Teaching a dog to walk nicely with us on a leash is one of the hardest skills you will ever teach! We walk much slower than our dogs, tend to walk in a straight line, and certainly don’t get excited about running over to sniff delicious smells. While most dogs will get very excited about the opportunity to go for a walk, the manner in which we want them to walk with us is not naturally reinforcing for the dog. It will take a lot of training and consistency to get the picture you want.

Consistency & Management

The biggest reason dogs pull on leash is because pulling works for them, at least some of the time. Every time the dog gets excited and walks faster than we would like them to in order to get somewhere, they are getting rewarded for that action. Sometimes the dog will only get a few feet before their handler realizes what’s happening and stops. But in the dog’s mind, pulling got them closer.

To us, it can be mind-boggling that a dog would choose to keep pulling even when they are choking and coughing. Why don’t they learn that it hurts?! But to the dog, the possibility of getting to greet that person, dog, or sniff that smell is so exciting that they can block out everything else. They seem to at least act like they forgot we were there.

In order to help our dogs learn what we want them to do, we need to set up situations where we can consistently reinforce the loose-leash behavior that we want, AND remove as much reinforcement as possible from the dog’s attempts at pulling. Remember, pulling forward takes two participants.

Management

If we can’t consistently react to the dog’s attempts at pulling, then we need to try to manage it to prevent it from occurring. Management doesn’t actively teach the dog what we want them to do, but hopefully, it sets up the dog so that they physically aren’t pulling on the leash.

Ideas for managing a tough situation might include:

• Going off to the side to work on focus while standing still. You may need to grab the dog’s collar or step on their leash if they are really struggling. Generally, if the dog can’t focus while you are standing still, then walking is going to be very difficult. Wait until the dog calms down before trying to walk around the store, or decide that the dog needs a mental break and leave the area.
• Cookie-magnet the dog away from the distractions or to the area you’re trying to travel to. This involves taking a handful of cookies and putting them directly to the dog’s nose. Lure them forward, actually giving them the cookie however frequently you need to in order to keep your dog thinking about your cookie hand over the environment
• Pick them up if they are small enough.
• Use a gentle leader or halti head collar to give yourself more control. For some dogs, putting on the head collars will also prevent them from pulling. However, most dogs can still pull while wearing one. Usually, you will need to combine this with a cookie magnet if the dog is in over their head.

Reinforcement

When working on a dog’s walking skills, it’s always best to start in an easy environment. This might be inside your house, and graduating to a driveway or empty parking lot if life is very distracting.

With a young dog or a dog new to you, start out walking backward with the dog following you. Feed them several cookies for following you, especially anytime they look up at your face. If the dog surges past you, change direction so you are again backing away from where the dog is trying to go. Don’t worry about trying to go in a straight line. It’s okay if you’re just in your driveway or going back and forth between a few houses. This step is easiest to practice in a large open area like a big field or empty parking lot.

When this step is easy, try walking forward and encouraging the dog to walk at your side. Feed them lots of cookies!

Make sure that when you feed the dog, you pass the reward to whatever side the dog is on. If your dog is on your left side, you need to pass the cookie to your left hand and feed directly at the side of your body, at the seam of your pants, or a little behind. Feeding at your side will encourage the dog to stay further back instead of trying to wrap around in front of you to get closer to where the cookies are held.

A crucial part of loose-leash walking is not just maintaining pace with you as you walk, but actually stopping when you stop. Frequently practice taking just a single step and stopping to reward your dog before they surge past. You want to condition your dog to focus on what your body is actually doing. Give lots of treats for noticing when you stop moving.

If your dog pulls, you will respond in a way described in the next section. And then you will try to reinforce your dog once they are back with you. At first, you will want to reward your dog for coming back to walk nicely, before they have a chance to pull again. But since this can accidentally create a chain of pulling and then running back to get a cookie, we want to change how we are rewarding as the dog gains more experience. With an experienced dog, if you have to respond to pulling, then wait until you walk forward a few steps before giving the next cookie. This reinforces them for walking at your side versus just coming back to you.