Loose Leash Walking Many people try to take their dog out for a walk to exercise and at the same time expect them to walk perfectly on leash. Exercise and Loose Leash should be separated into 2 different categories. You will always find it easier to exercise the dog first and then practice Loose Leash. Core Rules Applied: 1. Energy Spectrum (Hyper vs Tired) - You want your dog to be a bit tired for training Loose Leash walking. Long Line Recall, Fetch, Tug, etc can be used to exercise before hand. 2. A to B Rule - Start in low distractions and build your way up. We start inside a building and then go to our training pen (like a fenced in yard although some people's yards are super distracting so you can jump to the next level). Then we go to a Parking Lot and start at the back and work our way to the front of the Parking Lot. Then we integrate sidewalks in after success in the parking lot. 3. Training Phase vs Management Phase - A dog that is a Beta or Alpha will test a lot to get in front of you. If you used a training tool such as a Training Collar or Bitter Apple to achieve your goal you will want to continue using it for at least 1-3 months of perfect behaviour. See diagrams below of Core Rules:
Key Tip: Do not practice on sidewalks or pathways for the next 2 weeks. Some dogs may be ready sooner but on average I stay away from sidewalks or pathways for about two weeks. Think of practicing in a square area such as: garage, basement, backyard, skating rink, schoolyard, parking lots etc. If the dog is still hyper or reacting on leash you need to try one of the following: 1. Exercise more 2. Practice in a lower distraction environment 3. Make it easier for the dog to get it right (walk a square pattern in a room, back alley, garage etc. 4. Distraction Training - Do Long Line Recall or make your dog work for their kibble doing "Sits" and "Downs" (See video on Distraction Training for a visual). We had to do Sits and Downs for Kibble with Delta for 2.5 weeks in town before she would finally focus on me and walk well in town. Some dogs may require even more time than that.
The first portion of Loose Leash is: 1. Left hand turns in a low distraction environment. (As the dog gets it right 70-100% you can then switch to a slightly higher distraction environment and continue) 2. Begin to go in a more straight line as the dog walks a half step behind on the right hand side (ex: 10 feet, then 15 feet, then 20 feet and so on) 3. As you increase distance walked ensure that the distractions stay low. As you increase distractions you will need to make smaller straight line walking or do so as the dog allows. To go in an open area your dog will go one of four ways essentially: 1. Left 2. Right 3. Lag behind 4. Pull up front For one of the above you will take a step in the opposite direction: 1. Step right and hip twist then small step left to align the dog. 2. Step left and then back right to pull do back to you and align the dog. 3. Speed up quickly 1-2 steps and then resume regular pace. This will often catch them up but not make them pass you. 4. There are 4 different techniques to stop a dog from pulling up front: a. Leash Manners - Grip the leash up by your chest with both hands. Say your dog's name and spin 180 to your left (to keep the dog on your right, if you are training your dog to stay on your left then spin right instead). b. Left 90 Turn - If they are only passing a little but not real fast you can make a left 90 turn. c. Step in Front of Dog using a Wall - If you notice your dog catching up a little you can do a side step in front of them before they pass you. This requires having your dog on your right side with a wall just to the right of you. d. Slow step - When your dog is doing fairly well at this certain distraction level you can do a slow step and at the same time tap back on the leash. Your dog should then stop for a split second and you will speed up your pace to get in front of the dog. If you have to do this every few steps it means you are not ready for your slow step yet. Continue doing left 90 turns or step in front of the dog using a wall. See pictures below for examples:
If your dog goes Left: If your dog goes Right:
If your dog lags behind you do a quick step forward (no pictures for this one unfortunately). If your dog goes up front there are four techniques. First Technique - Leash Manners:
Second Technique - Left 90 Turn Third Technique - Block with a wall by stepping in front.
Fourth Technique - Slow Step - Slow down when dog is about to pass and tap back on leash.
