Episode #169 Secrets to Loose Leash Walking

Today, we're tackling a common challenge: teaching your puppy to walk with a loose leash. But don’t worry, we've got the tips and tricks to make loose leash training possible. This episode includes what you'll need to get started, teaching your dog to follow first, rules of leash walking and ways you can make it fun for both you and your dog! 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Puppy Training Podcast, episode 169, secrets to Loose Leash Walking. This podcast is designed to help you on your journey of becoming best friends through love and learning, as you train your own dog from home, and I'm here to help you every step of the way. This is the Puppy Training Podcast and I'm your host, amy Jensen. Welcome to another episode of the Puppy Training Podcast. This is your go-to podcast for all things dog training. I focus on building relationships with our dogs and teaching you how to incorporate your dog into everyday family life. Today, I want to tackle a common challenge teaching your puppy to walk with a loose leash. But don't worry, because I've got the tips and tricks to make loose leash training possible. It is one of those training things that takes a little bit more time, takes a lot of patience and consistency, but today I have a few tips that you can try. So, before we dive in, if you are planning or in the planning stages of bringing a dog home, I want to help you get prepared. We have a preparing for my puppy learning module in our member's area of our website, where you learn all about realistic expectations, how to set up your house, bringing your puppy home, having a family meeting and more. You'll also will have access to our trainers via email and one-on-one sessions to ask whatever questions pop up. I promise you'll have questions. So even if you do not have your dog yet, if you are on a waiting list or you're anticipating bringing a puppy or a new dog into your home anytime soon, we want you in our program now to get and feel prepared.

Speaker 1: 1:43

All right, let's talk leash walking. So we're going to start with the basics. The keys again to successful leash walking are patience and consistency. We have to remember that our puppies are still learning and we'll need gentle guidance every step of the way. Now I like to just use a lightweight leash, something that's six feet in length, with a little tiny clip. Nothing that's going to weigh my puppy down or feel really heavy on them. I want it to be just nice and light. I like to use a regular flat buckle collar or a harness and I clip the leash to the front of the harness. So if you are going to get a harness for your dog, make sure it has a front clip.

Speaker 1: 2:18

Avoid using retractable leashes, as they can encourage pulling. The tension never goes away and what I'm trying to teach my dog is. When they feel tension, they need to release that tension, and retractable leashes make that really hard. They're also a little bit dangerous if you're not careful with them, so just avoid those in general. They're just not super helpful when we're trying to teach a puppy to walk on a loose leash.

Speaker 1: 2:40

Now I like to begin indoors, inside my home, with minimal distractions. I choose a time of day when my puppy's a little bit active but not overly rambunctious, and I like to choose a time of day when maybe my family members are doing other things, so there's not a lot of chaos happening in this room. It's just pretty quiet and we just start walking around. Now I want my puppy to start to follow me. If you think of loose leash walking as you would like, a child in school learning math now, a first grader, or even like a kindergartner, second grader, third grader, any of those elementary ages they're just learning about numbers, they're learning how to put them together, and it's not until high school that I start to introduce this child to calculus. Okay, now, calculus is a harder level of math and kids do get to the point where, yes, they can understand and do calculus, but it takes some time and there's some pre-work, there's some pre-knowledge that needs to go into that before you can just hand them calculus and be like, okay, let's do calculus Now.

Speaker 1: 3:43

Loose leash walking is like calculus for dogs. So our puppies need skills before they will be ready to just walk around a city block. So today let's talk about some of those skills. The first one is to follow. So no destination walks for now. I know sometimes we get a dog and we think, oh, it's my job to walk them, I must take my dog out on a walk. I want you to just scratch that off your list for now. When you first get a dog, I want them to learn to follow you. Now, dogs tend to want to follow the trail or the sidewalk or the pathway. I want them to follow you right. We need to teach them that. That's what this is about. This is about a connection, a relationship between me and my dog and we go places together. So no going around the block for now.

Speaker 1: 4:26

Stick to areas instead of trails where you can circle. Make U-turns, lots of figure 8s. You might feel a little bit ridiculous. That means you're doing it right. Walk around furniture. So again you're starting indoors. So walk around furniture like your sofas, tables, coffee tables. Go to the right, go to the left, make U-turns, go in and out of every room in your home. Take this practice outside, into your backyard or your private area If you have a patio or something where you can practice or a driveway is great and then, once your dog is fully vaccinated, you're going to take this following practice to the park, but again you're not on a trail or a sidewalk or a pathway, you are at the park and you're picking a nice big area so that again you can circle and make figure 8s and U-turns as needed.

Speaker 1: 5:12

The main rule we have with leash walking is never follow a pulling puppy. If your puppy starts to pull, we stop or change directions every single time, only start going down sidewalks and pathways when your dog is reliably walking next to you, meaning they follow you without pulling and they know how to be a partner with you. They know how to walk together towards things they want to get to. That's what we're establishing. So it works out really well that our puppies if you're getting a new puppy, that they're not fully vaccinated yet that you have those weeks and that time to practice at your house inside where we really establish that good following technique, or even if you're rescuing an older dog and they're coming to you, don't be afraid to take those first few weeks of doing the exact same thing you would as if they were a new puppy. We want to stay inside and then, once your dog's fully vaccinated if they are a puppy you can, yes, go to the parks, but stay off the trails, stay off the sidewalks.

