Teaching Your Dog to Walk on a Loose Leash

👂Does this sound familiar?⁣⁣

You got your pup hoping to go on many family adventures together. ⁣⁣

Now, all you can do is wrap the leash around your hands when walking by a neighbour, holding your pup for dear life. ⁣⁣

😳It's embarrassing. It's heartbreaking. It's not what you had hoped for with your dog. 💔⁣⁣

You're not alone. Many of my clients have been through similar experiences. ⁣⁣

They often come to me utterly frustrated with their dog. It didn't turn out to be the well-rounded family companion they had expected. 

😁Fortunately, with a little bit of skilled training, things turn around SO fast. 

I'm great at understanding my client's struggles and helping them turn things around. 🤗⁣⁣

Your dog should be a pleasure to walk, not a pain. ⁣⁣

And I'm excited to show you how to make this happen with some easy and fun training methods to get loose leash walking.. 🤩⁣⁣

Ready to have more fun and improve your dog's behaviour?⁣⁣

Here are some quick tips! 

1. Allow Sniffing: Part of the experience of walking your dog is to give them enrichment opportunities. Say, “Go sniff,” and let your dog sniff trees, shrubs or a utility pole.

2. Keep Moving: Pulling gets dogs to what they want faster. As a strategy, it works. Instead, reward your dog with forward movement when the leash is loose.

3. Reward Calm: Treat your dog when you see soft gazing, ears, tails and body in a neutral position (centred weight of gravity) with a loose leash, mouth slightly open and/or facial muscles loose. 

4. Treat Check-Ins: If your dog looks, notices or makes eye contact with you, give them a smile, an ear scratch or a treat for trying to connect with you.

5. Watch for Distractions: Other dogs, people, garbage and small animals may cause your dog to be reactive and pull. Try a ‘treat magnet’ right on their nose until the distraction is gone.

Loose leash walking is a process. Dogs are not robots; pulling will happen even with the best-trained working dogs. Thankfully, with positive force-free teachings, those instances become few and far between.

Here is a video of my 11-year-old son walking to school with 1-year-old Spring. 

Looking for a specific game to help you with loose leash walking? Look at my free product, A Simple Step to Loose Leash Walking, working on check-ins and eye contact.