We've got a lot of videos about dogs that pull away on the leash,
but not all dogs pull on the leash,
but it doesn't mean there's not frustrations when we walk.
The three most common I see, And there's quick fixes for them lots of times.
Are dogs that are stoppers. What are stoppers?
They're dogs that just stop walking. They balk, they freeze. They may lie down.
They may sit, but they're not moving forward.
There's hoppers those dogs that walk so nicely on a leash until they see the
squirrel or that dog. And now they're hopping all over the place. Just crazy.
Or there's chompers. Thorpe was a Chomper. You admit it.
He loved to grab that leash and many dogs do. And it's really frustrating.
We're trying to walk and the dogs are trying to play a game of tug.
In this video.
I'm going to show you some quick fixes to those three annoying habits and how
you can apply them to your dog training. I'm instructor Carol. This is Thorpe.
Welcome back to McCann Dogs. Yeah.
I'm here with Shady. Who's a little Bichon mix.
He's a rescue at our maintenance supervisor here at,
McCann's got Shady just a couple of weeks ago, so he's pretty new to the area.
And she will sometimes balk on walks. Now. I don't think he's trying to be bad.
He's never been taught with his previous owners, what the expectations were.
And sometimes, you know,
life is all new to him here so he can get a little nervous.
And when he's nervous, he just sorta stops.
So the last thing I would want to do is correct this little guy,
but I do need to be able to keep him walking and show him that walking's fun.
Shady and I have moved inside.
Cause it was kind of windy out there and I want to make sure you can hear this.
Now, if you've got to stop her out there, that's what shady sometimes does.
He walks and then he just plants and he doesn't want to move. Like I said,
I don't want to correct that. So I'm going to do a little walk with shady.
Let's see if he does that. Okay, buddy, are you with me?
So he's going to do it right off the bat. So again, I don't want to, correct.
All I'm going to do is I'm going to ignore him. My back is turned.
There's no pressure.
I'm just going to all pressure lined or my leash is parallel to the
ground and I've just going to keep constant pressure. If he moves closer,
I'm just keeping it constant. Yeah. Good boy.
Now what a lot of people do what a good boy is. Is they get food out.
When the dog sits or balks, they get food and entice them. So the dogs learn,
oh, I want a treat. I just sit. Or for other dogs,
a little bit of a leadership game. Look, I can stop the walk.
So I don't want to pull out food and reward that behavior. So all,
all I'm doing is that little bit of constant tension dogs are going to move into
it and just waiting it out. I'm going to be patient. I don't need to.
I just we'll wait them out.
They will All move because it just kind of boring sitting there.
Yeah. Good man. And you can see right away his tail's going. Now,
what I will do is a new little guy. Yes.
Now I'm going to start because he's walking nicely. Now I can reward.
Teach him that a walk is a good thing. I'll walk is a good thing. Yeah,
go ahead, boy. You're brilliant. You are so smart.
And I'm going to reward them right up at my side.
So this is a nice safe zone and it's fun to walk with me. Right buddy?
Ready ho ho. Good boy. So I'm going to help him be right, but if he bow. Yeah.
Good boy. If you balks just that. Yay. What I go ahead, man.
Now you're jogging. Good work, buddy. Now she responded pretty darn fast.
Some dogs,
especially if you've been pulling out a treat and bribing them when they
stopped, they've been rewarded for it. They may keep it up.
So don't feel it's not working.
You may need to hold that leash for three minutes or more.
Don't start tugging on it because if we start tugging, then they'll resist more.
So it's just that constant tension. Resist the urge to say something,
make sure your leash is parallel to the ground. If you're not,
because it really tells my dog, yes, they move into that. Good boy.
They move into that little bit of tension. So if it's pointing upwards,
Shady's not going to suddenly jump into my arms. That tension needs to be, yes,
you are brilliant buddy.
To that tension needs to be in the direction you need them to move.
So that is critical. Leash parallel to the ground. Second thing,
constant tension, no jerking. Don't give up and then suddenly do that.
Don't add energy,
not getting mad at the dog or turning it into a game for them because that
energy of let's go, you know, get going, come on. We gotta go.
That's going to feed the dogs. If they're nervous, they're going to freeze.
If they're playing a little game, a hall, great. I've got some energy going now.
So you want to be very calm.
Now you may also have a dog that only does it at a certain point.
Maybe they don't want to leave the park or maybe they just don't want to leave
their driveway because they're a little soft and they're not sure.
So same technique works. Now, some of you are going to have this as a magic fix.
You're going to do it twice.
When your dog's on a walk and once they realize you're not pulling out the goods
anymore, you may find you never need to do it again.
And they're not going to balk. If you've got a dog,
that's a little nervous that tends to freeze like Shady does.
You may need to do it more,
but I'm not going to take Shady out to really busy places either.
I'm going to take treats and I'm going to show him that life is safe.
I'm going to reward him for walking at my side.
So if you're ever going to do it all the time, then we may be look at,
is there something else going on? Do you have a Chomper? And what's a Chomper.
Well,
just like it sounds like it's a dog that feels compelled to grab the leash.
So you want to go for a walk and they've got other thinking.
They think it's time to play tug. This is one.
I might have a silver bullet for you.
This is where we pull out the chain collar.
Not what you're thinking. I would never put a chain collar on a dog's neck,
but I can take that chain collar. I can attach it to the collar,
attach it to the least. So when that dog goes to bite,
they've got metal. And some of the dogs will say, well, that's no longer fun,
but I warn you. Some of the dogs are going to say, oh, thank you.
That's even more exciting. But for some dogs, that's going to end your problem.
If that doesn't work, we can also try a couple of games. So I'm going to sit,
my dog. So it's a little bit artificial. I'm going to see to begin with.
