The unpopular truth about your leash walking training is that you're looking for
the one big win you're trying to teach your dog to not pull you around the
neighborhood or get distracted by everything. Now,
I have some good news and some bad news.
And the bad news is if you're looking at the big picture and doing what you've
always been doing, you're gonna make it harder on yourself.
The good news is if you break this walking training into smaller bits and help
your dog to be more successful in little teeny increments,
your dog's gonna learn faster and your training's gonna be much more successful.
So you're probably asking yourself, what are those wins?
I'm out here on the sidewalk with Maggie and things are pretty busy.
There's been some traffic going by there's people going by on bikes,
and this might be too much for her.
And it might be too much for you and your dog.
You need to find yourself a place with more space where your dog will be less
distracted, like a big park.
As I'm moving here,
I've got some great rewards that I'm letting Maggie know when she's right and
making myself more valuable than the world around her.
This is the kind of skill where you're going to need something really valuable.
We need something that can overpower all the distractions. Now,
in this case with Maggie, it's some cheese,
but it might be some hot dogs or a great liver treat, or a tuna treat.
What we need is something that can get your dog's attention in all those
distractions. Now, this isn't all about food. Not every dog works that way,
but it can certainly give you a leg up when you go out in that wide world and
all those distractions are there.
And I want you to see the attention that Maggie gives me as we work on the
skill, even though she and I have never worked on it together before,
cuz we want your dog to know that you have the most value.
And once your dog starts to know that their attention will shift to you.
So where do I want my dog to walk? Well,
I want her to walk in a certain position that makes it easy for me to reward and
easy for her to learn. So I'm gonna teach her to walk at my left hand side.
So before I go anywhere,
I'm gonna get some great treats and I'm just gonna lure her to that side.
I can even have her sit at my side and reward her once she starts to know that
good things happen here.
I can use that as my foundation for when we actually start moving.
Dogs don't naturally wanna walk right beside us.
So I need to teach her that it's valuable to be here.
And what easier way to teach her that than when we're standing still.
The next thing that will help get that big win is using your voice.
I don't want to use the food all the time. That's a good girly, amazing.
But I also want her to understand that there's value in paying attention to me,
even if the food, yes, isn't right on her nose the entire time.
And though I'm talking to you right now,
I'm using my voice to keep her engaged with me. Yes.
What a good girly and that use of your voice is the thing that can buy you the
time. Yes. In between treats to teach her to walk nicely on a loose leash.
Using your voice is so important,
it can be the bridge between treats when you're moving,
but it can also be really helpful when you're stationary. I want my dog to know,
even when she's sitting on a loose leash, if something were to go by,
I can remind her to sit. I can let her know she's doing a great job.
When she looks at that bike and then checks back in with me.
Those are great times to use your yes. And then back that up with your reward.
Your pace can really make a big difference in how attentive your dog is.
I like to walk with a good, purposeful pace. Like I'm late for an appointment,
oftentimes that can really help the dog focus on me. The slower I go,
the more apt the dog is to get distracted by the world around us.
Now I don't wanna run, but I do wanna walk with a good purposeful pace.
Let's go. Good girl. Yes. What a good puppy dog. Hooray. Look at you.
The next tool that can help you get those little wins along the way is changes
of direction. Now, when she's distracted by something,
I can use my leash simply to turn her and then put a little slack back in the
leash and give her a chance to make a choice.
And if she gets distracted in this direction,
I'm gonna turn again and then put that slack back in.
And let's see if she can get reengaged with me. So I'm gonna do a little turn.
Let's go. Let's go. There's my girl. Hooray. What a good puppy dog.
Excellent job. And I'm even gonna reward this with food.
I'm gonna reward it with my voice. There's a good girl.
So she gets a little distracted again, turn and go this way. There's my girl.
Yes. That's a better girl. What a good puppy dog changing direction.
Isn't all about spinning in circles. And in fact,
if you feel like you're spinning around and around and around and around,
the best thing to do is actually just stop. Make it easier.
Take some of that motion outta things.
Get a little bit more focus in a stationary position. Then try walking again.
The amount of time we spend training these skills is a really important thing to
keep in mind for getting those little wins, you know,
five or 10 minutes at a time when these dogs are learning can really help both
them and you be more successful in your training.
So what do short training sessions look like? Well,
maybe it's five minutes before you feed their breakfast.
Maybe it's two minutes with their breakfast.
Maybe it's a couple minutes before dinner time.
One of the common mistakes people make is they train their dogs for too long and
both they and the dog get frustrated,
make it easy for both you and your dog to be successful many times throughout
the day. To be fair to our dog,
we can't expect them to walk beautifully in five minutes by changing one thing,
we need to use all of these things in combination to really help our dogs
understand what it is that we want from them. But that does create a problem.
Now you have to take your dog out and you can't always focus on teaching them to
walk formally at your left hand side.
And if you'd like some other options on how to teach your dog to walk without
pulling on leash, click that video right there. Now,
if you'd like more personalized feedback for training your dog from me and the
other McCann Dogs instructors,
check out our Life Skills online training program.
The link is in the description below on that note. I'm instructor, Steve,
this is Maggie. Happy training.