Teaching your dog to walk nicely on a loose leash and taking your dog for a walk
are two very different things.
When it comes to dog training and sometimes in our haste to get out and take our
dogs for a walk,
we find we're in a position where our dogs are pulling in today's video.
I'm going to give you five more tips that are going to help make a difference
and prevent your dog from pulling I'm. Steve.
This is Hank who welcome back to McCann Dogs
Here at McCann dogs.
We've helped well over a hundred thousand dollars overcome the same training
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So I can help you to have a well behaved four legged family member.
We've talked about a couple of different walking styles and some of our other
videos. And you'll notice in this particular video,
I'm going to focus on a more formal or controlled walking position with Hank.
And that's going to be at my left hand side.
It's important with young busy dogs that we give them a clear expectation.
That's not only easy for them to understand,
but easy for you to work towards teaching my dog that walking on my left hand
side is valuable.
Teaching them how to move there and teaching them that there's a reward
structure in that can really help in those initial stages where you decide to
take your dog for a walk or teach them to walk.
More importantly is really important. Picking quieter locations,
where there are less distractions can help set your dog up for success.
It's important that we really try and take advantage of those quiet locations so
that our dogs are right more often than not.
I don't want to have my dog over faced and put them in a situation where they
can't possibly focus. I need to pick those quiet locations to start now,
have a look around me. We are in a big empty field,
and this goes back to teaching my dog to walk nicely on a loose leash.
I need to pick environments where I know my dog can be successful at first. Now,
of course, the better he gets,
I can go into more urban environments and busy settings.
But even if you find a park or someplace where there's less distractions,
less people, less things right off the bat,
I can get my dog a pretty solid foundation.
So the next thing we really need to talk about is the use of your voice.
And I can tell you that most people really underestimate the value of their
voice to their dog. Okay? When I talk to my dogs,
I want them to know that that's fun.
I want them to know that good things happen.
And it's important that while I'm doing that,
I'm actually paying attention to them.
If I'm taking my dog for a walk and trying to teach them,
I can't be talking to the person next to me or searching around on my phone.
I need to be engaged with my dog.
That voice in that praise is a really valuable reward.
And it's the thing that's going to help bridge the gap between our treats in
between all the other rewards that we're going to use. You know,
we want to use food to teach our dogs, but we don't want to be dependent on it.
So using your voice in the early stages can help really get your dogs,
that solid foundation and knowing that you're valuable and interesting to them.
Bye.
One of the things that we find happens in class,
oftentimes when people are teaching their dogs to walk,
is that because they're so focused on using their voice and using that
reward and getting those dogs moving is they tend to slow down.
They tend to walk slower.
A good purposeful pace can really help keep your dogs focused and attention on
you. The slower you go,
the easier it is for them to get distracted by all the things on the ground,
that leaf that hand or that other thing that's happened to go by. Good. Yes.
Good. If I slow down, let's go easy. Good boy.
He has more. And to sniff the ground,
he has more time to look at all the things let's go back. Let's go. Excellent.
I know he had a little sniff there,
so I'm going to turn instructions and go the other way. Keeping up that nice.
Quick pace. Yes. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Yes. Good boy.
What a good puppy dog. And you can see with this increased speed.
He's now paying much more attention to me. Excellent. Let's go. Good job, buddy.
Let's go catch up catchup. Yes. Good boy. Hooray.
And that quicker pace allows them to get a little less distracted. Good boy,
buddy. Excellent work. Those two points that I just talked about,
the idea of your voice and your pace are really important.
If you have one of those dogs,
that's noses glued to the ground the entire time you're walking, Beagle owners,
I'm talking to you.
You need to look at those two things and implement those into your walking
training right now.
One of the biggest things that can help you with teaching your dog to walk is
trying to be as proactive as possible. Now, what exactly does that mean? Well,
being proactive means trying to identify the things that are going to distract
your dog before they actually distract your dog.
And that can be a tough challenge, but anytime I'm out with a young dog,
my head is on a swivel knowing what's going to approach and what could possibly
distract my dog. Now, when my dog does get distracted,
it's important that I make some changes to help my dog be successful.
And that may be one of a couple of things that may be simply turning and heading
the other direction,
maybe changing direction and making space from that distraction really helped my
dog get refocused.
Continuing towards that distraction is not going to do anything other than keep
that dog a little bit overstimulated,
but the more my dog understands to follow my pace and my direction,
the more my dog will understand to walk with me.
And that all comes from doing it at a distance first. Now let's face it.
That's great to say that we can predict every distraction that's going to come
around us, but that's not real life things that are going to surprise you.
