Need advice from those of you with multiple dogs

I am not brave enough to try both dogs at once. If Luna tries she can almost knock me over, add snow or ice to the situation and I'm sure to go down. Either we take them out one at a time or Meg and I both take a dog. If the weather is nice we usually take them to a field where they can both be offleash and run. Luna has a 100 yard recall and Jake follows her.

It doesn't help when Meg is at school that Jake chewed the long leash into 3 pieces, and chewed his leash almost in half a few weeks ago.
 
I sometimes use a double lead (I have a sporn double dog leash), it is handy when we are in more of a hurry or I dont want them to play up. The joined lead also gets less tangled, but I need to use it with a harness - firstly because the clips are too heavy for their necks (esp with a martingale) and also because they tend to tug each other around a bit.

The reason the double dog leash works well is the dogs pretty quickly get sick of being tugged around by each other, dont have the room to be silly (they have to walk fairly close together) and they have to keep pace with each other (which is good because my two have very different paces and walking habits - Tully wants to move, Deska wants to sniff, and Deska is twice Tully's size)
 
On the rare occasion where all four have to go with me at once (really only happens at the odd show), I use two leashes, two couplers. On a normal everyday walk, I usually only take two at a time, and then they're on the coupler again. It does actually seem to help them keep pace more, and I find it pretty easy to control. If my husband and I only want to two dogs out together, then we each get one dog, one lead.
 
I tried the leash coupler but gave up coz Romeo would practically drag Juliet to wherever he wanted to go. Maybe when she's older I'll give it another go. Now I use 2 separate leashes and I hook both to the left side of my trusty fanny pack (don't laugh). That seems to work. It's good to train commands like "Dogs SIT!" so you can stop them and have them sit whenever you need them to which I found very useful when my hands are full and I'm fumbling around for something and the dogs moving around wasn't helping.

I use 4 foot leashes because we walk along the roads and I don't want them walking off the pavement on to the street. Juliet's leash I tend to shorten by holding it coz she will get it tangled around her legs otherwise.
 
This may be a little far fetched (no pun intended :wink2:) and I have no experience training a deaf dog, but can you create a hand signal and use it as a marker, like you would a clicker?

So basically first get him to associate that hand signal with a treat like you would a clicker. If you want him to sit, wait for him to sit, show him your hand signal and treat him.
 
I don't try to walk them both at a time by myself. I did a short distance at the beach and they go in opposite directions and I was all tangled up. We we walk them Mark takes Maggie and I take Zak.
Maggie and Katie ware awful walking they would bark and bark and always try to one up each other. Zak does not get worked up about much of anything so I think he actally keeps Maggie calmer.
 
I don't have multiple dogs, but Toffee has his poodle Scottie, we take for walks almost every day. I have one leash, with a clip on either end, so I use one hand and loop them like reins around my hand, so I can correct either one if they pull by turning my hand in towards the direction of the dog doing the pulling.. A LOT like what Barb said, actually! In addition I also suddenly stop if one of them does pull, which auto corrects the puller, and that gets them back on track. Scottie used to be notorious puller, still is with his owner but not me.

If I had a third dog I would still walk them together... I seriously think it's a bit of practice and it makes PERFECT :)
However for training times it's always just one dog at a time, one on one attention
 
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take4roll10 said:
This may be a little far fetched (no pun intended :wink2:) and I have no experience training a deaf dog, but can you create a hand signal and use it as a marker, like you would a clicker?

So basically first get him to associate that hand signal with a treat like you would a clicker. If you want him to sit, wait for him to sit, show him your hand signal and treat him.
Click to expand...


Makes sense to me. I think he's going to be a little bit of a challenge. I have to get his attention on the correct side (only one good eye) then give him the hand signal and voice command. But I'm patient and we're going to get it done in time.
 
MissSuzie said:
Makes sense to me. I think he's going to be a little bit of a challenge. I have to get his attention on the correct side (only one good eye) then give him the hand signal and voice command. But I'm patient and we're going to get it done in time.
Click to expand...

But I'm sure he'll be worth it! He's a lucky boy to have found you.
 
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