Freckles took a walk for the first time. We've walked on our property plenty, usually without a leash, but this was his first down-a-busy-street-on-a-leash type walk. This is a very busy road, with lots of traffic, plenty of construction. Its a two-lane road that is being widened to a five-lane highway. They put in sidewalks, and I decided to walk to my mother's house, get some exercise, and start training Freckles to the leash.
I am proud to say he did beautifully! He's a skittish dog, but he got used to the noise and the motion pretty quickly. Our only problem spot was when we walked by a house with three dogs barking and running up to the fence. I had to pick him up and carry him past.
The only real problems we had were he'd get interested in something, and start thrashing on the leash to get loose, but a sharp tug and a "No!" solved that after a few attempts. He'd also try and go towards the cars when they went by, but the same solution solved that problem pretty quickly.
He behaved wonderfully, didn't try to pee on everything. He walked nicely on his leash, and when you take into consideration how excited and curious he was, he was twice as good as he appeared to be.I'm thrilled to death, and glad that this went so well. Hopefully next time will go just as well!
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