How to Stop Pulling: Don’t Fall for the Leash Training Lie

I'm just going to say it: We've been discussing

leash

pulling

all wrong, but today I'm going to give you one of my biggest secrets when it comes to teaching dogs not to pull while on a

leash

. Now say you're trying to do it. teach a six year old to read, but you start with a book designed for a 15 year old reading level or you are trying to build a house before you, how do you build a house? This is a six foot leash and what most people use when trying to teach their dog to walk on leash makes sense, but this could actually be what stands between you and a dog that walks without

pulling

. and progress toward better leash behavior.

Just about the leash itself, it's about understanding your dog's needs, how he explores, and what keeps him motivated first and foremost each month. BarkBox has a different theme, it's a corn dog and attention to detail, even having this clamp on the end. I love how sturdy it is. The thing is that their toys are very multi-dimensional, some squeak, some crinkle, some bounce differently or maybe roll around in some crazy way. You can see how it is very difficult to get the ball out, so your dog has to work hard at it. Bart's toys are surprisingly unpredictable.

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I have tried many methods when it comes to getting dogs to walk politely and I have really changed. the way I approach pulling on the leash at that moment, why do dogs pull? First of all, we have to understand this before we can address it. Dogs walk faster than us. They are very curious and have such a strong search. system that is a fundamental primary set of neural circuits that use dopamine to drive dogs to be curious about their environment. Dogs are genetically programmed to explore, plus the whole act of pulling on the leash can be self-reinforcing for your dog.

The dog pulls a the person follows and the dog learns hey, pulling really works for me and knowing this might tempt you to think hard. I guess I should never let my dog ​​pull on the leash, it will never be reinforced, the problem will be solved and anyone who has tried it. I think your approach has definitely had problems, but you know, it turns out that that's just not realistic for a dog or a person, especially one who is new to this whole concept, so it seems like we're in a dilemma, so I'm going . To review how I approach this delicate but very common situation.

Look, I'm not against short straps. I use a six foot leash all the time. This is the problem with short leashes, although they can definitely be a great way to keep your dog safe and secure, especially in denser environments, they actually cause dogs to have to walk at an abnormally slow pace alongside us, which which is actually something very difficult for most dogs to learn. You've probably experienced this and that's why you're probably watching this video. When we rely too much on short leashes, especially when teaching dogs not to pull, this can unintentionally and unnecessarily exacerbate frustration in our dogs and you can probably guess that all that frustration will lead to more pulling and will probably make you much more frustrated. in the process and that's normal and that's okay, we're going to get through this together, now it's going to take a little effort on your part, but I think you're okay with that, this is the answer you've been looking for this handy strap 30 feet is a lot deeper than you think now.

I'm not suggesting this should replace your shorter leash in all cases, of course, but particularly during the first year of

training

. I think you should put a disproportionate emphasis on using a 30-foot leash for the various types of

training

we're going to cover because, as you'll see in a minute, the key to actual leash training has very little to do with the leash. I'm in Alaska. This is bear spray. By training him in an inappropriate environment on a much longer leash, you will allow your dog to interact with the world in a way that is more natural for him, walking back and forth and wandering to both sides at will, not in a straight line because this is how dogs most naturally interact with the Earth and don't worry those of you who live in more populated city situations.

I have solutions for you too, we'll get to that in a minute. What we cover in this lesson is what we can do in addition to the other leash training we frequently cover here. I mean, many people equate teaching a dog to walk calmly at your side with something as easy as sit, lie down, or stay, but for most dogs, acquiring these polite leash manners is a much more complex task, There are some prerequisites for this. After all, this is a pretty complex skill even before you get serious about leash training. Obviously your dog should be at least in the process of learning to come when called and should know how. do it.

They will pay attention to you when you ask and you should probably be working on at least some basic things like sit, stay, and come, and I have videos on all of that you can watch later. You may be wondering why these are prerequisites and it is because it is a test of some existing communication and you will draw on aspects of all of those behaviors throughout your leasing training during the first few days or weeks when you introduce a long leash to your dog. dog. The emphasis here is to simply get them used to the leash, let them explore, this is no small feat, understand that exploring the environment should not just be seen as a benefit for your dog, it is essential for his mental health.

Wellbeing and their cognitive function, which is directly related to pleasant walking on a leash, dogs with their incredible sense of smell get many sensory benefits from this. In Alaska there is so much wildlife you have moose and bears, other small animals that are very interesting to her as well and you can imagine all the wildlife she smells. Behaviorists call this sensory enrichment. It is a requirement that, if a dog wants to be content, he has ample opportunity to sense the world with his natural senses, which are different from ours. The long leash gives dogs more freedom to interact with their environment, allowing them to dictate when and what to explore.

