Learn How To Walk On Leash

Introduction to Leash Manners or Walking Nicely on Leash

Teaching your pups leash manners at an early age will set them up for success when they are adults. Polite leash manners means the dog doesn’t pull or put pressure on the leash, even when it’s excited or distracted. Thus, the dog is paying attention and feeling the leash whenever it is walking with us. This means that we have a role, too. 

WE don’t pull either! It’s important for us to not to pull on the leash when we want our pups to move a different direction.

Think of walking your dog on leash like walking down the street holding hands with someone. You don’t necessarily need to walk side by side but we usually aren’t dragging each other hither and yon. It’s certainly considered rude to walk ahead of a person, dragging them down the street. So why do our dogs do this?

Why Do Dogs Pull on Leash

My guess is that the majority of medium and large dogs pull on leash. In doing so, they not only reduce their owners’ pleasure in walking with them but this behavior is also dangerous to both dogs, owners and their relationship.

• Dogs that pull against a collar can damage their necks. Dogs that pull against a harness can seriously restrict their shoulder joints and ultimately, their natural movement.
• Many owners are hurt each year by their dogs. Necks. backs and shoulders can be injured by either constant pulling or unexpected jerks. Some people are more seriously injured by being pulled down by their dog during a walk.
• Finally, constant pulling makes going for walks much less pleasant so sadly many owners begin to limit the number or length of walks with their dog. That time spent together is beneficial for dogs and owners so this loss affects our quality time.

How does this problem arise?

For several reasons: 

1. Humans walk much slower than most dogs, especially medium and large dogs. In fact, when dogs move, they are usually trotting, a gait that is most comfortable for them. Your walking pace may match that of a very small dog, like a chihuahua or a pug, but not that of larger dogs. You can imagine how difficult it would be to walk at a funereal pace on every walk.

2. When pups are young and small, we don’t mind or even notice them pulling us because they don’t weigh enough to bother us. So when a baby puppy pulls on the leash, we follow them.

3. Thus, pups learn very quickly that to get where they want to go, they must haul us around. And we go along with them, until suddenly they are big enough to pull hard. However, since puppies learn best what they learn first, the habit of pulling is now set early in our pups’ lives.

4. Dogs naturally pull against pressure, and pull hard so pulling is not only natural but they are really good at it! Early in puppyhood, puppy bodies respond in opposition against pushing or pulling. You push on a pup, it will push back. You pull on a puppy, it’s body will naturally pull back. As the pup matures, our dogs pull with more and more power. Most dogs can pull 4 times their bodyweight; some particularly strong dogs can pull up to 16 times their weight. So your 50-lb youngster can pull 200 to 800 pounds, more than many of us weigh. This is why mushing dogs can pull large sleds for 1,000 miles.

Gear and Equipment

There is no one-size-fits-all packet of gear that you should use to teach your pup to learn to walk nicely on leash and then to walk your dog in the future. Remember, you may use very different equipment early in your pup’s life than you do later on, once your pup is walking nicely on leash under all circumstances.

Leash. Get a good quality, 6-foot leash that is soft in your hands. These can be nylon, leather or cotton. They should not be chain and we strongly recommend AGAINST retractable leashes! Retractable leashes work by the dog pulling against your hand so completely defeat the walking on leash training we do.

As important as the length, the width and weight of the leash is important. Small breeds will do best with 1/4″ and 3/8″ leashes. Medium breeds do well with 3/8″ and 1/2″ wide leashes, and our large breeds might need a 1/2″ or 1″. The thickness of the leash matters as well because double and triple layer leashes can be difficult to coil in your hand when you want to shorten the leash. Take the time to find the right leash for you and your dog.

Head Halters. We are not fans of Haltis or other head halters. Borrowed from horses, these halters go over the dog’s muzzle and around behind their neck. Most dogs hate this gear and spend hours trying to get rid of them. In addition, dogs’ necks are not built like horses so it is easy for a dog to injure itself when it’s head it whipped around if it hits the end of the leash.

Check out this article for a deeper dive into collars versus harnesses!

Cues

Most of us walk our dogs in several ways, expecting different things of them during each. For example, you may want to walk your dog for exercise, moving quickly with no stops along the way. Or you may want your dog to pee or poop, or even just enjoy sniffing and relaxing while you and your dog mosey down the street. Other times, you may need to walk your dog through a crowded area or tight space, such as down a city sidewalk or into the vet’s office. Once your pup is fully grown, after 15 months of age, you might even jog or bike with your dog.

In each of these, your dog should never pull on the leash but aside from that, different things are expected so we recommend you choose three or even more cues to communicate your expectations to your dog. 

Here are our recommendations:

“Let’s Go” – used when you are walking for exercise and moving directly from one place to another. Your dog should have already pottied and should not stop to sniff along the way. Your dog should be on one side of you but can be ahead of you while you walk. We use “let’s go” for jogging and biking but some people have other cues for those activities.

