On the 15th August, Charmaine Du Toit from FODS (Friends of the Dog) put Power Paws’ 6 new and 3 current Walkers through their paces at the Power Paws Academy “Canine Walking Winners” Training Day with guests of honour – Hobbs, Gypsy, Bandit & Seamus who were our dogs for the day and were walked up, down and around, and absolutely loved every minute of all the attention. After all – any excuse for walkies!

“Be sexier than a squirrel” was the catch phrase of the day, as everyone went through the steps of how to correctly walk a dog.

At Power Paws we take walking your dog very seriously, and part of what we offer is putting your mind at ease that trained professionals are walking your pooches and are thoroughly prepared for any situation that might occur while they are out with your dog.

There is more to walking a dog than simply putting on a harness and clipping on a lead! Our Walkers are carefully screened and selected, and ongoing training is part of our commitment to our clients, covering everything from how to greet a new dog, learning how to manage unexpected situations that may arise during a walk and also understanding a dog’s body language.

For that reason, the Power Paws Academy was born. We will be running training sessions for all our Walkers on a regular basis throughout the year (COVID-19 notwithstanding), starting with the basics of learning how dogs use their senses when they walk and how we, as Walkers should allow them to sniff out the neighbourhood and smell the news (so to speak). We aim to make every walk fun and stress-free, so we equip our Walkers with the skills needed to calm an over-excited dog, and also how to encourage a dog to walk comfortably on a lead instead of pulling.

Also on the agenda for the day was understanding the “Stress Ladder Escalation” – behaviours typically displayed by dogs if they are feeling stressed or threatened and understanding the meaning of these different behaviours and signals.

 

This will all be covered in detail in a future blog post!

Thank you again to Charmaine Du Toit for your time and expertise, we appreciate it tremendously