Fifth (extra technique) - Step right 90 turn in front of the dog. To get your dog used to walking towards other dogs you first must have a solid foundation of the dog understanding where to walk on your right hand side in which they can walk down a sidewalk without trying to lead. Next you will go out with dogs that your dog knows and gets along with. Let them play and interact if they are ok with each
other then go for a walk together. Next you will walk the dogs towards each other on leash and ensure your dog walks half a step behind on the right hand side. Practice with a couple other dogs. Once your dog has an understanding of how to walk towards other dogs they know then the next task is to walk towards other dogs that your dog doesn t know. Keep a distance of 30 to 50 feet (across the street from one another) and practice walking down the sidewalk. As your dog is ok with that decrease the distance until they have no problem walking towards each other. Do not let them interact. Like all good things this takes work and creative planning. Is Your Dog Super Distracted? If your dog is very distracted by other dogs you will need to do Distraction Training (See notes and videos on Distraction Training). Making your dog work for their kibble doing sits and downs while they are tied up and at a distance from other dogs on a pathway can also help to get attention back on you. Our German Shepherd required 2.5 weeks of Distraction Training before she would finally walk well in town. Collars to Use Start with a Phase 1 Anti-Pull harness where you connect to the front of the dog's chest. Aspen Pet makes a really nice harness. Your dog has no idea where they are supposed to be walking so they will make a bunch of mistakes. The harness causes no discomfort to the dog. You can teach them the rules very well on the harness. From there the dog will either understand and respect and walk in position or two they will still want to get out of position and try to lead the walk (Omegas will generally do very well. Betas and Alphas will try to pass you so they may require some extra correction). Try to work your way up to some higher level distractions with the harness (See Leash Manners in Parking Lot Video). Next you can use a Phase 2 Regular Collar. This will feel more corrective to the dog and with some little taps on this they can listen better. If they are really gunning for top position in the pack they may not care about this at all. Whenever you jump up a collar you will always want to go back down to low distraction area and work your way up again. Phase 3 collar is a Martingale Collar which is like a regular collar but has a chain on the back side of it. This is the safest collar for a dog because it puts even pressure around their neck. For a dog that has never felt this collar before the feeling is weird when the collar restricts to a certain point. This helps them choose to stay in position (half step behind on the right hand side). This collar you will use until your dog is either excellent and never falls out of place or they just slightly try to go up front, left, right or lag behind and I mean ever so slightly. If that is the case your dog may always do that even if you do your corrections every time. In that case it is time to move to a Phase 4 collar. Phase 4 collar is a Prong Collar which is a scary looking contraption but it is a standard training collar in Europe. Your dog must have a very good understanding of where you want them to walk otherwise you will lose the value of this collar or in some cases you can cause aggression if you are doing really hard corrections around other dogs or people. This collar is no substitute for proper prior training. When used properly it is the best training collar to help you achieve your goal.
Dogtra IQ Remote Training Collar Some dogs may not find the Phase 4 Prong Collar itchy at all. They may pull just as hard as if they had the Phase 3 Martingale collar on. The advantage of the Remote Collar is that you can dial in to a perfect level for the dog where you can find the exact level of motivation to walk that half step behind. I have only found one dog that I needed to use this with instead of doing the three phases of collar training. That is with our German Shepherd who is an RCMP working breed German Shepherd. This is a dog with extremely high drives and a very high desire to be the Pack Leader. You may come across the same issue and you will find that this works quite well. It is still very important to have your underlying steps in place. Grannicks Bitter Apple Spray This I have found to work very effective on 99.9% of the dogs out there. I actually rarely use the Phase 3 Martingale and Phase 4 Prong Collar since I have found this to work so well. This is even highly effective on dogs that have undergone harsh training techniques prior to our training to where they are now used to corrections hard enough that can break a collar off their neck. You will hold the Bitter Apple Spray in your left hand along with the leash with your Index Finger on the trigger and get ready to step in front and squirt a mist of Bitter Apple Spray in front of your dog if they try to pass. One to three times will do the trick and then it will be sufficient (in most cases) to just point it in front of the dog as a