Hello and Happy New Year.

Let's hope it's a better one, shall we?

Welcome to Talking Dogs. It's a real pleasure to have you with me.

I'm Graham Hall and for well over a decade I've

been showing humans how to train their adorable but often defiant dogs. I'm known as the

dog father and you might recognise my voice from television's dogs behaving badly. This podcast is the

place where I can bring even more experience, advice and opinions in the hope that if you're running out of ideas,

you'll leave with a couple of new training tips to try.

Today I want to talk about taking your dog for a walk and all the potential issues and questions that arise as a result.

Before I get into how to walk your dog, I wanted to give you a quick

update on Lorna and her dog, Maisie. Now, you might remember them from our episode on sleeping arrangements.

Lorna had asked how to get a new rescue dog to settle at home once she brought her home, and she sent me

this lovely update. Thanks for the advice for Maisie. I don't know what I was worried about. She settled

amazingly well within a week. Even the vet was surprised how calm she is. The long walks have

been great for settling her at night and she's learning how to play. Isn't that nice? It's lovely to

see her starting to relax and become more confident and I'm sure this will keep going. That's great to hear. I'm really

pleased for you Lorna. Okay so in a bit I'll be seeing how I can help with a stubborn Labrador who

keeps lying down and refusing to move when she's out for a walk. But first let's go right back

to basics. First of what sort of kit do you need? Leeds, collars, harnesses, all that stuff. I think it's horses for courses. If you've

ever seen me on a tell you might see once or twice that I'll take off a harness and put a collar

on a dog, but I've done the opposite as well. Particularly with the short-nosed breeds, the ones that

are struggling to breathe these days, a collar can be a problem for them or if there's a neck problem or something like that

...