tried something new, when she strts to slow down I know she is going to stop and sniff I say come on and start a little jog and she then comes right along. Sounds kind of funny but it is working.

If we go to the woods its not as bad but then she wants to roll in scents on the ground, I don't know if it is where a deer maybe rubber or something, I'm just always worried she is going to roll in poo. Yuck.

She seems to be a lot easier to control when she has her harness on as well.
Good Luck.

Thats half the part of a walk is the sniff stops. I give them about 3 seconds to decide if they'll whiz there then its onward ho. Thats the advantage of the prong collar you still don't yank (never do) but just keep walking they'll get the hint from the prongs to move on.

mine are annoying with it, especially since i walk them on a coupler and they sniff the same spot and embry has to mark it, but ends up marking zoeys head lmao

Mindy, you lucky girl! I try walking them down the street and that helps some, but we always have to move because of cars

Christine, when I see them trying to stop I say "go go go" and jog too (if we're not already jogging). It works, but it doesn't stop them from trying to sniff and then I feel bad for yanking them along.

Len, yeah we use the prong collars also. I try to just keep on walking, but they're so damn stubborn! They're like glued to the spot!

Jennet, oh man...marking on Zoey's head is not COOL...LOL!!

Walks for us are more than just walking, it's a sensory experience that I want my dogs to have. I want them to sniff all that there is to discover on walks, I want them to explore new things, I want their minds engaged with new sights, sounds and smells. Exposure to all these things is part of the walking experience and actually helps with mental stimulation while they are being physically exercised, kills two birds with one stone and they'll be better off for it. My dogs stop and sniff like crazy on walks, it's what they do...they're dogs...and I'm not going to deprive them of the experience. (I am also no pushover either!)

This is the reason I have them on retractable leads (my sibe is walked on a 26 ft retractable) so that they can get far out ahead of me and sniff/investigate stuff while I'm catching up to them. Generally by the time I catch up and/or pass them they're moving on to something else. If I pass them and reach the end of the lead they get a tug that 95% of the time gets them moving along. The chi girls are easy to drag along if they get stubborn, but if Dakota is set on something I'll have to put a bit more muscle into it but eventually we continue moving on. In my mind, half the purpose of a walk is to get them exposure to the sights, sounds and smells of the outdoors so I never have my dogs walking at a heel or refuse to let them stop and smell things...to me that's kind of the purpose. I also find that giving them that "free reign" so to speak helps them not stop as often because they can always stop anywhere so they're not as desperate to smell things as they would be if I didn't allow the stops.

Of course, I only allowed them to walk as they wish on retractables AFTER training them to walk on a loose leash normally. No way would I allow a crazy, pulling sibe to be 26 ft ahead of me acting like a maniac. lol

We walk Ghost on a retractable leash now too, not sure of the exact length but it can't be far off 26ft. He likes to stop and sniff at things and I don't mind waiting as that's part of the fun for him. If he's taking too long then I just say 'on by' and it usually gets him moving again; starting to run has the same effect as he loves to run. There are a few occasions - always when he's found something to hunt - when he doesn't want to move on, but he's getting better at 'on by' even then.

In the evenings we use a short leash because that's when we're most likely to meet a bear (there are several in the neighbourhood) and he goes absolutely crazy about bears. It would be harder to manage that excitement on a retractable leash.

I wouldn't want to be using a prong collar for any length of time. When we first got Ghost we used a martingale collar, which tightened when he pulled but relaxed again as soon as he relaxed the leash. Now he's on a regular collar. It wasn't too hard to teach him not to pull - maddening for the first few days, but much easier after that. He still pulls a bit in new places and then he is conflicted over whether to stop for every smell or keep going to get to more new places!

I don't mind the stopping and sniffing, it's the eating random things by the roadside that is more of a problem. Can't take my eyes off him for a second! I'm working on that 'drop' command ...

