Teaching your dog to walk nicely on a loose leash is a challenge in and of
itself,
but what do you do when you're trying to teach your dog to walk and food isn't
working? In today's video,
I'm going to offer you some strategies that can help improve your leash walking
even when your dog isn't interested in food at all,
and it may be surprising to find out that that might be less walking overall
because food isn't working with our dogs.
First thing I need to do is get rid of this bag of treats.
Get rid of this bait pouch.
I need to get rid of this toy and we're going to go work with our dogs.
I'm Steve Walsh. Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
oftentimes people think that the a walk with their dog starts at the end of the
driveway and once they get onto the sidewalk,
but if I'm starting my walk off like this,
I'm already not setting up the dog for success.
This is where I'm going to decide to train my dog.
I'm going to focus a little bit more time on little teeny wins here and teach
this dog that she shouldn't pull on the leash. Now again,
I don't have food with me,
so we're just gonna use ourselves and a little bit engagement to let her know
what she's supposed to do. Hey girl, I'm here. Hi. Good girl. That's better.
Excellent job. Now I might direct her to my side to start. Good girl. Very nice.
Good. Yes. Now that I'm getting a little focus,
now I might start to do a little teeny bit of walking.
Now there are a lot of dogs that aren't really motivated by food and we get a
lot of people saying, I've tried everything to get my dog interested.
But I can also tell you that,
that you have to think outside of the box a little bit.
Sometimes just going to the store and buying regular old dog treats aren't going
to solve your problem and get your dog interested in you. You know,
you may look at some things that you already have around the house,
maybe a little bit of that leftover hamburger or some good cubed up cheddar
cheese, some chicken weiners,
something that's such high value for your dog that they really can't do anything
but focus on you.
Also taking the opportunity to try and train those dogs before they've had
dinner before they've had breakfast.
Really capitalize on the times when they've got those hungry bellies and you can
get them a little bit more motivated.
The other big factor that comes into play is environment.
Environment plays a huge role in how dogs can learn and also how they're able to
focus.
If I set my dog up in a situation where there's 10 or 20 dogs running around or
squirrels everywhere or ducks and all sorts of things,
the chance of my dog being able to focus on me are pretty darn slim.
Really big thing to keep in mind is teaching your dog to walk nicely on a loose
leash and taking them for a walk or two really, really different things.
And I'm going to focus on spending some time teaching Lucy how to walk.
The big thing I'm going to keep in mind is I'm not going to look for 20 minutes
or half an hour of nice walking.
I want little bits and it may be 10 or 15 seconds at first before I find a way
to quickly reward her and let her know she's doing a great job.
So I've chosen a quiet spot to really focus on having a somewhat controlled
environment. Again, the more distractions I can limit,
the better her chances of being successful are.
So I'm also gonna not really choose a direction or a pace.
I'm going to take a couple of steps and see what's going to happen.
Now my goal is that I get one or two steps of loose leash walking up my left
hand side cause this is more formal walking. This isn't sort of a casual walk.
And then I need to let her know she's right now for her. She likes pet.
She likes to be loved up. I do know that about her. Good girly,
so that's what I'm going to use to her. Know when she's right.
I'm still gonna use our yes marker. I'm going to still use that to time,
that specific moment, but then I'm going to give her a nice calm Pat. Nice calm,
praise, nice calm, touch, good girl,
but I'm just going to take a few steps and see how this goes.
Now what I am going to do to help her though is if she pulls on the leash and
goes forward,
I'm going to add a few pulses on the leash with my left hand and I'm going to
turn and go the other way. I'm going to add those pulses.
It's just sort of a stimulus to get her reconnected with me.
There's a couple of things I want her to know.
She needs to walk in the direction that I suggest.
I'm not going to let her rehearse,
pulling and going in the direction she wants to,
so I'm going to change directions often to try and help her be successful.
Are you ready? Good girl. Let's go. Yes. Good. Let's go. Oops, let's go. Hi,
there's my girl. Yay. Good girl. Oops. Let's go. Good girl. Oops again.
Let's go. [inaudible]. Yes, good girl.
So you notice I got three steps of really, really nice walking.
I took the opportunity to pause and praise her for that.
That's our first step into building this loose leash walking.
Now I want to talk specifically about how I'm using the lease to redirect her a
little bit.
One thing I don't want to do is just stand here and let her pull forward on that
leash.
You'll notice my left hand is what does all the work and it comes down a little
bit lower closer to the the a clip of her leash but not right at it.
