#2 Most common question:
- How do you get them all to pose like that for a picture?
Short Answer: Magic LOL JK… Training, Trust, Consistency, and patience
Not every day is perfect, not every day the dogs look directly at us but every day we do strive for progress because we practice basic obedience and training while out on pack walks. That’s why we call them walk & train pack walks. We implement training into our daily routine. If we didn’t it would be chaos dogs would be all over the place, leashes would get in knots, dogs would probably be fighting, and we would be getting dragged around constantly and in the end, it would not be any fun for anybody.
Dogs thrive off routine. I am sure you notice that right around breakfast/dinner time your dog starts to look at you, or they constantly go back and forth to their bowl because they know every day at or around the same time they get fed. It because you have made it a routine for them to be fed at that same time every day.
The same goes for pack walk pictures. The dogs know when it’s time to set up and they know the routine. Also, we practice our sit stay long before we even set up for the picture, we implement it into our walks by having the dogs sit/stay while we pick up dog poop, sit/stay before we cross the street, sit/stay when we load in and out of the van, the dogs even do an automatic sit when we stop. Why? Because it keeps their mind working and keeps them focused on the handler as to what we expect of them next. It keeps the dogs from pulling us in 10 different directions or stepping in their pack mates poop. Now when we have a new dog who enters the pack of course we’re more focused on them during these times because they don’t know the routine yet. They don’t fully understand what we expect of them so they often need a little more help. But usually by the second or third pack walk they have it nailed down pat because we practice so much and it becomes natural for them.
We usually set up for photos about half way through our walk or even toward the end depending on the dog’s mind set and energy that day. We do this because we want the dogs to be tired when we ask them to hold a longer sit stay. Dogs work best after they have had a chance to get their mind and body working. They are more focused and more aware of what we are asking of them. If we unloaded the dogs and then immediately asked them to hold a sit/stay for 3 min or longer, yes some of them could do it but it would be setting them up for failure. Their minds are not in the right place, they’re excited to go for a walk, and they have energy they need to release. It’s almost like when you wake up in the morning jump out of bed and then immediately jump on your computer to start doing long division problems. It would be hard…for most mainly because your mind is not warmed up yet. Same goes for dogs, they need a good warm up before they can really start to focus. Now that doesn’t mean they get to be completely out of control prior to the picture they of course follow the same routine from the start of the walk till the very end. And because of that routine is what helps us maintain control of all the dogs.
Our overall goal is to have the dogs make progress each day, even if its just something small. After pack picks we always give the dogs praise and attention because they did an amazing job. Even if they don’t do it perfect and we must correct them a few times they still get praise, even if they only held a sit/stay for 10 seconds or less. Why? Because that 5/10 seconds will soon turn into 5 min or longer with a little bit of training and consistency. Even little goals are worth praising them for because all this is new to them. Luckily our veteran dogs who have been with us for 4 plus years or longer have the routine down pat so really, we just focus on the new guys when it comes to photos.
And that is how we get our amazing pack pics!
~D