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    • Gold Top Dog

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    • Gold Top Dog
    I can only have 2 dogs in my condo complex as well and my city has a regulation on no more than 2, so I probably would not be getting 3 anytime soon. That said, I know MANY folks who have 3,4 or even 5 greyhounds. Honestly, greys are one of those breeds that you rarely find people just have 1. . . they are addicting! [:D]

    Most people I know who have 3-4 either have a big yard so they do the majority of their exercising in the yard and take smaller walks daily or 3-4 times a week(depends on the age of the dogs).
    The key to walking them all together is to make sure they all are "good walkers" before you combine them. Greyhounds that have been in a home for awhile usually have very good leash skills and are laid back on walks (not often pulling or getting wrapped up in the leashes). this makes it easy (relatively speaking [;)]) to walk 3 or 4 and to be able to pick up poop and not have them get wrapped up in one another! Most of the time 2 people will walk them though.

    My dad use to walk 3 smaller breeds (lhaso, shih tzu, and a terrier mix) but he had to train them on their leash skills independently first)



    • Silver
    Right now, between my roomate and I, we have 4 medium to large sized dogs in the house. Having a yard is key- but if all the dogs have acceptable leashe manners, it shouldn't be too hard to walk all at one time. I took all four out for a walk the other day and all 4 behaved reasonable well. They only reason I don't do this more often is because if a stray dog or an off leash dog were to cross our paths- I know I wouldn't be able to easily control all of my crew while being harassed/attacked by another dog.

    I feel I am easily able to handle 3- but the fourth tends to overwhelm me.

    I do think there are some professional dog walkers (or there used to be) as members of this forum- so maybe they will chime in.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I have four dogs.
    Darby- Poodle
    Dooley- Aussie X
    Witt- Catahoula X
    Annie- Aussie X
     
    Three of those dogs are herding type dogs who want something to do all the time. Darby is happy to ride in a basket on the front of my bike on occasion, and his weekly ...lock all the other dogs in the bedroom so he can race around the house and play a little ball, times. I don't take him on walks.
    Annie is my daughters dog and she takes her to the park on walks daily, plays with her in the yard and in the house. Games go a long way with this dog. Tug, fetch, wrestling and anything involving water please her and keep her busy. With this dog keeping the mind busy is whats most important.
    Witt goes to work with me alot, he is also the type of dog who keeps himself busy..he can entertain himself for long periods of time with something as stupid as a bowling ball. He loves to learn new tricks. Again..mental games are a favorite. He goes just about everywhere with me.
    Dooley is my flyball dog and many games of fetch everyday are what makes him happy.  We can do this in our backyard or at the park. He is the only dog I have that can play at the dog park. He hardly ever goes for walks per se...we just play alot of ball with him. He LOVES to learn new tricks and likes to do agility type things. He goes to the barn with me alot and gets to run 5 acres and play with another dog there.
     
    I don't actually walk my dogs on any regular basis..but we play alot. They also have each other to play with and wear each other out. I live in a small house with a small yard and yet I have four dogs three of which are high energy job oriented dogs. We include them in most everything we do and I think thats the key to keeping them happy and busy.
    AND lots and lots of toys!
    • Gold Top Dog
    I have 3 dogs and I walk them together. I put my Bostons on a coupler and I walk my Rottie on a traffic lead. When I dogsit for the Samoyed, I put her and my Rottie on a coupler. They all know how to behave when I'm walking them. In fact, the only problems I've ever had are from other people whose dogs do not know basic obedience, are on a flexi lead and they don't know how to use it, or when some idiot has their dog off leash and the dog has zero recall.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I've got 5 dogs and walk 4 together.  It really boils down to training. I walk with the two pups on the left (normal heel position) and the two adults on the right ("right heel" - they've been taught this). I use their regular leads, but bundle them up to the length of a traffic lead when needed.

    What's funny is I can't walk the Westie with the Collie group to save his life.   I can walk 220 lbs of dog with no problem,  but add 17 lbs and it all goes down the drain.  [8|]  He's my fiance's dog and has not had the training that mine have.  
    • Gold Top Dog
    I prefer to walk only two at a time, but can easily handle three if need be.  But, I do like having one free hand and if I've got two on my left and one on my right, I can't so much as scratch my nose easily.  Plus with my shoulder issues I really try to avoid using the right arm for something as big and strong as a german shepherd, just in case someone startles.
     
    Training is really the key to walking multiples.
    • Gold Top Dog
    Thanks for all the responses- that really helps a lot! [:)]
     
    Meilani your situation is probably most similar to mine. Two smallish dogs and the third dog would probably be a Shar Pei. That sounds like it would work well to have them on a coupler and then the Pei separate. This is all probably a few years away, but I was just curious.
     
