Basic Leash Manners for Your Dog
Leash manners are taught in incremental steps, starting by teaching a dog to respond to leash tension by returning to your side, rather than pulling, and slowing down their pace of walking to match yours.
When paired with using sniff breaks as their reward for doing such a great job of walking by your side, when asked, it’s easy to help a dog to adapt to the fact that they are connected to you and can’t drag you anywhere they want go, but must instead walk slower, in order for the walk to be pleasurable for both of you.
At Dog Savvy Los Angeles, we teach these concepts using “reinforcement zone games” that make choosing to walk by your side very fun and rewarding for your dog, and by alternately taking all the fun out of pulling, to end up with dog who learns not to pull, but to hover near you on a loose leash, as a conditioned habit.
These game-based dog training exercises can make all the difference in helping your dog to understand to slow their pace of walking to match yours - which is half the battle of teaching leash manners because dogs walk much faster than us bipeds, who have trouble keeping up with them.
Making sure learning is always fun and rewarding for your dog also makes it incredibly easy to capture and maintain your dog’s focus willingly, which is how good habits are best forged, since giving your dog the choice to offer you a desired behavior builds both trust and confidence in your dog, as well as more willingness to do as you ask.
It’s also equally as important to reward your dog for giving you their focus by alternating the working portion of your walk with allowing your dog to sniff. You can think of it as taking turns with your dog where sometimes you are leading the way, and sometimes they are, an agreement that is contingent on your dog walking by your side and keeping their attention on you for a designated time period.
When you are ready to reward your dog for walking by your side, simply come to a full stop and wait for your dog to sit. When they do, say a release cue (“Ok, your turn!”) which becomes their permission to go sniff or take a bathroom break.
Viewing your walk with your dog as a give and take is essential to your success at developing loose leash manners. Dogs need to sniff in order to feel fulfilled, so when you use to your advantage by using permission to sniff as a reward, you have a built in system for motivating your dog to give you their focus throughout your life together.
Dog Savvy Los Angeles specializes in positive, game-based, dog and puppy training and solving problem dog behaviors like canine separation anxiety, leash reactivity, and aggression.
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Los Angeles dog trainer Alexandra Bassett is the owner and lead trainer at Dog Savvy Los Angeles, a dog & puppy training company that specializes in positive dog training and solving problem dog behavior like dog separation anxiety, leash reactivity, and aggression. She is certified as Knowledge Assessed by the Council of Professional Dog Trainers (CPDT-KA) and is available for online dog training sessions via Skype. She has been training dogs professionally for over 4 years and is available for free consultations: (213) 294-1519.