warning for crossing the line. Remember that your dog will need to make a lot of mistakes to learn where the lines are that they are not supposed to cross. There is no need to over-correct the dog. Riding Crop can be used if you are finding it difficult to keep your dog a half step behind you on the right hand side. Sometimes you may constantly be doing a slow step and your dog slows only to resume right parallel to your leg. In these cases you can use a riding crop or something similar (such as a stick) to it as a target for your dog to stay behind you. You can even wiggle it back and forth so that your dog does not want to pass it otherwise you will bump their nose. This is not used to beat your dog and your dog should not be afraid of this in any way. As your dog gets better you can keep it by your side unless they seem to be getting out of position then you can wave it in behind you to remind them to stay in position. Troubleshooting If you are having any problems make sure all three of these are taken care of first: 1. Energy is not to high exercise more 2. Practice in a lower distraction environment 3. Make it easier for the dog to get it right (walk a square pattern in a room, back alley, garage, sidewalk etc. 4. Distraction Train - Some dogs can require weeks or months of this. If you are having difficulties around a certain distraction such as other people or other dogs then sometimes you have to spend time desensitizing. To do this an easy method is to find the proper distance where your dog can see the distraction but can still concentrate on you at least a bit. Do not feed them that day and use a favourite treat when you get their attention and have them do a sit. Walk a little closer to the distraction or parallel and have them sit again and reward. Keep repeating this until you can get close enough to the distraction that you are happy. This may have to be done over several sessions depending on what the distraction is. You can also use a tug toy or fetch toy if your dog is tug or fetch motivated. If this is more a case of aggression you will have to focus more on your climb exercises and desensitize that way.
This will take time to teach. The more time you spend in one day (unless it is a puppy or low energy dog) the faster it is to teach the dog. If you can spend 2 hours in a parking lot training that will really get your dog learning fast. The reason why more time works faster is that as the dog gets tired it is much easier to increase distractions (See video Leash Manners in Parking Lot - you will see that there are a bunch of mistakes to start and then the dog starts to get it. I can then move much more quickly to the front of the store with minimal mistakes from the dog). Most dogs start walking well at about 3 weeks of training assuming 2 hours a day of training, not including exercise. If you spend an hour a day (This can be broken into a couple different sessions in one day. I usually take 5-10 min for the dog to get it right and then practice for another 20 min of perfect behaviour and then take a break. About 2-3 weeks into training I may do an hour or longer and it all depends on the dog. If they are doing really well and you want to keep training then go right ahead.) on loose leash for 4 weeks you can usually have excellent loose leash even for many dogs that lunge on leash at other dogs. If your dog is not aggressive and they do not understand you are likely not doing one of the following: 1. You haven t broken down the steps enough to teach them to walk a half step behind on your right hand side. 2. You are trying to progress with too big of a step. You might have success in your house and then you try a busy street with many other dogs or people for example. You may be best to find lower distraction areas outside and practice until your dog does excellently there. 3. You are not using the right body language and not giving corrections at the right time. It is imperative that when your dog goes out of position you take a step in the proper direction to correct them back into place right away (Always look over your shoulder at your dog to ensure you can see when they go out of position). Sometimes you will do this quite frequently for a few times and then the dog will understand. You need to give this feedback to your dog because they have no idea that you want them to walk on your right hand side a half step behind unless you make it very easy for them to remain in that spot. There are no shortcuts that do not infringe on being respectful to your dog. You must put in time to train this. It will be one of the best investments in time you ever put into your dog. Common Mistakes 1. Sidewalk too early - People will often attempt sidewalks before the dog is trained in a square area like a parking lot. If you try to exercise your dog on the sidewalk but they pull on leash, they are getting better at pulling on leash. Exercise in some other fashion (see notes on Exercising a Dog). 2. Pack Structure Rules - Not following Pack Structure Rules in the home. Something as simple as giving away free attention or letting the dog up on beds or furniture can make a dog think they are equal or higher ranking than their humans. It is very tough to get them to listen outside in distractions if your dog thinks they are the Pack Leader.