Lead Pulling
By Scotty Valadao – Accredited Behaviour Consultant (Canine) (ABC of SA™)
Leash or lead pulling is one of the most common problems dog owners face, you get dogs that go mad the minute they see the leash, drag the owner to get out the door and once outside may be found spinning, leaping in the air and pulling the poor owner off their feet. In addition to this, the dog may be reactive to any dogs it come across, making the experience even worse for the owner or the dog may chew continually on the lead. Is it any wonder that what should be one of the owners and dogs most pleasurable experiences together becomes something that no owner wants to face as it is just so unpleasant, not to mention that it can prove to be dangerous if your dog darts into the road with you following at the end of the lead!
Why do dogs pull on lead?
Simple – because we allow it to happen and follow behind them! This is nothing to do with the dog being dominant as many people still think. It may sound a bit crazy to us humans that a dog can actually choke himself to get where he wants to go, but as we have seen so often, that is something they do with regular monotony and because the dog is rewarding by going in the direction he wanted too, the behaviour is further reinforced and the dog will continue to pull, maybe even harder. A further reason on this point is that dogs walk much faster than us and it is extremely hard for a dog to walk slowly when learning to walk on lead without pulling.
Another reason that lead pulling can become a learned behaviour is due to their sense of smell. As we learnt in the puppy section, scent is extremely important to a dog and when they get a whiff of all the exciting smells just waiting for them to investigate across the road in a patch of grass, I think they often forget we, the handler even exists – the smells wafting towards them are just too good to ignore. This is especially true for the dog that rarely gets out – imagine how difficult that must be for the dog?
I believe that another very important reason that dogs continue to pull is that we activate their opposition reflex or pulling reflex. All animals, including humans, have an opposition reflex, it is a natural reaction that we can’t control – we do it without even thinking. If somebody holds your hand and pulls you, before you realize what you are doing, you will have pulled back – dogs do exactly the same.
In TTouch we are taught that as dogs carry most of their weight over the front limbs there in a natural tendency for a dog to pull as it is already moving forward. If a dog is placing all its weight on the front legs and we pull them to stop them we are putting the whole body out of balance.
Handlers Position
In TTouch we do a lot of work on this aspect and if our own bodies are out of balance how on earth our dogs can body be in balance? In TTouch it is said that 75% is the owner’s position and the balance of 25%, the dogs!
Think about it, if we exert a pulling pressure (opposition reflex), whatever we are pulling against will just pull harder, hence the handler water skiing behind the dog! The further forward we are in relation to the dog, the harder it is for the dog to pull and the easier it is for us to control the dog. The ideal position is in line with the dogs shoulder. The dog will then react to, not only our cue but the movement of our shoulders, hips, arms, hand and feet. In the method of Balance Lead and Two points of contact below, this is very easily achieved. Another point to bear in mind is – is the handler’s whole body relaxed? This takes me right back to when I first discovered TTouch. I had taken my very reactive Rotti, Zeus to a demo. Now being a bit ‘ofay’ with dogs I was very aware that the looser I held the lead, the more the dog would relax. I was walking with him (a good distance from any other dog I might add!) with a lovely loose lead, when Niki, who was helping me said ‘Scotty, relax your lead”. I promptly replied ‘but my lead is relaxed!!” She then told me to look at my hands – although I had a lovely loose lead I was holding on for grim death to the end of the lead!
Training a dog to settle when putting on a collar and leash
This, to me, is one of the most important steps to take. Why not get your dog under control and not pulling in the home environment rather than wait till you are outside? If your dog is pulling and yanking you in the house I can pretty much guarantee that outside won’t be any better.
Try the following steps:-
a) Firstly use management and change the location where you normally keep the leash.
b) Go to the new location, pick up the leash, ask the dog to sit and then put the leash. Now the odds of this happening with a dog that normally goes nuts when seeing the lead are, to put it mildly, small! As the dogs gets madly excited, put the lead back in the new location, walk away and go and sit down with no interaction with the dog at all. Repeat over and over until the dog actually sits – this is a form of negative punishment – we are taking away from the dog that which it wants the most. It may take some time, but persevere; the dog will settle and sit.
c) If, when the dog is sitting it starts trying to jump around as you clip the leash on, either unclip the leash and put it on a nearby table, or in the case where you cant get to the clip due to the dog jumping around so much, drop your end of the leash on the floor and walk away and go and sit down. A word of warning here, if you have a dog that tends to bite or chew on the leash, smear citronella oil, Vaseline etc on the leash first or use a chain leash.
