Yesterday Shango did parkour over the living-room sofa.

Not onto it. Over it. Up the back, across the cushions, off the arm, round the coffee table and back for a second lap, ears flat, tongue out, looking at me like I had thrown a ball I had not thrown. He is an American Akita. He is a big dog. The sofa is not built for this and neither am I.

I knew exactly what had happened, because I am a dog trainer and I would have told any client the same thing in the first two minutes of a call. I had been head-down building the app for days. Long days, screen on, kettle on, dogs in the garden. Atlas coped, because Atlas copes with most things and then makes you pay in stubbornness later. Shango did not cope. Shango stored it up and took it out on the sofa.

The line

So I did the right thing, late. I put both dogs on long lines and took them out for a proper one. Not a lap of the block. Somewhere with space, where they could put their noses down and go.

I felt low doing it, if I am honest. Partway round I noticed Shango was further out than he should have been. Then further. Then the line went slack in my hand and he kept going.

He had chewed straight through it.

I have two long lines: a fabric one and a biothane one, the rubbery, waterproof kind with a proper clasp. Shango normally goes on the biothane line, because it is the tougher of the two. He had never chewed a line before. Yesterday I was not paying attention while I clipped up both dogs, and when I noticed the fabric line was on the wrong dog I thought, it will be fine.

It was not fine. When I realised he was loose I asked him to sit, and he sat, and he stayed while I got hold of his harness. I tied what was left of the line through the clasp on the original end and walked him home on it. He tried to chew again on the way back. I got lucky. But nothing about the dog went wrong here. Every decision that led to a loose Akita was mine.

What did I expect?

No walk. No mental work. A day in the garden, then another one. Then a sofa, then a chewed line. What did I expect?

Most of the behaviour problems I get called about start here. Not with a bad dog, and not with a bad owner either. Just a big dog whose needs have quietly gone unmet for a few days, and a household that has stopped noticing because the dog has been "fine" in the garden. Then something tips over: barking at the window, mouthing the kids, a stolen shoe that turns into a chase, the zoomies at six.

The daily walk, at the right length for the dog in front of you, is the most basic piece of training there is. Everything else in the app, everything in how we teach, sits on top of it. You cannot teach a dog to settle if he has not been anywhere. You cannot teach self-control, waiting when he would rather go, to a dog who has not been allowed to go at all.

What "enough" looks like for a big dog

I am not going to give you a number of minutes and pretend it is science. Every big dog is different, and a walk that empties Atlas would barely take the edge off Shango. What I can tell you is what enough looks like when you get home.

He comes in, has a drink, and lies down without being asked.
He is loose in the body. Not collapsed, just soft.
He can be left in a room without inventing a game.
He is not scanning the window for something to shout at.

If you are getting that, the walk is long enough. If he comes in and goes looking for trouble, it is not, whatever the breed guide said.

For most of the big dogs I work with, that means one walk a day that is genuinely long, not a wee and a look at the same three lamp posts, plus something for the brain. What does not work, in my experience, is the garden standing in for either.

Sniffing counts

A walk where the dog is allowed to sniff is worth more than a walk where he is marched. I know it is slower. But a dog reading the ground is working, and it tires him in a way a fast lap does not.

Mental work counts too, and it is often the piece that is missing. Scatter his dinner on the grass. Ten minutes of training in the kitchen. Today's Focus in the app exists partly for this: short, specific sessions so the brain work happens even on a busy day. There is a whole guide to mental work in the app if you want more ideas.

Walk first, train after

One more thing I tell every client and forgot to tell myself. The walk comes before the training session, not after.

A dog with energy to burn cannot think. He is too wound up to learn, so the session becomes a fight. Walk him first. Let him get the fizz out and put his nose down. Then, when he is calm enough to think, do ten minutes of the thing you actually want to teach. It goes in, and it stays in.

Train him first and walk him after, and the walk becomes a reward for whatever chaos he just produced.

The trainer needed the reminder too

I built an app that plans your training day so you do not have to think about it. It does not, yet, tell you that your dog has not been out and that you are about to lose a sofa. The walk is the bit you have to do before you open it.

Yesterday I needed that reminder more than any of my clients did. If it can slide for me, with two dogs I adore and a business built on them, it can slide for anyone.

Shango is fine. The fabric line is gone. The sofa is, mostly, fine.

What does your dog do when the walk gets skipped?