As a crew full of multi-dog households, we definitely get the appeal of having a big dog family. There are some additional challenges that come with living with more than one dog. One of the big challenges is how to walk multiple dogs on a leash together.
Training two dogs becomes exponentially harder, since you not only need to teach them walking skills independently of each other, but they also need skills walking together. The other dogs can be distractions for each other too, raising excitement quickly around distractions, taking out their frustrations on each other, or even just trying to play with their house-mate instead of focusing on the walk. Not to mention the possibility for a big tangled mess of leashes when there are multiple dogs zigging and zagging around you.
First things first, we have to teach the dogs to walk politely on their own. If they can’t walk nicely on a leash with one dog and one person, they have no chance of walking nicely on a leash with an additional dog in the mix. That does mean the human will have to double up on exercise and training walks while they are learning these skills. It can be tedious to do a separate walk for each dog, but it is a worthy investment.
Now that you’ve got two (or more) dogs that have solid leash walking skills, it is time to decide how you would like them to walk together. There are two options, 1) walking in “brace position” with both dogs “stacked” in heel position, and 2) the dog sandwich with a dog (or two or three) on each side of the human.
Brace position is our preferred way to walk multiple dogs for several reasons. The first being that the handler only has to learn one set of leash handling skills, and one set of rules that applies to all of their dogs. Having both dogs on one side of the handler also leaves options open for creating space from other dogs on a trail, and leaving the handler’s opposite arm open to carry bags or drinks or supplies.
The Dog Sandwich allows for both dogs to be close to the handler, but requires one dog to be trained in a mirror image to the other. That means two sets of leash handling skills for the handler to learn, and two sets of rules for the handler to manage between the dogs. Typically, we would only recommend this option if the size difference between dogs is great and the small dog risks getting stepped on/pushed out of position when in brace position with the larger dog.
The video below shows what each style looks like. We love when we are able to make life easier for dogs and their owners, and teaching dog families to walk nicely together is one great way to do that. If you need help teaching your dogs to walk with each other, we would be happy to help!