These are more than just sniff breaks, it's a great way for dogs to learn about their environment and engage in natural behaviors that lead to a calmer, content dog. and therefore better leash manners, this approach highlights the importance of incorporating a dog's natural needs and behaviors into training rather than simply trying to suppress them. A long leash does something that shorter leashes cannot do. Allows for better leash manners. autonomous exploration and self-directed learning This is how dogs naturally understand and navigate their world. Curiosity about their environment is a central cause of leash pulling, as we established that our dogs must have an outlet in which to be curious, so we really need to address the underlying cause if we are going for the real thing.

Long Term Results, Let me show you some exercises I do with my personal dogs once they are used to the long leash. Now at this point in nurse training, although the leash is on for demonstration purposes only, she is going to consult with me. Quite often I like there to be another one for me personally. A long leash is required when training a dog how to do a reliable game of fetch and one of the best ways to teach him to refine or practice being called is during a game of fetch. why when we mutually play with our dogs and they have a good time, it is incredible to train them.

One of the other amazing things about fetch training is that it's an incredible time to reinforce that recovery, so she wants another Frisbee toss, right? She comes? She comes towards me. The reason I am emphasizing that she comes when she is called in a leash training video is because someone calls. She's a version of really paying attention to you when she could be distracted by something else that's a big league catch. She could easily take that advantage away from him, she'd be fine. I got there using a long lead so I could keep her on point.

He started to back away. I'm going straight to the lead. You can see that when an energetic dog's inertia has the ability to bring out that energy. This will make leash training much easier. This time let's throw a curve ball because really minimal training, like all dog training, is about communication, so I want to surprise him or I'm going to do it. tell him to stay well, fetch training and leasing training actually go hand in hand for me because fetch addresses a dog's desire to run, chase, jump and bite in a healthy and appropriate way, and this really gives him it gives the dog a natural and fluid way to expend that energy. which makes it much easier to communicate with them and obviously the long leash is there to prevent our dogs from running away or straying too easily.

This is what I look for in early success when I use a long leash to teach a dog how to walk well next to me you can see right now she is talking to me yes I will mark it with a yes to let her know I like it and every time Let's say yes we will give him something he likes not in this In this case, I will give him a small treat and point out that there are always worried people. I will have to give my dog ​​treats all the time later in this training session.

I'll let her continue and explore the surroundings. I'll also consider throwing him a Frisbee or something really well made. Okay, no candy. She came to see me. It's possible. I promise you. Well, it's all about when your dog comes to you and those first steps. What you are taking with you is something like a leash walk. There's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, yeah, look, attention, that's what we're looking for, just little glimpses of that, look, if you do this, you're going to jump to those more focuses. basics. They teach leash walking as an isolated problem that needs to be addressed in a very specific way and the nice thing here is that you're actually getting a huge jump on off leash training if you choose to continue with that later, okay yeah look what you thought It's over, but I wanted you to come back considering our dog's overall life experience instead of seeing each problem as a separate problem that needs to be addressed with different strategies.

We create a happy relationship with our dog. These methods help our dog want to be with us. side instead of being forced to do so artificially. I don't know if you're ready for this, but the secret to teaching loose leash walking is teaching it without relying on a leash. What we need to do to make sure our dogs are on a leash. leash so they can stay safe, but we don't use it as a communication device, these are the reasons why you are subscribed to my channel and if you don't click subscribe, like now, free long leash walks are a basic element for us.

Free walks are where we give our dogs a good 30 feet to explore on a leash so they can walk in that natural way we talked about earlier. When using a long leash, one of the most important things you can do is secure it. to notice every good walk your dog takes, even when you're not asking for it, so every time you're with your dog on a leash like this, when they communicate with you, when they look at you, when they make the choice to divert their attention from a tempting distraction and yes, when they calmly walk next to you and start walking with you without anyone telling them, those are the magical moments we are looking for now, how do we communicate to them that we like them? something we make sure to follow up with something that your dog values ​​at that moment, that's key because sometimes dogs aren't interested in treats at a particular time or they're not interested in playing so you have to be very good at reading your dog, for me personally, I like to rotate between three main rewards, either food, maybe my dog ​​likes food more at one time than other toys or continue sniffing and interacting with his environment like the third and Of course, over time, the more you get itDesired behavior, the more you reinforce it, the more likely your dog will continue to repeat that behavior in the future and that is what we are looking for.

