Training Your Dog For The Trail: Commands They Should Know for Hiking, Backpacking, and Thru-Hiking

[@naughtseeingeye7767]

I find " leave it"&" drop it" are super useful while hiking

[@eddiethehitchhikingmaltipo6754]

How about a command “don’t wake me up at 3 in the morning because you want to play” 😁 but seriously a very good video 👍🏼

[@GIRLplusDOGAdventures]

Or "It's just a bear! Chill out."

[@TheMostImportantStep]

I definitely struggle with that too, though it’s usually because they want water. If I could trust them not to spill it I’d leave a bowl of it in the tent!

[@bluefirebat430]

This is very helpful the "Recall" "Stay" and "With Me" commands are what I am working on especially the Recall. Mine is a puppy and that one is a struggle lol. 😀

[@kshabe]

I’d love to see a video on approaching these commands with training! 🐶🥾

[@clivet3846]

A useful one to teach is shake. So a wet dog shakes outside and not inside the tent.

[@loissemanek1715]

Excellent video. I think recall is the most important command on the trail. I think she needs to be off leash to really enjoy herself. She stays with me and comes every single time I call her in different situations. We only go 3 miles or so at a time usually which suits us well.

[@GIRLplusDOGAdventures]

I'm glad you included "With Me" because it is different. I generally use that one if Remy is off-leash and in front and he has to stay within "harness grab" distance of me. I use "Behind" to get him behind me and then, as you mentioned, "Heel", is to the left of me.

[@TheMostImportantStep]

One of my most frequently used these days with all the moose about! Sounds like you use your “with me” in a similar way to how I use the “slow” command

[@xvetii]

nice video your dogs are so cute and this helps thank you

[@sheeatsadventure]

I really like that you put a pose command in there! So cute 🥰

[@pringlized]

Great video. I so understand and appreciate your commands. My parents got a Jack Russel while I was off at college and they were lazy and Bailey had no training. Enter me. It was an up hill task teaching her to just to get her attention and respond. Squirrel!! Who said bribery doesn't work. Love the name skittles.

[@ventreale]

This was so helpful! Lots of great commands I haven’t seen before that would be useful. I recently got a half Belgian malinois puppy (12 weeks old now) and am looking forward to going on trail walks and hikes with her in the future.

[@BlazedMage]

For me, I have verbal, sound (whistles), and visual (hand gestures) for commands for my dogs. The vocal is basic and sound (whistle) is for when they are at a distance and I dont have to strain my voice. Step off- leave alone On Side- stay on my side Step up - keep moving Tell me - they look in the location of noise Climb - get up here Take me home - they back track and guide me back to start, never tested it but they usually know the general direction of start, and noses to the ground when Ive given the command. Long whistle - listen to me, and where are you Stutter whistle - come to my location Closed hand in front of me - sit in front of me and wait 2 fingers pointing up from closed hand postion - hold Hand on the side opened - on my side - works while walking as well. Pinch fingers above location - jump, climb, stand up I do have a hunt command, but I can't spell it for it's more of a sound produced. Im aiming to sent train my blue heeler as well, so if I get lost, I can use her to find my way home or back to the location.

[@mireillemontminy3467]

Really good video. Thank you

[@kevinmanaghan7880]

I'd like to know how you trained these commands

[@MoeBergOSS]

These special hiking commands never occurred to me. My wife and I along with our Yorkie will be thru hiking the Colorado Trail next year and this video is a tremendous help. I’ve now subscribed and have begun watching all of your videos.

[@TM88FYI]

Very nice!

[@NomaswaziMadi]

I’m literally here for the training where’s that video?

[@RobinEsch]

I'd like to see how you train "out". Thanks!

[@free.breaker]

Most important command is recall. Second is stop. Thanks

[@Djhikes63]

Just found this. Is there a video of training

[@timquain5341]

I'm a mountain biker and I'd love to learn how to teach my mini schnauzer how to get off the trail. He is very food driven but he is very social too. I was thinking of throwing food off of the trail and saying 'off'.

[@TheMostImportantStep]

That sounds like a great plan, you could even add in a stay command once he is off the trail. When I’m hiking I usually just step off the trail with my dogs, but definitely a bit more challenging if you’re on a bike too!

[@cheryl4860]

I couldn't get your e-book or your amazon page links to work.

[@Bridgton1]

Please add training

[@crisse2027]

I'd love to learn how to teach my dog to walk behind me. She can do it for a second or two but then she always tries to get next to me or in front of me. Do you have any tips on having her remain behind me for a period of time?

[@TheMostImportantStep]

Hi Crisse! There are a couple ways to go about it, but will depend a bit on your goal for this behavior and your dog. If you just want your dog to do it in certain situations/on command then building duration slowly and using a release word would likely be your best bet. Start with a few seconds, then release and reward. Once she’s got that down, then wait a few seconds longer and so on. If this something you want your dog to all the time, then you would likely be better off setting this as the expectation. You won’t accept or tolerate anything else. Using a trekking pole and swinging it in front of the plane off your body helps the dog see where they can and can’t go. Be consistent and make sure to have good timing with correcting if she her nose gets past your knees and rewarding for being behind you. Hope this is clear enough (it’s a bit challenging to explain over text!) and let me know if I can try to break it down further

[@nydianegron7519]

I would love to walk with my dog on a trail,but he is a 10 month puppy who likes to bark a lot. What should I do..

[@TheMostImportantStep]

Hi Nydia! At that age it’s super important to work on building a relationship with your dog, focus on the basics, and set your dog up for success by starting slow and in environments where they are more likely to succeed. Practice walking nicely, sitting, and watching you in areas where you can get far enough away from distractions that they won’t react to other people or dogs, then slowly get closer to the distractions as your puppy becomes more reliable. Other tips would be to attend some sort of puppy class, Agility foundation class, or rally obedience class to help you build that relationship and teach your puppy how to be more focused in distracting situations. If you are still having a lot of problems then consider finding a balanced trainer who can work with in person. Hope that helps!

[@nydianegron7519]

@@TheMostImportantStep thanks

[@janeholt9298]

@The Most Important Step thank you, I have a 13 month old 80 lb puppy who I adopted just a month and a half ago and sometimes it's hard to remember he is a puppy because he is so big and strong! I have also never owned or trained a dog before so considering his young age and my lack of experience I would say we are doing really well! Not super good with distractions yet, I'm thinking of using a squeak toy as a distraction during training to prepare him for dealing with other dogs and animals in general since that sound makes him go nuts it will be great progress is he can learn to ignore it. I just subscribed to your channel I think your advice will be very helpful since I plan to go on long hikes with my pup as it is the only true way to get him exercise since we do not have a large yard and also no carpet for him to even get his zooming out in the house he just slides around and falls when he tries to run so I have no choice but to take him out in nature whether he is ready or not and need to get him under control the sooner the better.

[@Buddy-2018]

Make the video

[@tomhorak59]

These are great, thank you for sharing. Would love to see training advice, particularly ‘with me’ around distractions. We use really similar ones with our pup (@nalablackbeard on instagram). In addition we also learned how to change sides while doing heel, mostly to make it more comfortable for people passing us on trail - if someone is uncomfortable with dogs, they have a human in between and are usually relaxed thanks to the level of training.