TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

Summer in Santa Fe is on the verge, and this summer I have taken to the trails with some of my clients and their dogs for a weekly saunter along the highland trails for a lesson in loose leash walking. But the classrooms that I have selected are hardly sterile, noisy, or smelling of disinfectant or (banish the thought) lit by the ever insidious buzzing florescent light fixtures. No my classrooms are the New Mexico highlands and the trails that we have been blessed with--the pristine mountain trails of the Santa Fe National Forest where snow melt turns to babbling rivers and small pools for eyes to delight in and hounds to hunker down in. In the last two Sunday mornings I have escorted human/hound teams along the Santa Fe River and Tesuque River for instructional loose leash walking classes set in New Mexico's Natural world.

I tell my students that walking is actually a composite of behaviors. We connect, we push off, we locomote. How we travel with our dogs is the end result of how we have communicated with our canines and will ultimately dictate the state of our relationship. These Sunday outings are an attempt to address the most rudimentary activity that we share with our dogs..."To Go for a Walk" and to make it a positive one. I share positive training methods to encourage dogs to walk in harmony with their owners in environments that are uplifting.

I am a firm believer in good equipments and halters over collars in all instances. I shudder to think what years of yanking dogs necks wearing collars has cost chiropractially and so I recommend halters specifically desgined to deter pulling such as Premiere's Easy Walk Gentle Leader halter, but there are many on the market now. Halters that do not distinguish between a well behaved stride and a pull are of no value, remember that the most famous of Dog Races, the Iditarod, is lead by dogs sporting halters!

I am also a firm believer in clicker training. It is perhaps the most efficient way of marking any behavior and is consistent in the sound it emits whether I, a trainer, or various household members use it, it makes a uniform sound. The trainers at Zoo's and SeaWorld type installations are all practicing clicker technicians for one simple reason....Clicker Training Works just as consistent clear clean communication. It's truly one and the same.

Group loose leash walking classes provide socialization for all dogs as well as exercise which is the single most changeable element in any dogs life. Exercise is credited in reducing Behavioral problems in 95% of the challenging canine world. I ask all of my clients how much exercise they are getting as well as their dogs. I then ask them to amp up the exercise. The results are impressive.

Positive training methods propelled several of last weeks students across narrow wooden foot bridges, into and across cool streams. Teaching body language that communicates to dogs, learning the value of intonation and pitch is the most rewarding of all. When I see a frustrated dog owner embrace these simple elements so that their dog takes notice and follows cues, it's all worth it. The body language on each side of the leash is transformed. It's a veritable hound human harmony that looks quite attractive on its own, but the aesthetic value is increased significantly by the high pinion, cedar, and Aspen trees and clear alpine streams that travel alongside the practicing loose leash walkers I spy on Sunday mornings.