And I simply adding a couple of pulses as I turn and the moment she gets in the
position that I want her, I put Slack back in the leash.
What she quickly starts to learn is when she's doing things right,
there's no tension on the leash and that's when she gets yes and then the praise
to back it up. And you know,
I want to think about this like a good firm tap on the shoulder.
I want her to understand, Oh, something's different and I need to move along.
What I'm not doing is dragging this dog around.
I don't want her to ever think that this is how her walk should be. You're fine.
Leave it. Leave that. You're fine. It's fine. Leave that. Go ahead.
Excellent job. Good, good.
So you notice she got distracted by somebody who is riding by on a skateboard
and I use those same leash pulses to simply redirect her.
I told her to leave it.
I just gave her a little turn and then I gave her Slack back.
I'm not forcing her not to look at that thing.
I'm letting her look at that thing,
but I want to make sure that when she looks at it and she's calm about it,
then I could praise her. Now,
the other important thing that really comes into play here is when I'm going to
use those leash pulses, I'm going to try and use them as quickly as I can.
And what I mean by that is the moment she's out of position or pulling forward,
that's when I'm going to change direction. I've got to talk to her.
I'm going to add those pulses on the leash.
I'm not going to wait until she's six feet away from me,
and then I have to make this big redirection with the leash.
I'm going to do it quickly and effectively and get her reconnected with me.
So here's what those look like now. Okay, let's go. Yes, good girl. Let's go.
Let's go. Good, here's my girl. Good job. Yes.
What a good guy. Let's give me a girl. Good girl. Very nice.
So I went from three steps to all of a sudden six steps pretty darn quickly.
And again, she's figuring out that when she walks nicely,
that's when their awards come. Go ahead, let's go. Yes, good girl. Let's go.
oops. So a little bump up there. My girl, her reg, God girl. What?
A good puppy dog. Yes. Excellent girl. Now that to me is a win.
Normally I might change locations and look for that same sort of duration,
but I'm going to try and do both. Now.
I'm just going to try and go a little bit further next to a road that has some
traffic. My expectation though is that she still walked nicely on a loose leash,
so you're ready to grow high. That's a good girl.
I'll have her come into my side. Good girl. Go ahead. Let's go. Go ahead.
Let's go. Yes, good girl. Let's go. God, there's my girl. Let's go.
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Ah, Hey, there's my girl.
What a good puppy dog. Loose. Let's go. Good girl. Yes.
What a good puppy dog. Lucy, are you ready? Are you set loose? Let's go.
Let's go. Hi. Yes. Good girl. Excellent job. Let's go Lucy. Let's go.
Good girl. What a good puppy dog. Yes. Good girl.
Excellent job. Very nice.
So you notice I've got some pretty continued focus and nice walking position on
a nice loose leash. I gotta take a pause there.
Give her a nice reward and we'll try it again.
Now you notice a couple of things happened in that last little bit where Lucy
was so successful.
I talked about you being a reward for your dog when she was doing things right.
When the leash was loose, I was talking to her. I was encouraging her.
I was making myself quite fun the moment she got off track or pulled on the
leash, I didn't say anything. I simply let my leash do the talking.
I use those pulses on the lease, but the moment she checked back in with me,
I went back to praying,
praising her and that use of your voice and the timing of that can really
solidify a in your dog's mind when they're on the right track. You know,
I don't have the benefit of rewarding or a food, but that's okay.
I can use myself and my engagement with her to let her know when she's correct.
You also know that I only said yes at specific moments and that was actually
when she was on a loose leash in that great position and offered to look at me.
I didn't ask her to look. I didn't direct her to look, but anytime she did,
I took advantage of that moment by quickly saying yes and marking that specific
moment in time. It's important that yes, be the thing that tells the dog there,
right? I talked about keeping duration short.
I have been out here for 15 or 20 minutes working this, walking with Lucy,
but I've only gone 15 or 20 feet.
We get so focused on walking that route or that path that we want and if we take
a little bit more time to focus on teaching the dog and the time it takes and
training the dog in the time it takes, I'll achieve the same goal.
My dog gets tired, they learn how to walk on a loose leash. It's a win win.
If you're still struggling with teaching your dog to walk nicely on a loose
leash and you want to think about changing the rules on how you walk your dog,
check out that playlist right there and if this is your first time on the
channel, make sure you hit that subscribe button right there. With that,
I'm Steve. Happy training.