If your dog tends to be too energetic during your daily walk, it can become a strenuous and bothersome activity that resembles a tug of war. However, you can enhance your experience by acquiring techniques to prevent your dog from pulling on the leash. Follow these dog training tips to improve their leash manners and enjoy your walks once more. What are the methods to teach a dog to stop pulling on a leash?
Promoting Good Leash Manners in an Excitable Dog
It’s difficult to fault your dog for being extremely thrilled for any outdoor excursion that comes their way, leading them to want to sniff around and frolic without restriction. Unless trained otherwise, dogs tend to remain tautly leashed and pulling until the end of their rope, along with yours.
Not only is this behavior annoying, but it can also pose a risk. Dogs become overly enthusiastic and exhibit symptoms like coughing, wheezing, and heavy breathing while exploring. However, this behavior may harm them. The good news is that hiring a professional dog trainer is unnecessary to encourage good conduct. To learn how to prevent your dog from pulling on the leash, read on.
Training your dog to walk properly requires patience and dedication, but it’s definitely worthwhile. Once you’ve successfully trained your dog, your regular walks can become enjoyable. Ultimately, your dog will become happier, healthier, and better behaved as they cease pulling during walks.
To begin our journey, we sought advice from Nurtured K9, a dog training company based in St. Albert. They provided us with invaluable insights on how to prevent leash pulling, including suggestions on walking aids, ways to avoid common errors, and tactics for handling interruptions.
How to Train a Dog Not to Pull on Leash
To successfully teach your dog not to pull on a leash, you must also learn a few techniques yourself. Maintaining a calm demeanor throughout the training requires mental strength.
If you are training a young and energetic puppy, you may become annoyed. Learning how to prevent a puppy from tugging on the leash can be a complicated procedure.
If your young dog is stubborn, it’s possible that what is effective for one puppy may not be for another. Therefore, you must try different training techniques to discover one that works best for both you and your pup.
It can be exasperating when a dog tugs on its leash, making you feel as though you’re being led instead of leading. However, it’s important to remain composed and concentrate on finding ways to prevent your dog from pulling on the leash. Simply take a few deep breaths and maintain your composure.
Bear in mind that your youthful canine merely requires familiarization with the requisite skills, and once trained, it will walk on the leash with ease and expertise.
Choosing the Right Environment for Training
Selecting an appropriate environment for training is essential as dogs can get easily distracted, agitated and frightened. Your dog’s capacity to concentrate on commands can determine whether your training session is beneficial and pleasant or exasperating and tense.
When training, it is important to break it down into feasible steps. Therefore, choose a setting that is suitable for your dog’s attention span and skill.
At first, confine your training to areas that are calm and under your supervision. The ideal location to begin with could be your backyard. This strategy will decrease disturbances and enable you to reiterate instructions and patterns.
Tips From an Expert:
For optimal results, Nurtured K9 suggests practicing obedience training in a minimal disturbance environment. Your aim is to become your dog’s primary focus, and all external stimuli while out on walks must be unimportant to them, unless instructed to engage.
After achieving flawless obedience in settings with minimal distractions, you can gradually incorporate minor distractions from a distance into the training. Offer treats as you approach these distractions to establish a connection between them and a positive outcome.
To prevent overwhelming your dog, select appropriate times and locations. Introducing them to a crowded walking path immediately may make it difficult for them to concentrate and obey your instructions.
How to Reward Every Success
Ensure that you are emphasizing desirable actions and conduct. The aim is not to discourage undesirable conduct through reprimanding, but rather to acknowledge commendable walking behaviour. Gradually, your dog will grasp that favorable walking conduct is acknowledged and will eagerly anticipate your commands.
Treat Training
In order to achieve this, it is necessary to give recognition for every achievement, accurate answer, and consistent concentration and attentive gaze. The type of recognition may differ depending on the chosen approach to training, but treating is the most widely used method.
If you opt to use treats as a way to incentivize your dog, then you should anticipate bringing a vast stock of small, high-value treats to each training session. It’s crucial to utilize treats that your dog adores, are aromatic, or have potent flavor to persuade and keep them motivated.
Avoid larger treats like biscuits, natural chews, and dental treats. Repeat treating with these treats will turn into a lot of extra calories. Look for small, soft, or chewy treats that can be cut or broken into even smaller pieces. Aim for treats that are smaller than a piece of kibble.
You can avoid overfeeding and digestive issues by treating your dog more frequently. To keep their interest in the reward, switch up the types of treats and flavors during their training sessions.
Explore some of the finest training treats for dogs to discover excellent treat options, or select a treat that offers significant value to captivate your dog’s interest.
Tip From an Expert:
If you want your dog to choose the treat instead of the distraction, the reward must be sufficiently attractive. Cut-up hot dogs can be used by Nurtured K9 to provide your dog with something irresistibly delicious to maintain his focus.
Audible Praise
Verbal praise can be a suitable option to reward dogs that are not motivated by food, are carrying excess weight, or have health conditions that restrict the use of treats. An audible signal is another method of providing a reward.
Vocal responses or the use of a clicker as a training aid can be effective. Your dog can be trained to perceive the clicker sound as a form of appreciation for exhibiting positive conduct.
