Tips for a Successful Sniff Walk

What’s a sniff walk? Click here to learn about Sniff Walks—the best sniffin’ thing since going outside.

A good sniff walk is easy to do, and it’s fun! It makes for a good adventure, and helps change up the normal walk routine.

Here are some tips for a successful sniff walk:

Make sure you are using a good leash and harness—for sniff walks, I prefer to use a harness that clips on the back, so the leash is not dangling in front of the dogs face. If you don't have a harness—click here for the Ruff Review of The Best Harness: My Favorites

Put the phone away—you are going to want to be present and observant of your dog. You want to watch what she likes, and where she is going. You cannot judge whether or not the direction your dog wants to go is safe if you’re not paying attention.

Watch where you’re going—since your dog is focusing on the ground, it is your job to look ahead for potential dangers or problems like cars, other dogs, children, bikes, trains, other animals, or anything that your dog may react to.

Be on the lookout for your dog to try to eat things— Sometimes they can find something tasty on the ground that they shouldn’t eat. My apartment complex has an idiot who likes throwing chicken wing bones everywhere. Very tasty for Zoe, but very dangerous for her to eat. Some dogs will try to eat other inappropriate things like feces, berries, parts of plants, sticks and grass. Chemically treated, fertilized grass and pesticide covered plants are very dangerous for dogs to ingest.

Let your dog choose the direction to go—the point of this walk to let him follow his nose. Sometime that can mean cutting across a field instead of following a path or following a different route along the walk than normal. Sometimes it means going in circles and sniffing something for a good 3-4 minutes. All of these things are good! Just be respectful of peoples yards, space, and help your dog choose not to walk into a potentially dangerous situation.

Never use corrective collars on a dog for a sniff walk—A corrective collar only creates negative associations with this natural dog behavior and can cause the dog to become aggressive over time. If you cannot walk your dog without using a prong collar, shock collar, choke collar, or a slip lead (anything that causes the dogs throat to constrict), you will need to contact a fear-free, force-free, positive reinforcement trainer to help teach you how to loose leash walk with your dog on a harness. Click here— for my loose leash tutorial.

#walk #enrichment