“Easy” – used when your dog is allowed to sniff and perhaps expected to pee and poop along the way. Your dog should not pull and you should allow it to enjoy the odors but you don’t have to go too slowly.

“Heel” – used when you need your dog to stay near you on a short leash while you are moving through a crowded space or into a building, like the vet’s office or groomer’s. 

Introducing Your Puppy to the Collar and Leash

1. Start by gently putting the collar on your pup’s neck, going it lots of treats for tolerating this strange thing. Expect your pup to scratch at the collar and maybe even rub on the ground but in short order, your pup will be fine with the collar. If you don’t have other dogs the pup might play with, you can leave the collar on for many hours. However, if your pup has playmates, remove the collar before they start wrestling.

2. If you are going to use a harness, it will likely take your pup more time to get accustomed to the harness so have lots of treats on hand, rub under the harness to lessen the feeling of the harness. Play some games and do a little training so your pup begins to ignore the harness.

3. Once your pup is okay with the collar or harness, introduce your pup to the leash by attaching it to the collar/harness and letting your pup drag it around. Let your pup feel the leash drag on the ground. Don’t let it get seriously caught on anything but if the pup feels a tug or two, that’s fine. Don’t leave your pup unsupervised during this introduction.

4. After a few sessions of leash dragging, pick the end of the leash up and follow your pup around so your pup gets accustomed to you being close and moving with it.

5. If your pup is fine with you following, grab some treats and encourage your pup to come to you. If it does, give it a treat or two. Then pat your leg and encourage the pup to walk with you. Give it a treat every few seconds while it moves along with you.

6. If your pup feels pressure on the leash and starts to fight it, squat or lean down and encourage your pup to move to loosen the pressure on its own. You are trying to teach the pup not to panic when it feels leash pressure. While your pup is learning this, don’t pull on the pup’s leash. It’s okay if the pup pulls against the leash for a minute or two; it will stop. Once the pup loosens the tension, praise and reward.

7. Once your pup no longer fights leash pressure, practice walking around in the house with lots of treats for moving next to you, even for just a few steps.

You can even teach your pup to put its collar on itself, as Sarah shows in this video.

Teaching Your Pup to Want to Be Next to You

One of our key foundations is that if your pup or dog can’t successfully do a behavior in the house, it will not be able to do it outside the house. Our homes are usually a low-distraction, familiar environment, somewhere pups can usually focus more on their training. Once we go outside, the world and all its distracting sights, sounds and smells tend to reduce our pup’s ability to focus, listen and respond.

Start in the House

Once your puppy is comfortable wearing the collar or harness, and dragging the leash, begin teaching it to walk nicely on a loose leash in the house. This means that your pup does not pull or jerk you whether you are walking or standing still AND equally importantly, knows what to do when it realizes it has tightened the leash either because it notices the pressure or hears your marker.

First Lesson

We start by rewarding our pups for being next to us with a loose leash. In a distraction-free room or hallway in your house, Have your pup on leash and have quite a few delicious treats in your hand. Call your pup to you, give it a treat, and turn so the two of you are walking in the same direction. Give your cue, we use “let’s go,” talk to your pup and encourage it to walk with you, giving it a treat every few steps. See the first video below.

Now Try Outside

If your pup did well walking beside you inside, move outside into a yard or driveway with low distractions. Watch the next two videos below to see Sarah and Solo getting started outside. Solo is getting lots of treats for being next to Sarah. Note when he gets distracted, she waits until he focuses back on her before she cues him and steps off.

Puppy Leash Manners Demo Videos

Learning leash manners indoors in a hallway is a great way to start to training.

Moving outside with your puppy is the next step in training leash manners.

A second example of outdoor leash training with your puppy.

Walking With Distractions

The real challenge with walking on leash is to teach pups to walk nicely when there are distractions. To teach this, you will need a target that the puppy wants to get to. Good targets are a food bowl with a cookie in it or a large favorite toy. Your pup needs to easily see and focus on the target. As your pup becomes better at walking on leash, you can use a family member, human or canine. Your cat might also work, too, but only if it stays put.

1. Set up the target in a room or a hallway in your house, placing it about 10 feet away from where you will start your pup.

2. Put your puppy on leash, carry or move it until it’s about 10′ from the target. Say your walk cue. We use “let’s go,” which means “We are walking at my pace and you will keep the leash loose but you don’t have to stay right by my side.” However, your puppy doesn’t know this yet so we are teaching it.

3. Say the cue and step toward the target. Chances are, your pup will immediately go to the end of the leash to get to the target. Don’t worry, that’s okay but DO NOT FOLLOW THE PUP WHEN IT IS PULLING ON THE LEASH! Don’t take even a single step forward if the leash is tight.

4. The instant your pup tightens the leash, gasp and walk backwards to where you started. The gasp gives him a cue that he made a mistake. Walking back to the start are “penalty yards.” If you need to, you can say your pup’s name, put a treat right in front of its nose to encourage it to turn and move with you. We call these “back aways.”

