Hiking with your Dog in Public Woods

Series Summary

Even if uttering the word "walk" doesn't initiate a round of barking, whining, tail wagging, and general pandemonium from our four legged friends, picking up the leash certainly will. Walking your dog in your neighborhood may be easy enough (though for some the dog walks you) but how do you hike with a dog? If you enjoy hiking but want to know how to take your dog with you, or would like tips for taking your dog hiking with you, you can learn for free, online from our expert dog trainer.

In this free online video series, learn how to take your dog for a hike, from dog training expert Elise McMahon. Elise will teach you how to find woods to take your dog hiking; how to use a leash when hiking with your dog; and how to protect your dog from skunks, porcupines, deer, and bear.

Video Transcript

"It's very important if your going to be walking in public woods that you keep your dog on a leash when your going for a walk. A lot of benefits from walking in the woods with your dog is that there's a lot of different things that your dog can interact with, different smells, as you can see Ursa's enjoying grazing here they often times like to eat the early spring grass. If your walking in public woods then you want to make sure that you clean up after your dog so if your dog defecates on a public trail you'll either want to have a baggie to pick it up in or probably best in the case in the woods is kick it into the woods off the trail (good girl) but this is a nice way to take a little walk with your dog enjoying the outside giving your dog lot's of different things to look at just remember if your going to be walking in public woods you want to make sure that you do keep your dog in a leash because you don't know who your going to run into. There could be joggers, bicycles, mountain bicyclists, people with other dogs, and even though your dog might be friendly there could be somebody else whose walking with their dog and there dog may not be so friendly to other dogs. And it would be a bad situation if your dog went running up to a not so friendly dog and cause a problem in a place that's really suppose to be open for the public to enjoy."