How to turn a normal dog walk into a training session

Yesterday when Link and I went home from work, we went through the city center. This is not an area in Tromsø that we visit often, actually it was only last week that we were there for the first time. As it is important to expose your dog to different environments and make them feel comfortable anywhere, I realized being down town is something we have to do more often. There are so many unfamiliar sights, sounds and smells there. For Link to be able to take all that in, at the same time as he does lose leash walking and tries to stay focused and calm, takes training, time and patience.
Our walk today was the third time we went to the city center and Link still gets rather easily spooked, though he quickly relaxes again. Today I realized that he reacts to statues, so we trained standing on one small statue of a bear and sitting next to another of a woman.

Link sitting next to a statue that he initially thought was scary. Using a little time and a lot of treats he eventually even liked sitting next to the statue!

When your dog is in a place where it hasn't been before, it sometimes help to do things that are familiar and fun for the dog. This makes the dog associate the new place with something it likes. So when we came to the bicycle parking we did some weaving between the poles.

The bicycle parking behind the library was perfect for training weaving, something that is both familiar and fun for Link

When Link appeared to feel comfortable I decided to challenge him a bit. We walked up some metal stairs. He seemed a bit hesitant at first, but after the first few steps he became more confident.

Link walking up the metal stairs.

During our walk we also made a point to seek out different materials to walk on. We found asphalt, concrete, gravel, grass, wood and metal (the stairs).

Link standing on gravel

Link standing on asphalt.

Link sitting on grass/vegetation.

Link standing on wood.

Link sitting on concrete.

 When we got closer to home I also started to ask Link to balance on things, a game we had when he was little. Below are two pictures of Link balancing on top of the dome-shaped "lid" of a rainwater drain.

"Mom, this is a difficult.."

"Look I made it! May I have the treat now?"

I definitely think spending the walk training and exploring is a much better way to use the time spent on walks, than just walking from A to B. The instructor of the therapy dog course said that she always made sure to do 4 (if I remember the number correctly) different things on every walk. Examples could be balancing on fallen trees, hiding treats or toys for the dog to find, asking the dog to crawl or jump over something, etc. Only your imagination sets the limit to what you and your dog can do during your walks.