Loose Lead Walking
Scotty Valadao - Canine Behaviour Consultant - TTouch Practitioner
Loose Lead Walking
Taking your dog for a walk is one of the most important things you can do. Not only do dogs require physical exercise, the mental stimulation received when a dog is out for a walk is essential to emotional and mental well being
It is said that the dogs sense of smell is in the region of two million times stronger than ours, so an outing for a dog can be compared to us ‘reading the newspaper’ and catching up with all the news for humans. Imagine how frustrating it would be for you to spend your whole life in your home, never going out to the shops or just for a drive? Doesn’t bear thinking about does it! A dog who receives regular walks and mental stimulation is far less likely to exhibit problem behaviours. Many of the problem behaviours seen by behaviourists are caused by a lack of stimulation and boredom.
Two of the main reasons that dogs pull on leashes are that one, they pull and we follow, and secondly, dogs walk faster than we do. In a dog pack there is always the leader who makes the decisions for the whole pack. If your dog decides where you go and how fast you go, in effect the dog is taking over the position of leader in this particular exercise.
When your puppy is a small bundle of fluff and only weighs a few kilo’s, pulling on the lead does not seem very important, but when puppy has grown up, weighs in the region of 30-50kg, the sensation of having your arms pulled out is not that nice! So many people don’t take their dogs for a walk for this very reason. How much better to have a lovely walk with your dog, with no pulling, and you enjoying the fresh air and your dog enjoying all the lovely smells that tell him who has done what to whom and who is new in the area.
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. This is the one exercise, where initially, we never reward with food – the motion of going forward is reward in itself.
What we need to realize, is that if we dont have the dog under control and not pulling before we leave the home, the odds of us being successful while out for a walk are dramatically reduced. Therefore, your first priority is to have your dog sitting quietly while you put on first the collar, and then the lead. The following exercises is not just to be practised when going out for a walk, practice it over and over - sometimes putting lead and collar on and taking them off, other times walking around the house, other times into the garden and even up too the gate. Guess what? the more you practice the better you will become at this skill. Gary Player the SA golfer once said 'the more I practice, the luckier I get!"
IN THE HOME
OUTSIDE ON WALKS:
There are other methods available for what I term 'professional pullers' and these are better done under supervision from a behaviourist or trainer.
Enjoy your walk!
Taking your dog for a walk is one of the most important things you can do. Not only do dogs require physical exercise, the mental stimulation received when a dog is out for a walk is essential to emotional and mental well being
It is said that the dogs sense of smell is in the region of two million times stronger than ours, so an outing for a dog can be compared to us ‘reading the newspaper’ and catching up with all the news for humans. Imagine how frustrating it would be for you to spend your whole life in your home, never going out to the shops or just for a drive? Doesn’t bear thinking about does it! A dog who receives regular walks and mental stimulation is far less likely to exhibit problem behaviours. Many of the problem behaviours seen by behaviourists are caused by a lack of stimulation and boredom.
Two of the main reasons that dogs pull on leashes are that one, they pull and we follow, and secondly, dogs walk faster than we do. In a dog pack there is always the leader who makes the decisions for the whole pack. If your dog decides where you go and how fast you go, in effect the dog is taking over the position of leader in this particular exercise.
When your puppy is a small bundle of fluff and only weighs a few kilo’s, pulling on the lead does not seem very important, but when puppy has grown up, weighs in the region of 30-50kg, the sensation of having your arms pulled out is not that nice! So many people don’t take their dogs for a walk for this very reason. How much better to have a lovely walk with your dog, with no pulling, and you enjoying the fresh air and your dog enjoying all the lovely smells that tell him who has done what to whom and who is new in the area.
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. This is the one exercise, where initially, we never reward with food – the motion of going forward is reward in itself.
What we need to realize, is that if we dont have the dog under control and not pulling before we leave the home, the odds of us being successful while out for a walk are dramatically reduced. Therefore, your first priority is to have your dog sitting quietly while you put on first the collar, and then the lead. The following exercises is not just to be practised when going out for a walk, practice it over and over - sometimes putting lead and collar on and taking them off, other times walking around the house, other times into the garden and even up too the gate. Guess what? the more you practice the better you will become at this skill. Gary Player the SA golfer once said 'the more I practice, the luckier I get!"
IN THE HOME
- Firstly, change the location where you normally keep the lead and collar. When the dog see's you going to get them for their normal place, excitement levels will raise, so put the ball into your court as the saying goes, and simply change where you keep them.
- This whole exercise is carried out in silence.
- Have the collar in your hand with the lead nearby. Call you dog, ask for a sit and when you bend over to put the collar on, don't bend over the dog. Remember that to a dog this is threatening behaviour (even if the dog knows you are not a threat) and it is more likely to jump up from the sit. Rather bend at an angle and put the collar on.
- If your dog turns into a jumping jack, simply put the collar down, turn around and walk away a few paces and stop. When the dogs stops jumping about, turn around, go back to where you were standing and repeat the process.
- This may well take many practice runs till you get it right, but if you persevere you will get it right. This is a form of negative punishment to a degree - we are taking away from the dog that which it wants the most.
- Next step is to attach the lead. Set yourself up for success if you have a dog that will chew on the lead, and smear some pure Citronella oil, or even Vicks vapour rub on it to discourage the dog from chewing on it.
- Repeat the process above of getting the dog to sit, put on the collar, and then attach the lead. As your dog is pretty good now at sitting, all may go well until the lead is attached and then the excitement will start again.
- If you still have the lead in your hand, turn and walk away as above. If the lead is not attached to the dog, just drop it on the floor and walk away a few steps and then come back and start again.
- Repeat this until you have dog with collar and lead on and not excited.
- Next step is to position the dog by your side - not let it walk in front of you. A dog that walks in front of you will just pull.
- Take ONE step and stop. Here it is your choice, you can either ask the dog to sit, or else have it stand quietly next to you. If the dog starts to pull, stand dead still. Remember you are not looking at, talking too or having any interaction with the dog.
- You now just build up a step at a time until you can walk out the door under control. If you get into a situation where dog is leaning into the lead or pulling and the standing still does not work, turn around, walk a few steps in the direction you came from and when dog is walking nicely, turn around again to your original direction.
- Practice this in the house, in the garden and up and down the driveway. All this will go fine until you take one step out the gate and on average the dog will start pulling again - just go back to the beginning.
OUTSIDE ON WALKS:
- Now is time to go for your walk and initially always keep the dog by your side to stop it pulling. 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.
- If, at any time you get into the situation of a power pull, just turn around as you did inside, walk a few steps then turn again in the direction you came from.
- It really is not fair to a dog to keep him at your side forever, but for the practising it is the best manner. Your dog still needs to sniff and smell around, so when you see a nice tree approaching or something you think your dog will enjoy smelling, loosen the lead, tell the dog 'smellies' or similar and allow him to walk over to the object to investigate. This way you are still keeping control of the dog at all times.
- When your dog is proficient in this, by all means allow him to walk in front of you if he is not pulling and if he does start pulling, just stop dead, wait for the lead to loosen and then tell him 'lets go'.
- As well as enjoying the walk with your dog, turn walks into a training exercise as well. From time to time bring the dog back to your side and walk as above, get him to sit, down, wait etc in short increments. All this will do is raise your position in the combined human/canine structure and go a long way to having a well behaved dog.
There are other methods available for what I term 'professional pullers' and these are better done under supervision from a behaviourist or trainer.
Enjoy your walk!
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