There HAS to be a trick to walking 2 dogs together!

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So what is it!? Just had to take the duo out for the first time on my own - ASBOwoof proceeded to hurl himself out of the car (he's normally got an incredibly well-trained sit until you're told you can get down) and is just generally pushing his luck anyway - but gawd! Over, under, around my legs - the pair of them and that big thick leather proper hound lead is driving me insane... so what's the art form to not having a walk resemble trying to undo an entire class of 4 year old's trainers laces?!

Add in the fact the hound HATES wearing a muzzle (even if I deploy Operation Chicken) and likes to use your crotch, the other dog's crotch (can imagine how well that was appreciated) and passers-by's crotches (thankfully a hound owner who remembers it well) as a lever to try to remove the muzzle!

Train them seperately at first. Train Dog1 to only walk at your right side and never cross to the left. Train Dog2 to only walk to your left and never cross. Don't walk them together untill they have got it walking alone.

The hardest bit is going from two to three imo, but you'll realise that soon enough I am sure

ah the joy drawbacks of having more than one dog

i love having 3 dogs but when one is naughty/wound up/excited the others usually copy. my oldie tends to think she is the house prefect so tells the other dogs off, which just results in more noise

it is possible to train them to walk nicely. i have one on my right hand side and two on my left. they dont move out of their position. your second dog is very new and i imagine both dogs are super excited. it will calm down and you will be able to train them. take new dog out on her own for some training. always walk her on the side you want when you have two dogs on leads even when she is on her own. practise her sitting in car until you call her out. you can do this on your drive. doesnt have to be when you are going for a walk, in fact will be easier to practise when she is on her own and not somewhere excitable. build up to her sitting and waiting even in the most fun place such as a favourite walking area

when she is settled (she is still settling in and learning all the ropes) you can progress to telling them to get back in boot of car and wait for your command to get out. the walk doesnt start until you say they can jump out of the boot. dog no 2 finds this very hard as he gets very excited but it is possible. only took me a few years to train

What I want to achieve long term is for Layton to take the outside position since he's sooo unfazed by everything. I think half the problems I'm having are the fact that I'm dealing with a thick leather fairly inflexible traditional greyhound lead - going to try a quick once round the block with two "normal" leads for both dogs and see if that's better as they're much easier in my hands if nothing else. The muzzle crotch throwing is a pain in the rear - hopefully she'll start to associate it with walkies like she seems to be getting the hint with in the car - last couple of trips in it we haven't had to hoik her bony bald butt up into it - she's gone in willingly since she's finally sussed out the car now = good things (although there's a trip to the vet looming). Hard to give her treats to train with as she struggles to get them into her mouth since she's missing most of her front teeth bless her (I guess at least they've been pulled and aren't causing her any pain)!

One dog's loving these extra training/socialisation jaunts around the block, the other has to be dragged out of bed! Just trying to spend some time out at the park (which isn't much of a walk cos we drive there) and a few mooches round the block as well to get her a picture of the local area.

Semi have the boot jumping thing sorted - that's just ASBOboy trying his luck (he's a right scally and scoundrel at heart)!

If she's cat friendly and small friendly, no need to muzzle? Unless she's diving on all available foodstuffs?

It does get easier - I promise. I often have to walk our three singlehanded when DH is working away. We do "greyhound knitting" - a sort of Maypole dance of twirliness.

The key points are getting in and out of the car as already identified - if you can train for a civilised ingress and egress then you are winning the battle.

Our other Waterloo comes at poo time. Inevitably, there's a kind of domino effect. Dog 1 goes for a sniff and assumes poo position (a great deal of fannying about getting bum located in perfect position- eyeroll). Walker gets out poo bag ready for pounce. Dog 1 is just getting started when Dog 2 will decide to have a wee at the furthest end of the lead, while Dog 3 is standing half way between and is now wearing Dog 3's lead across him and is staring at you reproachfully. Dog 1 eventually performs and poo is scooped. While bending over poo, Dog 3 will now decide that they've seen what might be a squirrel up a tree and will head for it at Warp Factor 11. Walker nearly ends up falling head first into poo. Walker scoops, ties bags, gathers hound 1, swears(v quietly)at hound 3, then realises Dog 2 is now assuming bum crouch of intent and is circling quietly for the perfect spot - Dog 3 thinks this is fun, and decides to have a wee usually aiming at Dog 2's head. Meanwhile, Dog 1, having poo-ed thinks a sniff and a wee is the best idea, and ends up doing the kick/scrape of the back legs just as walker is bending over to scoop yet another fragrant offering. On a bad day this can go on for some time, and I sometimes think I should either sell tickets or put up an A board describing us as performance artists.

