Gabriel Lugo
Barrera

By Gabriel Lugo Barrera

Here’s something I learned after walking over a hundred dogs as a walker in Los Angeles and Florida: most of us are doing walks wrong. Not badly wrong. Just missing something. Ask yourself this: whose walk is it actually for?

We tend to think a dog’s life revolves entirely around ours. And honestly, some of the time that’s true. These furballs would follow us to the ends of the earth. But because of that, we also tend to see the walk as something we’re doing for them, on our terms. So we walk them the way we exercise ourselves. Steady pace, keep moving. The dog follows along, sniffing for two seconds before we pull them forward. You get home and they seem fine. Maybe a little restless still. You think, maybe I need to walk them longer.

You probably don’t. You probably just need to walk them differently.

My mother calls it “going to Marshalls.” She goes because she needs something specific. She stays for 30 minutes because she ran into someone she knows, spotted something she didn’t expect, and ended up browsing three aisles she had no business being in. Nobody rushes her out the door. Nobody tells her the throw pillows aren’t worth her time. She leaves happy, stimulated, and already thinking about going back. That’s a sniff walk. And it’s the easiest thing you can do for your dog today.

Think about it this way: when we go outside, half of us are on our phones anyway. Catching up with friends, people watching, doom scrolling through lunch. We have a dozen ways to stay connected to the world. Dogs don’t have that privilege, especially indoor pets. The walk is their whole window. And the way they experience it isn’t through their eyes. It’s through their nose.

Have you ever come home from a friend’s place that has a dog and gotten the full sniffspection? That’s not just curiosity. That’s their version of reading your texts. Dogs have up to 300 million olfactory receptors. Humans have about 6 million. When your dog stops at a patch of grass, they’re reading a full story. Pulling them away from that, walk after walk, is like someone sending you a great reel and closing the app every time it gets good.

Animal behaviorists have studied this. A 20 minute sniff walk can leave your dog calmer and more settled than a 40 minute power walk. The nose work engages their brain in a way that a quicker pace never will.

Here’s how to do it: after the first 10 minutes, hand them the map. Loosen the leash. Let them stop at the hydrant for 45 seconds. Let them double back. Follow them for once. I learned the hard way not to rush your mom out of Marshalls. Don’t rush your dog through the one walk they get today.

That’s the whole tip. No special trail, no extra time. Just drop your agenda and let them do what they were built to do.

Watch how they walk home.