Dog Leash Training Stop That pulling dog

Walking your dog doesn't need to be a chore, nor does it have to be a battle that rips your arm from the shoulder. Walking your dog should be a good time for everyone involved! The thing to remember when trying to teach anything to a pet is consistency. If you consistently reward the behavior it will be repeated, this is true for bad or negative behavior as well. Dogs derive reward with food, praise or simply getting to complete a task, the latter of which is how we are going to get our dogs to behave on leash.

Dogs pull to get somewhere. Our objective is to not let that happen, the pulling that is, we all want to get somewhere eventually. The best way to get them to stop pulling is to yank back on the leash? No! Some dogs may respond to a physical correction while it may end up exacerbating other negative behaviors. Dogs posses a reflexive behavior that is called opposition reflex, you pull and they pull back. You push and they push back. Sounds simple right? This reflex was first noted by Ivan Pavlov (1927) and was called the freedom reflex. This behavior or reflex makes it tough to just yank back and yell hoping the behavior will stop.

In order to stop your dog from pulling, you need to have time to stop and not let him/her reward themselves while in the process of misbehaving. Reward means achieving their goal of getting where they were going, sniffing that other dog or hopping on that little kid who is now traumatized. You need to be able to do this consistently.

The objective is to have no tension of the leash. How do we accomplish this?


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Starting off, you need to ensure you have a nice quiet place, free of distractions, to work. We need to graduate to populated areas and areas of high traffic. We are setting the dog up for success, we want this to work, we need this to work. Working on patience will help in all aspects of training. You can help your dog with patience by teaching them to sit at the door when it is opened, or for the food dish. You can do this by not allowing them out of the door until they are told. Have them sit and open the door, if they try to get up, close it. Repeat until they sit automatically. The same goes for the food dish, sit, place it down, if they stand before you tell them then you pick it back up. Repetition and consistency are key.

Method 1.)

1.) You walk and the dog walks with you.

2.) The dog pulls and you stop. You don't yell, you just stop. Some dogs will respond to a gentle command that they will eventually associate with not pulling, I use 'easy' but 'steady' or whatever word you like will work.

3.) The dog looks back to see what the hangup is (Hopefully the leash goes slack) and you reward them with praise or a cookie or something that makes turning their attention, to you, worth it to them. Don't reward them until they relax the leash!

4.) Get the dog in your preferred walking position, either heel, or the position you find comfortable. Sometimes this requires by backtracking a little bit by walking the path you just came or enticing the dog by calling or treating. if it seems to be that you get five steps out and they are wrenching on the leash again, stop and move slower, two steps at a time if needed.

5.) Proceed back the way you were heading. Yep keep going, two steps, three steps or however far you are able to proceed before you need to stop. This is the process, it will work.

6.) Lather rinse repeat until Fido picks it up. Fido is rewarded by achieving its goal. Remember consistency and repetition are key!!!

Method 2.)

1.) Starting off in a sit position, start the walk.

2.) start off by treating the dog every couple feet while they are at your side. Remember to taper off the treats as the dog does better on leash and remember to bring enough treats to finish the walk. Initially walks are going to be short and grow in distance as the dog gets better on leash so the. As the dog gets better they are going to get less treats but the walk is going to get longer so it is its own reward.

3.) Should the dog leave your desired walk position (this one is easiest if the dog is at your side) then stop and entice the dog back to your side by either calling, walking backward or treating. .Remember not to reward until they are in your desired walk position.

4.) start walking again, remember to reward appropriately and consistently while they are in the position that you want.

Which ever way you decide to do this, you need to be consistent. Consistency and repetition are key when trying to do any training.

This all sounds pretty easy doesn't it! I got one better, do you have tools or devices attached to your dog that promotes pulling? The opposition reflex can be promoted or dissuaded. There are collars, halters and harnesses that attempt to dissuade the dog as soon as they begin to pull. The collars are choke types be they prong, pinch or soft choke (nylon/fabric) and all of these are designed choke or cause discomfort and can cause tracheal damage over prolonged or improper use and that is all I will say about that, we are not here to punish but train.

There are halters/head collars made by Gentle Leader, Halti, Dogmatic and more, they all work under the same principal, run the restraints around and over the nose, around and to the back of the head and the primary contact for the leash is below the mouth. The device pulls the head to which ever side you are holding the leash when the dog applies tension. Non harmful but you have to, I'll repeat that, HAVE to desensitize the dog to wearing the halter or you may end up with the alligator roll effect of the dog trying to get the collar off. That being said, you end up prolonging the leash training until after you are finished training them to keep on their headgear.
Read The Hound Who Hates His Halti for info about desensitizing dogs in regards to head halters.

The better of the options is an anti-pull harness. The Gentle Leader Easy Walk, Softouch SENSE-ation, Halti Multi-functional and even Wiggles, Wags and Whiskers Freedom harness all accomplish the same goal. They use redirection to defeat the opposition reflex and there isn't the learning curve that is associated with the head halters. The harness option gives you redirection by placing the leash contact point at the chest of the dog and some like the gentle leader have a martingale like strap that compresses the chest limiting the amount that the dog can pull. Much like the head halter redirection affords the opportunity to reward the dog for paying attention to you and get back on your way. Gentle Leader and Softouch have great products and the construction/price is great/affordable. Any one of these products, however, will facilitate and expedite your training.
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