d) Always insist that your dog sits while you put the lead on – if the dog stands at any point while you are putting on the lead, either unclip it or drop it and walk away.
e) Repeat the above several times a day – we are not going for a walk here, we are teaching the dog how to behave when the lead is attached. With the majority of dogs I work with, this can be achieved during a session, all it takes is consistency. If the owner finds they are getting annoyed or angry, rather put the lead away and have a break and try again a bit later.
f) The next step is when the dog is sitting quietly, it to start walking towards the door. This is achieved by taking one step at a time. Think about it, if your dog can not walk out of the house without pulling, how on earth are you going to get the dog to walk when on the street or in the park? If, after one step, the dog is pulling, simply stop every time the dog pulls. It really is better to do this slowly, taking one step at a time if the dog is pulling, then two steps etc, until you have perfected this exercise.
g) This exercise must be repeated going through the door and the gate to the outside. It is a lot of repetition and initially a lot of work, but it works with consistency and a dog learns the new regime very quickly if the owner sticks to it.
h) Now follow on with keeping the Loose Lead Walking (below) in place when out for a walk.
Loose Lead Walking
After you have been successful with the above, the time has come to start going into the street for a walk. Here you can start using the Loose Lead Walking as below. The most important thing is consistency – if you do not allow your dog to ever get away with pulling, then the behaviour will become extinguished. If you find that the second you get to your gate, the pulling increases, simply practice walking up too the gate and then back towards the house until the dog leans to settle. Employ the same tactic when you do get out the gate if the dog keeps on pulling. A good example of this is when I take my own dogs out for a walk. As we arrive at the walking venue, my male Collie, Brady will immediately pull due to the excitement of being out for a walk. I simply stand still and wait for the lead to loosen and, after two attempts at pulling, he settles down realizing he is not going to be allowed to pull and the walk continues in a pleasant manner – no harm in trying!
Loose lead walking is NOT heel work and your dog is allowed to do pretty much what it wants to do as long as it doesn’t pull. This is your dog’s time to smell all the interesting smells and enjoy himself and will provide not only physical but mental stimulation for the dog.
HOW TO:
a. Hold the lead right at the end, with both hands on your stomach, in the region of the belly button. We use this position initially to have a constant distance between the dog and you. This ensures consistency and teaches the dog where the limit of the lead is. At a later stage when your dog is no longer pulling, you can change the position to the standard one, which is the dog on your left hand side and the lead in the right hand.
b. The second your dog pulls, stop and stand totally still. Don’t look at your dog or pay any attention to it at all, totally ignore him. The second there is a loosening on the lead, start walking forward again; once again stopping the second the dog pulls.
c. If you get into a situation whereby the dog does not slacken the pressure on the lead after about a minute, then turn around (without talking) and walk in the opposite direction. Again, this is a type of negative punishment – we are taking the dog away from what it wants the most – to go forward. When the tightening on the lead eases, turn around again and walk in the original direction.
This is one of the few exercises where the dog is not rewarded with food; the reward is the forward motion. The importance of this exercise is to always be consistent. If you do it sometimes and not others, the dog will never learn to walk on a loose leash. Your dog is not going to learn the rules of this exercise without, practice, practice and more practice.
Balance Leash
A Balance Leash as used in TTouch is a quick and effective way to lessen pulling on the lead. Here you will use a flat collar and a long leash (about 5-6’ depending on the size of the dog and how short/tall you are). If you walk the dog on your left side, take the leash in your left hand and with your thumb and forefinger pointing towards the collar and the other end of the leash will be in your right hand. Holding the leash in this position will automatically form a loop which you can drop over the dog’s chest. This will result in you holding the leash in two hands as per the diagram. The object here is for you to walk next to the dogs shoulder as opposed to the dog walking in front of you.
To get the dog to stop, rather than just pulling on the lead, you give what we call at TTouch the ‘ask and release’, by pulling (not jerking) upwards and back which will result in making the dog shift his weight back onto all four feet. As you feel the leash slacken, the dog will be in the ‘neutral’ position and as the dog achieves this you can ask him to go forward again. As we are exerting the pull upwards, rather than from behind, this normally results in the dog stopping immediately. The dogs feet do not leave the floor!
On a dog with a very narrow chest, or a small dog where the balance leash may slide off, or the dog is slipping out of it, you can take the balance leash a step further by putting the lead under the leg further away from you, across the chest and under the collar. Beware here that if you are using a martingale type collar there is the possibility that if it opens wide, the dog can slip right out of it leaving you holding a collar and lead!
