Professional Dog Walking and Pet Sitting Services

As you can imagine we as pet care professionals enjoy the delight of visiting hundreds of dogs each year for pet sitting and dog walking services and with this delightful job we encounter a large variety issues that pertain to dog walking such as new puppies learning to walk with a leash and everything in between through to the 140lb dog who just about pulls your arm out of its socket with the simple act of walking forward!

Why Do Dogs Pull In The First Place?

What a complex question with many answers.  A certified and experienced dog trainer may be able to help dog owners with their specific challenges with their dogs if they find typical training and consistency is not helping to improve the situation.  At Parrot ‘n’ Pet Sitting Services, we work with our clients on these issues and pay attention to each individual dog’s own challenges.  We provide helpful tips and solutions for our clients and use “consistency” with basic manners and training when it comes to walking our clients dogs. Some of the reasons dogs do pull are:

• They simply have no idea they are supposed to walk beside you.
• They are being reinforced to pull through rewarding the behavior without the owner realizing it.
• Natural instinct through being “pulled” into position.
• Instinctive behavior in reaction to a variety of factors.

How Do We Help With Dog Pulling Challenges?

During our FREE Meet and Greet Consultation with clients we often establish if our new client is currently experiencing any challenges with their dog with regards to pulling during dog walking adventures.  It’s a great time of discovery for us because it’s during this time we can start to help by establishing a bit of a profile for your 4 legged friend.   We establish the frequency of current walks, how you currently are walking your dog and even what type of leash you currently are using with you dog.   Together we can help clients narrow down some possible indicators of the challenge being experienced and during our time with your dog, we can work with him or her on this particular challenge during our walking sessions.

Normally, helping to solve and eliminate dog pulling isn’t the goal of the dog walker, and while we always tell our clients we are not a professional dog training company and must leave certain behavior issues to the professionals in this area, we are certainly very knowledgeable in our dog care and practice – without fail – all basic good manner behavior with our clients dogs in order to help with our clients efforts in creating a well-mannered family member and this also gives our 4 legged friends responsibility and they feel good having a job to do – which is “learn to be good citizens” in our world.  ( or is it us learning to be good in their world? )

Let’s Help Them Along! What Is The Best Leash For Dogs That Pull?

First, its important to mention that there are so many views and opinions about what leash is best for dogs and what leash helps with a large variety of dog related challenges and problems.   The opinions expressed in this article are my personal opinions and what works best for me and most of our staff through our own personal experiences.

For dogs that are having a challenge learning manners of not pulling and or bigger dogs that risk injury to either their dog walking buddy or themselves, both myself and my staff all agree that the “halti” or “gentle leader” type leashes ( as shown in the picture on the golden retriever in this article ) tend to be the best buddy for your dog. This type of leash when used correctly, puts gentle pressure on the snout of the dog when he starts to pull.  As we know, a dogs nose is very sensitive, so this feeling on the dogs nose is not comfortable for him/her.  We find that this type of leash offers us the ability to help your dog faster and helps to provide a much more enjoyable experience for the dogs that pull very hard.

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to comment below, email us or give us a call!