NOTE: It’s important to walk backwards rather than turn around. We often turn when our walking with dogs but we don’t often walk backwards. This is another cue that he made a mistake and needs to change his behavior in order to get where he wants to go, to the target!5. Once you get back to the start, pause and wait for the pup to acknowledge you exist and loosen the leash. If it is target-obsessed, just wait. It’ll eventually look at you with total exasperation as if to say, “What the heck are we doing?!?!” Then you can smile sweetly, tell it ”Let’s go” and step off. I promise, you pup will likely hit the end of the leash. At which time you will gasp and do another back away all the way to the start.6. When your pup does not charge ahead and actually takes a few steps on a loose leash, release it to the target with an “Okay!” or your release word. Let it eat the treat in the bowl or play with the toy. Make a big deal out of the target so you can start again. (Reload the bowl with a treat, if you need to.)

7. Repeat steps 4 & 5. It usually takes several times before the pup realizes it needs to do something different to get to the target. Now you have some learning going on!

8. If your pup is frustrated, stay calm. Don’t say “It’s okay” or pet your pup. Let it figure out what is happening by being very clear that when the leash is loose, you will move toward what the dog wants but when the leash is tight, you will move away from what your dog wants. This lets your dog choose and control itself when walking.

9. During the first few sessions, don’t try to get all the way up to the target. Instead, just ask your pup to take a few steps on a loose leash toward the target but as your pup gets better over several lessons, wait longer to release it to the target so you get closer. Inch by inch, foot by foot, require your pup to walk on a loose leash up to the thing that it wants.

NOTE: Don’t forget to gasp each time your pup tightens the leash and walk all the way back to the start. Don’t just take a few steps backward…all the way back! The gasp is a marker that you can use in the future to remind your pup to walk nicely on leash when it’s excited.

Making Walking Nicely More Challenging

Once your pup can walk to within 2 or 3 feet of the target in the house, it’s time to make things more challenging by changing your training location. 

1. Once your pup can walk down the hallway to the target, turn around and go the other way down the hallway towards the target.

2. Then move to other places in the house…walk across the living room or the kitchen, up to your pup’s dinner or breakfast.

3. Once your pup is walking on a loose leash everywhere in the house, move to your driveway and yard, place the target and walk towards it. At first, release your pup to go to the target after only 5 or 6 nice steps on a loose leash. Then ask for a little more distance each time.

NOTE: Don’t forget to gasp and move backwards to the start point when your pup tightens the leash. Then let your pup regroup and refocus before giving your cue, “Let’s go” and trying again.

NOTE: If your pup is really distracted when you first go outside, just stand or sit for a few minutes so your pup can take it all in before getting it focused on the target. If your pup doesn’t see the target, have someone hold it or tie the leash to the doorknob or fence and go show it the target.

Use Your Tools

Now you have the tools you need to walk your pup on leash anywhere. What are those tools? Your verbar marker, the gasp, and moving backwards away from what your pup wants. Use those tools whenever your pup starts to lose control and pull on the leash. Both are essential to helping your dog get itself under control while you are walking.

Look for Opportunities

Now that you and your pup have tools to communicate while walking, look for opportunities to hone your pup’s skills. Give yourself enough time that you can work on leash walking rather than just getting from Point A to Point B. Examples might include:– Arrive early for vet appointments or training class. Practice walking from the car to the building’s door. Have your pup sit while you open the door. Then walk in on a “Heel” on a short leash and have your pup sit just inside the door so you (and your pup) can assess the situation. Use your tools (treats, back ups, gasps) and just go back out the door if your pup is really struggling.– Meet a friend and have your pup walk up to the friend on a loose leash.– When you and your pup are playing with a toy, occasionally put on the leash and have your pup walk up the toy before starting the game again.

Highly Distracting Situations

Sarah has given us two examples of what to do when your dog is faced with a highly distracting situations. The first is a confident dog that is distracted but not worried about the situation. He simply needs to see and understand what is going on. The second is a concerned dog that is both distracted and anxious.

Walking on Leash FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions 

1. Avoid walking straight ahead and be the leader of the walk from the get-go unless you are doing an “easy” walk. Straight-line walking allows your dog to think it knows where you are going and to take the lead. It focuses its attention on things other than you. Being unpredictable, what we call “dancing the cha-cha” with your dog will do wonders for loose-leash walking and will reinforce that you are the only one who knows where the two of you are going.

2. Entering a challenging area of your walk? Shorten up your leash and walk with your head up, shoulders back and a determined pace. Your dog will be more likely to follow your lead and ignore the squirrels, pigeons or other dogs.

3. Ask your dog to come to you to put on the leash and collar instead of you going to him. You’ll reinforce status while encouraging behaviors such as coming when called.

4. If you find your dog’s skills slipping, go back to setting up a target and walking up to it. Mark with the gasp and go all the way back to the start.