    Glenda, that's one of the things I was thinking of also, that even if they're normally well behaved, what they momentarily forget their manners and want to go after a squirrel, how that would work. So I guess part of it comes down to size... maybe 5 well trained Shih Tzus could be walked together, but only a couple of well trained large dogs. So do you rotate days that they get walked or take them all on the same day?
    • Gold Top Dog
    Having just spent the last week looking after the three dogs here at the moment on my own, I have to say, it's really hard! All our dogs walk nicely on lead, but we have one that forges ahead, one that lags behind and one that wanders all over. My dog is used to being the only one walked, so she's particularly difficult to convince to stick to the one side. I found the hardest bit was keeping the leads from tangling in the dogs' legs as they stopped to sniff at something, then stepped over the loose lead.

    I've decided that 2 is the perfect number. I don't want more and I don't want less. [:)]
    • Gold Top Dog
    I couldn't imagine how people do it. I prefer not to walk my two dogs together. Millie is terrible on leash, and although Max is decent, when they get together, it's hell. Millie aggresses at lots of stuff, and if they are together, when Max sees it, he aggresses for her. He might be ok with another dog, but the two of them are terrible together, and she'd be terrible with another dog. 
    • Gold Top Dog
    we couldn't possibly do it if we didn't have a huge yard, they get most of their exercise at home-- walks are mostly for training and socialization purposes. Also we stagger the ages of the dogs so we only have one not-fully-trained dog at a time-- I can't imagine having two puppies at once.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I walked our 3 dogs together for the first time and it was fine.
     
    Red - golden likes to move along fast
    Lola - 6 month puppy bulldog- slow
    Zeus- big male bulldog like to sniff / pee everything  and go slower (new rescue)
     
    You see they have differnent styles of walking
    .  But the big dogs have slowed to a crawl to accomdate the puppy.  And the wildman Zeus stopped his obnoxious behavior. I kept the 2 big dogs on the right hand and the puppy on the left hand/side as I am teaching her how to walk. The GOlden likes to lead so he is out front.  I swear I felt like a musher and Red the lead dog.  I did command them the whole way ,  Lola - heel, Zeus-heel, Red etc etc 
    • Gold Top Dog
    Tamara, I normally do just two at a time, and make multiple trips into town to do it.  I hate wasting gas, but I'm too much of a wuss to be out in the grass yet....soon tho....we've got several frosts and one freeze, so pretty soon we'll be able to do our thing in the fields around us.  I do that a couple times a week and always on weekends.  But even with Todd with me, it's easier to take two at a time.  There is just a whole different dynamic with three....more of a pack than a couple puppers out for a walk and more competition to be in the lead, etc.
     
    I'm not sure why, because in MANY things, the boys will listen better to Todd...such as being quiet when he gets breakfast or dinner served up, or being quiet exiting or going back into crates......but on lead, he has less control than I do...and he's a whole lot bigger and stronger than I am.  And maybe that's it.....I don't rely on my upper body strength because it just isn't there since all the surgeries......so I rely on the training, commands and keeping them focused on me.  For ME, if someone is looking sideways at a squirrel I can say "leave it, let's go" and we continue walking....he might have to say "leave it" more than once.  And since I don't want commands repeated, I'll say it myself to keep things on track.
     
    For quite some time I was doing a walk into town (which is about 6 miles each way) once a week and just alternating who got to go which week...that's a good walk, then they got their weekend romps, and daily games of fetch out in the fenced yard to get some good running in.  Then I discovered that the snakes actually LIKE crossing the road...and that ended that for the summer!  A dead squished one on the shoulder where I walked was just as scarey to me as a LIVE one!
     
    Again, I CAN walk three of mine at once, but I don't like three leads in one hand and I'm really protective of the right shoulder.  Plus, if you wanna see folks cross the street FAST, try walking three shepherds at once!  I'm not all that big and because of the distribution of my body weight I look smaller than I really am and even with TWO people keep a pretty close eye on me and my dogs.  That type of reaction puts me a little bit on edge and I know that they feel any stress that I do......
     
    I think even with small dogs, you've really gotta have the training to walk several at once. Those little dogs can pull like freight trains!  My cockers sure could!
    • Gold Top Dog
    Puppy's not old enough really for leash walks yet (hasn't finished vaccs yet) but I have walked my other four together. I've tried couplers, but I didn't like it. Best way I've found is two on my left and two on my right - single leashes, walking right beside me. Less chaos that way. That being said, I don't have a set and serious leash walking schedule - we pretty much go when I think of it. My dogs get a lot of exercise in other ways.

    • Gold Top Dog
    I should add that as of 2 months ago when I still  had my older girl Holly and Red only,  I took both out for a short slow walk for Holly and then took her home,,,then continued a power walk with Red.  ( SOmetimes I would load Holly up and take her around the block in the car,,,,she preffered riding to walking  LOL  what a lazy bulldog  God love her. )
     
    I am doing the same with Red now,,,just us 2.  I think each dog needs quality time alone with me,,,er, when Lola grows up she will too.