He can know I have treats. I'm just going to yes. And reward.
Nice easy wins. Yes. And reward. And he says, no,
I'm more interested in those treats. Yes. Now, as he gets better at this,
maybe my treats aren't there and maybe I'm giving it a little tougher one,
you know, eventually I might even. Yes. And I can guess and reward that,
go ahead, boy. Either with toy or food, and then,
I'm going to be able to use this on walks.
He's played this game so many times saying I don't want to grab that leash.
So now before I go for my walk, I'm going to play that game.
So he's thinking I don't want to grab the leash. I'm going to walk along.
I may even take a couple of treats and start to reward him.
So he's not thinking about that leash.
Maybe I go 50 feet and we play that little game again.
Maybe I start to play it with a little bit motion. Yes. And I can reward.
I could even reward him by then telling him, okay,
you can grab that leash and we can have a tub. Then I'll work my out.
And then we can go back on our walk. When I want to change a behavior,
I want to add value to the behavior I want.
So if I am out on the walk and despite me doing lots of things,
my dog does take that leash and start pulling on it.
If I try and get it out of his mouth,
it's going to turn into a big game for him now Thorpe's not going to.
When he realizes I don't want him to take the leash,
she's going to drop it right away. But if my dog didn't,
all I'm going to do is let go of the, and I'm going to try and pull it out.
I'm just simply going to take my hand, put it underneath,
just a couple of fingers underneath that, a collar.
And then I'm just going to keep pressure up.
So now he can't bounce around with that leash in his mouth.
I'm not trying to take it. So there's no big tug game. It's just a boring,
I'm stuck here. Life just got boring. Now, if you think it's not working,
cause they don't drop right away. Just wait it out.
Because I guarantee at some point,
they're going to say this is boring and they're going to spit it out.
Then it would be thank you. And I can continue my walk. Now the first time,
it may take a little while before your dog drops.
But once you do it a few times,
they're going to say no longer is grabbing that leash. Much fun.
Want a silver bullet for those dogs that are chompers. Well,
if your dog loves to carry something, what about giving them something else?
Other than grabbing the leash? You know,
some dogs not going to work because they're not going to want to carry it for
long when you're not tugging it. Now you may not have a Chomper,
but you don't have stop every five seconds. Pick up your toy.
But for dogs like Thorpe, when he was young, he loved to grab the leash.
But all I had to do is pull out the ball, give him that.
And now we can go for a nice walk and I don't have to worry about him.
Chomping on that leash. Do you have a hopper? What's a hopper. Well,
a dog that walks pretty nicely with you.
Most of the time until you see the squirrel or the other
dog, or maybe a skateboard.
So there's one or two things that just turn your dog into this different dog.
That's pulling like a fiend. However, we're going to deal with that.
First off with those hoppers, I'm going to take a few really good treats, a toy.
If they love it, I'm not going to do that for their lives. But well,
I want to work through and them learning to ignore those tough distractions.
I'm going to arm myself with the right tools. Now the other thing to remember,
if you have those dogs, especially young dogs, they're easily excited.
Distance is your friend. So I'm going to pay attention.
I see a person in a dog coming. So now I can give myself some distance.
If I'm on a sidewalk and they're going to be coming past me,
I can move off to the side.
While my dog is still calm and I've got those treats and toys.
I'm also going to get my dog into a sit because if my dog is sitting,
they tend to be calmer and have more of a brain. So I got them sitting right,
nice and close to me. Now I can talk to them. I can make some noises.
I can get my great treats out and reward them for that terrific behavior.
I could yay. What a good boy.
And I could pull out my toy and now I'm interacting.
So as the other dog goes by at more of a distance than they would have,
my dog sees that dog that says, no,
I'm more interested in your treats or your toy and interacting with me.
And you know what, pretty soon my dog's going to say,
I don't care about those dogs.
The other thing is for those hoppers I'm not going to let them interact with
those dogs on leash because if I start out my walk and yeah, our dogs can meet,
my dog goes over there. It's so exciting.
So I'm suddenly not so interesting that dog's huge.
My dogs all worked up well, the next time we go past a dog,
my dog is going to say, wow, I've got to go see that dog as well.
So one they're learning that it's okay to pull on the leash to go see that dog.
And they're rehearsing the wrong behavior. I want my dog rehearsing.
I don't care about that dog.
I would much rather interact with you with all our young dogs or rescue dogs.
Foundation is so important.
So this is something you can do today at home to help your dog.
The next time they go past that tough distraction. With Euchre,
we're using a pretty tough distraction here.
You can see that that's too much for her right now,
but by rehearsing the same pass past that distraction,
pretty soon she realizes it's not available. And if I ignore that,
pay attention to me, she's going to get rewarded.
So pretty soon that's going to carry over the next time she sees a tough
distraction out on the street. Now you hear was a pretty quick study on that.
Depending on your dog,
you may find playing the foundation games a couple of times,
building some distance and working that sit while a dog goes by,
your problem solved. It's like a magic or a silver bullet, but for a lot of you,
you're gonna need to do a little bit more foundation work.
It's so important with our young dogs.
So you may need to play those foundation games for a little while and you may
need to spend timber a weeks or a month actually giving yourself distance,
practicing, ignoring those other dogs. So this technique works for people, dogs,
squirrels,
but if you're looking specifically at how to teach your dog to sit nicely while
they're greeting someone, check out this card right here,
we've given you a couple of quick fixes.
However many dogs are going to need much more foundation.
So if you're interested in some more foundation training,
make sure you look at the link in the description below at our Life Skills
program. On that note, I'm Carol. This is Euchre, Happy Training.