Are you struggling to walk your dog on a leash? Well in today's video I'm gonna
show you and teach you how to train your dog to walk on a lead without pulling
Coming up
Hi guys, Geraldine here
So in today's video I'm gonna teach you how to
train your dog to walk on a leash without pulling. A lot of owners have
contacted me recently having that problem, telling me that they were not able to
handle their dogs on the leash and of course walking your dog should be a very
nice activity and very enjoyable, but if your dog pulls on the leash it's not
that enjoyable. So I'm going to teach you how to do that and there are a few steps
to take and here comes the first one.
The first thing you need to do if you only have a pup or a very young dog that has
never been used to walk on a collar and a lead before, you need to get him used to
his collar and lead before taking him outside. So you need to start making him wear the
collar and then the lead inside your house. Of course I'm not gonna do that
with my boys because all my boys are grown-up dogs and they are well used to
their collar and lead.
One of the important things to do before taking your dog for a walk, especially if
he has the tendency to pull, is actually to give him a good run and make him run in
your garden for 10, 15 minutes before going for a walk. And my dog Finn
absolutely loves playing fetch, so that's what we're gonna do with him now. You are ready Finn?
He's an amazing jumper as well, I think I'm gonna register him to play flyball
because he would be amazing for it.
So you do that for 10, 15 minutes. Make sure
you give your dog a good run. It's very important as well for dogs to
actually run and not only walk, so it's actually better to walk him for 30
minutes and play with him for 10 than to actually just walk him for 1 hour.
Next step we're gonna get ready for the walk and we're gonna use the collar and
the leash obviously. I'm gonna take them now.
Finn is gonna be all excited. Come here, Finn.The very important thing as well from
now on, because your dog has to understand that he has to be quiet during the walk and
listen to you. So the very important thing is that even when you put the
collar and the leash on your dog, he has to stay calm. So I'm gonna ask him to sit
and reward him if he does. Finn, sit - good boy. Put the collar on you first - yes - the leash - yes.
He knows that I have treats. I'm gonna
give him a treat - good boy. Get a bag of treats, very interesting - very important to do that,
not interesting - well interesting as well but very important because you
gonna need it and here I use hot dogs. They have to be
tasty treats, so your dog really listens to you.
Next step we're gonna start walking with him. But he knows that I have treats so he's gonna listen to me.
Come here, Finn. So you first start walking in your garden.
Very important thing as well with that, is actually to choose a side that you want
your dog to walk on. I usually choose the left side and so they are used to stay always
on the same side. So you practice a few tricks like this, give the paw, sit, down,
in your garden, all this time he is listening to you because he knows... He's
giving me the paw because he wants a treat, because he knows: You have
such yummy treats! And then, slowly, we're gonna start to go outside.
If your dog pulls, I want you to stop straight away and you wait until he sits,
and that's exactly what I did. He knows, I have all his attention because he knows
I have yummy treats.
Just so you know, normally Finn pulls a lot.
Now there's a car
but he doesn't care, he's watching but he doesn't mind really, all his
attention is on me because I have yummy treats - come here, buddy - yes.
All his focus is on me because he knows that I have treats and because he's a bit tired after
playing outside as well, so that's what makes a dog walking on the lead very easy.
Normally Finn is crazy. There's another dog barking, he doesn't care, he just (laughs)
He actually hates that dog
but he doesn't care now because there are treats, so nothing is more important than
me and the treats now. Isn't it, Finn?
He loves hot dogs. I'm telling you, normally when he hears that
dog he is going bananas, but because I have the treats it doesn't matter.
So very important: to find your dog favourite treats and get a bag full
of them. And of course in the end you're gonna start phasing them out, because you
don't want a dog relying on treats all the time and obviously you're not
gonna reward him all the time in the end, you're gonna only reward him when he
walks slowly for 15 minutes, or after the walk, but at the beginning
it's very important you have all his attention. And even more isn't it
Finn? Yes.
Another good thing to practice as well if your dog has the tendency to pull is to
actually change your speed or change the direction of your walk. So if we go for a walk here
I'm going quick so he follows.
Or I can go slow so that he is
gonna follow as well.
And he adapts because all his focus is on me
because of my treats.
You need to practice this regularly, get your dog on
a walk, and teach him how to walk nicely and gently on a lead and get his
attention all the time. That's really the most important thing: to get his attention
all the time and that's the key for a nice and gentle walk. And eventually
you're gonna start to phase out those treats as well, because you don't want
your dog to gain a lot of weight and you don't want your dog to rely only on
treats either. And also by all means please, dogs have to find their
walks enjoyable as well and they have to have fun and they need to sniff around so
by all means he needs to listen to you when you ask him to listen to you, but he
also needs to go and sniff, and explore his surroundings. So please, maybe you
can put that on command as well and tell him to actually go sniff, go do your
stuff and then he knows he can do whatever he wants to, but when
you ask him to listen to you, he actually does. Well that's for today's
video. I'll see you next week, and in the meantime as always if you have any
comment, any dog training question, please don't hesitate to contact me. I hope you
have a nice week and please stay safe. I'll see you next week, bye bye!