The easiest, most effective no-stress technique
The first thing to know is what lead walking actually is. And that’s nothing to do with the lead. What you’re really doing is training your dog to walk alongside you, whatever pace you’re going, whatever direction you take. It’s something you should do together – yet so often I see dogs and owners for whom walking on a lead is something they’re doing TO each other. Change that perspective and you change everything.
But how? Read on...
HotDog Training offers some great options if you want to get your dog to walk nicely on a lead
Lead Walking Masterclass – An hour or more dedicated to a range of clever techniques that will get your dog trotting happily next to you
Shape ‘Em Up – ideal for if you’ve done some basic training
Working Dog – perfect for that close partnership between you and your dog
There are many different ways to train your dog to walk without pulling on a lead, and our classes and workshops use a range of techniques. One of our favourites is something called ‘shaping’ – otherwise known (by us) as the ‘that’ll do’ method. The reason I like shaping so much is that, unlike other methods, it’s something you actually can do when you’re out on a walk in real life. Why do I say that? Let’s take a step back. The rule of dog training is that you can’t train anything when and where you need it. What do I mean by that? We know from our own learning experiences that we learn best in a quiet environment, with minimal distractions, when you’re feeling motivated, and have time to concentrate. For most dogs, especially lead pullers, being out on a walk is hugely distracting – there are new smells, sounds, sights, perhaps the excitement of the dog park/woods/fields to get to, perhaps anxiety about what might be in those places too. So it’s a poor learning environment. But we need to walk our dogs, and the more they pull day to day, the more that becomes a habit and their preferred way of walking. It's a classic training trap.
Shaping is the perfect answer. Shaping simply means breaking a behaviour down into tiny little steps, working on each little step before you take the next, until you’ve achieved your goal. With lead walking, you’re aiming to get the dog to walk next to you – but right now he’s pulling like a steam train at the end of the lead, that’s straining from the end of your arm. So we start simply by marking (saying ‘good’, ‘yes’ or clicking with a clicker) and rewarding (eg food treat) anything that’s better than usual (see Best way to train a dog blog for great tips about marking, rewarding, timing etc). For example, your first goal is to mark any time the lead goes even slightly slack, whatever the reason, and reward your dog close to your leg. Over time, you will see that your dog, more often than not, is still ahead of you, but they’re not pulling super hard, all the time. Once you reach that stage, you up your standard. Now you’re going to mark and reward anything that’s better than that – ie, your dog not being so far away from you. When your dog’s doing that, you up your standard again, and mark and reward anything that’s a bit nearer you and so on. What I love about this technique is that it’s all about rewarding when the dog makes great choices. And it gives you something positive to do in a real life environment when nothing else is likely to work.
If you’d like to learn more about shaping and how to combine this with other lead walking methods, give us a call or drop us a line. Our 1-2-1 lead walking sessions are really effective and a lot of fun for you and your dog.
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