Speaker 1: 6:05

I want you to find an area and circle and figure 8 and U-turns and speeding up and slowing down and just being a little bit unpredictable and exciting so that your puppy wants to follow you. So be patient, go slowly. There's no need to rush this. There's not like this timeline that I have to have my dog walking around the city block by X amount of time. There's nothing like that that exists. Your dog can get plenty of exercise daily by playing in the backyard or inside your home or on Ghost Nif walks and I'll talk a little bit more about Ghost Nif walks in a minute.

Speaker 1: 6:35

So as we're walking, our puppies following me, I reward in the kitchen area no, this is not your actual kitchen, but the area directly next to your leg. So whenever my puppy's head lines up with my leg, I reward them and I move as I pay them. It helps to have a nice soft, chewy treat versus a hard crunchy one. Sometimes if you give your dog something crunchy, they want to stop and crunch it. So try to give them a little bit softer reward that they can keep moving as you pay them. So I'm going to reward them with food. You can use praise as well. Tell them they're doing a great job, right. And then I like to stop every few minutes and give them playtime. Just let them go sniff. Or I pull out a toy and we play. I call it recess. It's just to give them a little brain break.

Speaker 1: 7:15

Now, consistency is key here. Be sure to reward good behavior every time it occurs. And I, like I said, keep those sessions short, one to two minutes, then play. Let them sniff around again, play a little game of tug, whatever your puppy enjoys, because after all, we are rewarding them right, right, all right, let's get started. Cues like let's go and are you ready I just like to give my dog a little heads up that hey, we're about to move, let's go is kind of my cue, for I'm changing directions or I'm about to walk. You need to pay attention. And then when I stop, I just drop a little food reward on the ground for them to sniff and find that's fun for them, and it takes a minute for them to find it and they're standing still, which is what I want. And then I start walking again and I repeat that.

Speaker 1: 7:56

Now, to prevent your dog from getting overly excited about seeing others, I use what's called the 9010 rule. 90% of the time I am not going up to people to say hi to them and their dogs, and my dog is not getting that expectation right. So don't set your dog up with the expectation that, hey, you get to run over and say hi to everyone we see. No, don't do it. Do the 9010 rule. Practice a leave it cue instead. When they see somebody, that leave it means we want them to take their attention away from the person or dog they see and give it back to you. Now let's talk about that.

Speaker 1: 8:25

Go sniff walk. This is my favorite kind of walk. This is a much more relaxed walk. Let your dog be a dog. Especially, this is helpful for those dogs who are maybe cautious outside or seem nervous, or dogs who aren't currently enjoying their walks. Maybe you have a dog that you're like they just seem to have a problem with the walk. I like to get a 10 to 20 foot lead. It's again a lightweight leash, it's just longer and I let them sniff, I just connect it to the back of their harness. So yes, at this time I'm connecting to the back of their harness because they're kind of dragging that little line along. But they get to go experience the world through their noses and allowing you know, this allows our puppies to stop and explore interesting smells and it's not only natural but beneficial for our dog's mental stimulation. So try to incorporate these short go sniff breaks into your walks to keep your puppy engaged and happy.

Speaker 1: 9:12

Now you can have an entire walk, be that go sniff walk right Now. Make sure your dog's fully vaccinated first, obviously before you take them to the park. But you can also do a nice little attention walk, like we've been talking about, where your dog's following you and paying attention, and then you can release them to go sniff for a little while and it can be a nice go sniff walk. So again, a 10 foot leash is probably my favorite because you can do both with the same leash on. You can have them do a nice little attention walk next to you and then you can release them to go sniff for a little bit and then you can ask them to. You know, do a nice little attention walk again and you can go back and forth. But just doing an entire go sniff walk that's all you do the entire time is a much more relaxing way for a dog to get exercise and some good mental stimulation by sniffing. Now I often get asked about a heel. I teach a heel cue for tight spaces on a sidewalk, so if I need to navigate around someone or something it is nice to be able to say heel, and my dog tucks in next to my side and they pay strict attention to me. But we're not doing that for very long. It's really just to navigate tight spaces and then we're back to that more relaxed attention walk or, even more so, relaxed go sniff walk.

Speaker 1: 10:20

Now playing games. You guys, I'm a huge fan of games. If you are part of my program, you know this. So playing games can also be a great way to relieve stress and make leash training more enjoyable for both you and your dog. Incorporate these short little play breaks into your walks and it just helps keep the intention of your puppy and you're not so bored and it doesn't become so monotonous, because leash training is a little bit monotonous. You need hundreds of repetitions of just following, just circling figure eights, that kind of thing, so you can see how that gets old pretty quickly.

Speaker 1: 10:48

I'm going to give you a game that you can try. It's called the find it game. You simply just toss a treat a short distance away and encourage your puppy to find it. So this not only provides mental stimulation but also reinforces good leash manners as your puppy learns to focus on you, because you're the one that's saying hey, look over here. Hey, check out this spot over here. Hey, puppy, come check out this over here. And they're finding a little food reward along the way. You're a pretty good partner on this walk and they start to figure that out pretty quickly. So have some fun. Play that game, see how it goes.

Speaker 1: 11:17

Remember, you guys, that leash training takes time and patience. Try to celebrate the small wins along the way and don't be discouraged by setbacks. They're going to happen. It's okay. With consistency and positive reinforcement, you and your dog will soon be enjoying peaceful walks together. I promise you'll get to the point where, yes, you can walk around the block together. It just takes time to get there, so be patient. That's all for today's episode on Loose Leash Walking. Thanks for tuning in you guys, and happy training. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other puppy training question, visit my site BaxterAndBellacom to contact me.