If you could choose only one activity to enjoy with your dog for the rest of your life, what would it be?
My answer - I wouldn't think twice before choosing hiking with my dogs off-leash! And had someone asked me this question 20 years ago when I got my first dog as an adult, I would have answered the exact same way.
Over any dog sport, competition, or activity, there's nothing I'd rather do with my dogs than to go for a long, off-leash walk.
So for that reason, I put more work into raising my dogs to be wonderful hiking partners than absolutely anything else. I want our lifetime of off-leash walks to be fulfilling, meet their needs, and on top of everything else, safe!
It wasn't until I began teaching my dogs Control Unleashed skills (for entirely different reasons) when I began to notice the significant improvement in my dog's recall skills, as well as their general hiking etiquette.
So how does a program that focuses on helping dogs with arousal challenges work so well for our off-leash endeavors?
