Neighborhood Walks

I am really happy with how Venom is doing on his loose leash walking!  I took him out yesterday and we walked to the school around the corner.  Far for a little dude but he seemed to be having fun.  I am teaching him to walk without pulling on the lead and he is really well.  He likes to hop and run across the neighbors grass as we go down the street, which is fine as long as he isn't pulling.  I frequently say "yes!" and stop and give him a treat as we are walking along.  I allow him to switch sides if he wants to.  The only criteria at this point is that he doesn't pull on the leash.  Since I reinforce that behavior often with a treat, it happens more and more often.  Sometimes he stops to lie on the grass or check something out and I allow that too and after a moment say, "Come on, Venom, are you ready to go?" and he comes along with me and then gets treated for doing so. 

When I commented to Rick last night about how great he was doing he said that it sure wasn't going too well for him.  Yikes!  He said he wants to run on all the lawns.  I asked if that was a problem and told him that I allowed him to do that since he thought it was so fun.  We don't have grass in our backyard and I think he really enjoys being on it.  I suggested we go out together and he walk him while I walk behind and coach him on what to do.  We did that today and it went great.  He is now treating him more often for the behavior he likes and allowing him to run on grass as long as he doesn't pull.

When we got back, I laid a short (2 foot or so) track of rabbit scent and we put him on it.  It took a moment but then he caught it and followed the tiny scent line.  He was then rewarded by having his rabbit pelt on a rope thrown in front of him which he can grab and tug on.  He loves that!