How to Teach your Dog to Walk on a Loose Leash

Do you walk your dog or does your dog walk you? Unfortunately, many dog owners face struggles and problems in training their dog to walk properly with the leash or on a loose leash.

That’s why, I am writing this post on “How to Teach your Dog to Walk on a Loose Leash” to help fellow dog owners and prevent their shoulders to suffer more pain and strain.

Here are the 4 Important Tips to Teach your Dog to Walk Properly

1. Prevent Pulling

Every dog owner has experienced this sometime in their lifetime. Dogs pull the leash and throw their parents everywhere around in different directions. Generally speaking, Pulling is due to Lack of Excitement during walks.

If you are walking slowly with no energy and excitement inside you, Why would your dog follow you? He will not get any positive vibes from you.

It is important to get your dog’s attention towards you while walking with him. The best way to attract your dog’s attention is to make unpredictable movements while walking like Start, Stop and Run. Keep the Leash really short so you have more control.

By making these random and unpredictable movements while walking, your dog will follow you as he has no clue what’s going to happen next. If your dog is in an undistracted area like your backyard, you can take a Toy, Ball or Cookies or something else that you will feel will attract your dog’s interest.

Keep it by your side as you start walking and your dog will follow you as well. If your dog follows you by staying closer to you, give him the treat by calling “Good Heel”. You can also pet him and shower some verbal love.

Though, this method works best in undistracted area like inside your house or a yard with minimal distractions.

2. Prevent Constant Sniffing

Does your dog stop at every hook and corner after every 5 seconds to sniff around while walking? This might be possible due to the fact that the leash allows him to go far away or any harness where you don’t have much control over your dog’s head.

We need to teach our dogs that Sniffing is okay but Constant Sniffing after every 5-10 seconds is not allowed. But How to Accomplish Something Like this?

You need to mentally stimulate your dog to teach him not to sniff around all the time. Brain Training for dogs is a great program to make your dog 10 times Intelligent and Smarter.

3. Continue the Walking

Sometimes dogs pause during walking and pause. They just refuse to walk further. If this happens with you, here are some points which can help you:

What not to do:

1. Do not feed your dog when he stops.
2. Do not pull on the leash aggressively.

What you should do:

• Do something that distracts them. Something like whistling or squeaking a toy may help them get distracted. Do not give any toy to your dog as this would reward his stopping behavior.
• Touch your dog on the back or his tail. It is not petting but just a Tap to get them out of that locked state.

Stopping mid walk mainly happens among Fearful or rescued dogs. Over time, increase the distance and slowly your dog will learn that walks are not scary after all.

4. Teach your Puppies Leash Manners 

It is great to start early and teach your puppies with proper Leash manners. As soon as you get your puppy, put him on the leash inside the house itself. Do not wait a lot to introduce your puppy to the leash.

Once your puppy feels comfortable with the leash inside the house, take him to yard and start walking with him in the yard. Then gradually progress to the walks outside in the park.

When your pup starts to pull the leash, just play dead. You can practice this in your yard for 20-25 days before going to the park outside. If you stop holding the leash when he pulls the leash, it tells your pup that he is not supposed to do this.

Conclusion

Out pet friends need exercise and physical stimulation daily. It is very important to take your dog for a walk outside daily or your dog will channel his energy on something else, which is mostly destructive behavior.

Just practice these steps and tips for 30-40 days if you have an elder dog and 20-25 days for a young puppy. Results will follow after you practice these steps constantly for these much days.