What to do if a dog refuses to budge
As with all aspects of behaviour we have to ask ourselves why is this happening? Has this always been the case? Has this behaviour started recently? What is the owner’s reaction to this behaviour?
Let’s look at various aspects of why it could be occurring:-
a. Fear – could be fear of other dogs, busses, motorbikes, people etc. Once this has been established steps must be made to de-sensitize the dog to the perceived fear threatening object and it would be a good idea to consult a professional for assistance.
b. If the behaviour has just started recently, it could be that the route the owner normally takes is suddenly changed leading to fear of new surroundings. It could also be that the day is very hot and the dog’s paws are sore from walking on the pavement or tarmac. Another option is that the dog’s toenails are too long and need to be trimmed or that an underlying physical problem is developing.
c. The owner’s reaction to this problem could well be reinforcing the behaviour. Does the owner lure the dog forward with food? If so the dog has learned nicely what results in treats! Does the owner pull for a while and then pick up the poor darling who must be tired (not a Rotti!) and carry it home? Again the owner is reinforcing the behaviour. If it is an attention seeking dog the owner’s behaviour of screaming, shouting, calming, soothing etc will be reinforcing the behaviour.
What many owners do is make the mistake of stopping and looking back at the dog – all this does is encourage the dog to stay where it is! As hard as it often is, an owner needs to look in the direction they are going, not back at the dog.
Another thing that is very helpful is lead stroking. Look away from the dog (forward), soften your body, even swaying slightly and gently and softly ‘stroke’ the lead with alternating hands. You can encourage the dog with your voice here as well. I do not suggest using a food reward in this instance as what often happens is that the dog learns to take a few steps, stop and then the reward is food! One thing to make sure of is that you are not pulling on the collar, remember that this will cause the opposition reflex to kick in.
If you still have a dog that is rooted to the spot, try doing the stroking slower, relax your own body more or even turn in the opposite direction. If the dog is still not moving, go back to the dog, do some TTouches (or if you don’t know how to, slide your hand up and down the legs and even pick them up one at a time) on the legs and then try again. Should the dog still not move, with the dog still on lead, step away from the dog with your back to it, totally ignoring the dog and wait to see what happens. If the dog gets up, then just continue walking, but turn around and go back the way you came. It may well be that there is an element of fear here. Keep an eye on the behaviour and see if it is occurring at the same place.
Lead stroking can be used to slow a pulling dog down or in any situation that you need the dog to relax.
Simple – because we allow it to happen and follow behind them! This is nothing to do with the dog being dominant as many people still think. It may sound a bit crazy to us humans that a dog can actually choke himself to get where he wants to go, but as we have seen so often, that is something they do with regular monotony and because the dog is rewarding by going in the direction he wanted too, the behaviour is further reinforced and the dog will continue to pull, maybe even harder. A further reason on this point is that dogs walk much faster than us and it is extremely hard for a dog to walk slowly when learning to walk on lead without pulling.
Another reason that lead pulling can become a learned behaviour is due to their sense of smell. As we learnt in the puppy section, scent is extremely important to a dog and when they get a whiff of all the exciting smells just waiting for them to investigate across the road in a patch of grass, I think they often forget we, the handler even exists – the smells wafting towards them are just too good to ignore. This is especially true for the dog that rarely gets out – imagine how difficult that must be for the dog?
I believe that another very important reason that dogs continue to pull is that we activate their opposition reflex or pulling reflex. All animals, including humans, have an opposition reflex, it is a natural reaction that we can’t control – we do it without even thinking. If somebody holds your hand and pulls you, before you realize what you are doing, you will have pulled back – dogs do exactly the same.
In TTouch we are taught that as dogs carry most of their weight over the front limbs there in a natural tendency for a dog to pull as it is already moving forward. If a dog is placing all its weight on the front legs and we pull them to stop them we are putting the whole body out of balance.
Handlers Position
In TTouch we do a lot of work on this aspect and if our own bodies are out of balance how on earth our dogs can body be in balance? In TTouch it is said that 75% is the owner’s position and the balance of 25%, the dogs!