These are manageable chunks for you and your dog that are also super attainable now. to communicate with your dog Hey, I like it, let's keep saying that using a long leash can help your dog get into the habit of walking on a shorter leash. When we use a long leash, it actually gives our dog a reasonable opportunity to experience what it's like to walk without tension on a leash, it should be obvious, right, the leash is longer therefore they are less likely to experience tension with the strap. You can see that there is much less opportunity for tension with the leash at this time, so a much higher percentage.

Much of his training will be done on a loose leash. Think about the act of driving or typing and how that becomes second nature to us. The idea that this courteous walk will also become second nature to your dog. And there's another secret ingredient here. In the game called habituation, this just means that repeated exposure to the same things will eventually cause dogs to treat them as part of their normal environment, so assuming you select the right environments that are comparable to what you expect Listen, these environments become much more normal and acceptable to your dog.

You think about small birds when you're out walking and you have a younger dog who doesn't have If you haven't seen them before or new plants, for example, your dog may initially react with intense curiosity or even become alarmed over time and repeated exposure, these Things eventually just blend into the background. Habituation reduces the intensity of your dog's reactions over time, but it's not exactly about teaching. Your dog will actively ignore these things, instead they naturally become less interesting. A long leash really promotes this habituation process because it gives your dog the freedom to explore, sniff, and familiarize himself with the environment at his own pace.

I prefer long biothane straps to nylon because it stays very clean, there is less risk of the strap burning. Things like that are pretty easy to find online. Always use a harness when using a long leash. Now there is a big myth that says that if you use a harness, your dog will start pulling more, it is not the harness that causes him to pull, it is the dog's energy and curiosity that causes him to pull, especially with these more leashes. long, we don't want to put unnecessary pressure around our dog's neck when we teach him, remember that we don't communicate with our dogs by pulling them by the neck, that's old school old fashioned stuff and there are welfare concerns along with side effects that are correlated with this type of exchange.

We can do better than this if you are worried about your dog hitting the end of the path too abruptly, there are shock absorbing devices like this that you can buy that are quite useful now if you have difficulty accessing training places or For financial or other reasons, you'll probably come up with some great ideas, but you may need to think a little outside the box. Ideal locations for this type of training will have enough space for your dog to explore, but will not be so crowded or distracting that it is overwhelming for you and your dog.

The goal is to find places that align with your current level of skill and confidence consider training in public during off-peak hours when things are quieter, the extra effort of training earlier or training a little later or maybe When the weather is not perfect, it is a good idea, this can make a big impact. difference in the number of distractions encountered during this more fragile training process community centers religious buildings schools often have many unused open spaces at certain times of the day, even large building complexes like office parks or apartments sometimes They have open spaces that are not This busy, while it may seem a little unusual, many cemeteries are dog-friendly and can be very quiet places to train.

Now let's say you're having a hard time with this and look, I'll be the first to tell you that some dogs definitely are. harder than others, I mean, let's say you're doing this for a few weeks and you're just not seeing the results you'd like, we've got a lot of work to do here if you have a very high drive, a lot of energy. Dog, are you giving him enough exercise right before these leash training sessions? Remember that the reason we do this is that it is much easier for a dog to absorb concepts that are difficult for him in this case, such as staying close to you in public once you have received his energy, are you actively working on the requirements previous ones we talked about?

Sit, stay, come when called, for example, leave it, look at me, look at the different playlists on my channel with different dogs to find the dog that looks most like yours, do you wait too long too soon? Do you have unrealistic expectations? Consider this: actually measure your progress. You may not be giving yourself enough credit. You may be making some progress even though it's not where you want it to be, but this is called dog training, so keep doing your research. gold because the data would suggest that success is within reach now if your dog reacts in many of the situations we talked about, this can make things much more challenging.

I understand I will have a link to a video on how to deal with the dog. reactivity in more detail in the description of this video. Now also the environment you have chosen may be too challenging for your dog at first, so maybe find something a little less intense if you follow this advice, this will improve the communication between you and your dog, after all this training, your dog He's going to need the most incredible nap. I can assure you and you know what you get for watching this video. A completely free bed. All you need to do is sign up for a BarkBox or a super tour box you can go to my special link barkbox.com Zach George Bed or superchewer.com Zach George Bed links below click the thumbs up subscribe follow us on Instagram Facebook and Tick Tock also train your dog and see you next time