I just cannot believ how much "pee" Bob has in him - every tree, every flower, every bush , everything gets peed on!

Val, I agree that it's part of the walk "experience"...totally! That's why I let them do it, but unfortunately with two of them now the retractable leash isn't possible to do anymore. I used to walk Mya on one and it worked out, but if I need to quickly pull them close to me the retractable leash makes it difficult We live in a very "city" area and them being that far away isn't good either. Never know what we're going to encounter. One of the reasons why I keep saying how I'm starting to hate Miami. We can't go on calm walk EVER! Just this morning there was a small dog that popped out of the back of a tree and starting charging at us!

I do let them sniff, but at some point they need to walk or a normal 20min walk will take 2hrs and they won't get tired out.

The sniffing annoys me so I made a compromise with them- If they will suck it up and walk without an issue i'll stop every few blocks and let them sniff and pee and mark some big tree or patch of grass they like. If I stopped the walk (or had them all on flexis ) i'd never get home. LOL

Amen girl, amen!!!!!!! Imagine letting 5 of them stop and sniff/mark as they want...haha! I get so frustrated with just 2! My main issue is WTF does Kody have to rush to any spot that Mya is smelling?!! It's like dude, she found the the spot...you had no clue, but you see her stuck to it and you must rush over...therefore pissing the diva off..LOL!

KareBear wrote:

and he'll drag me though a massive puddle to get to it. Always. Everytime.

Jennet&Embry wrote:

mine are annoying with it, especially since i walk them on a coupler and they sniff the same spot and embry has to mark it, but ends up marking zoeys head lmao

rofl! This thread is cracking me up.

I was working on heel pretty hardcore and getting frustrated with not seeing a lot of improvement. Dee recommended I put in some sniff breaks on another walk, so I've been doing that and also letting Sky do a little more loose leash walking.

Today my bf and I took her to the river bike path near our place. She was cracking me up (and ticking him off!) XD. I have her trained to run in a circle around behind me and stop on my left when I stop, and I've been stopping whenever she pulls to try and get her to knock it off. But usually she and I walk just the two of us. With my bf there there were some major leash tangling complications! Especially since she was going crazy running around and sniffing everything. At one point I saw that she was going to go around him and tangle him up, so I ran around him to try and prevent it. We must have made about three circles before he grabbed the leash. I almost fell over from laughing so hard!

desi wrote:

I just cannot believ how much "pee" Bob has in him - every tree, every flower, every bush , everything gets peed on!

Dakota is the same! He will still lift his leg at the end of our walks when he is completely out of pee!

desi wrote:

I just cannot believ how much "pee" Bob has in him - every tree, every flower, every bush , everything gets peed on!

Makes me glad I got a girl this time, she is much easire to walk with by not having to mark every single thing higher than a blade of grass. I have had male dogs for the last 10 years or so. Kira does have certain spots she likes to stop and sniff but overall not too bad.

Kira wrote:

desi wrote:

I just cannot believ how much "pee" Bob has in him - every tree, every flower, every bush , everything gets peed on!

Makes me glad I got a girl this time, she is much easire to walk with by not having to mark every single thing higher than a blade of grass. I have had male dogs for the last 10 years or so. Kira does have certain spots she likes to stop and sniff but overall not too bad.

ha! WE thought that when we got Frosti and she's learning to mark from her brother!

It's hilarious watching her back up to a tree to try it or left her leg and try. She's dribbling pee on her leg and doesn't understand why Chili can do it and she can't!

There is no doubt that walking the dogs is an adventure in itself!! Between peeing, sniffing, getting tangled in the leashes (i double leash Bob) hoping not to see other dogs, and of course dont forget that every bird in the park needs to be chased. If you need to be entertained then watch me at the park! My Bob - bless his sweet little heart is not as obedient as most of yours sound - so unless i pay 100% attention to what is going on around you could see Bob chasing birds or whatever he thinks he sees - and me flying down a hill. But I cannot wait to get home from work every day to go to the park!

