Behaviour Differs When Walking With One of You or Both of You?

[Snowshoe]

Inspired by this thread:

Does your dog favour any one person in your house?


I wonder if, for those of you not single owners, do you notice a difference in your dog when you walk him/her alone as opposed to when both of you humans (or more) are on all on a walk?

I do. Our walks are all off leash, I guess this does necessarily apply to only off leash outings. When it's the OH and me every one of our dogs has ranged farther out. If it's just me they stay closer. I dunno, it's like, they figure we can look after each other so they don't have to?

Jet and Whisper, when they would come back to check in, would always go to the person who was first in line on a single track trail, which a lot of our walks are. The first person is 99.9% of the time me. Oban goes to the last person, the OH. I tell the OH, "It's not because he likes you better. It's because you so seldom come the dog is checking to make sure you're still with us." LOL, but really I have no idea why he does. Hmmm, I'll have to get the OH to go first next time and see what happens.

What about your walks?

[POPTOP]

Definitely! Although it's not off leash, DH lets Archie get away with much more than I do. They basically do a run, not walk. Good for both of them, LOL. Part of each walk with me, I toss in some training. No way can I have him dashing off after a squirrel.

[SunDance]

If it's just me, Sunnie takes the lead with Dan somewhere either next to me and behind me...depending on how fast Sunnie wants to go. I walk fast so she knows we can go as fast as she likes (as opposed to when my slow husband walks her and she's forced to rein it in)....but Dan prefers to walk slower.

If I have only Dan...with Bob walking Sunnie....Dan wants to be out in front and walking just as fast as Sunnie usually does. Sunnie and Bob usually lag far behind and Dan sometimes wants to stop till they catch up...but then he's out full speed ahead again. We don't usually walk with me having Sunnie and Bob having Dan, but if we do...Sunnie is full speed ahead and acts like the other two don't exist.

[LucyTudeOn4Feet]

If I walk with someone, Lucy behaves horribly. She picks up stuff to eat, she pulls and is generally obnoxious. She's like a toddler that knows when Mommy's on the phone and they can get away with more.

[barry581]

Bruce tends to walk better on leash with my wife, I think this may be because I very seldom work with him on leash. 99% of the training I do with him, I do off lead. Sophie walks much better for me on leash.

[doubledip1]

Luna's better on leash with DH, off leash with me.

[furballs]

On leash, Rocket is better with me. DW lets him get away with more. If we're together, he's perfect. Off leash, probably roams farther with me.

[KenZ71]

I usually take both Max and Scarlett with me regardless if we are on leash or off. No one else in the family will walk them.

[Snowshoe]

I have to add, I do notice differences in other folks' dogs when I meet them with one owner or the other owner or both. One was so much more calm and easy going with her man. When the woman was there, with the man or not, the dog was nervous and antsy and acted differently with Oban. The woman was really strict, yelled at her for barking, yelled at her if she told Oban or other dogs to bugger off, yelled at her if she bounced a bit near me. With the man the dog didn't even do most of those things anyway, it was a bit weird that way, that poor dog.

Another dog a bunch of us have had some trouble with. One neighbour man says this dog is worse when with the lady, but I've found he is worse when the man is there, with or without the lady. Have to wonder how the fact that I, a woman, have not had trouble when the dog is with his woman while the other person, a man, does have trouble when the dog is with his lady only.

[MightyThor]

I had never really thought about it, but I bet Thor behaves differently with us. Part of that might be the chosen leash as well. He has a long leash, which I call his "I can be a jerk leash". When on that leash, he can wander and sniff and generally be a dog. The only thing I won't tolerate is pulling. His shorter leash is his 'strict' leash - he's almost always in a heel when on that leash. I tend to use the long leash on our early morning walks since not many people are out and I'll let Thor weave and sniff. When the husband walks him he usually uses the shorter leash.