dog walking nicely on lead

Do you walk with your dog or behind him? Learn how to make a lasting change!

Want to know the secret of getting your dog to walk nicely on leash? Read *Let’s Go!* the third in the series of Essential Skills for a Brilliant Family Dog, to be found at Amazon in ebook, paperback, or audiobook.  Brilliant Family Dog is committed…

First published on positively.com and reprinted with permission 

 

How many people do you see walking their dogs in comfort?

I find it’s very rare to see an owner walking their dog where the dog is not several feet ahead, the owner’s arm outstretched as they stumble along after their wayward hound.

“He’s so eager to get where we’re going,” they gasp, as they are dragged past.

Why do most people get a dog? Companionship and getting out and about would be among the commonest answers. Is what we’ve just seen in any way a companionable walk? Would that same person tolerate their child hauling them along like this? Or their partner??

How much more enjoyable it is to walk - arm-in-arm or hand-in-hand - with someone who shares your journey? Someone who can look at you and smile. Who can remark on things that you pass, draw attention to things they see, and generally live this piece of your life with you.

Why not have this level of companionship on walks with your dog too?

Start as you mean to continue

In my experience, many people start out wrong with their puppy, who grows into a strong dog - even little dogs can pull horribly - and the die is cast. The owner’s motives are good, but their kindness is misplaced.

Their little puppy wants to pull out to the end of the lead, so their arm goes up as they let him. Then puppy follows his nose and wants to go further, perhaps towards another dog. Now the owner, with outstretched arm, follows behind.

What has this puppy just learnt?

“If I pull they’ll follow. And if I pull harder they’ll follow faster!”

The companionable walks you envisaged when you got your puppy are now doomed.

 

It takes two to tango …

Want to know the secret of getting your dog to walk nicely on leash? Read *Let’s Go!* the third in the series of Essential Skills for a Brilliant Family Dog, to be found at Amazon in ebook, paperback, or audiobook.  Brilliant Family Dog is committed…

.. and if one of us stops, then the other will too. Really.

Your puppy simply needs to learn from the start that pulling on the lead is going to get him nowhere. So then he won’t do it. Your job is to keep a loose hold on the end of the lead with just one hand, and to keep that hand close to you all the time. If you find your hand is floating out of its own accord, just tuck your thumb into your belt or pocket to prevent it.

There’s no need to wrap the lead six times round your fist and hang on grimly with both hands, jerking the lead all the while. That is actually guaranteed to get your dog pulling! Why? Because you trigger the opposition reflex.

If someone grabs your arm and pulls, you automatically pull back. Your body knows it needs to stay upright. If they pull harder, you lean away from them to prevent falling over. This is how we get the common image of dog pulling one way, owner leaning back and pulling the other way. If someone cut your lead in half - you’d probably both fall over!

This puts a huge strain on your body - your back and shoulders will probably be complaining most - and a big strain on your dog’s body too. If your dog is pulling into his collar, choking and spluttering, he can be doing some real physical damage to himself - not to mention the impeded blood flow to the brain and the anxiety that anyone feels if there is pressure on the neck. This last is particularly bad news if your dog is fearful or reactive.

You don’t just slap a bridle and saddle on a young horse and say, “Ok, now I’m going to ride you.” It takes time, acclimatising the horse to this new kit, its feel and weight, and how it affects his movement. So I’m not at all sure why people expect to put a collar and lead on a puppy and get perfect walking straight away!

You have to teach your dog first. You have to show him what it is that you want, what it is that will be rewarded. And gradually he’ll learn that life is better when he’s not pulling, and it’s more fun to be sharing his walk with you.

Here’s a starter for you to get your teeth into

Coco LLW closer.png
  1. Have the dog on a longish lead (at least 2m)

  2. Stand still and let the dog go to the end of the lead

  3. Keep your hand close to your hip - tuck thumb into your belt if necessary

  4. WAIT. Wait till the lead slackens the tiniest bit (you may think you'll need to wait forever, but it's usually only 20 seconds at most)

  5. Call your dog cheerfully and reward with a tasty treat at your knee

  6. It doesn’t matter why the lead gets loose - don’t judge - just reward as soon as it does

  7. Repeat till your dog gets that it's up to him to keep the lead loose

So you need to spend time teaching him - the kitchen is where a lot of my training takes place - that when he’s beside you, good things happen. Once he knows where he should be, he has a fighting chance of putting himself there.

 

We learn by making choices …

.. as does your dog. So you need to give your dog a choice - not by limiting his movement, with your tightly-wound lead - but by giving him enough loose lead for him to move away then choose to move back to you. A six-foot leash is ideal for this, and the only bit you need to hold - gently - is the handle!

If you never give someone a choice, then they can never make a good choice.

You want to give your dog the opportunity to make a choice. You’ll get some poor choices (he pulls forward, you don’t follow) and some good choices (he looks at you and waits beside you, you congratulate him and move forward together).

I can hear the cry going up already: “My dog has been pulling on the lead for years - there’s no hope of changing him now!” Wrong. You can change - once he realises it’s worth his while to stay beside you with the lead loose, he’ll choose to do that.

The mysteries of walking nicely on the lead unravelled! With no nasty gadgets or shouting.

I’ve given you enough to get you started on your new life of pleasant dogwalking. But to get the whole process, broken down into tiny steps, with Troubleshooting sections for all your “What if…?” questions, you’ll enjoy Let’s Go! Enjoy Companionable Walks with your Brilliant Family Dog, the third in the series of Essential Skills for a Brilliant Family Dog, available from Amazon now. Go now, and you can be reading it within minutes!

