Leash Training Your Puppy or Dog
How to get your dog to stop pulling on a leash. So many people struggle with walking their dog, right? I'm going to give you 6 things, 6 very basic small things, that will help any owner and any dog master this very easily. We're not going to use any tools no prong collars, no e-collars. This is so very simple that anyone can conquer this very important task.
Getting Out The Door
1.) The first thing you have to conquer is going out the door. Give your puppy plenty of space and don't ask for anything. All that you need is for them to respect that space. So that means when the door opens they are not to blow through it. They should respect your space and relax and then you can move forward. That is number one! If you come blowing through the door with your dog you fail right there. You're not ready to move ahead to walking, you have to conquer that first.
Verbal Markers and Release Commands
2.) Now the second thing that you need is a release word or marker. Some people use clickers but I use verbal markers like a lot of people do. So for the people that know nothing about dog training what that means is you either use a clicker or a verbal marker. Some examples of verbal markers are sit, stay, heal, stop. no, etc. You ask your puppy to do something using your verbal marker, they do it and then you follow with the reward.
The release marker is also very important. You won't believe how many people I work with that don't have a release command for their dog. It's very important that your dog knows when they are to be in command. But it's also important that they know when they don't have to be in command. Commonly used release words are “okay,” “break,” and “free.”. It makes things very confusing when you don't have that release command. Use a reward marker and a release command.
Leash Pressure
3.) The next thing we have to talk about is the dog has to understand leash pressure. What I mean by leash pressure is straight line please pressure. Your puppy has to learn how to yield to leash pressure. When I say straight line I mean you put it flat, parallel to the ground,and you apply a little pressure pulling toward you and they move toward you with the pressure. That's very light pressure moving them. I know that's very basic and very simple but you'd be amazed on how many people don't teach leash pressure and the dog has to understand it.
Turnabouts
4.) Number four is turnabouts or 180's. What that means is if your dog is on your left, which they're going to be, you are going to turn 180 degrees away from the dog. So you are going turn to the right and go the other way. One of two things are going to happen. Either your dog is going keep going and when they get to the end of the leash they will feel the tension and turn and catch up to you. That's a good thing, that's what we want.
The other thing that may happen is the social pressure of staying with you will cause them to turn around. Just practice turning walking up and down the street. Turn in a 180 degrees away from the dog get them to follow you whether it's the leash helping or them seeing your body going the other way and they just follow. Both are very beneficial!
Follow The Left Leg
5.) Next we have to teach the dog to follow the left leg. We want them along the left leg and only moving when the left leg moves. The easiest way to do that is to break it down into little baby steps. In order to show them what we mean by sticking by the left leg you move your right leg and you don't want them moving. You want them moving with your left foot. Step slowly moving your right leg and make sure that your puppy doesn't move. Now step with your left and have them move with you. Just repeat these slow steps and have your puppy move only when you move your left leg. Continue until they only move with your left leg.
Taking Left Turns
6.) The last thing is very, very effective and I never see anyone do this. It creates incredible results very fast. So a lot of people know that when they practice taking left turns they turn into the dog. The dog is at your left and you make a left turn into them and what happens is you wind up bumping the dog. So this method is a lot better than just making a left turn into them. What you're going do now is as you are walking turn 180 degrees all the way around like earlier.
But this time not away from the dog but make a left 180 degrees into the dog. But most importantly is you take your right leg and swing it all the way around emphatically. What happens is the dog follows and is gonna stick to the left leg and it starts working on that rear end awareness where they start turning into it. So you are going swing the right leg and have the dog follow the left leg. Practice this over and over and it won't be long before your dog is turning with with ease.
A Couple Of Tools
The e collar and prong collar. The prong collar works on the concept that evenly applied pressure is gentler and more effective on a dog's neck than the quick jerk and impact of a choke chain. Also the steady, relentless pressure of a flat collar or muzzling and constant pull of a gentle-leader. The E Collar is a remote dog training system that usually consists of a wireless remote and a wireless receiver. E Collars allow you to remotely send signals to your dog to help them understand "good behavior" and "bad behavior." If you start yanking the wrong way on a prong collar or you start hitting wrong buttons on the e-collar what you are doing right from the start is creating conflict.
The Prong Collar
Conflict is the biggest enemy in dog training. What a lot of people do is they put the prong collar on the dog the dog falls and they start yanking. That's not how the prong collar is supposed to be used. And that's why they're always in the spotlight as a negative tool. But if you go through these 6 things and the dog understands leash pressure then the prong collar works wonderfully. With that I mean just fantastic it makes it very easy and effortless.
The E Collar
The same thing with the e collar. Don't put an e collar on a dog if he has to be trained properly with it. How I do it is you go for a walk the dog starts forging and they're pulling out. By using very little leash pressure just a tap tap on the e collar and the dog will fix themselves. The dog won't even need leash pressure. If they start pulling ahead of you and they have their e collar on you just tap, tap they are going to fix themselves. It makes it effortless and the structured walk is the most important train training tool we have in dog training. It's so beneficial and so effective and can create so many well-behaved dogs in the household for anybody. Every person and every dog on the planet should be capable of the most simplest form of dog training and what comes natural to a dog.
Conclusion
So what it does all of this mean? If you can master these things it creates happy owners and happy dogs.
You have to master the structured walk. The structured walk again is walking at your side, you're relaxed and there's no tension. The dog is relaxed and their one job is to follow you. There's no sniffing, there's no pain, there's no stopping, there's no fixating on anything. It's just a very natural beautiful walk, very therapeutic for both you and your dog.
The release command is so important. Find a spot where you want your dog to be a free dog and let them be. You release your dog and now they know they no longer have to be in command. They can go do all their doggy things like pee on things for example. They can be a dog and that's very, very important. This kind of simple stuff keeps dogs in the home and out of the shelters because everyone is happy. It keeps dogs and owners happy. It is the most effective training tool we have and it's not being utilized. You have got to utilize this piece of advice.
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Article from - Puppy Blog