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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Ev lives the Lower Mainland of Beautiful British Columbia, Canada where she has been training dogs since 1969. She is experienced in many methods including clicker and motivational training. Ev is an original Superdog Performance Team member and her own dogs have travelled and performed with the Canadian SuperDogs since 1984. She has also served as an A.A.C. judge ans is an original Member/Trainer with the Dogwood Pacesetters Agility Club.
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[Edit]
4/19/2006
I walk our Aussie pup daily and she does VERY well except for one quirk that she has ALWAYS had and we can't seem to break her of. She watches me thru out the walk...but she also BUMPS ever so gently into my leg...sometimes almost causing me to trip! We've tried walking her on the right, she would bump that side...we tried saying "NO" everytime, nothing...she wears a backpack and we've tried a variety of weights, nothing...we tried bumping her back, nothing...we tried turning lefts constantly thru out a walk to break the constant right nudge she gives, nothing...we tried using the opposite foot to give a firm bump back, nothing...we've tried stopping the walk everytime she did it, nothing. This has gone all for the past 6 months and we still can't get it to stop...HELP!! We believe it's because she's VERY distractible and it's her way of "checking" where I'm at...but I've almost thrown out my hip trying to walk with her any distance! (Sandymento, California)
Not as unusual as you may think.
There are a couple of reasons 'why' this may be happening and you need to find the source before you can look for a cure.
1) She's an Aussie and they are very touchable when doing any type of training. It could be 'just her way' (like you said) of keeping your position in her mind.
a) You could try using a harness every once in awhile and encourage her to pull. Perhaps look into the basics of amateur Weight-Pulling to learn how you can get her 'tuned-in' to another form of walking a straight line.
b) It is possible that your 'walking speed' is too slow. Try quickening your pace to straighten her out. Aussies drive with their rear and if the speed is too slow then the rear will turn and move up faster than the front which in turn would have her bumping whatever is walking beside her. (If she were to walk a fence line at the same speed - you would probably find her hitting the fence every 3rd step or so, in the same manner).
2) It is possible she has a physical problem that is contributing to her walking twist. An inner ear infection or even a small cataract could throw her balance off that she 'has' to keep bumping to straighten herself out.
a) I'd suggest a thorough vet exam for those two particular things to make sure that you are NOT dealing with a health problem and it is a mental problem.
Other than that, I'm at a loss to suggest anything else unless I could see for myself the exact situation. You should really seek out a professional that could give you a 'hands-on' evaluation as the written word sometimes leaves a lot of hidden factors, out in the translation.
Canine Caretaker Training/Consulting
http://www.k9care.ca
"United We Stand."
http://www.standunited.ca
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