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Leash Training Your Puppy
*** These
Techniques are for LARGE BREED DOGS only*** Walking your dog can be
one of the most satisfying interactions that occur
between owner and dog, or it can be the most
frustrating activity of your day. How your walk
goes will all depend on the amount of time you spent
leash training your puppy. Puppies by nature are a
very curious and free animal, and they want to run
ahead and sniff and pee on everything they see.
This can be cute and adorable when they are small
and light, but as they grow and gain weight it will
become an irritating activity. It is never too
early to begin to leash train your puppy once they
have been weaned off of their mother. One mistake I
have seen people make is attempt to
leash train, and
house train your puppy at the same time. I do not
recommend doing this as it will confuse your dog and
cause your training cycle to take longer. If you
house train and leash train at the same time, he
will get mixed signals and wonder “does this guy
want me to pee or walk in a straight line”.
Leash Training is a
relatively simple process, providing you have the
right equipment; before we even begin to discuss the
training methods, we need to make sure you are fully
prepared. You will obviously need a leash, but not
just any leash; I recommend a six foot leather
lead. The next item on your shopping list is a good
collar. Many experts will disagree on the type of
collar to use, but I personally recommend a pinch
collar to a choke collar. A pinch collar looks mean
compared to a choker, but the spikes are actually
designed to spread the pressure evenly on the dog’s
neck, and replicate the pinch a puppy would receive
from his mother when he misbehaves. Before using a
pinch collar, inspect it to make sure that none of
the prongs are overly sharp, and attempt to get one
with a rubber safety cap on the spikes. You can
also use a choke collar if you so desire, but I do
not like them because they cut off the air supply,
the pressure is not evenly distributed on the neck,
and cause injury to the developing neck bones. Once
you have your collar and leash, invest in a good
chew toy to give your puppy as a reward for proper
behavior. The last thing you will need, as with any
training method is time and patience.
Before you can begin to
leash train the dog, you have to do is train
yourself. You need to learn how to give a proper
correction, how to properly award your dog, and of
course what the proper position for walking is.
Dogs learn behaviors via association, a firm no and
a solid correction means they have done something
wrong and a reward means they should continue the
behavior. To give a proper correction you need to
tug quickly and firmly on the leash and say the word
no sternly. Do not under any circumstances tug and
hold the leash, prolonging the pressure on the neck
that can cause serious harm to your animal. After
sometime the puppy will associate the word no with a
collar pinch and it will be an effective correction
on its own. To properly reward the puppy during
training, keep a chew toy or a tennis ball in your
pocket, and when he or she does something that
pleases you, give them the toy and pet them, telling
them good boy good (insert action here) to reinforce
that the behavior they exhibited was appropriate. I
avoid using dog treats such as biscuits for
training, because then they will come to expect a
food reward every time they do the right thing. The
last thing you need to learn before passing it on to
your dog is the proper positions for dog and human.
Where exactly your dog walks in reference to you is
a matter of personal preference, but as a former
canine handler, the method I use and teach is the
working dog’s heel. The heel has the dog positioned
on your left side, his front shoulder even with your
knee, and you have a comfortable grip on the leash
with your left hand about six inches from the clasp.
Leash training a puppy
does not require you to take long walks or have
large open space in fact I suggest you do it in an
area that your puppy is familiar with to minimize
the potential distractions. The first step to
teaching a young dog to walk on a leash is just to
get him used to wearing his collar, put it on him
and let him get used to the strange weight on his
neck.
Once he is used to the
collar the next step is to hook him up to the leash
and start teaching him the commands that you will
use when you walk around the neighborhood. My puppy
and I spend hours in the living room just practicing
the heel position. The easiest way I have found to
teach a new dog that position is to place him there
and tell him heel, then give him his chew toy for a
moment, after about an hour of this, walk forward of
your dog, and with a slight tug of the leash tell
him to heel, and if he does not respond when you
give him the command give him the correction If he
properly responds give him his reward. After he
begins to understand where he belongs when you
command him to heel, tell him to heel, walk a few
steps next to him, gently correcting him if he
leaves his position, and rewarding him if he does
well. Your puppy will not learn these steps all in
one day, so be sure to spend at least an hour a day
reinforcing what you have taught him.
When you feel that both
you and your puppy are ready to take your leash
training to the next step, it is time to go walk the
neighborhood, when you do this be sure to bring a
supply of plastic bags, often your dog will have a
bowel movement on his walks. Once you get out on
the streets you will be able to tell whether or not
all of your work in the house paid off. Take him
outside, give him his heel command and step off. If
he is distracted by all the new sights and smells of
the neighborhood, do not let him become distracted
and forget his training. The mistakes I see many
people make include, but are not limited to being
afraid to correct your dog when there are public
eyes upon you, letting them have the freedom to
explore the new environment without giving them a
correction, and my biggest pet peeve not being
prepared in case the dog does need to use the
washroom. These mistakes are easily correctable as
long as you remember what you learned. Do not worry
that people are watching you correct your dog; if
you use the technique I taught you earlier it is not
cruel and you will not hurt them. It is natural to
want to allow your dog to explore new things when he
is out of your yard for the first time, so when you
walk, set a destination where you can let him roam
and run free before resuming your walk. When I walk
my dogs, I often walk them to the local dog park
where they can run and be rewarded for proper
behavior on the trip over. If your dog does go to
the bathroom while you are leash training them, be
sure to praise them for not going in your home and
reward them for proper behavior, after you clean it
up with your plastic bag.
Training a dog to walk
on a leash is a simple task if you just remember the
basics. Dogs learn their behavior from association, aka reward and punishment so do not be stingy with
either the corrections or the praise. Patience is a
virtue, especially when it comes to training, Rome
wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a well
trained, well behaved puppy. It will serve you well
in your training process to think of a puppy as you
would a human child, they are looking for direction
and guidance from the dominant member of the family,
their parents, and that my friends is you. These
techniques were written to be used with a brand new
puppy, but remember it is never too late to teach an
old dog new tricks. If you do apply these
techniques to an older dog, it will require more
practice and more patience, the older the dog, the
more set in their ways they have become. I wish you
luck in leash training your puppy and enjoying many
long walks throughout the years to come.
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