Dog Walker Booked

As my son has been off work forever following his op (he went back to work on limited duties yesterday) Marco hasn't been left at home all day while we are all at work since we got him.

He'll only be alone for two days in every eight due to the way hubby's shifts work and even less than that really as I'll be here when his workdays fall on the weekend.

My son will leave for work at 8, I've booked a dog walker (the lady who runs Marco's puppy training class) for 10:00-10:30, my son will then be home from 12:40 - 1:20 then I should be at home for about 3:30. I'm hoping that with having a long walk with me at 6am then the walker and then another good long walk in the evening that that should be enough to keep him happy during the two days.

I'm also hoping that with walking with the trainer he may learn to walk on lead properly and stop pulling, that will def be an added bonus and save my arms a bit.

I'll let you know how we get on

Great to hear your son is doing well Cacoll
Marco will soon get used to the new routine,you'll be worried I know Hope it goes well

Good news about your son - hope his Operation went well.
And sure Marco will adapt perfectly bet he will enjoy his walk and sleep while you are out.

Well done. You've done the very best you can to deal with the circumstances. But I wouldn't be relying on anyone else to 'train a certain behaviour'! Dogs are smart and will often do what is required at training class or with one person and 'revert to type' the rest of the time!

You have reminded me though of some mums who used to hope a 'childminder' would potty train their kiddies because they had no luck doing it! Never worked out!

Thanks my son does seem okay at the moment, still going to the walk in centre every day for a dressing change.

I know what you mean Pat, though on this mornings walk the problem wasn't pulling but he was jumping up and putting the lead in his mouth - every day something different

Oh that's exactly what Bella used to do when she was young! Looked as if she was trying to 'climb up it' lol! Or just keep bumping or jumping at my leg as we walked. Usually on the way back - perhaps she'd had enough! People round here would laugh at her and be saying to me 'aw pick her up mummy'

She very occasionally does it now but you can see by the gleam in her eye that she just wants to play and has 'the devil in her'.

Bandit used to do that........... I found and this is not a criticism of you, but they do that when the walk is boring, they are not being stimulated enough on the walk, so they resort to making it fun (I am sure I have this to come) my way of dealing with this is road walking was not simply a means to exercise from A to B... I used it to train .....I.E... walk a bit , get dog to sit wait walk on, stop sit wait, lay down, not always in that order jumble it up so the dog does not start to anticipate , by doing these exercises you are working his brain and this stops his brain making his own game up.

Plus you wont need to do such a long walk in the morning as working his brain is as tiring as working his legs...