Common Mistakes & Solutions in Leash Training

Common Mistake

Letting your dog pull you around, is teaching him/her that having a taught leash is icy and you do not mind being jerked from place to another. The largest fault with the taught leash scenario, is that the owner tends to pull back when the dog pulls, thus encouraging the dog to pull thus initiating a tug of war that the dog usually wins.

Solution
The dog must understand that you are in charge of the situation and they are not. Walking with you ought to be a privilege with acting out of control an undesirable and unacceptable act. By maintaining a slack leash while walking together with your dog, you are giving yourself that additional foot of leash, as well as an additional second to react to your dog's continual forward lunges.

Method
Pulling dog :
To start with you the owner need to know the correct way to handle your dog's leash. Always make sure that your leash arm is not straight but crooked. By doing this, you are not putting stress on your arm, and you are giving yourself an arm length of leash to make use of when reacting to undesirable action from your dog:

- When your dog lunges forward from a loose leash to a tight leash, he/she will experience a level of discomfort. This in itself, may be to discourage the behavior.
*) By suddenly straightening your arm and backing up, you are delivering a loose leash, to taught correction to your dog's forward lunging, thus putting a surprising and abrupt halt to your dog's forward progress.

- If your dog continues to pull, this is where the crooked arm theory comes in:

The third option is to straighten your arm while turning and walking in the opposite direction. By doing this you are providing a loose leash, to a hard correction, that is ongoing and only ceases when the dog complies with you.

The idea behind this approach is to make an work to convey to the dog that this type of behavior is unacceptable and you the owner won't tolerate it. You the owner require your dog to make the association between lunging forward, and the resulting discomfort that accompanies that act. If proper leash method is used correctly and consistently, can put a cease to continual pulling of any kind whether it be pulling forward, or pulling sideways. Always make a point to praise and reward the dog on compliance! By doing this you are only strengthening the dog's understanding that nice behavior leads to nice results. By relaying the message to your dog that undesirable activity will lead to discomfort, while compliance will lead to a nice outcome, walking your dog will soon become a pleasure not a chore.