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How to Teach Loose-Leash Walking

KPCT's picture
By KPCT on 06/01/2006
Filed in - Skills for Every Day

Oh, my aching arm

Get your dog to walk without pulling! But how? We are masters at allowing our dogs to drag us down the street. The most asked question at obedience classes and private consultations is "how can I get my dog not to pull on his leash?"

Loose-leash walking

As far as dogs and leashes are concerned, we want to arrange things so that loose leashes "pay off" and tight leashes don't.

Historically trainers encouraged folks to act like a tree the moment their dog began to pull on the leash. This method does work nicely with puppies, but it just doesn't work for the adolescent or older dog who has learned to pull you around.

The following method requires first, that all or most reinforcement will come from behind you and second, that you will toss the food to the ground—not far—so the dog has to look for it.

Let's play

Loose-leash walking is going to begin as a game. Here are a few simple steps you will train BEFORE you do any walking with your dog:

  1. Put your dog's leash on and just stand still. When your dog releases the tension on the leash, click and show him the treat in your hand. Let him see you place the treat on the ground by the outside of your left foot. Once he's eaten the treat, move to the end of the range of the leash so it is taut and stand quietly. When he moves to release the tension, click. Show him the treat and place it by your left foot. You don't care about eye contact. What you are teaching is that releasing the leash tension gets clicked and treated. Do this a number of times.
  2. Continue to stand now that your dog is not pulling. Now you will click for eye contact. After the click, treat by your left foot. Remember after he has finished eating the treat to move to the end of the leash.
    Click here for video
    Click here for video on
    loose-leash walking

    Click and treat three times for looking at you while on a loose leash.

  3. Again, just standing with your dog on a loose leash, looking at you, toss your treats right past your dog's nose to about three feet away. When dog eats the treats and comes back to you looking for more, click and treat by placing the food by the outside of your left foot. Move and repeat.
  4. Again toss the treat right past your dog's nose. When your dog finishes eating it and turns around to come back to you, you turn your back and start walking. (Just take a few steps in the beginning.) When you dog catches up to you, but before he gets past your pant leg, click and treat. Repeat.

Note: Make sure when you toss the food it goes right past the dog's nose. This is the warm-up. Now that you have the dog following you for a few steps it is time to start walking and reinforcing behind or next to you.

Training on the move

Your dog is on leash. You turn away from him and start walking. Your dog follows. As the dog catches up to you and is coming up next to you—maybe even makes eye contact—mark (click) and drop the treat next to your left foot. Don't keep moving and be sure the first few times that you let the dog know that you have food in your hand. Once he's finished his treat, start again. Show him the treat and then turn and take a few steps away from him, walk till he catches up, drop the treat next to you or a little behind.

Note: Dropping food next to your side or a little behind helps the dog to stay close to you. It prevents the dog from anticipating and forging ahead. So drop the food behind you or you can even let the dog take it out of your hand behind your back. Don't drop the food so far away that the dog has to drag you to get it.

Start again. Begin to walk in such a way that the dog is at an angle beside you or is behind you. As the dog catches up, drop the food behind you (or next to your pant leg). Once the dog has eaten the food and is coming back toward you, start walking away from him again. Try for more steps before dropping. Timing is everything! Don't let the dog get in front of you. If he does, pivot away, wait till he catches up BUT is next to you or slightly behind you (or his nose is at your pant seam), and drop the food.

Now it's your job to increase the number of steps before dropping the food behind you. Never drop food if your dog has gotten in front of you. Work towards walking more steps before rewarding. You can vary this and reinforce while he is next to you if you wish, or toss the treat way behind you so the dog has to hunt for it and then reinforce him for catching back up to you.

Keep it up

As your dog gets better and you can now walk quite a distance without forging and pulling, don't fail to reward intermittently. For your dog to walk without pulling he has to believe (because you rewarded him) that there is a better chance of good things near you than in the wide world. Use the long line if you have to control your dog and are not taking a walk. Remember, if you never let the leash get tight, your dog won't learn that he can pull you. What he doesn't know won't hurt him or you!

There are important benefits to walking your dog—dog walkers live longer!

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Loose Leash and chewing

Submitted by Vicky on Tue, 2007-09-11 16:54.

I have a 4 month old lab who starts chewing on the leash as soon as it is attached. I have tried the stop all motion, wait for her to release the leash then I click and reward. It's not working. She walks very well at my side for awhile (if I can get her to stop chewing the leash long enough to get started) but after several steps she puts the leash in her mouth and if she doesn't chew it, she holds it there. I again stop, wait, click, praise. I have even noticed she will chew the lead, then stop and check to see if I will reward her for stopping!!! Whose the trainer here?

Does anyone have any ideas

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When my lab mix was a puppy

Submitted by lilclerk on Tue, 2007-09-18 14:31.

When my lab mix was a puppy (she's going on 13 now) she used to do something similar. She would hold the leash in her mouth and sort of walk herself. You'd think it was so that she could pull without hurting her neck, but she never really pulled on walks. Always walked right next to you unless there was a squirrel nearby (I know, I'll never have another like her.)

