It’s true that loose leash walking isn’t always advisable. It’s even considered as one of the most common dog training mistakes amongst canines. Probably, this is so because your dog just pulled on the leash for some reason, and you’re stuck in a never-ending training montage of simply trying to icespin you back to where you belong. And if you don’t know any dog training tricks, well, the dog might as well bite you right now! But there are still plenty of ways to train your dog when he’s pulling.
The first trick is to gradually increase the distance that your dog has to walk before giving him a treat. First, just have him follow you around the house. Walk alongside, he won’t see what’s going on, but he’ll get the point. When he gets to about five steps from you, suddenly change directions and run in the opposite direction. Your dog will get confused and start pulling again, but if you change directions, he’ll be confused too and won’t know why he’s getting pulled in that direction. Eventually, your dog will learn to walk beside and not behind you, and after that, you can begin running and your dog will have learned two commands, stay and give him a treat.
The second dog training trick is to use positive reinforcement for walking. Although it doesn’t really count as a trick, getting started is actually just as important as the actual dog training. Positive reinforcement uses positive motivation, which means rewarding your dog for doing the right thing. The reward may be something like a dog treat, a pat on the head, or even more physical things like a big hug from you.
You should always reward your dog immediately for good behavior. Even if you haven’t given him a treat yet, immediately give him praise. If he does something that is unacceptable, then you should say out loud, “No.” If he continues his bad behavior, then you should direct your dog to another location where he is allowed to continue his bad behavior without receiving any type of reward.
The best way to teach your dog to behave properly when you have a loose leash walking situations is to use short commands. For example, you should only say “walk forward,” followed by a command like “step forward.” When he obeys, give him the treat and praise him. He’ll quickly learn that the word “step forward” followed by several treats means he’s moving forward, and he’ll want to do it more when you say it to him.
In addition to using the verbal cue “walk forward,” you should also use the visual cue “step forward.” You should never use the verbal cue alone. Instead, you should always use the visual cue with the verbal cue to teach him how to behave properly. Again, the more he learns to do it the more quickly he’ll be able to walk loose leash since he’ll soon know exactly what you want him to do.
A final way you can teach your dog to walk on a loose leash is by having him follow a favorite dog toy. If your dog loves to chew on this dog toy, then he’ll follow it around the house on his leash. You should set aside one hour a day to walk with him so that he can chase the dog toy. It’s best to have a number of treats with you, though, because he’ll get tired of the delicious treats after a while.
Once your dog begins to learn to follow your command “walk forward,” you’ll need to teach him to catch the dog lure. To begin saying the “walk forward” command, toss the bait out in front of you and wait for your dog to come to it. If he does, he should immediately take the bait and begin walking right behind you. You should repeat this process up to ten times before your dog begins to catch the lure.