Utilize the vocal instruction “YES!!” to communicate to your canine that they have effectively followed your commands. Regardless of whether you choose to reward them with treats or praise, this spoken signal should always precede any positive reinforcement.
Take a Break
Lastly, it is crucial to allow your dog to relish its walk; hence, you can also train it to understand commands such as “OK” or “go ahead,” which indicate that it is permissible to pause and discover the surroundings.
It’s important to avoid motivating them to tug while carrying out this procedure. Ensure that you are moving towards the designated area for their exploration and providing ample space for them to scent or possibly indicate a tree. This routine ought to be repeated frequently during your hike.
Once you’re prepared to continue, use a vocal instruction such as “walk” to inform your dog it’s time to proceed.
BONUS: Dog training 101 — How to set realistic goals and where to get started
Basically, there are two tiers of dog training. If your focus is on developing skill sets or fundamental etiquette, such as getting your dog to sit, stay, and lay down, you should seek the services of a dog trainer. Conversely, if your dog is demonstrating behavioral issues – like anxiety, aggressiveness, or fearfulness – then what you require is the expertise of a dog behavioral consultant, such as Brianna Dick from Pack Leader Help.
“The way that I approach dog training is behavioral psychology based,” says Dick, who is a member of the International Association of Canine Professionals. “We’re not looking at just the physical behaviors of dogs. We’re looking at their emotions and the relationship they have with their humans.”
Begin with behavior training if you require training for both behavioral and skill aspects, as it is the more intricate one to learn. While a dog trainer may be capable of teaching your dog to sit, a dog behavior consultant will possess better knowledge to aid your dog in coping with separation anxiety.
Be realistic.
According to Fratt, not all humans will develop an affection for going to raves and also not all dogs will develop an affection for going to the dog park.
Kim Brophey, the owner of The Dog Door Behavior Center, is an expert in applied ethology and mediation for family dogs. She authored a book named “Meet Your Dog: The Game Changing Guide To Understanding Your Dog’s Behavior” and explains canine behavior through the L.E.G.S framework (learning, environment, genetics, and self). An instance of her methodology is if your dog persists in barking at your guests.
“That might be a breed of dog that was selected for hundreds of years to defend against people walking in your front door,” says Brophey. Since you can’t train away a German shepherd’s genetic impulse to defend its territory, you may need to change your expectations, instead.
Decide how you’d like to train your dog.
Regarding training methods, there are several choices available, such as group classes, individual training, board and train, day training, and self-led training, which are the most typical. Though group classes are affordable, they are less customized. Fratt cautions that board and train establishments are more expensive and have more risks.
“If the trainer spends all this time training the dog in this really specific context and then basically just hands you the leash, takes your check and walks away, there’s a very good chance you’re not actually going to be able to implement those new strategies and skills … successfully in your home.”
Your decision will be influenced by your financial capacity and the objectives you have for training. In case your pet exhibits aggressive behavior towards another dog within your residence, it would not be wise to have it trained in an outdoor setting.
Be aware that you will need to participate in your dog’s training process, however, it won’t require a significant portion of your time. Fratt advises that she devotes approximately five minutes per day to training her dog. The tasks assigned by trainers can also be entertaining, and seamlessly integrated into your daily routine.
To avoid spending a large sum of money on dog training, our specialists recommend utilizing accessible online resources that are either free or inexpensive.
- Kikopup on Youtube and Instagram
- Fenzi Dog Sports Academy
- K9 of Mine
On her website, Dick has amassed a variety of complimentary resources while Fratt offers a collection of lessons called Training Tuesday Free.
Understand the methodologies.
There are no regulations for dog training, allowing anyone with a website, Instagram page, or physical store to declare themselves a dog trainer. As a result, there are no standard practices that must be followed, leading to various opinions among trainers. The majority of trainers can be placed into two general groups:
One of the categories of trainers is represented by Fratt and they employ positive reinforcement technique. Positive reinforcement entails rewarding the dog with something desirable, such as a treat, every time they exhibit good behavior in order to encourage them to repeat that behavior. It can also involve giving the dog something pleasant to create an association with a stimulus they perceive as menacing.
The second is balanced trainers like Brianna Dick. Balanced trainers use positive reinforcement methods, but are also more willing to incorporate corrections, like e-collars, into their training.
Dick describes E-collar training as the utilization of a collar that is placed on a dog and can be operated by remote control. The collar provides a stimulus, such as a shock, sound, or citronella spray, to the dog’s neck when correction is required. The employment of E-collars, particularly those that generate a shock, is a controversial topic among dog trainers.
According to Dick, one should be cautious of trainers who employ e-collars on every canine, as it is a standardized approach that is unlikely to yield favorable outcomes. Rather, one should seek out a trainer who takes the time to understand one’s individual circumstances, including one’s personality, connection, and way of life with their pet.
Find a good trainer.
A good way to find positive reinforcement trainers or balanced trainers nearby is to refer to the lists of professional associations. Several such associations exist that you can utilize, including:
- International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC)
- Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT)
- The Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT)
- Karen Pryor Academy (KPA)
- Pet Professional Guild
- The Academy for Dog Trainers
- Pat Miller Certified Trainers
Proceed with the interviews! Reach out to previous customers. Determine which trainer gives you the greatest sense of ease. Confirm their ability to articulate their approaches to training.