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Jenny Ruth Yasi's picture

leash chewing

Submitted by Jenny Ruth Yasi on Tue, 2007-09-11 18:12.

Hi Vicky,

Four months is such a young dog! Playful! This reminds me of when my daughter was little and the teacher told me they couldn't get her to stop running between classes. I spoke with her about it and she explained to me that she wasn't really running, but she was trotting, IE riding her (imaginary) pony, and she always had to hurry because she needed to have time to tie the pony up outside the first grade classroom door!

It's healthy and normal for babies to play (as annoying as it might sometimes be for the teacher!) and in your case, with your baby dog, it's especially healthy and good that your puppy is offering to play with you! Enjoy this game and put it on cue! You'll be able to use that tug game to reinforce all sorts of behaviors later on down the road.

My pup did the same thing, so I actually bought a leash that was specially intended to withstand a tug game. It's a braided cotton "tug" toy type of leash. I put the behavior on cue, "tug!" and reward my dog not just with food treats, but with chances to "tug" once in a while. Take advantage of this opportunity to put "drop it" on cue too, and (food) reinforce that as well, and don't worry, be happy!

Often people complain when puppies chew on ankles and hands and pant legs and things like that. Tugging on the leash, by comparison, isn't such a problem! When you're out walking, there is no toy more convenient than a sturdy leash. No harm is done if you use her natural interest in tugging leash to teach her the rules of a "tug" game.

I have some video clips of teaching tug and drop it, and Sue Ailsby has some good descriptions of how to do that too (you want to teach the pup to mouth the lead below a knot, and not above it, cause that's where your hands are), and surely there are plenty of posts you can search out on line that will give you many ideas about how to teach tug and drop it to exploit your pup's naturally playful behavior and put it to good use....

www.wholedogcamp.com

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Leashes/Collars suitable for LLW?

Submitted by AceHarddrive on Sat, 2007-05-05 21:43.

Hello all!

What kinds of leashes/collars are suitable for LLW: Standard (around the neck), harness (around the body), face-type harness/head harness (around the chest, behind front legs, around muzzle)? I'm more interested in those suitable for small/toy dogs (Papillon-sized). Also, what should the leash/collar be made of (nylon, leather . . . )?

Thanks very much!
~Tim ^_^

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Jenny Ruth Yasi's picture

Collar(less?)

Submitted by Jenny Ruth Yasi on Sun, 2007-06-10 19:55.

I am beginning to think that it might really be ideal to teach the foundations for loose leash walking OFF leash -- yeah, you need a safe fenced in yard, but then once the dog has learned to chase you around, once he's had quite of bit of experience that tells him that you are going to reinforce him for keeping up with you in a "heel" or side position, then you're ready to start playing leash games. I've heard that it is awfully easy to injure the bronchial tubes of a small dog with a standard collar, so if there might be pressure on the neck because of some behavior the dog has, or some behavior the handler has, then a harness that distributes pressure around the dog's whole body, might be healthier and safer than a collar. Increasingly I am seeing that people are using these easy walk harnesses and gentle leaders as a substitute for training, and that becomes compulsion training which ultimately stresses the bond between handler and dog, so I don't like to see people using them unless they are really working closely with a trainer who understands operant conditioning.

Also, you'll want to tether train the dog -- that is, teach him to relax and hang out on the leash when you're sitting at your desk, and walking around your house, and then your yard, before you take this idea for a (short) test walk outside. Begin with really short periods, highly reinforcing the dog when the leash is loose, and each day go just a little bit further. At first I wrap the leash around my waist, and just go about my life, reinforcing the dog a variety of ways for hanging out with me. It works for me to do this just for very few minutes and build up slowly. Then, when you do take him for his first looseleash training walk to the mailbox, he'll already be familiar with the idea of just hanging out close to you on a loose leash and it's not such a big surprising deal....

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Sanja Miklin's picture

teaching LLW without a leash

Submitted by Sanja Miklin on Mon, 2007-06-11 02:48.

I also kind of start teaching LW without a leash because than I know I'm reinforcing that my dog is with me and I know my dog has a choice (and having a choice is what I like about clicker training). Also, for me, as a crossover person, having a leash in my hand was just too dangerous. Chances of me jerking the leas by reflex were extremely h8igh.. my dog would pull, I'd pop the leash.. _I_ was trained to do that!
anyway, I always say that the only thing a leash can teach your dog is to pull on it. no leash=no pulling! I guess it also comes from Bones would rain form the sky... suzanne gives an example of a person telling her that her dog always pulls on a leash,. and then she replyed:"even if you're not holding it?"

Sanja Miklin

3/205

LPC UWC, Hong Kong

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runamuk's picture

Getting Started

Submitted by runamuk on Sun, 2007-02-18 20:57.

Rick Kimball

Indy Dog & Disc Club Demo Director

I downloaded the Click Flick for Loose Leash Walking and it is working great for me.

I am training my 11 month old Aussie Dugan.

