This exercise is great for dogs who are constantly crossing in front of their owners on walks to try to reach something to sniff.
This video is also good for owners who have dogs who blow them off when they leave the house. By controlling access to real life rewards you can build your importance to your dog when outside of the house.
Walks should not only be about exercise for dogs but about mental stimulation. During a walk you can give your dog permission to go sniff so that they can explore an area while you follow behind keeping the leash loose. When you are ready to move on, simply say Lets go and move on.
For dogs that are markers you can teach them to walk by your side and then give them breaks to mark in appropriate areas. When the dog is walking on a loose leash at your side if they try to mark on something quickly move on while saying lets go before they get a chance. Then when you are at an appropriate area give your cue go sniff so they can sniff around and mark. Or if you prefer you can teach your dog to pee on cue.
By teaching your dog that you can reinforce them with access to the environment, you can get your dog to listen to you out of the house even when you have no toy or treats.
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hey kikopup! great video as usual!
I have a question,your dogs only get to sniff around if you say “go to sniff” ?
Well for my dogs, they can sniff as much as they like as long as the leash is loose, but the times that we reach a field I will follow them around for a couple of minutes so they can get mentally tired out by checking out the whole area.
Is there way to make “go sniff”= sniff within the length of the leash snd NO pulling?? My dog pulls to follow scents if given the sniff cue.. I do have a different cue “break” that I use when I want to allow more freedom.
great information as always. I have used this kind of idea with Holly a lot because she just wants to sniff at everything when she is out. your videos are such a huge help 🙂
Awesome. I need this for Kai, because she crosses over me to go sniff people and dogs that we pass on our walks. It’s an issue, and she’s ALOT stronger now, so it’s harder to keep her in a heel(normally I don’t have to restrain her and she heels, but when someone comes by, she pulls and I have to hold her back).
Amazing video!!
Great video! I will try this out with my dog.
As always a great help. Thank you.
Good stuff! I was going to touch on this in my next video 🙂
you still should! 🙂 The more tutorials on humane dog training out there the BETTER! 🙂
You had mentioned this to me a while ago, so I’ve been using the method for more than a year now, and it works splendidly. I even use it on my friends dog, since he’s used to her letting him mark anytime he likes, and he’s totally cool with the tug and a ‘let’s go!’. I don’t think it’s polite to let a dog relieve themselves on peoples plants, lawns, or on public sidewalks. Mi is completely cool with waiting until we get to the park. thanks Em.
lirl, my dog knows “let’s go” very well, so when you said it in the video she looked at me with her ears perked like, “we’re goin’ somewhere? where we goin’? you gettin’ up? hello-oo?”
another great thing about the “go sniff” reward is that they eventually get bored of sniffing, and would rather walk instead.
thanks for sharing great tip. I will try this with my puppy
My puppy hates her leash! I am going to PetsMart tomorrow to buy her a harness.
Also, she wouldn’t potty. When she wasn’t fighting she was just sitting. I had to pick her up and bring her back into the house. When I did that she ran to my bedroom and peed! How do I train her to potty outside or to at least try?
Do you have a video that teaches how to train a dog to pee only when cued?
Thank you very very much!!!
I really appreciate your videos on dog training and they help me in training my dogs, I like that you use only positive reinforcement.
I have a 1 year old shiba, and she sniffs and pulls on the leash whenever we go out for walks. When i stop walking so that she doesn’t continue pulling on the leash, she will just continue sniffing and ignore me. She also has this annoying habit of lunging forwards when she needs to poo. We have a problem with identifying who’s alpha.. any tips on how to stop this? Does my dog need more exercise?
Thanks-! forward to try this with my 6 month old rottie pup
I have a question- another trainer said, ‘don’t stop a puppy when they sniff. this is the best way to socialize’. so combine these two advises, shall I let him free when he’s little, and train ‘go sniff’ when he’s grown up?
I taught my dog to go per and poops on cue while I was on a road trip. Every morning just after packing the car, I’d walk the dog and tell her, “Go potty!” Because she couldn’t tell me in the car while traveling. She had her breakfast so, she had to relieve herself, when she did I told her she was a Good Girl, treated her. When we stopped for rests and drank water, I again told her Time to potty and we carried on. By that night in the hotel she learned, Lets go potty meant this was the time to go. If I’m late for work, I order her, Hurry go potty! Because I can’t wait for her to sniff the yard and take her time. It’s very useful.
I love all of your videos! Do you have any specific game/training exercise for getting “go sniff” on cue? Do you prefer to capture it or create the scenario in a more controlled way?