Straddling dog to walk past swans

[Pontie]

At night I walk my dog at the river. He’s very well behaved in general (scent class trainer and vet often praise him). But like most dogs he does love to chase birds. Squirrels not so much.

Anyway, normally I can give them a wide berth but there is a part of the Thames path which narrows and follows a brick wall. This just so happens to be where the swans/geese love to hang out. It’s 50/50 if they are there at all.

I wore trainers yesterday which have no grip. Lesson learned. Normally I am able to hold my 35kg golden close and walk the 5 metres with my boy straining to get to them.

I decided my only recourse was to put my dogs between my legs and shuffle him along the wall. It worked fine but I could see the look of bemusement on those around us. He’s weird in that he will not turn and go back for the swan so it really was a case of just getting past them.

His recall is excellent unless he is chasing birds.

Was I mental for doing this?

No, but people may think that you are taking the initial lessons for becoming a jockey.🏇

My dog is a maniac if she sees a squirrel or a duck not in the water but walks past swans as if they weren't there. I think one once hissed at her so she pretends she can't see them.

Swans can and will defend themselves from a dog- It’s definitely not good to let a dog harass any bird or animal.
Surely teach a “ Leave it” command . That ought to work .

My dog had a beef with a swan who flapped & hissed at him and now we both walk past without looking the swan in the eye. My ball obsessed dog dropped his ball before the swan then walked by me to pass the swan and would not go back for his ball.
He chases ducks and squirrels but he knows the swan is a killer.

Learning commands at home and having them work when the offending swan is meters away from you are two very different things.

We have a similar sounding path where I live and tbh I just avoid it as the swans and geese are bold as anything and will come within inches of you.

How about a stream of tasty snacks from when you first see the swans until you get past? Your ddog will ime be too busy watching your pocket to even see the swans.
We had a rottweiler who was a great puller when it suited her...
Which was a lot
.

Mine tried it once. The Swan trained him for me in that respect. He will not go after so much as a pigeon now. He's terrified of them 😂

I hoped that would happen with my beagle but now he seems to want to fight every single one we meet instead

If you are, so am I! I always pull the lead up on his chin and very short but if there's something super exciting my 55kg Akita gets straddled and shuffled. Top technique if you ask me!

Learning commands at home and having them work when the offending swan is meters away from you are two very different things.

Then you haven’t taught it properly. Do the ground work at home by all means but you have to proof it for it to work. And that means practicing it every single time you go past a swan until he gets it. It’s easy to do anything at home. You need him to do it when you’re walking past the trigger and for that you need to practice it there.

Yep, I know the theory - but it doesn't always work in practise.

Swans (especially) are dangerous and unpredictable and my aim is to get my dog past them as safely and quickly as possible. I'm really not going to stand there trying to teach him to "leave it" lol.

My dog isn't interested in snacks when we're outside. Sometimes he's not that fussed at home, either.

I'd find a different place to walk tbh especially when swans and other birds are nesting ie now. It's their home and your dogs - which are not a natural part of the habitat - will stress them out. There must be other places near you where you can take your pets.

If it works it works, I mean it’d be a pain if you were having to do it regularly, I’d not recommend it for a long term strategy

But I’d also not recommend using the handle on the harness to carry a 25kg dog like a suitcase as a longterm plan either, but I’ve done that before 😂

Yeah you probably looked weird but I would have known what you were doing and it is a much better option than letting your dog get into a fight with a swan! So if I'd have seen you I would have thought what a good dog owner.

"He’s weird in that he will not turn and go back for the swan so it really was a case of just getting past them."

Cos he's a dog. They don't have object permanence so once the swans are out of sight they stop existing. They do learn by association though. So if he starts to associate the sights, visual cues etc of that spot on the path with being restrained and feeling frustrated you may find he gets antsy there even when there aren't swans.

Not preaching btw - my twat of a dog has a set of trees she will always race off to bark at because she once chased a squirrel up them. I learnt this the hard way!

But that's why training positive behaviour is generally better.

For leave it, use a very firm tone, start at home, reinforce on low risk distractions which were our chickens for us (prob easier with a v distractable BC who is basically a twat than a usually well behaved GR!) then slowly build up. walk up to wherever there is tension in the lead, say 'Leave it' firmly and as soon as the lead relaxes and he looks at you ALL the treats, or favourite tug toy. Walk away, repeat etc.

Alternatively try teaching 'Look at that' from control unleashed instead, so he learns to associate seeing swans with focus on you - the beauty of this being you only ever train from a safe distance. But you do have plan routes to then avoid actually getting close to the swans so you don't then overwhelm him with the exciting trigger afterwards.

It's definitely do-able but time consuming. If he's great in other respects it's prob worth as he'll be bullet-proof afterwards which makes it easier to ask other people to walk him. With a very movement reactive BC I only focused on traffic and farm animals as those are safety critical. But its clearly a transferrable skill as she will now walk nicely if I say leave it when she sees a duck/rabbit/falling leaf/snowflake/. Its still only me and DH who can walk her though - she thinks everyone else is a sucker.