{"id":2854,"date":"2013-06-02T04:07:28","date_gmt":"2013-06-02T04:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/?p=2854"},"modified":"2014-06-17T03:24:11","modified_gmt":"2014-06-17T03:24:11","slug":"a-guide-to-safely-walking-your-dog-in-the-hood-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/?p=2854","title":{"rendered":"A guide to safely walking your dog in the hood – part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chiuh_2\"<\/a>

White Pit Bull about to attack two Chihuahuas over the dog pack Husky<\/p><\/div>\n

I walk my dogs in a very diverse urban neighborhood.That has its pros and cons. On a daily basis we are accosted by loose unaltered dogs, packs of Chihuahuas and or Pit Bulls, dogs whose owners sit on the porch and yell at their dogs to no avail as the dogs charge off the porch out in to the street to bark and fuss at us, people who purposely own aggressive dogs that they can\u2019t control, people who don\u2019t bother to keep their dogs confined at all, people who let their dogs get out of their control on retractable leashes, and people that don\u2019t feel the need to walk their dogs on leashes at all. It is a gauntlet of bad dog behaviors caused by bad human decisions.<\/p>\n

All of these issues have caused one of my dogs to become very reactive as we walk around the neighborhood. It is not easy to teach a dog to be cool and not to worry about other dogs when she has been charged and bitten twice on walks.<\/p>\n

If the thought of all that confrontation stresses you out, there are some great links that show you how to exercise your dogs in your house<\/a>, but not walking the dogs is not an option for me. This is our neighborhood and walking the dogs and visiting with the neighbors is part of the charm of the neighborhood.\u00a0 Also in the pro column, there are a lots and LOTS of wonderful engaged and informed dog owners who live in the neighborhood and we look forward to seeing them on our walks. Plus, Chankla has a doggie boyfriend and she really likes to see him on our walks.<\/p>\n

I know I am not the only neighbor who has experienced challenges with other dogs on walks in the neighborhood. When I talk to my friends who walk their dogs, we share similar stories, \u201coh yeah, we don\u2019t go down that street because of that brown dog\u201d or \u201cwe totally avoid that guy\u201d.<\/p>\n

In an effort to help address some of the challenges we all face on our daily walks, we have collated some advice for people who walk their dogs in urban neighborhoods. This is the first post of a 4 part series.<\/p>\n

Prepare for your walk<\/strong><\/p>\n

It seems outrageous to have to prepare to go on a dog walk, but as a responsible urban dog owner, you need a few things to walk in an urban neighborhood.\u00a0 Poop bags, your cell phone, dog treats, mace, or \u201cdirect stop\u201d citronella spray<\/a>. Don\u2019t be lazy, bring everything EVERY time. The best way to ensure you always have everything you need is to pack little dog bag that you take with you on every walk. Grab the bag when it\u2019s time to go and you will always be prepared,<\/p>\n

At one point, I became complacent and stopped carrying my mace. A block away from the house, the neighbor\u2019s reactive bull terrier slipped its harness, charged across the street and attacked my dog. One person can not pull off a bull terrier. By the time my neighbor caught up to his dog, my dog needed 5 staples and she had her behavior permanently affected.\u00a0 If I had my mace, I could have stopped the terrier (who had clamped onto her leg and could not be pulled off without damaging her leg) by spraying him. Disaster potentially averted.\u00a0 But I did not have my mace, and we had an emergency room visit instead.<\/p>\n

Although it didn’t sav\"DCIM100GOPRO\"<\/a>e us that time, mace has saved my bacon more than once. The mailman, gas man, cable, guy, police, trash man all carry it and because of that many urban dogs already know what it is. Endorsement enough.<\/p>\n

In the rest of the kit: Poop bags – because it’s the law and you are a good citizen; Cell phone – to call for help in an emergency or to take picture of loose dogs<\/a>; Dog treats – to distract your own dog or to throw at loose dogs while you make your get away;\u00a0 Margarita – wait, was that on the list?<\/p>\n

Equipment check<\/strong><\/p>\n

Please think about doing this next step. Equipment fails from both use and from human error. Clips, clasps, dogs back out of harnesses and collars. If your dog got off its leash \u2013 what would happen? How quickly would your dog recall \u2013 would it cross the street to see another dog or chase a squirrel?<\/p>\n

\"TashaWalking_3\"<\/a>If this is a concern, do this one simple step, use a carabiner. I highly recommend this small addition to your equipment. I know personally at least two neighborhood dogs that have backed out of their harnesses in aggressive situations \u2013 the carabiner would have kept them in their owner\u2019s control. Recently, my dog\u2019s expensive (not my usual dollar store collar) quick release martingale collar failed\u00a0 – a carabiner would have kept her attached to her regular collar. The carabiner is a simple, cheap precautionary step to make sure your bff stays safe.\u00a0 There is a great article by Dogs in Need of Space <\/a>that talks about 5 ways a carabiner can save your dog\u2019s <\/a>life<\/a>. There are informative pictures that show how to hook everything up. Nelson<\/a> gave us another super tip and now I hook everyone to an army belt. I never\u00a0 worry about dropping a leash. It is awesome for loose leash walking too. Ours is straight from the army navy store, but there are much more fashionable hands free leash options available through buddy systems <\/a>and\u00a0 blue dog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"TashChank

Tasha sporting a martingale, Chankla<\/span><\/span> in a gentle leader<\/p><\/div>\n

