The walk from hell !!!

[stacyr]

Yep, the title says it all. Boyfriend and myself decided to take ozzie and charlie for a nice walk up the seafront. How wrong could we be. As soon as we got out the car charlie started barking at nothing in particular, that made ozzie join in. We tried to walk along nicely but ozzie had other plans, i think he thought it was more fun to see just how much he can pull whilst charlie is still barking his head off. Got pulled up to the sea wall with charlie still barking and decided we could go no further, every single person or dog that came towards us, got an earful of barking with both dogs trying to get to them. Normally ozzie is a quiet dog when being walked but had decided to join in with his mate. We gave up trying to walk along the sea wall and settled for the beach where they could have a run around on extended leads, where ozzie then thought it would be funny to completely wipe boyfriend off his feet, a surprisingly easy task considering he is a 6ft well built bloke, no match for ozzie obviously (had to laugh though). We decided we'd had enough embarrassment and took the dogs home for some peace and quiet. Best bit (yes there is a best bit) about the "walk" was that someone had a black giant on the beach too, what a beautiful dog she was, so it was all three sizes of schnauzers together. Im going to rename them both Satan 1 and Satan 2 [devil] . When we got home they both looked like butter wouldnt melt

[henrys mum]

Oh dear sounds like you need feet up and a nice glass of wine!!! Don't worry they all have bad days, keep going with your training and maybe do some training with them at the beach. Take 5* treats and get them really interested then they won't have time to bark. Oh and don't forget for extra attention don't feed them that morning so they're interested in the treats!! You just need to take them to the beach more often

[stacyr]

I could have died from embarrassment, having two dogs being naughty at the same time. Yes I do need a good stiff drink ha ha

Just been reading a thread mentioning clicker training, do you think that would help? Ozzie is mostly dominated by food but Charlie isnt, was wondering if that would help with him? I wouldnt actually know where to start with it though :-/

[Caramomo]

Clicker training can do wonderful things. There are books that tell you how but I would suggest going to a training class that teaches it so you can learn the timing that is involved in it. It is easy to learn but there is a knack to it that a good trainer can teach you.

[stacyr]

Its hard trying to get two dogs to take notice of you, especially when one is a nutcase at times (well most of the time actually!) Might look into the clicker thing, anything is worth a go

[hula-hoop]

Oh dear, I feel for you - I have been there many times with Stanley! Sometimes you just want the ground to swallow you up whole dont you?

[henrys mum]

The other thing is to split them up and take one at a time. Time consuming but worth it a couple of times a week at least. When we first brought Cassis home I walked them seperately for the first three months to make her pay attention to me not Henry.

[stacyr]

Henry's mum - yes they do go separately every day, thought we would give them a treat and go together, last time I will be doing that for a while. though i did at one point try the barking collar, not a horrible one, just the one that sprays the smell they dont like. It did actually work and it got to the stage where Charlie would only have to be wearing it and he would shut up and not make it go off but just carry on as normal on a walk with no barking. Havent used it for a while, am debating starting again!

[henrys mum]

Henry's mum - yes they do go separately every day, thought we would give them a treat and go together, last time I will be doing that for a while. though i did at one point try the barking collar, not a horrible one, just the one that sprays the smell they dont like. It did actually work and it got to the stage where Charlie would only have to be wearing it and he would shut up and not make it go off but just carry on as normal on a walk with no barking. Havent used it for a while, am debating starting again!

Sounds like he worked out it wasn't on! I'd try it again and esp when in new places!

[stacyr]

Ive now got a behaviourist coming to see ozzie and charlie. They went out together today again and I dont think I can take the embarrassment anymore, here's hoping the behaviourist will be able to sort them out and teach me how I can walk them nicely without being pulled the whole while and given a headache .... ouch!

[henrys mum]

Good luck

[dannie_kl]

Stacey r what part of essex are you in please?