What is everyone's opinion on walking their dog? By this I mean, when you walk do you always have to keep the dog in a heel or can he, on occasion, walk at leisure? Sometimes I allow Levi to walk at his leisure even if it means walking ahead, next to or around me. This gives him the opportunity to sniff around etc. The reason I ask this question is because of the whole Alpha thing. I try, for the most part to always do stuff first, i.e., go through doors, downstairs, never let him on my bed, (except when camping :blush etc. Should I not allow him to walk this way? Will it cause issues in the grand placement in the pack?

Robbin,
When I walk my dog every morning, he is on a prong collar and dominant dog collar (clipped together like Ed suggests in his video). I always him at my left side and only allow him to stop and do his own thing once or twice on our mile walk. By that I mean that I will allow him to stop and sniff at a light post or stop to investigate something on the sidewalk.

Because he is so strong and wants to pull, etc. even with the prong collar on, I cannot let him think that it is "his walk". Before we start down our driveway, I make him sit and wait a few seconds until he is totally focused on me. Then we start the walk. Ideally, his right shoulder is even with my left knee. I will say that he has made huge improvements in our walking these past few months.

We walk near a local high school each morning so he always has plenty of distractions of kids walking, riding bikes, on skateboards, etc. I vary the scenario - sometimes we will keep walking past the distraction, sometimes I will have him sit until the people go by, and occasionally, I will have him sit and allow one of his favorite skateboarding guys to greet him and give him a scratch behind the ears.

There are also plenty of dogs who bark at him behind gates, etc. and I have taught him to ignore them.

I feel like we are constantly working on his place in the pack so that is why I'm very strict on our walking routine. Hope this opinion is what you are looking for, Robbin.

Diane gives a great example. And for a dog who is struggling with rank issues and dominance, I agree with not allowing willy nilly sniffing. IMO, it's fine to give your dog LOTS of opportunities to sniff, the key is that he knows that YOU gave him the chance to do it, and he will interrupt his sniffing to "walk on" if you tell him to. When I walk Oscar I give him the "go sniff" release command often - but he's only allowed to stall, check out the bushes and investigate AFTER I give it. If he tries to stop and sniff while I'm walking, he gets a little tug on the prong and an "ah-ah".

~Natalya

To me it depends on what I am trying to do. There is 2 scenarios where I walk the dog.

1. The serious walk i.e. walking the kids to school or going for a walk with the family after supper. This is the walk where there really isn't much deviation from heeling. She gets brought back if she forges or lags and has to auto sit at crosswalks etc, she is not of the hook until we get back home and the prong is taken off.

2. The Exercise walk i.e. doing trails in the bush. It is a different scenario she will still have the prong on but a longish 3-4m line attached and she will have her dog saddle bag pack on. Loaded with water, food and extras like a small first aid kit and toilet paper. (she is a working dog so we put her to work)

She stays close anyways and just rips back and forth, front to back and all around our perimeter. She seems to look at it as just another task for her that she takes seriously. Say we walk 10k, she does 30k probably! The long line is only on for when we need to reel her in, if we happen to come across other people on the trail as I want to show respect to the other hikers.

To me the dog just recognizes the 2 different style walks and her attitude or drives adjust accordingly.

I'm with everyone on the no sniffing and peeing on everything in sight. I will walk my dogs out front or at my side depending on where we are or my mood, but will almost never ask for a real heel - I save that for training. No matter where my dogs are, out front or to the side, I don't allow pulling of any sort.

I had an extremely dominant aggressive dog for 15 yrs and he was very comfortable with my no pulling rule and was able to be out front, where he'd much rather be, or at my side, without a second thought.

Ditto what everyone else has said.

All I ask of my dogs on a walk is that they not put tension on the leash. There is also no stopping for sniffing and marking.
If they try to stop, I do what Natalya does (an "ah-ah" followed by a gentle tug - or a pop - depending on how stubborn the dog is ) - and I walk on.

I do give them plenty of free time to sniff and explore and mark, but I give them a release for that.

As far as the walking beside versus going out in front, I just let the leash length dictate that.

If we're walking on a large roomy sidewalk, I give my dogs a longer line and they can stay beside or go out in front as they please. The only rules are
1. no leash tension (as in no forging ahead and no stopping)
2. no crossing in front of me and getting in my way

If they try to cross in front of me I just gently tug them back to the side and puppies pick that up pretty quickly.

If we're at a busy street or I want them back at my side, I simply shorten up on the leash and they have no choice but to walk to heel.

Just make the rules perfectly clear in the dog's mind, enforce them consistently and you shouldn't have any issues with walking manners with Levi.

He's looking really nice btw, not so baby-like anymore

Robbin, you may already do this but what I do is have different commands for ob and casual behavior. Heel is a strict heel position moving or not and then I say 'with me' for a casual walk and just keep moving in the direction I'm going. Down is a quick staight down and Settle is lay down and relax. And like the other replies, he isn't alowed to pee on anything until he's released.