20/10/2026
Lately I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to walk puppies and young dogs. The answer often surprises people: my puppy is five months old today, and we haven’t really been walking together much.
Of course we’ve done walks. That’s something we have to do. But most of the time we don’t just walk. We go out with a purpose, together. We go out to watch things and have snacks. We go out to play together and train together in different environments.
I do everything I can to make my puppy like being with me. I’m not hammering him into a heel command or drilling obedience that takes away his chances to explore. I want him to be confident and understand the world before I expect him to behave like a well-trained dog.
He’s about 18 kilos now, and only very recently have we started doing actual obedience training.
I wish everyone with a puppy would focus more on building engagement and having a good time together, and less on stopping the pulling. Pulling is often just a byproduct of wanting to explore, or of feeling like their owner is boring and never does anything fun with them.
When our puppies and young dogs love hanging out with us, training gets so much easier. With easy-to-follow structure and a basic understanding of what is and isn’t allowed, they learn when to explore and when not to. They’re happy to be with us and confident in the world, and they know a walk usually means we’re going to do something fun together.
That beats a constant battle between us and the world as competing reinforcers.
Engagement first. Obedience follows. 🐾
