Is the Right Side the Wrong Side or is the Left Side Right??

Of course they both mean the same thing so before you get all confused or convince yourself that I am confused, please read further. It is traditional to walk the dog on the left side due to the way hunters us their right hand to hold their guns. Also the horse is walked on the right side so it would certainly be simpler if you were out for a ride with your horse and dog you would have one hand for each. The world is generally geared toward the needs of the right handed. If you stop to talk to a friend on the street it would be nice to be able to reach out with your free right hand to shake hands and say hello! It is also good, in the author's humble opinion, to have a standard side. This bothers some people for reasons I fail to comprehend. The reason I think it is good is because if you approach another dog walker. If you both have your dogs walking under control on the same side when facing each other the dogs would be on opposite sides. This is a safety thing. If the dogs don't get along or are leery of strange dogs then it is nice to have a little leeway to prevent a dog fight.

Dogs who are being trained for obedience competition MUST be trained on the left side of course. It is true that most people will never do this so there is some room for doing what feels good but for the reasons I state above I always teach the left side walking.

Another reason I teach the left side in my classes is that if everyone in the class starts teaching the side they like we end up having discussions about everything, whether it is necessary or not. I like to teach people who are willing to learn how to train, not people who want to come and convince me that their way is better for them. If it was working for them then they probably wouldn't have come to my class in the first place. Ha!

All that being said. If you are not attending a class where the trainer is teaching the left side and you are perfectly capable of training the dog yourself then do what you like. It's a free country! (at least for now) I really hate discussing this but in doing research on the history of left side walking I became frustrated at some of the silly ways people try to defend being obstinate about something like that. I just had to go there. Dog trainers are funny things, like me, we all have our little issues that get us going. Mine is a student who comes to my class to try and convince me that all my methods are unnecessary or plain wrong while their dog is being a nuisance and disrupting the class by refusing to come to his owner on the recall exercise. Ha! I finally started scheduling those folks out of my classes after two classes. I love 'em but it isn't good for the other students in the class to be taking up our time arguing about piddly stuff like that when there is so much to learn! That being said, I don't mind questions, questions are great!! It's debaters that are the issue. Go debate in some other dog obedience class! *smile* I like peace and tranquility! Come to your dog class with an open mind and ready to learn!! That's why you are paying the big bucks right?? To learn and grow with your pooch is as simple as listening and learning and following through.

This is supposed to be a little funny so I will leave you with this! The right side IS the wrong side, therefore the LEFT side is RIGHT. At least in my class!

Love you leftys and rightys alike,
Happy dog training!
Mary