Leash Walking |
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It’s the dream of anyone who has a pulling dog. Will my dog ever walk well on a leash!?
If you see another person leash walking a well heeled dog, calmly and enjoyably, it might seem to good to be true. Its not hard to achieve, here are some great ways to go about it.
Many dogs pull on their leashes. If you stop and think about why, you can see it all clearly. From birds eye view, it doesn’t seem like much fun, but most dogs will pull on a collar until they appear to be breathless and faint.
The reason is real simple. Most leash walking dogs feel they are actually being rewarded for pulling on leash, and doing what you want them or expect them to do!
Think about it; your dog, and 99.9% of dogs, are over eager to be walked. So eager, that the first thing they will do when leashed up, is lunge forward away from the common ground they know well, to get at the mystery places that lie down the street. You go along and start walking with him, as he tugs the way ahead, trying to strain and halt against the progress and get him under control…..
“Aha!” he thinks. ‘Pulling on this thing gets me walked!’
So he keeps pulling and tugging on the lead; and sure enough, you keep leash walking him along! It takes event he most dense dog about 2-3 minutes to learn that pulling the heck out of the lead gets him walked….he doesn’t consider for a moment that if he stops pulling, he will get walked! That is NO WHERE near his goal!
Right, so we have learnt that to get him under control, you have to change his perceptions a little bit. Easier read than done? You bet.
Prior to being taught what’s right and wrong, dog thinks
“Tugging on the leash=walking time.”
What you need to teach him is:
“No pressure on lead=walking time. Pressure on the lead=not going anywhere.”
Grab the end of the lead, and give him free rein to wander on its confines. We don’t want him to ‘heel’ we want to wait till the area he’s in gets boring and the lead goes slack.
The lesson script is, if the dog is walking on a loose leash, you walk along beside him and enjoy yourself, giving praise. But the moment he tugs on the leash, you come to a dead stop and don’t walk. Then pull the dog to your side and have him sit. Don’t move until the dog is sitting with a slack lead. He needs to learn that a taught lead equals NO walking. With this trick, pulling on the lead will soon have him understand that straining the lead means he gets no walking time, and boy will he learn fast!
Each time he sits calmly, praise him and move forward on your way; clicker and reward with a treat if he does an exceptional job of staying with you.
If he lunges forward again, repeat the procedure of pulling him back and having him sit until he calms down again. Battling with a strong dog that pulls to hard to control? You might need a Halti or a harness.. The Halti is a great tool and is really humane in that it controls his head only, and thus controls his direction of movement. They are very impressive!
Once your dog is being well behaved on his walks, it’s time to introduce something a bit more advanced. Try walking your dog in different areas and in busier situations than usual. You should find, the more interesting stuff going on and the more distractions around him, the more and more he pulls. His instincts to explore the new places and things are running overtime.
Another good challenge is to go for a walk with a buddy who can experiment with distracting behaviours. Remember to treat him when he does well!
Vary your pace, speed up or put the brakes on and test his patience. Reward your dog for adapting to your speed, and for remembering that YOU are walking him not the other way round. Try turning 180 degrees and pat your leg and call to get him to respond. If the lead tightens, stop and show him the new way to go. Move off when the lead is slack. Reward him for showing good skills!
Dont forget the amazing conclusion from my dog training trial! Be sure to read and check it out...
| The Conclusion...? |
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Well, after much work
and discussion with my 12
trialists, the conclusion is this: If
you want the quickest, most user friendly and
best value way to craft your pet dog into a
fabulous additon to your life, you need Sit
Stay Fetch.
Don't get me wrong, the 'Easy DIY dog training' works, and most users were happy with it. From a overall point of view, I think that much of the good result was due to the fact that I, as a personal trainer, pushed my clients to go for and use Easy DIY dog training to try it out. They had a helping hand through me, you may not have someone to motivate you along and may find it more challenging perhaps... Overall, 'Sit Stay Fetch' was a standout product, in fact, the clear best in terms of actual results and user responses, of the 18 products we trialled. It was clear there was just no competiton that stood up to the overall Sit Stay Fetch package. |
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