Think about it, if we exert a pulling pressure (opposition reflex), whatever we are pulling against will just pull harder, hence the handler water skiing behind the dog! The further forward we are in relation to the dog, the harder it is for the dog to pull and the easier it is for us to control the dog. The ideal position is in line with the dogs shoulder. The dog will then react to, not only our cue but the movement of our shoulders, hips, arms, hand and feet. In the method of Balance Lead and Two points of contact below, this is very easily achieved. Another point to bear in mind is – is the handler’s whole body relaxed? This takes me right back to when I first discovered TTouch. I had taken my very reactive Rotti, Zeus to a demo. Now being a bit ‘ofay’ with dogs I was very aware that the looser I held the lead, the more the dog would relax. I was walking with him (a good distance from any other dog I might add!) with a lovely loose lead, when Niki, who was helping me said ‘Scotty, relax your lead”. I promptly replied ‘but my lead is relaxed!!” She then told me to look at my hands – although I had a lovely loose lead I was holding on for grim death to the end of the lead!
Training a dog to settle when putting on a collar and leash
This, to me, is one of the most important steps to take. Why not get your dog under control and not pulling in the home environment rather than wait till you are outside? If your dog is pulling and yanking you in the house I can pretty much guarantee that outside won’t be any better.
Try the following steps:-
a) Firstly use management and change the location where you normally keep the leash.
b) Go to the new location, pick up the leash, ask the dog to sit and then put the leash. Now the odds of this happening with a dog that normally goes nuts when seeing the lead are, to put it mildly, small! As the dogs gets madly excited, put the lead back in the new location, walk away and go and sit down with no interaction with the dog at all. Repeat over and over until the dog actually sits – this is a form of negative punishment – we are taking away from the dog that which it wants the most. It may take some time, but persevere; the dog will settle and sit.
c) If, when the dog is sitting it starts trying to jump around as you clip the leash on, either unclip the leash and put it on a nearby table, or in the case where you cant get to the clip due to the dog jumping around so much, drop your end of the leash on the floor and walk away and go and sit down. A word of warning here, if you have a dog that tends to bite or chew on the leash, smear citronella oil, Vaseline etc on the leash first or use a chain leash.
d) Always insist that your dog sits while you put the lead on – if the dog stands at any point while you are putting on the lead, either unclip it or drop it and walk away.
e) Repeat the above several times a day – we are not going for a walk here, we are teaching the dog how to behave when the lead is attached. With the majority of dogs I work with, this can be achieved during a session, all it takes is consistency. If the owner finds they are getting annoyed or angry, rather put the lead away and have a break and try again a bit later.
f) The next step is when the dog is sitting quietly, it to start walking towards the door. This is achieved by taking one step at a time. Think about it, if your dog can not walk out of the house without pulling, how on earth are you going to get the dog to walk when on the street or in the park? If, after one step, the dog is pulling, simply stop every time the dog pulls. It really is better to do this slowly, taking one step at a time if the dog is pulling, then two steps etc, until you have perfected this exercise.
g) This exercise must be repeated going through the door and the gate to the outside. It is a lot of repetition and initially a lot of work, but it works with consistency and a dog learns the new regime very quickly if the owner sticks to it.
h) Now follow on with keeping the Loose Lead Walking (below) in place when out for a walk.
Loose Lead Walking
After you have been successful with the above, the time has come to start going into the street for a walk. Here you can start using the Loose Lead Walking as below. The most important thing is consistency – if you do not allow your dog to ever get away with pulling, then the behaviour will become extinguished. If you find that the second you get to your gate, the pulling increases, simply practice walking up too the gate and then back towards the house until the dog leans to settle. Employ the same tactic when you do get out the gate if the dog keeps on pulling. A good example of this is when I take my own dogs out for a walk. As we arrive at the walking venue, my male Collie, Brady will immediately pull due to the excitement of being out for a walk. I simply stand still and wait for the lead to loosen and, after two attempts at pulling, he settles down realizing he is not going to be allowed to pull and the walk continues in a pleasant manner – no harm in trying!
Loose lead walking is NOT heel work and your dog is allowed to do pretty much what it wants to do as long as it doesn’t pull. This is your dog’s time to smell all the interesting smells and enjoy himself and will provide not only physical but mental stimulation for the dog.
