Leash biting, pulling, and pancaking, these are pretty common for new puppy owners to experience,
maybe you’re seeing one or more of these behaviors form your pup?
How to teach a puppy to walk nicely on a leash is one of the most common questions
I get in my free Facebook group, Puppy Training with Michele Lennon.
Leash skills is just one area where humans and canines just don’t speak the same language!
As part of leash skills training
you will want to teach your pup how to walk nicely while on a leash.
This isn’t something that comes naturally to them so it will take time, and training.
We start that process with the desensitization of the collar or harness.
As training progresses you teach the puppy to anticipate the leash
and collar and allow you to put it on with ease.
We start practicing leash skills by walking in the house first, not outside just yet
That’s not as easy as it sounds and it involves some dedicated training time
on your part, but I’m here to help you out with that!
Michele here with HTTADD
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To begin leash training, you first have to introduce the puppy to the harness and leash.
This is a process that has to be taken slowly and cannot start as
soon as you want head out the door on a walk.
We actually have to do a little of what we call pre-training,
this is teaching a puppy a skill before you actually need it
or you can think of this like dress rehearsals before the Big Show
We also have to take things at your puppy’s pace where they
are most comfortable learning new skills
This is something I’m always reminding my students of. These students are enrolled
in my online puppy training course called 30 Days to Puppy Perfection.
I have a great game in my course all about introducing the harness or collar
and making it something positive.
You do this with high value treats and lots of practice.
You can’t start leash training until the dog is comfortable with the harness and leash.
If she or he is biting it or struggling while it’s on, it’s time to go back a step.
Your pup won’t be able to learn when they are stressed, this is why we take
these steps slow and at your pup’s pace. This a phrase you’ll likely hear me repeat often!
When starting leash training, it begins at home, in a quiet environment.
You want to work with limited or low-level distractions and
gradually add in distractions as training sessions progress.
Let’s understand canine behavior just a little bit more so we can have the right mindset
and expectations about loose leash walking.
Dogs have a natural instinct to resist pressure.
This is called the opposition reflex. Humans have this too.
If you’ve ever had someone grab you unexpectedly, your first instinct was probably to pull away.
That same instinct is what makes your puppy pull away from the pressure of the leash.
When your dog is pulling, it’s tempting for you to add resistance, or pull the puppy back toward you.
But this actually increases the puppy’s oppositional reflex and frustration level.
Frustrated puppy brains are not learning new things when they are frustrated. At
that point it’s time to take a break to re-evaluate how training is going.
You also might be tempted to
give in to the pulling and simply go in the direction the puppy wants.
While we definitely want our dogs to have their own choices about where they go
and what they smell on a walk, we don't want them to communicate those choices
by pulling on the leash while adding tons of pressure on their collar or harness.
So maybe you’re thinking “OK Michele. I’ll work on training for leash skills slowly,
but how do I get my dog some exercise while I’m doing that?”
When training for the loose leash walk, you’ll be working on 3 things at the same time.
#1 Exposure
When we first bring our puppies home, they are usually in that
critical window for exposing them to new things called the imprint period.
This normally occurs between 8 and 16 weeks of age.
This window is ripe for helping shape their impression of new things and help them set up
a life-long confidence when new people, places or things come into their world.
Exposing our puppies to new things does not mean dog parks.
It means taking them to new places for
sniffing, sitting in parking lots watching new people and animals,
Maybe even going to friends’ houses so they can smell new people or animals
(who are likely tucked away in the back bedroom when you first arrive)
or occasionally meeting a fellow dog of a similar size and temperament.
Check out this video for all the great tips about how to expose your puppy to new things
in a way that builds confidence, not stress!
#2 Decompression Walks for Exercise
While working on that exposure training, you also want to take your puppy on decompression
walks to help them burn off that energy and decompress from all that puppy learning.
This will help the puppy be more focussed for training sessions and sleep better at night.
You can learn more about decompression walks in this awesome video.
The short version is that decompression walks are long leash walks with a back clip harness
in a very quiet area, not your neighborhood no matter how quiet you think the neighborhood is
This is a place where the puppy can simply roam and sniff and explore,
without all the demands and stress of a neighborhood walk.
#3 Training in Quiet, Calm Environments
In addition to that exposure work and those decompression walks,
the real training is now beginning on leash skills.
You might be tempted to just grab the leash, put the puppy in his collar or harness and
head down the street. But your puppy will likely tell you that he’s not ready for that.
You’ll see behaviors like pulling, pacing back in forth front of you, lagging behind,
laying down on the sidewalk unable to move forward
no matter how many treats you put in front of that nose.
Like I mentioned, leash skill training has to start at home, inside.
As the puppy learns what he’s supposed to do on a leash
at home, you can gradually add in more distractions as training sessions progress.
Then as he continues to do well on the leash, you can start to work in different environments,
such as the backyard, then maybe the garage with the door open,
moving on to the driveway and finally the sidewalk or street.
