Loose leash walking

[bridget246]

How do you do it? I've been trying lots of different things but my dog is determined to not walk with a loose leash in public around other people. Walking at the heel is very hard for her when no one is around. My training club gave me a prong collar to use when I'm in class because I am trying everything else that they asked and it isn't working. The prong collar works wonders. It hurts her a bit... but it works.

I'm looking for the wild and crazy ways to teach loose leash walking. I think I've tried most of the common ones without much success.

[KittyKat]

I taught Piper in a few steps. First i would have a piece of cheese in front of her while i'm walking, just luring her around with it. Then after she follows the cheese around for awhile I would just start walking without it. I would move at a fast pace (speed walking) to keep her following me. I changed directions a lot. I would reward often for just following me. I would also get her to "look at me" while walking and would just keep talking with her to keep her attention. If she tried to go in another direction i'd just pop the leash and say "ah-ah" and move in the opposite direction she tried to head in.

If you are having tons of issues i'd even try just running around obstacles... force the dog to pay attention to where you are going. The faster you move the less chance they have to think about going elsewhere.

[Liz]

With my own dogs I teach attention or "watch me" first. When they have mastered eye contact with me for 1 minute we start literally giving a watch command and taking one step. Then on and on. My guys tend to get the gist after the tenth step. Then we progress to figures eights, slow and fast and so on.

[Maxy24]

I use a no pull harness (front clipping) combined with stopping and backing up every time he pulls. He pulls, I walk backwards (I don't turn around, I walk facing forward, but moving backwards) until the dog turns and walks all the way to me, and then I walk forward again, repeat at every pull. It's annoying and frustrating (for both of you) but it can work and the harness helps make the dog turn when you back up, instead of continually puling forward as you drag him back. Using treats will speed things up, after the dog walks to you when you're backing up, and you start moving forward again, click and treat so long as the leash is loose. Don't lure him to focus on you, just click and treat repeatedly while the leash is loose. Then when he pulls back up again. The idea is that he'll start extending the time he's loose leashed to get the treats. Then you can start extending the time between treats by a second or two. Gradually continue to extend them once he's walking loose leashed.


Eventually I'll usually start standing still when the dog pulls. At that point the dog usually already understands he needs to come back to me to start the walk again so when I stop he'll turn around and come towards me and we can start walking again. If you are consistent the dog will start doing this very fast and it will turn into him turning back whenever he feels pressure on the leash.

Make sure you use the same length leash every time you walk and don't hold it shortened, the dog needs to figure out how far he can go before he reaches the end or else he'll never learn how to not pull on it, no retractable leashes as they encourage pulling.

Good luck, it can be very frustrating and I find being persistent to be hardest because at first it'll seem like you're not walking anywhere. But keep it up, always and it'll likely work.

[xchairity_casex]

i trained puppies to walk on a loose lead by stopping every single time that lead is taut i dont talk i dont do anything i stand there puppies will usually jerk ahead and wimper and jump around growl then give up and turn around to look at you like "what the heck?" THEN you get out a treat re-position them at your side and try walking again of coarse they pull ebfore you get a full step taken so you stop and repete the excersize WAIT for them to look at you dont talk to make sounds to get there attention jsut wait your conditioning them to LOOK at you for what they want if you always call to them or make a whistleing after a few times they may ignore you wich was the case with BT puppies they learn to ignore the noises you make.
NEVER EVER do this excersize in a rush when your in a hurry if all you have is 30 mintues be prepared to NOT leave the yard! once you begin the stopping training you cant just one day say "oh im in a hurry lets just go home and you can pull" you have to put in the time which with this is alot but its very effective

some times with hyper adult dogs or young dogs if you begin walking backward or in the opposite direction they will run past you and begin walking in that direction pulling so if walking backward only causes your dog to pull in the opposite direction just use the stop technique.

[xellil]

In my opinion if a prong collar is painful, it's not being used right. It should be an attention-getter, not an ouch. Did your trainer fit it properly? Show you how to use it? Demonstrate? Walk with you? My trainer spent 3 hours with me before he sent me off alone with a dog and a prong collar. We walked all over the place, including in Walgreens and a car store. And it needs to be a good one, with very rounded ends and/or rubber tips, not something that actually pokes into them. If she is actually showing pain, try a trainer who knows more about them.

My current trainer was the fifth one we tried. My opinion is that most trainers stink. A dog should never show pain when using a prong collar, even a little bit. Bad trainers and ignorant owners are why so many people think they are cruel when if used properly they are miracle workers.

We started just letting Rebel head off and right before he got to the end of the leash I would do a kiss kiss sound, a small tug on the leash, squat, and ask him to come. then we graduated to heading off in another direction rather than asking him to come. Lots of treats. Billions of treats. My pockets were dribbling treats everywhere.

And then once you start, you can't just walk. You have to keep them focused on you pretty much 100% of the time - I just asked him to come, stay, sit, sit heel, whatever commands I wasn't sick of. And treat, treat, treat.

Worked pretty well for us.

[xellil]

Good luck, it can be very frustrating and I find being persistent to be hardest because at first it'll seem like you're not walking anywhere. But keep it up, always and it'll likely work.

That is so true! We used to walk what felt like two hours and I'd turn around and we'd be 20 feet beyond the end of our driveway.

[Maxy24]

As far as prong collars causing pain, I think most of them do. If you use rubber tips then maybe it's just uncomfortable, but then it doesn't work for a lot of dogs, they will pull despite discomfort, it would need to be painful for them to work. Also it depends how hard the dog hits the end of the leash. I think for most dogs, the prong collar is somewhat painful, that's why it works when nothing else has.

[bernadettelevis]

I had a dog like that. Nothing worked. Trainers told me to change direction,but that only made me go in circle because he pulled in any direction.
So i started shaping the behaviour i wanted with the clicker.
I started out clicking one second when the leash was loose. Aif that works wait with the click until the you can 5 steps on a loose leash.
Whenever he pulled i stopped and waited paitently until he came back, i didn't say anything (and yes this can be frustrating at times). I didn't reward him for coming back to me, because i didn't want to shape the yoyo effect (walk til the end of the leash and come back all the time).

And finally we can walk on a loose leash in almost any situation ;). I hope you get what i mean and it helps you :).

[xellil]

As far as prong collars causing pain, I think most of them do. If you use rubber tips then maybe it's just uncomfortable, but then it doesn't work for a lot of dogs, they will pull despite discomfort, it would need to be painful for them to work. Also it depends how hard the dog hits the end of the leash. I think for most dogs, the prong collar is somewhat painful, that's why it works when nothing else has.

the trick is you don't let them hit the end of the leash. If they don't do that, it doesn't hurt. A little squeeze around their neck isn't going to hurt them. I have worn a prong collar. My husband walked me around with one (after dark). I don't know what people mean by "discomfort". When it tightens, I felt it. But it certainly didn't hurt. Now if I had taken off running and hit the end of it, it would have hurt like hell.

If you start them with a one or two foot leash, they can't hit the end of it. By the time they are out to six feet, they respond to verbal cues and/or very slight pressure. You can't just put a dog on a prong collar and go walking, letting them do whatever they can to hurt themselves.

It always amazes me how people will let their dogs choke themselves out or yank their necks like crazy but think a prong collar is cruel. i think 99% of people just don't have any clue how to use them properly. I would never hurt my dog.

We are long past prong collars. But without it, we'd still be wallering around in the back yard.