Things are going to come out of nowhere.
People are going to want to stop and say hi to your dog.
And there are a few things that you can do to help your dog. In that moment,
of course,
one is still going to be turning and moving away from that distraction.
But sometimes it might be just pausing for a second and having your dog sit,
getting their brain a little bit more reconnected in their head,
giving them a stable position to work from and giving them something that you
can reward for.
Oftentimes we react because the dog jumps on a person or starts to pull in,
leads towards a person. But if I teach my dog to sit at my side,
I give them something where they can be right,
that I can reward and where we're reacting to the situation.
But I'm being proactive, like teaching my dog what to do instead,
right now I'm teaching Hank that sitting at my side means good.
Things are gonna happen. And I'm giving that opportunity on a loose leash.
And I can use that during my walking. If my dog happens to get over face,
let's say I'm walking down the sidewalk and something's coming closer and closer
and closer. And I know in that situation,
there's no way my dog is going to do anything other than pull to get to that
distraction. I'm going to try and just make a little bit of space.
Give my dog another job to do,
give them an opportunity to right on a loose leash and then reward generously
when he does those things that I want.
Now I want to take a second to highlight what's happening right now.
I've just done a little bit of work with Hank, hey buddy up here.
And when I got his leash in my hand, about five minutes ago,
he was pretty much like a bee on a string. Good boy. Good.
Now through the use of some clear direction with him, yes.
Excellent job and some great reward,
but really showing him what I want in every second. Excellent job.
Not letting him make the decisions. He's starting to go. Okay.
That person is somebody that's worth paying attention to.
That's worth listening to and has value to me. He understands now, Oh man,
this person kind of fun.
And I want to listen to this person when you're out walking,
it's inevitable that people are going to want to come up and pet your puppy.
Let's face it.
Everybody loves a cute puppy and everybody wants to pet your puppy.
And those can create some very tough challenges for that dog.
Teaching them how to greet people politely.
Now you've got two options and oftentimes I've said, no, thanks.
You can't pet my dog.
But I also feel a little bad because I want people to pet my dog.
And I also want my dog to learn how to greet people.
But I've found maybe asking that person to help me with my training of the puppy
and directing them on what to do can really satisfy both parties. One,
I set my dog up for success and I teach them how to greet people. Secondly,
they get did that make you puppy and they feel leaving happy.
So what would that look like to coach a stranger that you've never met before?
Well, come on inside, I'll look at a video and we'll show you.
So for this exercise, you're going to need you,
your dog and a random stranger.
So in this clip I had Ken help me with Hank.
I had Hank sitting at my side and I had Ken wanting to come in and pet him.
So what I did was give him specific instructions.
And I'm going to talk you through the exact instructions that I gave him as they
were happening. So first things first,
I'm going to get Hank placed in my side with my leash.
I'm going to bring him in.
And I'm going to ask that person to just back up a second,
and I'm gonna put Slack back in the leash and I'm gonna praise Hank.
And then I might invite that person a little closer, but of Hank gets up.
I'm going to place him right back in and I'm gonna encourage that person away.
Now, again, you'll notice I'm putting Slack right back in the leash.
Then I could ask that person to come in again. Yes.
Thanks committing to the sense of that person. Get them a little closer.
Now Ken touches them and Hank gets up. They'll pick deal.
I just encourage Ken to go back placement all going to sit and give him another
chance. And this time I actually asked Ken to come to the side, you know,
known as that ain't got over excited, jumped a little bit, no big deal.
Now I'm just going to pause that right there.
It's important that when your dog makes a decision like that,
and let's say jumps, I addressed the jumping, but I'm not mad at the dog.
I'm simply going to put the dog back in the sit,
encourage that person to move away again. And then that person can reapproach.
So Hank jumped up, I told them off, placed him back in the sit,
ask Ken to move away.
And I asked him to come into the side this time to make it a little bit less,
um, overbearing or exciting to Ken or to, to Hank at that moment.
And you'll notice this time when he comes in,
I'm actually talking to Hank a little bit more rewarding more often,
and Ken can get a little teeny pat and then off you can go.
And that's the best way to get your dog set up for that type of situation.
Now I've just given you five more points to help prevent your dog from pulling
on leash.
And if you haven't seen our first video to help prevent your dog from pulling on
leash, get that card right there,
teaching your dog to walk nicely on a loose leash is something that we focus a
lot on in our life skills, online dog training program.
And that's a program where you get direct access to instructors like me to help
you to have a well behaved for like a family member. Now,
if you're interested in joining us in our online training,
click that link in the description below with that I'm Steve, this is Skye,
Happy Training.