Walking a Confident Dog ● What Is the Appropriate Distance?

I have been learning dog training and dog behavior ever since I brought 2 American Akitas into my home. One of the challenges I had was how to walk a dog.

Mastering the walk is a big deal if you are a leader of a dog in your home. It's one of the biggest challenges I've had with the Akita, a very independent and notoriously confident/alpha dog.

What I've come to believe is that I was worrying way too much about position. I've seen so many heel training sessions worry so much about the position of the dog being at your side or behind you. While I have had a lot of success in getting my dogs to do this, even off leash, it still required micro management levels of correction.

It came to a point to where I had an epiphany. Just how much do I need to care about my dog being 6 inches in front of me versus 4 inches? How much does he understand? How much is constant correction helping or confusing him?

Is he really understanding that 6 inches is too much much but 4 is fine? Or is this just causing him to be frustrated not understanding what I'm asking of him?

My realization is that I just want him to walk at my side and to pay attention to me and my lead. If I stop, he stops. If I turn, he turns. This means that he is paying attention to where I am at. That to me is most important.

Maybe some dog trainers will disagree and say that I need to be correction him being a foot in front of me. They're free to disagree if they want. I'm just not sure that this is the type of walk I need to be pushing. I think the main thing is that he pays attention to where I am at and where I am going. If he goes where I go and responds to me, that's what I want.