HOW TO:
a. Hold the lead right at the end, with both hands on your stomach, in the region of the belly button. We use this position initially to have a constant distance between the dog and you. This ensures consistency and teaches the dog where the limit of the lead is. At a later stage when your dog is no longer pulling, you can change the position to the standard one, which is the dog on your left hand side and the lead in the right hand.
b. The second your dog pulls, stop and stand totally still. Don’t look at your dog or pay any attention to it at all, totally ignore him. The second there is a loosening on the lead, start walking forward again; once again stopping the second the dog pulls.
c. If you get into a situation whereby the dog does not slacken the pressure on the lead after about a minute, then turn around (without talking) and walk in the opposite direction. Again, this is a type of negative punishment – we are taking the dog away from what it wants the most – to go forward. When the tightening on the lead eases, turn around again and walk in the original direction.
This is one of the few exercises where the dog is not rewarded with food; the reward is the forward motion. The importance of this exercise is to always be consistent. If you do it sometimes and not others, the dog will never learn to walk on a loose leash. Your dog is not going to learn the rules of this exercise without, practice, practice and more practice.
Balance Leash
A Balance Leash as used in TTouch is a quick and effective way to lessen pulling on the lead. Here you will use a flat collar and a long leash (about 5-6’ depending on the size of the dog and how short/tall you are). If you walk the dog on your left side, take the leash in your left hand and with your thumb and forefinger pointing towards the collar and the other end of the leash will be in your right hand. Holding the leash in this position will automatically form a loop which you can drop over the dog’s chest. This will result in you holding the leash in two hands as per the diagram. The object here is for you to walk next to the dogs shoulder as opposed to the dog walking in front of you.
To get the dog to stop, rather than just pulling on the lead, you give what we call at TTouch the ‘ask and release’, by pulling (not jerking) upwards and back which will result in making the dog shift his weight back onto all four feet. As you feel the leash slacken, the dog will be in the ‘neutral’ position and as the dog achieves this you can ask him to go forward again. As we are exerting the pull upwards, rather than from behind, this normally results in the dog stopping immediately. The dogs feet do not leave the floor!
On a dog with a very narrow chest, or a small dog where the balance leash may slide off, or the dog is slipping out of it, you can take the balance leash a step further by putting the lead under the leg further away from you, across the chest and under the collar. Beware here that if you are using a martingale type collar there is the possibility that if it opens wide, the dog can slip right out of it leaving you holding a collar and lead!
What to do if a dog refuses to budge
As with all aspects of behaviour we have to ask ourselves why is this happening? Has this always been the case? Has this behaviour started recently? What is the owner’s reaction to this behaviour?
Let’s look at various aspects of why it could be occurring:-
a. Fear – could be fear of other dogs, busses, motorbikes, people etc. Once this has been established steps must be made to de-sensitize the dog to the perceived fear threatening object and it would be a good idea to consult a professional for assistance.
b. If the behaviour has just started recently, it could be that the route the owner normally takes is suddenly changed leading to fear of new surroundings. It could also be that the day is very hot and the dog’s paws are sore from walking on the pavement or tarmac. Another option is that the dog’s toenails are too long and need to be trimmed or that an underlying physical problem is developing.
c. The owner’s reaction to this problem could well be reinforcing the behaviour. Does the owner lure the dog forward with food? If so the dog has learned nicely what results in treats! Does the owner pull for a while and then pick up the poor darling who must be tired (not a Rotti!) and carry it home? Again the owner is reinforcing the behaviour. If it is an attention seeking dog the owner’s behaviour of screaming, shouting, calming, soothing etc will be reinforcing the behaviour.
What many owners do is make the mistake of stopping and looking back at the dog – all this does is encourage the dog to stay where it is! As hard as it often is, an owner needs to look in the direction they are going, not back at the dog.
Another thing that is very helpful is lead stroking. Look away from the dog (forward), soften your body, even swaying slightly and gently and softly ‘stroke’ the lead with alternating hands. You can encourage the dog with your voice here as well. I do not suggest using a food reward in this instance as what often happens is that the dog learns to take a few steps, stop and then the reward is food! One thing to make sure of is that you are not pulling on the collar, remember that this will cause the opposition reflex to kick in.
If you still have a dog that is rooted to the spot, try doing the stroking slower, relax your own body more or even turn in the opposite direction. If the dog is still not moving, go back to the dog, do some TTouches (or if you don’t know how to, slide your hand up and down the legs and even pick them up one at a time) on the legs and then try again. Should the dog still not move, with the dog still on lead, step away from the dog with your back to it, totally ignoring the dog and wait to see what happens. If the dog gets up, then just continue walking, but turn around and go back the way you came. It may well be that there is an element of fear here. Keep an eye on the behaviour and see if it is occurring at the same place.
Lead stroking can be used to slow a pulling dog down or in any situation that you need the dog to relax.
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