If your dogs a bit tricky do you tend to stick to 'easy' walking routes? Do you think its fair on the dog?

[Tulipsy272]

Our dog is 18 months old, lovely pup but he's not been the easiest. He can be reactive (barks/lunges) mainly towards large black dogs, motorbikes and screaming kids. DH is brilliant with him, doesn't get phased, does what the behaviourist told us to do and carries on with the walk. He does the morning and evening walk around our local residential area.

I walk him mid day and I find it pretty stressful. The parks and popular dog walking areas are often busy and I feel like I'm running a gauntlet. His reactivity really isn't that bad but I tend to dwell on things.

Anyway, I've found 2 walks that are lovely and quiet. One's along a canal which runs through the countryside and ones through a forest. We've never met anyone in the forest and the people we've met along the canal are super friendly, dogs are on leads etc. We both really enjoy these walks and I've been alternating them but I wonder if I'm short changing him and should be taking him to different places. Do dogs think like that or do they just live in the moment? I'm happy to do the same 2 walks as it feels like lovely stressfree bonding time.

Personally as the owner of both a reactive and non reactive dog, I walk them once a day in a quiet location. Because they are relaxed (and me too) they get so much more out of the walk and I come home feeling like I’ve not run the gauntlet. I live by two very popular parks that are basically puppy playgrounds at the moment, and it’s not fair to put my reactive under any stress- hat definitely works for us!

when we got our rescue at 8 months he had never been socialised and would lunge at people, cyclists, any other dog.. and it was hard work and I tended to avoid taking him anywhere that other people were at first but this didn't feel fair on him.

I started off taking him on a walk with a friend who had a very well behaved dog and both were kept on leads. After a bit of pissing about my dog calmed down and after a few minutes were happily walking alongside each other.

Next step was going in a secure field and letting them off together. My dog loved it . He's got a great nature really and just wanted to play. Next time out my friend brought all her dogs (4) . And they walked fine and again played off lead in the field after.

It worked and we now go to the park every day. He is great on the lead 90% of the time. He goes offlead to play with dogs he knows. He's learnt not to just bound up to every dog after a few ear nips and warnings from them. His recall is still rubbish but its getting better.

We also took him out to the seaside (last summer when we were allowed out) where there would be loads of people and dogs all over the place and that helped him get used to it as well.

Nope OP you are not short changing him at all. He will be very grateful for the happy chilled relaxed walks. Lucky dog

I really don't think you are shortchanging your dog!

According to the experts reactivity comes from fear so I would say your dog probably enjoys his quiet walks bonding with you more than going different places where he meets lots of other dogs. I have a reactive dog and since Covid came along the number of dogs we meet has got ridiculous though obviously they've as much right to be there as us. Running the gauntlet sums it up perfectly. My dog gets very stressed meeting a constant stream of dogs so we try to walk him when it's quieter.
What you're doing sounds lovely and if he's anything like mine he'll enjoy exploring all the interesting smells somewhere peaceful far more than being stressed out by loads of other dogs.

Ours like many reactive dogs loves to play offlead and I am really looking forward to when the local doggy social sessions restart. Maybe yours would enjoy that too

Not at all, dogs love a familiar walk as much as a new one. The old walks have new sniffs every day.

Thanks everyone, you've made me feel better about it.

He particularly enjoys the canal walk, he loves to sniff through the hedges and reeds and watch the ducks. His body language is so different, his tails up the whole time, gently wagging and he enjoys a quick hello to the few dogs we cross paths with.

I'm hoping I'll eventually find a few more quiet walks to add to the routine, we're relatively new to the area though so we need to explore a bit more off the beaten track.

beesinmybonnet there's a cockerpoo that he often meets when DH is walking him in the morning who he likes to play with off lead so he does get a bit of off lead fun. You're right that he does enjoy that.

Quiet walks all the way :)
Mine's selectively reactive (more so on lead) and while we do sometimes brave the local country park (dog city) our best walks are the long, lonely off lead woodland and riverside walks where neither of us our anxious, and we won't suddenly come face to face with an on lead dog.
I meet with a friend once a week because my girl likes her dog and they run each other ragged, but the rest of the week.. away from others.

Not having had a dog before I didn't know all the good walks, but asked on FB and people came up with great suggestions so we now have a rota of about 10 nice relaxed countryside walks we can do. Worth asking around!

If he's reactive are you sure he needs three walks a day? Especially if two are around residential areas where he's prone to reacting?

I only say this as reactive dogs often do better on less walks as it means they're not over stimulated abs hypes up. Mine gets one walk a day in the morning and that's it. That walk can be anything from 45 minutes to two hours, but that's all he gets.

If I walk him later in the day he won't settle and it's like he's too stressed and stimulated to relax afterwards.

Sounds perfect, we do the same quiet walk every eek day morning - rural and off lead, and ddog much prefers that to somewhere new that can stress him out. There's always new smells, changing seasons, different bits to explore. Dogs like routine. If you were just walking him round the the block it'd be nice if you made it as enriching as possible but that doesn't sound the case

My dog isn't reactive but very hyper (he's a teenager) most evenings I just walk him up and down the road and let him sniff in grass and round lampposts for 20 minutes then he conks out for the night. I think a chilled walk is much better and more relaxing for a dog that's prone to getting amped up than an exciting new one that gets them wired so they can't settle.