Leash Training Your Puppy: Stopping My Puppy Pulling 24/06/09
This part of the leash training series deals with problems when your puppy or dog is pulling you on the leash.
- Leash Training My Puppy: Introduction To The Leash
- Leash Training Your Puppy: Stopping My Puppy Pulling
- Leash Training Your Puppy: Training My Puppy To Walk To Heel
- Leash Training Your Puppy: Helping My Puppy Overcome Fears On The Leash
- Leash Training Your Puppy: What Kind of Collar Should I Buy?
- Leash Training Your Puppy: Training My Puppy On A Headcollar
There are some very important rules that you must consider before you walk your dog. Make sure that you have done a little obedience training before you go out and when walking try to walk at a pace that is going to keep your dogs attention on you and stop them racing off or lagging behind.
When your dog pulls
If your dog or puppy starts to pull on the leash simply stand still (it’s that easy) wait for the tension on the leash to loosen and then walk on. Stopping abruptly will interrupt the behaviour you can wait for your dog to relax the tension on the leash. As soon as you feel the leash relax begin walking again. This will allow your dog to make the association between a loose leash and the progression of the walk. In other words not pulling on the leash means your dog gets to enjoy to keep on walking. Think of the walking as the reward for good behaviour.
Having problems with this method?
Sometimes very persistent dogs will keep the tension on the leash even if you stop, if this is the case or you find stopping is to time consuming then you can use another method. In this method when your puppy pulls you can turn around and head in the opposite direction. This will interrupt the behaviour and allow you to regain your dog’s attention. By constantly changing direction you can train your dog to keep your dog interested in where you go and promote a following behaviour.
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16 Responses to this article
What if the puppy knows how to walk on a loose leash but simply refuses to keep her spot next to you? No works fine…for five steps. No treats help, and a firm ‘no’ works for about five seconds until we change direction and she keeps at it. All that turning around makes me dizzy, and the gentle leader only does so much. I’m curious as to what you do then.
Hmmm I am a little confused about your question. So she isn’t pulling on the lead but wants to walk in front of you? Is that right? Or does she walk well for a bit then pull again? You don’t always have to change direction you can stand still and wait for the leash to slacken then carry on walking forward. Teach her that ‘good means good’ here http://www.teachingpuppies.com/the-first-step-in-dog-training-good-means-good so then when she walks at your side you can reinforce her with this. You can also give her treats whilst she is in this position.
Sorry, post was a bit confusing. Rosalie is highly intelligent, and has picked up on how we expect her to walk, as well as that I’m pack leader–so she’s almost perfectly obedient to every other command. She knows ‘good girl’ is praise. I’ve stood still and gruffly said “Rosalieee, no. Back up.” (She knows back up.) So she will while we are standing there, with absolute compliance (because she knows there is no getting anywhere without mom) but occasionally seems to complain and whine about my commands. (Which is ignored, except for a gruff ‘Settle’ or ‘Quiet’) I have tried to reinforce her with ‘good heel Rosie!’ when she is at my side, but to no avail. Rosie will try to dart forward at that praise, thinking “Now I can do what I want.” Which, to be honest, she doesn’t do with anything else — so I’m not sure where that behavior came into play. How can I break this behavior? Australian Shep. Mixes sure are stubborn. The sad part is, Rosie walks beautifully near to me without a leash, but you know….there are leash laws.
I think you should try a praise that will reinforce but not end the behaviour. For example if my dog sits and that is all i want i will say ‘good girl’ but if i am teaching her to get closer to a behaviour (like walking nicely or to do a send away) then i will use ‘yes’ in a low key voice with a small amount of physical praise. Sometimes the very bright dogs learn that good ends the behaviour. You have obviously taught the ‘good’ very well but now you need to almost take it down a notch. Have you ever tried her with a clicker? I think this would be good for you. The ‘yes’ works in the same way but the clicker is more precise.
So when she is at your side use the gentle ‘yes’ make her walk in position, if she steps out use a sharp verbal ‘no’ and ask her to return to your side. Then walk for say five steps telling her ‘yes’ gently then reward. So you don’t reward after every ‘yes’ unlike the ‘good’. Up this to walking for 10 steps then 20 etc. Pretty quickly you should get up to where you want to be after about a week of this (maybe quicker as she is bright). Also make sure you have a play with her first to make initial training a bit easier.
Hmm, yes. I have tried her with a clicker, but mainly teaching her basic obedience and half of the level two sessions. I may need to reinforce the clicker more before we try walking. Hopefully this method works well though, we’ve been trying to train her to walk nicely (with a decent amount of improvement, except for stopping every 20 steps, haha. It’s gone from 5 to 20 steps, so that’s where we stalled out) since April of this year when we adopted her. I’ve been trying to read up about every method out there, because I’m truly adverse to using shock collars to stop a behavior in stubborn breeds and working dogs. Thanks for the help, most trainers didn’t seem to understand why she would do this when she ‘knows’ she’s supposed to be by my side.
Scenario 2 is what’s happening to my puppy now. She just wants to go her way and explore the places she wants. At 5 months old, should I expect her to sniff the ground when she’s walking? How do I get her to focus on me when we are outside, instead of wanting to explore all the time? She goes out 3 times a day (20min-1hr, depending on my schedule) always to the same park, so she knows that area quite well. When she pulls/drags, then I stop, and she’ll sit at the same place that she’s pulling/dragging. Should I bring her back to my side before continuing my walk? How? She doesnt even look at me when we stop.
