Who currently has a weak or sore shoulder from their dog pulling them and yanking them down the street?
Me, me, me, I hear you cry! There are literally millions of people who have to endure their walk with their dog, rather than enjoy it.
So why not train your dog to walk by your side without pulling once, and then enjoy every walk without any hassle!
Make sense? And the great thing is, it’s not complicated! As with most things worth mastering, it can take a little time, but not always. Sometimes it can be a 5-minute turnaround, as expert Dog Trainer, Doggy Dan, demonstrates in his video:
(You can go straight to the training site by clicking here.)
But let me first talk you through some of the really key mistakes that people are making when walking their dog.
Now as I mentioned earlier, there are many tricks to walking your dog on the leash correctly so that they walk beside you. And if you have a determined dog (and they come in both big and small sizes), you may well need to know all of them before you can master the walk.
But generally speaking, the tips I am about to give you now will really help… So let’s get cracking and get into the training.
The most important thing to remember is to keep your dog calm. If your dog is charged up like a raging bull as you head out of the house, like the one in the video, then getting them to walk calmly on the leash is going to be a lot harder than if they are calm.
So how do we calm our dog down? I hear you cry…
Alright, alright, I’m getting to it…
1. Calming your dog down.
Think about your build-up to leaving the house. You bring out the leash and BANG! Your sleeping beauty becomes a rocket. The dog jumps up, tail wagging, racing around demanding that you put the leash on them. Now if you simply oblige and put the leash on them they get even more excited!
The reason is simple. You are reinforcing their excited behavior with a reward, the lead. So this behavior gets more and more extreme. They become more excited, not less excited. Always think about the ramifications of rewarding the present behavior.
The same thing is happening as your dog drags you towards the front door, barging his way through first and then pulling you down the walk. All of this is getting your dog more and more excited. They will be at bursting point when you get onto the path!
So next time you take your dog for a walk, take your time. Pick up the leash and then wait for your dog to calm down. That’s right. Simply carry on doing what you were doing and ignore your dog’s antics. If they don’t calm down, simply put the leash away or put it on a table.
This may take a little while, with several attempts over quite a long period, but your dog will eventually calm down. When they are calm, you can try again and repeat until they are totally relaxed as you attach the leash.
This process can be repeated all the way until you are on the path ready to start your walk. Either wait calmly with your dog on the leash until they are calm before progressing, or take the leash off and postpone the walk for a few minutes.
Patience is an important part of the process.
It may seem like you’re getting nowhere fast, but better to take some time getting this sorted now, or you’re going to be dragged around the streets for the next 10 years. The issue will not “self correct.”
Now step two is a simple exercise that involves you turning around when your dog pulls ahead.
2. Change direction
Before you start your walk, look at which way your dog is trying to head. If they want to go right, then you turn left. Take a step to the left and repeat this until they are actually taking notice of what you are doing.
On a bigger scale, you could simply change direction and go the other way when your dog starts to pull ahead.
Make sure you do this early, don’t wait till your dog is miles out in front. By doing this exercise, your dog ends up behind you every time. Again, it can take a little time, but your dog will get it.
3. Chose an appropriate device
Take a look at some of the different types of devices available to assist you in getting your dog to heel. In the video posted above, you can see Doggy Dan using a very special harness where the attachment is under the dog’s chin. This is totally different to a traditional harness where the attachment is on the back and the dogs end up pulling like a cart horse. Here is an excellent training harness:
4. Remember that the pack leader leads…
On the walk, the pack leader leads from the front. So if you are not the pack leader in your dog’s eyes, they will really fight for that spot at the front. It’s as simple as that. You can’t cheat a dog, especially the strong-minded determined ones! Learning to become the pack leader is a topic all on it’s own, and is the basis of Doggy Dan’s world-famous training method. He’s developed 5 Golden Rules, which when followed daily, help you become the pack leader in a calm and gentle way. On his video website The Online Dog Trainer, he points out that before any training takes place, you first need to establish yourself as the leader using the 5 rules – and he stresses that this is really important in solving almost all dog behavior problems.
5. Lots of extra tips
As I mentioned earlier, there are heaps of other tips and tricks such as knowing how and when to give the leash a little pull without going over the top. Understanding when and where to let your dog have some freedom and go sniff and pee pee (after all, that’s the point of going for a dog walk, isn’t it!) is part of the whole process.
If you would like to master the walk today, then look no further than Doggy Dan’s website The Online Dog Trainer, with over 250 videos. It really is simply the best dog training site around. There are currently 7 excellent videos on how to walk your dog correctly, showing you how to deal with every issue and question you may have. And there’s even a 30-minute audio inside the site – so you can listen while you walk!
Everybody wants to enjoy their dog and that includes walking them, so don’t put up with crazy pulling any longer!
And remember your dog will also be glad when the pulling stops and they can walk calmly by your side! You will actually have eliminated stress from your dog’s life.