To walk my dog this way?

[Frequency]

This is going to be long so apologies in advance but I need to clarify a few things because I know what MN is like and I don't want people reading things that are not there.

Firstly, I have 100% control of my dog at all times. It might not always look like I do, but I do. If I don't want to walk at a certain speed, we don't walk at that speed. We don't cross a road if I don't want to cross it. He is trained to come to my side and sit or lay down when told, however, I cannot get him to stop pulling so he is not trained to walk nicely at my side. If I stop and tell him to come sit he will come to my side but if we're walking and he's not wearing his head collar, he is pulling.

I've lost a lot of weight recently but have hit a plateau so I've been looking into ways to increase exercise and my fitness. I used to enjoy running but would feel too guilty going for a long run and leaving the dog at home and I don't think running in his head collar would be comfortable for him, so I considered cani-cross.

After lots of practice in our secure, enclosed garden, I have found a combination of leads and harnesses that allow him to pull or drag me but still give me total control.

We've now taken to the street with our jogging. We're not in full cani-cross mode yet, he is still learning left, right, and halt so I am controlling the speed, even though, to an onlooker, it appears as though I am being dragged along behind him. I can also instantly change the tension on his lead so I am leading him by the front clip and he can no longer pull.

Anyway... to get to the point I was focused on the pavement in front of us and what was coming towards us, not what was on the other side of the road so I did not notice a fellow dog walker come towards us on the other side before the dog did. He spotted them and tried to pull across the road at which point I stopped, changed the tension, and brought him to my opposite side. About half a second after we stopped my dog picked up a scent and lost interest in the other dog walker so I let him pick up speed again and we started jogging. All was fine, no drama but the other dog walker froze.

At first, it confused me. I completely accept that it looked as though we were out of control until I noticed him, but why stop and freeze? Then it occurred to me that he might have been frightened and didn't know what else to do. The last thing I want to do is scare people who just want a quiet stroll with or without their dogs, so now I am unsure if I am BU practicing cani-cross where there are other people, unfortunately, the other option I have is not to continue our training as I don't have access to any private spaces except the garden and even once we are fully trained and running it will still look like I cannot control my dog and being dragged along behind him to people who are not aware of the sport.

So AIBU to continue?

sounds like you just need to be more aware of your surroundings when out running with your dog 🤷‍♀️

Why can't you always use the lead that stops him pulling? I'm not sure I'm following. Also what kind of dog is he/what size?

So you were one side of the road, and other dog walker was on the other side of the road? How far did your dog pull across the road? I guess the other person thought you were heading towards them and got scared.

Mountain out of a mole hill. You are just jogging with your dog, nobody on the streets cares

Can you wear a hi vis kind of top that says dog in training cani cross or something?I drove past someone whose dog was running in the road the other day and maybe they were doing what you do as they were annoyed with me for slowing right down as I would a horse because to me it looked like the dog was running in the road but maybe it didnt seen like that to them,a high vis showing me that this was ok to pass a dog in the road would have helped me know I was ok to pass at a normal speed?I think people aren't mind readers so a high vis may be useful?

I have a big dog myself, I’m not scared of dogs at all, but if I was out walking with my dog and saw another dog try to pull it’s owner across the road to get to me and my dog and it looked like the owner had no control and was succeeding, I’d probably freeze as well. What are my alternatives? I don’t know you, I don’t know your dog, all I know is that in that moment it very much looks like a dog, who for all I know may be aggressive, is pulling its owner towards me. What would you expect the other dog walker to do?

There could be a multitude of reasons why they stop and froze, you'll never know.

Because I want him to pull that is the point of the sport. He is a crossbreed of unknown origin, slightly larger than a lab.

He didn't get onto the road at all before I spotted what he was doing and stopped him he just lurched towards the road as though he was about to drag me across, and then I stopped him, iyswim?

I do need to be more aware, I've realized that after today, but also cannot totally avoid people. If I notice someone nervous I take action to stop my dog and to give them a wide berth.

As per @Mrsttcno1 , I also have a pully dog. If I thought your dog was lunging towards me, I’d also stop to assess if you had control or I needed to step in and take action. I advocate for my dog cos a few times intact males, not in control, have started on him. I wouldn’t worry what others are doing, but a hi vis a
saying Cani Cross a good idea and could help assure me a little.

Just a point outside of your AIBU question and the incident you quote OP. You might want to be aware of the kind of surface your dog is jogging on, hard pavements are very bad on a dogs joints. I am sure you are probably wearing impact absorbing shoes, but your dog won’t be! Good luck with it though, and the weight loss. Apologies if you already knew about impact damage with dogs😁

Does it need to be cani cross though? If you’re looking to lose weight and exercise you could just run with your dog on an appropriate lead/harness so no pulling?