And in case you missed my first piece “My dog can’t keep still - he’s wild all the time!”  you’ll be pleased to know you can still get the first book in the series free at all outlets!

 

Is walking your dog a pure joy? 8 steps to a loose lead

Dog training, new puppy, puppy training | Is walking your dog a pure joy? 8 Steps to a loose leash! | FREE EMAIL COURSE | #newpuppy, #dogtraining, #newrescuedog, #puppytraining, #dogbehavior | www.brilliantfamilydog.com

So is walking your dog a pure joy? Or do you find yourself putting it off until you are racked with guilt and feel you just have to take her out?

I absolutely, really and truly, know just how you feel! My dogs didn’t always walk like angels on a loose lead. I can clearly remember the times I stopped and realised with embarrassment that I had been shouting at them when they were pulling. I guess they thought I was encouraging them to go faster! 

So I decided to do something about it. Not yelling or cursing at them - they’re only being dogs.

Like with almost every dog problem, it was me who had to change!

That was when I learnt the secret

It may seem counter-intuitive, but pulling on your dog’s lead is actually making her worse. It takes two to tango, and if you pull, she’ll pull.

So, what’s the answer to this pulling question?

Believe it or not, it’s for you to stop pulling.

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The reason dogs pull is because someone once followed them. Think about that one. From the moment you got your little puppy you let her tow you about on the lead wherever she wanted to go. I know - you thought you were being kind. But it wasn’t all that kind, as it taught your puppy something you didn’t like and wanted to change as soon as she got a bit of meat on her. 

A common scenario is this: 

      The puppy pulls to the end of the lead. The owner’s arm floats up. 

      Yay! Puppy has gained another yard! 

      Then the puppy pulls harder and the owner takes a few steps               behind her. 

      Success! Got another three yards! 

So what has this puppy just learnt? Got it. She’s learned that if she pulls you will follow. 

DRUM ROLL ….. So from now on you are never going to follow your dog again.

“But,” I hear you cry, “if I stop pulling she just pulls more!”

There is something called the opposition reflex. If you’re standing next to me and I pull your arm, you’ll pull back. You have to, in order to stay upright. If I pull harder, you’ll resist more strongly, and if I suddenly let go - you’ll probably fall over! 

You can see from this that pulling harder is not the answer.

8 steps to a loose lead

• To start off you need a proper lead - a six-foot one or longer. If you have a short lead your dog cannot help but pull on it as soon as she moves an inch from your side.  This is even more exaggerated with a small dog who’s already at the full length of the lead just keeping his feet on the floor. So to achieve a loose lead you need one long enough to be loose. It should droop down in a nice floppy loop between you.

“Best tip for me on loose lead walking was about the length of the lead! Thank you.” Annabel and her Border Collie Lily

Young Wilfred is proud to walk beside his owner on a loose lead

Young Wilfred is proud to walk beside his owner on a loose lead

• And when you’re holding that lead, you keep your hand close to you. Tuck your thumb into your belt if you find your arm floating up in the air.

• You start out with your dog. She pulls to the end of the lead. You stop. You tuck in that thumb and keep your hand close to you. And wait. At some stage, she will stop pulling and look at you, wondering why you haven’t followed her as you are meant to.

• As soon as she looks at you, you cheerfully say “This way!” and head off in the opposite direction. Now she’ll walk with you a couple of steps, and probably (if this has been her habit) surge forward to the end of the lead.

• Guess what? Repeat Step 1.

• You may walk these five yards quite a few times until your dog realises that something is new and different. She should by now be looking at you and wondering what on earth is happening. Fortunately dogs are very flexible and tend to take life as it comes. So if you’re consistent, she’ll accept that this is the new modus operandi and go along with it. 

• It’s important that you don’t have to get any particular place in a hurry while you work on this. You need to think happy thoughts and be enormously patient. You may think your dog will stand straining at the end of the lead for ever - but in fact, sometime between now and next Christmas, she’ll relax and look back at you. (In fact it’s only usually a few seconds - it just feels like forever.)

• If you have two dogs, you need to walk them separately while you fix this.

Does this seem over-simple to you? Can it possibly be that easy? Just go out now with your dog on a (long) lead and stand still. See what happens. See how long it takes her to realise that pulling is absolutely fruitless. (If your dog is big and you are not, wrap an arm round a convenient lamppost or tree so that you have no fear of being pulled over.)

This is just the beginning. 

The first step is to stop the fight for possession of the lead. View your lead as your gentle connection with your dog. Like walking arm-in-arm with a friend.

So here’s the change you have to make

You need to change your perception of the lead as a controlling device and start seeing it as a connection between you and your dog.

You are no longer having adversarial walks, but companionable ones.

Try it then come back to me: what do you think? Let’s get your dog jogging nicely along beside you so that walks become a pleasure again, not a battleground.

A complete program

Although your attitude to the lead is your starting-point, you’ll do well to follow a complete step-by-step (haha!) program to develop loose lead walking with your dog. You’ll find it here at www.brilliantfamilydog.com/books

or just head over to Amazon, download it, and start straight away!

 


There’s lots more you can do to build your relationship with your dog, and you’ll be reading that soon. As ever, the ways I suggest will all be force-free and pleasant for both of you. 

Want to learn more about how to build up the GOOD habits? Enjoy our free Workshop on getting your dog to LISTEN!