Meeting my friend for a coffee, I was horrified to see her black eye and scraped nose.
“What happened?”, I asked tentatively. “Oh, it’s nothing,” she said, “I feel stupid really. Lexi ran across in front of me and I tripped over her. Stupid.”
I sympathised, and after a coffee and a muffin we both felt better.
Does your dog weave from side to side as you walk?
It seems to be most common with smaller dogs like Lexi – I suppose because if your large Labrador shot across in front of you you’d soon do something about it or they’d be a nasty accident.
But as my friend found out, even small dogs can cause injury if they weave across in front of you. Why do they do it? There could be several reasons:
– your dog may have caught an interesting scent on the other side of you and want to go and investigate
– your dog might have seen something fun and moved across to get nearer, whether a person, dog, or discarded matter
– your dog might be avoiding a muddy or wet stretch of path
– your dog might be trying to move away from something scary, such as a person, another dog, an animal leaning over a gate, noisy traffic, a dog behind a fence – there could be lots of things that cause this reaction
But the most common reason is that your dog normally walks in front of you, so to her little mind she can wander where she wants anywhere on the path.
Even if it trips you up.
Using an extending lead (or even just a long normal lead) can often create this problem as it gives your dog too much freedom to choose where they want to walk. (Extending leads are dangerous – please don’t use them to walk your dog.)
The solution? Teach your dog to walk nicely by your side by showing her that by your trouser seam is where all the good stuff happens.
I’d hate to meet you and find you’ve a scraped nose and black eye. One friend injured is too many.
Keep training,
Carol