We started out in the garage dropping the treats on the floor and taking just one step. Then were able to get 2 steps in. It was going pretty good until it was time to leave the garage and go into that very exciting area, the front yard and the outside world. Getting to this point took 3 sessions just a few minutes each.

It took about 8 sessions to just to exit the garage door onto the driveway. But we did it! With lots of short sessions we are now up to a loop of about 3 square blocks. I try to make sure that I have allot of treats for the return trip back home. He seems to know when we have made the turn and heading toward home. He would make many attempts to rush ahead. I had to go back to one step, then, eye contact, then cnt.

I found that once we got to going around the block that at first it helped to go later at night when there are few people out and about. Gradually we worked up to during the day on the week end when there are more folks out and about and some with dogs.

Thanks for the great lesson! I have passed this on to several of my dog training friends

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Sanja Miklin's picture

LLW and many distractions

Submitted by Sanja Miklin on Thu, 2007-01-04 06:00.

I, too, have a big problem in my walks when there are any kinds of distractions around, even some new scents or things on a street. When there are birds, cats, dogs or anything moving on the street, she goes into frenzy. I know I should teach some self control before expecting her not to pull near these distractions, but it's nearly impossible since just being restricted by the leash builds up the excitement/stress even more and it's even hard for her to concentrate. So I’m in a closed circle of some kind. it's hard to teach her LLW because she's so excited and it's hard to learn her to be less excited since she can't LLW.
She is also in either of two states: calm or very excited and it’s hard to slowly build up distractions because everything outside of our yard is a big distraction. She sometimes calms down when there is nothing happening and she's very tired. When she's calm, she walks perfectly. When she's excited the behavior falls apart.
When she's excited she has very big problems with keeping attention and accepting treats.
I had some success with using life rewards though: like, you heel for three steps and you can go and play but that heeling is too 'jumpy' and she's too distracted for that to be a behavior I want.
How do you LLW train a dog like that? My first dog is a very calm one, he was trained not to pull a long time ago when I still used corrections, was untrained when I stop using them and now pulls sometimes but it's easy to tell him just not to pull and he won't.
I had an idea about how to make walks calmer (it's one of the posts on my blog) but I’m not sure if it would work.
LLW is a very big thing for me since with Reeva, it's impossible just to walk her around and because of that (and her out of the blue aggression problem) I walk her less and less. I want to work on her aggression, but again, without nice walking, I find it very hard. It's all part of the big problem and I don't know where I should start solving it.
The thing is, I don't see LLW as just behaviour, like sit for example. I also don't see it as something that would indicate whether I'm a pack leader or not (something I’ve been told a long time ago). But if my dog's pulling me down the street, i would say something is definitely wrong with our relationship. Dog maybe doesn't trust me, doesn't rely on me. And I think that would make her life easier a bit and I dream of having calm and enjoyable walks with her but I can’t even imagine it happening.

Sanja Miklin

3/205

LPC UWC, Hong Kong

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Jenny Ruth Yasi's picture

Loose leash and deer distraction

Submitted by Jenny Ruth Yasi on Sat, 2006-12-30 16:02.

I'm reading this because my young hunting type dog is SO interested in deer, and lately, while the deer are mating, she was unable to loose leash walk for very far. We had a bounce back and forth game going, where I would stop, she bounced back into heel, I continue walking, she surged to the end of the leash, excited! Bounce back and forth. I would walk back and forth in circles. Aargh. Not very reinforcing to either of us!

I realized finally that prey drive is an emotion, maybe not all that pleasant (like unrequited love?), but very difficult for my dog to control. She gets all caught up in desire, frustrated, miserable with yearning, doesn't want my game or food and somehow needs to calm down if we will ever make it loose-leash to the Post Office before it closes!

Sitting or standing, eye contact or not, her emotions stayed high!

BUT then I found that when I ask her to lay down, and wait till she melts a bit into the ground, that really helped her calm herself. Somehow that position helped her give up, at least temporarily, the idea of chasing deer. I clicked and fed, waited another second to help her really let go of the prey excitement. Then I clicked and reinforced this becalmed behavior by starting our walk again.

This method, walk and cue "down" when excitement starts building, wait for the "melt" before starting the walk again, helped her quite a lot. She started going considerably further before emotions crept upward (and whenever I saw that, I gave her a "down" cue again). She didn't appear at all frustrated by these little opportunities to really just lay down, count to ten or whatever dogs do when they are pulling themselves back together emotionally. She has a strong history of reinforced "downs" and she dropped immediately.

After two days practicing this, she seemed to start cueing off the emotion. She'd start to get excited by a scent, and glance at me, as though she was guessing, "You're going to ask me to 'down' now?" I was so happy to see that she wasn't getting as swept away by her emotions! Our walks became much more reinforcing, less frustrating, for both of us!

Jenny Ruth Yasi's writing is found nationally in Mothering Magazine, Pass it On!, Country Dance Magazine, and elsewhere. She trains and teaches canine fun and games in Portland Maine. 

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