How to deal with some bad doggy behavior: playing tug with the leash while on a walk!

Leopold has always been a sweet guy, but when he was younger he would occasionally have outbursts of energy during a walk—he would go bananas. As part of his outburst, he would often grab his leash and start to play tug with it. These instances were incredibly frustrating. And embarrassing. I tried lots of ways to get Leopold to stop playing tug with the leash, but nothing I did worked. The behavior was always rewarded with what Leopold considered play because I couldn’t just let the leash go.

I looked for solutions online and came across a suggestion that worked wonders. The suggestion was to walk your dog with multiple leashes. Brilliant! I started walking Leopold with two, sometimes three, leashes. This way when he started to play tug with one of the leashes, I could drop the one he was tugging, thereby not taking part in the game and not encouraging the behavior. Leo would become bored as soon as he realized I wasn’t playing tug with him and he would drop the leash that was in his mouth and go for another leash that I was holding. I would then pick up the one he dropped and drop the one he just grabbed. It was a bit of a juggle at times, but it worked. Over then next month or so of walks, Leopold would give up trying to play tug with me faster and faster until he didn’t even initiate tug anymore. Woo-hoo!

We still play tug in the house sometimes and he loves to play tug with other dogs, but I’m very happy to say that it’s been a very long time since Leopold has tried to play tug with his leash while on a walk!

Cleaning Halo's ears for the first time.

Halo had her first ear cleaning not long ago. I was petting her when I got a whiff of a funky, yeasty smell. I’ve smelled such a scent before… on dogs with ear infections. Upon a closer sniff, I learned the smell was, indeed, coming from her ears. At that point the smell wasn't too bad, barely noticeable really, so I just kept an eye on it for the time being. If the smell got worse, it would have been time for Halo to go see a vet. The funky smell went away but reminded me of the importance of checking a dog’s ears every now and then, and the importance of cleaning them if they look (or smell) dirty!

I know that there are all sort of ear cleaning products out there and sometimes they’re necessary (especially for dogs that are prone to ear infections like cocker spaniels and golden retrievers), but I’ve found that just cleaning out the gunk and debris every now and then with dry cotton balls seems to work. I use cotton balls for two reasons: they’re large enough that there’s no way they’re going to go down the ear canal (never insert anything into the ear canal!), and they can be squished easily and gently into all the grooves of a dog’s ear without my finger being squished into the groove also (which I imagine might hurt or at least be uncomfortable for the dog).

I’ve been handling Leopold’s ears since he was a pup; he’s very used to an occasional ear cleaning (and frequent ear checks!), so he’s very good about sitting still while I clean out all the gunk and dirt. But dogs don’t start out feeling comfortable with you squishing cotton balls into their ears. So how do you clean a dog’s ears for the first time? I’ve found that it’s important to always keep these types of things positive for the dog. To keep the experience fun and interesting, I let Halo sniff the cotton balls periodically throughout the process (for some reason dogs seem to really like to sniff the gunk that comes out of their ears!). I also gave her lots of praise and reassurance and used as little restraint as possible—it was more like holding her hear steady than restraint. I also kept the session short and gave her a small treat afterwards!

Halo sniffs at a cotton ball.