I had the worst walk in a while last night, when I got home from work it was actually really nice out so I decided to take Libby to a large park that has wood and open fields to play. I tied 2 of her chains together to give her about 40-45 ft of chain. She was doing really good, but sniffing non stop. It was fine and I was laughing at her but then I wanted to get a few pictures because the sun was perfect, she was being such a bitch, she wouldn't even sit and stay for me, too many things to smell.
Then along came someone running by, she thought it was time to run also and nearly ripped my arm off. Had to rein her in and made her sit for me before we could move on, it was almost dark by the time we got home. I was so tired when we got home, I didn't even want to make dinner. I swear you give them a foot and they want a mile.
She knew it was nice out and wanted to hang outside all night or else just sat and whined. UGH. I can't just tie her outside and leave her lately because people are stealing dogs around my area. I don't know what I would do. Can't take that chance.

I sometimes think Anubis wants to break the world record in sniffing. I let him sniff alot but not if he tries to every few metres, because´I don´t want our walks fill out 24 hours a day and I´mnot my dogs clown either. They always say all a husky wnats is to run, well they haven´t told that to my Husky, because he most of the time thinks, hey I can sniff everything around so why should I run .

It is important that sniffing is part of the walking experience but I as the owner decide when and where it is sniffing time and when we move ahead, this is a little sturggle form time to time when you have a little knucklehead on the other side of the leash , but in the end the owner is the head of th epack.

SiberianAnubis wrote:

I sometimes think Anubis wants to break the world record in sniffing. I let him sniff alot but not if he tries to every few metres, because´I don´t want our walks fill out 24 hours a day and I´mnot my dogs clown either. They always say all a husky wnats is to run, well they haven´t told that to my Husky, because he most of the time thinks, hey I can sniff everything around so why should I run .

It is important that sniffing is part of the walking experience but I as the owner decide when and where it is sniffing time and when we move ahead, this is a little sturggle form time to time when you have a little knucklehead on the other side of the leash , but in the end the owner is the head of th epack.

Agreed! I let them sniff, but they when they start dragging me more to sniff further away from our path that gets me upset and then they're not allowed to sniff and we continue jogging! I'll let them sniff again about half a block down and continue to do so until they start dragging me. Then the sniffing is over until another half a block. Crazy huskies!

We actually inadvertently taught Chili when he can sniff and when he can't. When we first got him, he annoyed us with sniffing vs walking and we'd shorten his leash and say "short leash!" - more to each other than him. He now understands that "Short leash!" means keep on walkin', buddy!

It doesn't work yet with the small hyper white one, though.

hollywoodhuskies wrote:

It doesn't work yet with the small hyper white one, though.

MelissaI wrote:

SiberianAnubis wrote:

I sometimes think Anubis wants to break the world record in sniffing. I let him sniff alot but not if he tries to every few metres, because´I don´t want our walks fill out 24 hours a day and I´mnot my dogs clown either. They always say all a husky wnats is to run, well they haven´t told that to my Husky, because he most of the time thinks, hey I can sniff everything around so why should I run .

It is important that sniffing is part of the walking experience but I as the owner decide when and where it is sniffing time and when we move ahead, this is a little sturggle form time to time when you have a little knucklehead on the other side of the leash , but in the end the owner is the head of th epack.

Agreed! I let them sniff, but they when they start dragging me more to sniff further away from our path that gets me upset and then they're not allowed to sniff and we continue jogging! I'll let them sniff again about half a block down and continue to do so until they start dragging me. Then the sniffing is over until another half a block. Crazy huskies!

If you wnt to go jogging with them I wouldn´t allow sniffingf, because stop and go is not jogging . I would differ between normal walks ans sports.

What annoys me the most about the whole sniffing thing is that Anubis is not only sniffing around and that´s it, he picks up and eats every damn thing he can find that looks eatable, Thsi goes form Nuts, rotten apples etc.