Most of us who have dogs enjoy taking walks or hikes with them. That's one of the reasons we have a dog. Someone who enjoys getting out as much as we do. Well, probably enjoys it even more than we do.

Our dog is tuned in. We are tuned in. We are enjoying a walk or hike with our buddy and life is good.

In some cases, the pleasant walk you envisioned is not yet a reality. Your dog is pulling on leash or highly distracted by other dogs, people, cars, bunnies, or whatever the distraction for your dog happens to be.

I talk to clients often about a walk that has both of you tuned in with each other and enjoying the walk TOGETHER. Your dog is tuned in and checks in with you. Your dog prefers to walk WITH you rather than without you. Your dog sees you as an enjoyable companion not the anchor weighing them down.

What does that look like exactly? Well, this video shows you one example of what that looks like.

This is a typical walk with Zooka. We do this every morning. At 14 months old, Zooka has some off leash privileges. We do some walking off leash and some on. He has not yet earned his off leash privileges entirely yet.

In the video, you will see at first what it looks like getting out the door. He waits for permission to GO through the door. Even with the door wide open, he is looking at ME for permission. He is a few feet back from the door and waiting. At this point (and for a long time) he has not needed to be told to Wait. He knows the drill, he just does it.

Early on, he had to Sit and Wait. Now, he can Sit if he wants but he only needs to Wait.

Once I say GO, notice how he goes through the door and then stops right on the other side and waits for me again. I do not say anything. This is our routine, and he knows it.

Notice that I give him permission to go through the door first. Sometimes I check outside first to make sure there are no deer nearby. But I do not NEED to go through the door first. As long as he waits for permission. Once I close the door behind us, I reward him for waiting and then we head off on our walk together.

And yes, he is off leash on this part of our walk. Notice we walk together. I do reward him for tuning in with me for this first part.

For about the first three and a half minutes of the video, he is tuned in. He does some sniffing but sticks close and checks in with me.

At about the three-and-a-half minute mark or so, he then goes ahead to do some exploring on his own. But he keeps track of where I am and if I am slowed down, he will come back to check in with me. From about the three-and-a-half to the six-and-a-half minute mark, he is exploring and sniffing and not checking in. But he stays close. For the sake of brevity, and since it's rather boring, we have removed this portion of the video.

At around the six-and-a-half minute mark of our walk, you will see him stop and go into his pointer stance/stalking mode. This is where the video resumes. At this point in the walk, we have reached the area where we often see bunnies. Zooka, being a pointer, goes into pointer mode and stalks very slowly and quietly to see if he can sneak up on some bunnies.

You will then see him run off ahead. He is chasing bunnies. He is allowed to do so when he is off leash. We are still working in learning that we do NOT chase bunnies when we are on leash. We still have some work to do there!

Toward the end of the video, you see me leashing him up. At this point, we are heading up our hill where there is barbed wire fencing but not the more secure four foot fencing we have below where we started our walk.

For now, he is on leash going up the hill to ensure he does not chase deer if we see them. I do not yet know how far he would chase, so we do not take that chance.

Plus, he still needs practice on his line. In this case, we use a long line of around 20 feet. He has the same expectations as off leash but he has less freedom and he cannot pull on the line.

He has his moments when he forgets his expectations or his desires just get the better of him. But for the most part, he is doing very well for his age.

The video gives a good example of what is expected of him and how he handles it at this stage. His walking is pretty good. How does your dog's walk look?