Tess is a dog that really resents being restrained for anything (less is more to get cooperation from this dog!) She views a leash as just one more way that a choice is imposed without her opinion being heard.
Since walking her regularly off leash I am struck by the difference between what she gets out the walk versus me, as the human.
I keep a constant pace. Tess runs around using her eyes and nose to explore and look. She alternates between full speed running, holding points at various interesting things off the trail and trotting ahead of me on the trail.
The eyes seem to be her most important sense --> she's constantly LOOKING and seems to use her nose only to reinforce her eyes.
It's obviously movement that attracts her --> often she seems to have trouble finding me against the background when I call her, unless I move my arm or other part of my body. When I call she freezes and looks, but doesn't move towards me until she can actually identify where I am by sight. If she's out of sight, she will bound into where she thinks I should be in "sight range", freeze and look, and if I'm still not in sight, move towards my voice, where again she will freeze and look. Only once she has identified me by sight for sure (often attracted by me moving) will she bolt all the way back to me nonstop.
I've never been around a dog that so intensely LOOKS.
Usually up ahead on the trail, she'll finding something to look/point at, wait until I catch up to her, and then go bounding up ahead to find something else worthy of her attention.
I'm most surprised that she sticks to the trails ahead of me and doesn't often go darting off trail to look or explore. And most often, even if she finds something to stare out, she doesn't often go off trail to pursue a closer look. Looks like she'll be an excellent trail dog for my conditioning horse rides!!!!
Checking back in with me
Yeah, Cersei is nose-to-the-ground most of the time, but she's not a sight hunter! Love watching off-leash behavior. :)
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