I think I’ve come to the conclusion that she might just want sniff walks and that’s ok. I have to be more understanding when she wants to stop more often than we have been.

How long should each sniff walk be to meet her enrichment needs? How many of these a day? Right now she gets one or two short sniff walks, like 5-10min each, and then one longer walk.

Treats are super hard with her because half the time she has no interest. She’s very easily distracted and prefers ignoring us to treats. Even if it’s a high reward treat, like freeze dried meat, she still can only focus half the time. It’s very hard to get her attention and keep it on us.

Thank you for the advice. I’m stressed about reintroducing heel training because it’s so hard to get her attention in the first place. She’s just always looking around and smelling. Even when we use treats to try to get her attention she just looks around and seems like she doesn’t care about food. How do you get your dogs’ attention?

She’s seen the vet many times and she’s got a clean bill of health. The vet did note that she’s a very chill, sluggish dog compared to the others that they see. However, she’s active at the dog park and loves to play and walk around when we’re at home. I’d classify her as medium energy. I’m thinking we just need to do more sniff walks with her instead of structured walks because maybe she just doesn’t like it.

That’s what my parents always used and we used at the shelter I used to volunteer at, but I’m not sure I want to use that on her. She came from an abuse situation and I don’t want the metal to freak her out. We have a martingale which uses the same mechanism.

I haven’t used my new bag yet. Maybe I’ll try to use it on a short trip this summer to see how it feels. I usually run cold at night but sweat a lot during the day so I don’t know what the perfect balance is yet.

We have a long leash for when we are at the lake or just hanging out somewhere. Maybe she would like to be on a long leash more often at the park.

Thank you for this. I think you’re right that she needs more chances to sniff and enjoy her walk. She came from a really sad situation so she probably didn’t have many opportunities to be a dog before she came to us. I need to be more patient and understanding with her.

Thank you all for the advice! I’m going to step back and restructure my expectations and training with my dog. I will work on making sure that our walks are benefiting her and enriching her because she is part hound, after all.

Yah she’s pretty stubborn so that might be part of the issue

That’s a great point, thank you. Is there any hope for walking on trails with her? Or should we try to stick with more paved areas? I’m feeling really ignorant about training her now. I feel like we’ve been doing this all wrong and were trying to mold her into a different dog. I keep her on a short leash but she’s still dragging behind me and it’s like pulling her along. Maybe she just doesn’t even like walks in the first place

No I don’t, not sure how to upload either

This is a really great comment. Thank you, I think this is what I needed to hear. I do think I need to get used to the fact that she’s part hound. I guess it’s really hard for me to understand because I grew up with energetic shepherds that my mom used to run with so I just thought that all dogs liked that. As for working on more structured walks when we are out and about in town, what would you do? Have we already created too many bad habits with her by not using heel as a command? We’ve been saying “with me” and she, for the most part, will listen and walk with us.

We say “with me” and she knows to walk with us, so it’s kinda like our “heel.” Maybe we messed up by not using heel as a command when we just got her. She’s also pretty stubborn so she’ll listen to “with me” about 80% of the time and ignore us the other 20%

I feel guilty leaving her behind for the other walks I guess. I know I shouldn’t have any expectations for her likes and dislikes because she’s her own person and wants to do different things than me, but I was hoping she would be a good walking buddy, even for a mile or two walk. My boyfriend and I hike a lot during the summer, and i feel bad if she can’t join us. We’re really active and got an active-ish dog to do active things with. Is it like torturing her if I force her to walk with us? Im new at this and really worried she isn’t happy. All I want is her to stay healthy and happy.

I guess to clarify what I’m asking, I’m not talking about scent walks around our house/yard/neighborhood. I’m talking about going to a trail to walk a couple miles for exercise and to get rid of her energy. My boyfriend and I are very active and love to walk and hike and we are trying to figure out how to get her to stick with us instead of stopping or dragging behind to sniff the whole walk. Is there a technique to get her to keep up with us?

So we do a bunch of sniffing walks around our house area a couple times a day. The walks I’m talking about are when we go to a trail for exercise. It’s just sniffing and dragging behind the whole time. I thought she was pretty good on a leash when we were first training her with a harness, but she’s regressing with all of the new smells coming out. Now we can’t go on walks more than like half a mile.

I don’t really know what that means. These aren’t walks where I take her out around the house and let her sniff. This is happening on walks when I’m trying to get her to exercise and get some of her energy out. My boyfriend and I are very active and are trying to get her to walk with us.

Idk, she’s very active at the dog park, is a perfect weight, and she’s walked 4 miles before. She’s starting to do this even .2mi into our walk now. She has her nose on the ground sniffing and is kinda crouched down like she wants to hunt. It seems like with the better weather it’s getting worse.

$1000-$1500ish into HYSA, $1000ish into 401K, $100-200 misc. investing for a good month.

Living in Maine with my partner and dog, no major expenses besides rent and other living expenses

I love 5 omg

Obviously Cabin in the Woods, but also found footage movies are my comfort films: As Above So Below Cloverfield Chronicle Creep Paranormal Activity Movies

I feel like when Late Night with the Devil starts streaming it will be on my list, too. Can’t wait to rewatch it!