For collars, I really love a martingale collar or a gentle leader. The martingale does not allow a dog to back out of the collar in any kind of unexpected situation. They have both been great training tools for the many, many dogs that have come through my doors.<\/p>\n

\"TashaChankla_EarthDay_1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We rescue a lot of dogs, so we when we walk we generally look like a bunch of hobos with mismatched hooks and homemade custom gear.\u00a0 We make due with whatever collar or piece of gear fits the stray of the month, but think of this as your opportunity to have awesome dog accessories! There are some great quality products out there for every style and budget. Make this a fun part of your walk.<\/p>\n

So now you\u2019re geared up and looking good, there is one last prep step. Our next post will cover: What to do in an Emergency <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I walk my dogs in a very diverse urban neighborhood.That has its pros and cons. On a daily basis we are accosted by loose unaltered dogs, packs of Chihuahuas and or Pit Bulls, dogs whose owners sit on the porch and yell at their dogs to no avail as the dogs charge off the porch out in to the street to bark and fuss at us, people who purposely own aggressive dogs that they can\u2019t control, people who don\u2019t bother to keep their dogs confined at all, people who let their dogs get out of their control on retractable leashes, and people that don\u2019t feel the need to walk their dogs on leashes at all. It is a gauntlet of bad dog behaviors caused by bad human decisions. All of these issues have caused one of my dogs to become very reactive as we walk around the neighborhood. It is not easy to teach a dog to be cool and not to worry about other dogs when she has been charged and bitten twice on walks. If the thought of all that confrontation stresses you out, there are some great links that show you how to exercise your dogs in your house, but not walking the dogs is not an option for me. This is our neighborhood and walking the dogs and visiting with the neighbors is part of the charm of the neighborhood.\u00a0 Also in the pro column, there are a lots and LOTS of wonderful engaged and informed dog owners who live in the neighborhood and we look forward to seeing them on our walks. Plus, Chankla has a doggie boyfriend and she really likes to see him on our walks. I know I am not the only neighbor who has experienced challenges with other dogs on walks in the neighborhood. When I talk to my friends who walk their dogs, we share similar stories, \u201coh yeah, we don\u2019t go down that street because of that brown dog\u201d or \u201cwe totally avoid that guy\u201d. In an effort to help address some of the challenges we all face on our daily walks, we have collated some advice for people who walk their dogs in urban neighborhoods. This is the first post of a 4 part series. Prepare for your walk It seems outrageous to have to prepare to go on a dog walk, but as a responsible urban dog owner, you need a few things to walk in an urban neighborhood.\u00a0 Poop bags, your cell phone, dog treats, mace, or \u201cdirect stop\u201d citronella spray. Don\u2019t be lazy, bring everything EVERY time. The best way to ensure you always have everything you need is to pack little dog bag that you take with you on every walk. Grab the bag when it\u2019s time to go and you will always be prepared, At one point, I became complacent and stopped carrying my mace. A block away from the house, the neighbor\u2019s reactive bull terrier slipped its harness, charged across the street and attacked my dog. One person can not pull off a bull terrier. By the time my neighbor caught up to his dog, my dog needed 5 staples and she had her behavior permanently affected.\u00a0 If I had my mace, I could have stopped the terrier (who had clamped onto her leg and could not be pulled off without damaging her leg) by spraying him. Disaster potentially averted.\u00a0 But I did not have my mace, and we had an emergency room visit instead. Although it didn’t save us that time, mace has saved my bacon more than once. The mailman, gas man, cable, guy, police, trash man all carry it and because of that many urban dogs already know what it is. Endorsement enough. In the rest of the kit: Poop bags – because it’s the law and you are a good citizen; Cell phone – to call for help in an emergency or to take picture of loose dogs; Dog treats – to distract your own dog or to throw at loose dogs while you make your get away;\u00a0 Margarita – wait, was that on the list? Equipment check Please think about doing this next step. Equipment fails from both use and from human error. Clips, clasps, dogs back out of harnesses and collars. If your dog got off its leash \u2013 what would happen? How quickly would your dog recall \u2013 would it cross the street to see another dog or chase a squirrel? If this is a concern, do this one simple step, use a carabiner. I highly recommend this small addition to your equipment. I know personally at least two neighborhood dogs that have backed out of their harnesses in aggressive situations \u2013 the carabiner would have kept them in their owner\u2019s control. Recently, my dog\u2019s expensive (not my usual dollar store collar) quick release martingale collar failed\u00a0 – a carabiner would have kept her attached to her regular collar. The carabiner is a simple, cheap precautionary step to make sure your bff stays safe.\u00a0 There is a great article by Dogs in Need of Space that talks about 5 ways a carabiner can save your dog\u2019s life. There are informative pictures that show how to hook everything up. Nelson gave us another super tip and now I hook everyone to an army belt. I never\u00a0 worry about dropping a leash. It is awesome for loose leash walking too. Ours is straight from the army navy store, but there are much more fashionable hands free leash options available through buddy systems and\u00a0 blue dog. For collars, I really love a martingale collar or a gentle leader. The martingale does not allow a dog to back out of the collar in any kind of unexpected situation. They have both been great training tools for the many, many dogs that have come through my doors.       We rescue a lot of dogs, so we when we walk we generally look like a bunch of hobos with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-loose-stray-and-aggressive-dogs","category-this-that","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/TashaKiddSpringsPark_1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2854"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5285,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854\/revisions\/5285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}