Should children be able to walk a dog alone?
Learning how to walk a dog early and often is part of training
My favorite comic strips as a kid were “Luann,” “Curtis,” “Peanuts,” “Archie,” “Jump Street” and “Family Circus.” But the one comic strip that I should’ve paid more attention to was “Marmaduke.” I absolutely could relate to Phil Winslow, especially when it came to walking my Labrador Retriever, Shep. I didn’t want the dog at first. And by the time I wasn’t scared of him and was open to playing with him, he’d also continued to grow — bigger and bigger.
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The very first time I tried to walk him was with my older brother, who was taller, muscular and could handle him better. While it looked easy to see him walking Shep, that crossbreed was dragging me all over the street. I was pretty much run-walking Shep, and my dog was having the time of his life thinking we were jogging “together.” Eventually I did get a better handle on walking Shep but not by much.
Recommended Read: “Prepping your child for a new dog ~ Always watch dogs and children closely, especially around each other”
One of the biggest mistakes my family made with this dog was just letting him hang out in the backyard and the basement. So by the time he did leave our home and go for a walk, he was too excited, too hyper, too wild and hard to handle. When our German Shepherd (Faith) came around, I walked her loyally. I was also in college by that point and clearly stronger and better at it. She was so easy to walk that I even did so in three-inch heels on Thanksgiving night.
I bring those two dogs up because an interesting question came up on social media regarding never allowing children to walk dogs.
Thinking of this poll, I immediately visualized those times that Shep dragged the kid version of me down the street and how I eventually had a better handle on him — sorta. I started asking parents do they allow their children to walk their dogs. For the most part, the response was “yes, but with them present.”
My issue with walking Shep had nothing to do with him running away or someone dognapping him from me. Shep was very much a “don’t poke the bear” kinda dog. He wasn’t a big barker like Faith was. He never really had a Cujo moment with me the way Faith did with one particular gentleman.
Recommended Read: “Your dog can be your wingman, watchdog or a hater ~ If my watchdog doesn’t like you, then maybe I shouldn’t either”
But I caught a couple of people slipping. He let out a low growl, and they instantly backed off. This was not a dog that was going to allow you to just dognap him. To put it bluntly, neither of my dogs would’ve let a dognapper take them alive. We didn’t train them to be guard dogs, but they both very much had the same motto as the pet owner writing this post: “If I’m not bothering you, I’d strongly suggest you leave me alone before you get your feelings hurt.” Otherwise, they were calm, cool and collected 99.9 percent of the time (minus the poor mail carriers).