One Trick for a Better Dog Walk

I am not sure if this is a personal problem, or something that everyone does... but I will religiously do something for ages and then randomly stop and forget about that thing. Only to come back to it months down the track and wonder why the heck I stopped in the first place. This has happened to me recently with taking treats on walks with Diego. I used to do this every walk when Diego was a puppy, and since moving back from Whanganui I have never grabbed my treat bag. What a terrible idea that was.

Diego has started to gain some bad habits on walks, nothing too drastic, but enough for me to want to nip them in the bud. He has a fairly good recall, but lately, he has taken more interest in smells and exploring than a super fast recall. He also has started to be leash reactive, and although I know it is a fear response instead of aggression, I don't want it to become a permanent feature in our lives. I will be looking at working with a trainer on this as well, but the little things I can do on walks will help in the long run in my opinion.

We were lucky enough to get sent some amazing treats from Daisy's Doggy Deli which are 100% natural, meaty treats! They are super fresh, and you can see the difference between their treats and store bought equivalents. A lot of the treats we get are for trick training at home, and I found that these treats weren't the best for this purpose. Being 100% meat treats, it made them hard to break into little pieces, and I spent more time trying to tear them up than actually treating Diego. That's why I decided to take them on a walk with Diego, and they work perfect for this purpose.

I took out the Chewy Lamb Bites and found them the best thing to take! They are super smelly, and a bit greasy so be aware that your fingers will get a little bit funky during the process. This smell and grease is very easy to wash off after a walk though! This smell really grabs Diego's attention and was the perfect treat to use with a 'look' command. I was able to divert Diego's attention from multiple dogs that he usually would have reacted over. His recall also became back to his usual standard of near instant! You can slightly break up these treats, but they are still going to be on the larger size to training treats. I would suggest for Diego's size upwards these would be perfect.

We still have a lot to work on while out and about during walks, but bringing treats is definitely the way to go. I am annoyed with myself that I stopped this because I really see an improvement overall in Diego's attitude when I clip on my treat bag. I don't even have to give him any treats! Just bringing the bag makes him more calm and receptive to my commands. I am excited to try the rest of Daisy's Doggy Deli treats while out and about on walks, and stay tuned for a full review of their products.

What's your favourite product to take on walks?