This may take months and it’s important to go at the pace your puppy can tolerate,
not the pace your human brain wants!
One of my students, Deborah, shared this video
in our student group and posted her outlook on teaching her pup Jack to walk on a leash.
She says “This is a video of Jack are 10 month old Westie
we have been practicing least goes for the past eight months,
over the past two months we have been concentrating
on go Zone walking and Jack checking in with us
this walk is a huge win as 8 months ago he was unable to walk
one block without zigzagging or stopping
also we are practicing leave it and drop it
at Focus leash skills truly takes time patience and turning back the training dial”
In my online course,
there are 13 different games that I recommend you practice before going out on a walk.
And if you practice each of them in low, medium and high distraction environments,
that’s 39 different steps to get to a loose leash walk.
Not one quick thing to stop pulling or biting on the leash
It’s really that complicated! But I made it easy to follow in a linear way,
with lots of great visual examples in the course.
Some of the games inside this course that you’ll be using for teaching leash skills include:
The name game, where you teach your dog to respond to his name
The focus game, which is when your dog makes eye contact with you.
This is a great one to use when you want to keep your dog’s focus on you
to avoid distractions you might encounter like other dogs, animals or people.
My students love the bump it game too.
This fun game could be used in a variety of ways on a walk, including getting your pup to focus,
helping him have a “reset” after an exciting situation or even for
recalling the pup closer to you without using the cue “come”.
Go zone is one of the games that is really critical for good leash manners.
This game teaches your pup that good things happen when he’s at your side.
This game ends with an auto-sit when you stop moving.
This is one of the most common games you’ll use when on a walk.
The blocking game teaches your dog to focus on you
when you move in front of him, so he can remain calm when seeing something exciting.
It’s often used when the situation is too exciting for a simple “focus” cue
and you have to take it up a level to get his attention.
There are many other games that you’ll want to practice before heading out on a walk,
including drop it, leave it and come.
It’s really that complicated! But I made it easy to
follow in a linear way, with lots of great visual examples in the course.
You might be tempted to skip a few steps of this leash training and just wing it.
But here’s a little secret about bad habits or taking short cuts:
they become stronger the more your dog does them.
So if you head out on a walk and he’s allowed to pull you all over,
bark at dogs and joggers and kids and he’s lunging when he sees cars,
these are all going to be stronger habits the more he does them.
And when habits get stronger AND the dog gets stronger… that’s a dangerous combination.
Do yourself a favor and work on these skills before you need them and don’t let him do
them if he’s not ready.
Just don’t forget the decompression walks while working on this,
so he can get all those great sniffs and doggy exploring needs met.
Walking on a loose leash is no easy feat for your puppy or for you!
On a side note you might even be tempted to find a tool to make all this leash training easier…
There’s a problem with that too,
a tool is only going to work if it’s on, it’s like a bandaid or a quick fix without lasting results.
Some tools actually cause more damage by inflicting pain to try to stop a behavior,
what ends up happening is it escalates the dog’s frustration
and in turn we can create negative associations with things the dogs sees when they pain is felt
Take that same scenario I described early...
if you were being grabbed, and you naturally pull away…
what if while you were being grabbed you also felt a something sharp poking or scraping at your skin
Or even causing an abrasion... now you’re going to really be upset, angry and scared,
probably wondering what is going on, and why,
you have a sudden urge to not only pull away but react in a stronger manner
Maybe you kick or scream, you’ve clearly had a negative experience
that you likely won’t forget for years to come.
Aversive tools are not needed when you want to teach your dog to trust you
While aversives may serve as a quick fix,
they affect the welfare of the animal and can lead to other behavioral issues in the long run.
Avoid aversives and play the training games that have the most
impact on your training and relationship with your dog!
Be mindful that even some tools like some of the front clip harnesses
on the market that claim to stop pulling in its tracks actually can cause problems too
Some of these harnesses and even head halters throw a growing puppy’s spine,
neck and shoulders out of alignment.
This can lead to a bad walk, gait or stride
These harnesses can even cause pinched nerves as the puppy continues to pull forward
The shoulders and neck are pulled out of alignment and with lots of walks
this can really lead to lasting damage to your puppy’s physical development.
Now, Be patient with your furry friend and with yourself.
If you are struggling, ask yourself if your puppy is ready for the environment you are in.
Remember that this takes time and is not something you will conquer in a week!
My course is called 30 Days to Puppy Perfection but that’s only because I need 30 days to unveil
all the amazing content, there's that much of it!
You get access to the course for as long as you need to work through all the skills.
Leash skills are only one part of our online course. So many more skills to cover!!
Maybe you’re not quite ready for the course,
perhaps you might like my Better Puppy Behavior Workshop.
It’s more detailed than a YouTube video so be sure
to bring a notebook and pen because you’ll want to take great notes.
What difficulties have you run into when you teach your puppy to walk on a leash?
Let us know in the comments below!