The actual walking is fine, they all walk very nicely. Generally have one on one side, and two on the other.

Did I mention I'm going grey?

Heh - the poo circling thing having to line the arse up at the precise angle accounting for the tidal pull of the moon, earth's magnetic field and whether there's a T in the day or not I DO know about. Layton's very very good at pooing in front of the poo bin which is nice and obliging of him - apart from his attempts at the back-footed poo kick of triumph afterwards!

Just took them around the block on two of our usual nylon leads and it was much much easier - think I'll leave the greyhound lead for when there's two of us - it's just too long and cumbersome and because it's leather you can't wind it around your hands easily to adjust the length... and ASBO forgets how to walk on the lead from time to time anyway (usually after he's had a boy's night out walking with hubby for some strange reason)!

The muzzle thing's annoying (I'm developing a nicely bruised crotch) but since we're going to try another cat intro tonight (hopefully without the narcolepsy in the middle of the momentous moment) we need her to be able to tolerate it without going nuts - she wags her tail at me putting it on because I put a spot of chicken inside it to fool her, but does like to try to lever it off using anyone/any animal's groins available (plus where we walk is squirrel and bunny central!)

Met her absolute identical twin this morning who came charging over dragging a human in its wake at the joy of having spotted another of hound-kind!

I have one of these with one of these and two of these.

When I need one hand free, I can clip them both onto the mongrel grip handle and just let the neo handle hang from that. Then if I want to walk them separately, I can just clip one extension to each handle and we're off. Works so much better than those lead couplers that you can only use if the dogs are roughly the same height (I have a border collie X belgian shepherd and a large, scruffy, daft lurcher) with the added advantage of being able to use the leads separately as and when required.

With the muzzle thing, my old boy hated baskerville muzzles with a vengeance and did everything he could to remove them. I found a bridlemaker locally and got them to make me one up specifically to his head measurements in a nice supple leather. He never liked his muzzle, but accepted the leather one with much better grace and if he did decide to rub it - it didn't hurt (me) as much.

Oh I can't abide the lead couplers - woman over the road walks her two (utterly bonkers) spaniels on one and it's like a small tornado of spaniel going along the street as they go over-under and around and around!

I THINK she's ok with small dogs (and even squirrels really) - she doesn't "fix" on them (she was more interested watching the cars and the flashing speed sign - perhaps she was comparing lap times with 'em?) - just don't really want to take the chance yet cos I'd never forgive myself if anything went wrong - plus it's a handy "keep off" sign with the idiot fraternity out there to keep their dogs away - especially since we're essentially having to do the puppy socialisation thing on a dog aged 7 - I want her to meet nice, respectable dogs (ok apart from Woofbags who is about as shaggy and unrespectable as you could hope to get)!

We ditched the splitter and now have a dog in each hand on a nylon lead. I spent months having to walk the dogs separately because I couldn't manage the two of them especially after the incident where little dog slipped his collar and chased another Collie & it's screaming owner up the road.

We bought Canac Gentle Leaders and it totally changed my dog walking experience. I can manage them both now and they have totally learned how to behave and walk nicely assuming that we don't see any cats, squirrels, birds, other dogs, bikes, men in high visibility jackets, roller skates, abandoned shopping trollies, milk floats, mopeds or anybody who has the brass neck to talk to me Other than that they walk very well with the harnasses & I would recommend them.

I do walk mine on separate leads, but I still appreciate the opportunity to clip them both to one handle when I need to do something with dd or have to carry something in the other hand etc. Saves tangling up the two leads.

Mine are both pretty well behaved though and walk nicely together. I found the lead handles more useful when I used to have three dogs and could walk two together in one hand and one in the other without ending up with tangled up leads. It helps that my two girls were both taught the commands 'left' and 'right' as part of their heelwork to music and happily walked well on both sides. Now I tend to walk my collie cross on the right, as it just confuses my poor lurcher boy if I put him on that side. A dog of very little brain is that one.

I walk mine on seperate leads too, the pup and the old boy in one hand and the middle girl in the other as she pulls. Do a lot of stop and sits as we go along, but do have now rather shapely biceps!