CaniCross isn’t really a pavement sport, it’s a trail sport.

If it’s a large breed you do know running a dog on pavements can put a lot of stress on dogs joints? If your dog isn’t 100% sure of commands then no you shouldn’t be running on streets imo.

When I first saw your thread title OP I thought I was going to be reading a a Ministry Of Silly Walks type situation where you walk your dog doing squats 😂

It sounds like you’re doing all you can to train your dog. As long as you have control it’s fine. I’m a bit nervous of big dogs and sometimes momentarily freeze when I see one before relaxing when I see it’s on a lead, it’s just a gut reaction really

Once we are fully running I intend on walking him to the beach on his head collar and switching harnesses and running on the sand. Atm he is walking fast and, due to the fact that I am not a fit 2-year-old, full of the of the joy of life, I am semi-reluctantly slowly jogging behind him looking like a large, red beach ball bouncing along behind him aka his walking speed is a lot faster than mine.

It doesn't sound very safe for you. The whole point of a lead is that you can drop it and worst case the dog gets killed, awful, but at leat you're not dragged under a car too.

I do canicross and honestly I don’t think you should be running along roads with your dog out in front of you. Sorry. It’s just not safe, what if somebody walked out of their gate and into your lead, or something REALLY caught his attention and he pulled you into the road before you could react or kid on a scooter careered around the corner. You get the idea.

have you tried a perfect fit harness and double ended lead for street jogging?

I would honestly put more work into his loose lead walking if I were you before attempting cani-cross. Haltis and the like are not good tools IMO, as they are aversive. And as you've discovered, they don't really solve the problem for many dogs. If your dog is strong and pulls you unexpectedly, it could end badly for you and your dog. The other dog walker may have been understandably concerned.

I’d probably stop and freeze it I saw someone who’s dog was thinking about pulling them across the road. I’ve got a dog aggressive dog (who’s always under control) so that situation wouldn’t end well if your dog decided to drag you across to us. Stopping would be in anticipation of this.

I don’t think Cani cross is particularly appropriate for the streets. It’s suited to off road areas; forestry trails/parks etc. rather than residential ones.

It’s not particularly hard to train a dog to stop pulling on the lead btw.

I honestly don't know. You're saying it might look like he is out of control, so isn't it inevitable that people will think he is out of control?

How would it go if the owner and dog had been on the same pavement as you, rather than the opposite side of the road? I guess I'm struggling to imagine how you have so much control that you can keep your dog over to half the pavement, to pass a vulnerable person politely and without alarming them at all, while he is pulling you down the road towards them at speed.

He's not fully out in front of me, he's on two normal Halti leads, one attached to the front clip of his harness and one at the back. Once we graduate to running I will get a proper cani-cross lead but for now, he is just learning the commands and I'm using the pull to encourage me to walk faster/jog. He's only an inch or so in front of me, usually to my left side.

He has a handle on the back of his harness I can grab if I need to but he will also come to my side and sit by my side if I ask him to. If we are in a busy area we use a headcollar.

He's a scent hound so training him not to pull is not as easy as with other breeds, as soon as he picks up a scent his nose turns on and his brain turns off. I suppose, with enough time and patience, I could have managed it but I went with a headcollar and/or front-leading harness instead because I am lazy and it was easier.

I wasn't using the head collar tonight because I wanted to jog/fast walk with him and practice towards running.

I'll stick to walking with him and do my running indoors on the treadmill or think of another sport I enjoy.

If you're running with him out in front, anywhere that he could step into the road, then yes, YABU - train in places where he is 100% safe - ie you have the same distance to the side, that he has ahead of you. 6ft out in front = there must be more than 6ft between you and the road beside you.

The other dog walker, on the other side of the road, was probably dealing with his own dog, don't worry about that.

Training a loose lead walk without pulling and without a headcollar is possible - but you have to ensure he never gets to experience walking in that specific equipment, and pulling. (You can teach him one set of gear = pulling and another set = something else, thats fine).

That means that any training session on 'not pulling' needs to be specifically that and tailored to just that - no 'we'll work on it for a few minutes then I'll let you pull' and it takes a very long time if you are also working on other things and can't dedicate lots of short sessions every day to it.

You could just move to the beach then?I think the other road user maybe had a panic moment that you were going to get pulled into the road?

Could be anything. Admiring the dog, wondering what was occurring, thought you were going to speak, their dog reacted, simply looked up. Just go about your business. Nothing happened.

Dog people are so silly