From your other comments i can see the type of dog you appear to have and i myself had one very similar. They can be a little frustrating at times but there are many things you can do. Try using a flexi lead for the walks you don’t mind her having a sniff on and a normal shorter lead when you want her to trot by your side. you need to make yourself really exciting to her. So when she stops quickly jog backwards, bringing her with you, if you give into the stubborn sitting then she will know how to make things go her way. When you jog backwards she will naturally turn around to face you, you can then move forwards and she will end up at your side. If she is being really stubborn just turn around and walk in the other direction for about ten seconds and if it becomes really a case of she pays no attention to you walk her home. You can take her out for ‘dummy walks’ as soon as she begins the ignoring, you literally take her straight home. She will soon make the association that not paying you any attention means the walk is over. You can take her straight back out once you have been back for a minute or two. This is how i trained my consistent puller and it doesn’t take long. Hope this helps and sorry if i have given you too many alternative methods here!
Hi Louise, you advice helps. She’ better at walking now, but gets very distracted when there’s other dogs around. Anyway, another problem appeared. She recently started biting/attacking my partner’s shoes while he’s walking her. She’s a corgi. I think she might be herding him. She tried that on me once, but I managed to tell her off by “agghhh” and tapping her bum. My partner’s tried my method but it didnt work. She doesn’t do it when I’m with them. She does the same to the soccer ball too. When we kick it, she’ll run after it and attack/growl/bite it. When anyone tries to get close to the ball, she’ll try and attack the shoe of that person. She’ll only stop if I put my foot on the ball and “agghhh” her. How do I stop there?
Okay well you need to nip this in the bud ASAP. Fill a plastic bottle with coins or stones and seal it very tightly. When she bites at his feet say a firm ‘no’ and really mean it followed by a shake of the bottle. This should deter her enough. If she is not noise sensitive you can use a water pistol in the same way but make sure you get the ‘no’ in so when you don’t have the bottle she stops on command. Make sure you think about her sensitivity levels before you rattle the bottle as you don’t want to scare her just interrupt her. If she is reactive to noise then you will have to shake at a gentle level etc.
I have a 1 yr.8 month old Scottish Terrier who does not like to walk. As we start walking he immediately stops and freezes. I have used clicker method & treat, praise. He will walk a few steps then stop all the way around the block. What do I do?
I have had this problem myself with a guide dog. I found it was due to body sensitivity. Try giving him a relaxing massage before you take him out in order to make sure he is relaxed and when he walks those few steps use a toy instead. Terriers love squeaky toys and they are the best for this to get his attention. By using the toy you can have a game with him and keep walking which will stop the walk stop cycle. You may found he has learnt to walk then stop and get a treat so make sure you are only rewarding him when he is actually in motion ie. he only gets the click, treat or toy whilst he is moving. Stopping to give him the treat will cause him to learn that freezing is rewarding. If he totally shuts down try not to coax him but carry on walking keeping an upbeat attitude (almost like you haven’t noticed) and quickly praise as soon as he starts moving. Hope it all goes well. Let me know how you get on.
Thank you I have started this walking and not paying attention to his putting on the breaks. I think I must have been rewarding him for stopping. He is doing much better now!
That is great! Glad to hear you are getting on so well
My question is how long should it take for a pup to get the point
I have a 12 week old patterdale X. Like most little terriers he would go all day if I let him (20 mins max 3 x a day at the mo) and he is so enthusiastic about our jaunts round the woods that he pulls like crazy. I have tried just stopping and turning and walking smartly in the other direction. The problem is although it works in that instant he goes straight back to pulling. This morning it took me over an hour to get him 300 yards, because we spent so much time staionary!. It doesn’t appear to be going in and I am a little worried that it is teaching him merely to resent me rather than obey me. On the odd occasions he is walking next to me on a loose lead I praise him constantly saying “Close Cato good boy, good close, good close” and then like a shot he is off again…any tips other than persistence?
I am so glad someone else (Lou, Aug 12) is having similar problems to me. I have a Patterdale cross terier, I had him at 5 months and he had had no training at all – he is now 7.5 months. I tried the treat reward system for not pulling for five weeks and got nowhere, except him jumping up expecting treats!!! I have now been working on the stand still or turn round method for the last several weeks but am having very limited success – a fifteen minute walk now takes 45 mins. He has also started to charge at passing traffic ie throwing himself toward the road as far as the leash allows. I have had two dogs before, from pups, but this one is exhausting me and I am now at the end of my leash.
Hi,
Thanks for all the information on the website, it’s really helpful.
I have a 4.5 months Golden retriever, Harley. He is on leash training for past 1 week, He happily comes out for walk from home, and walks on loose leash for about 100 meters, after which he panics and tries to run back home and begins pulling the leash. I tried the your technique, of Stop when the leash is tight and walk when there is a slack. But for every single step he pulls out of fear [I could tell that he is afraid, as his tail is in between his legs].
I tried to treat him when on loose leash, but once he is scared he is no more interested in treat. I tried changing the direction ,There are some brief moments when he doesn’t know where to go and follows me on loose leash, but it lasts only for few steps and again tries to pull in the new direction, trying to get back home soon.
Can you help me with this, How can I make him comfortable on streets? Sadly there are not many dog parks in India and there are many street dogs on roads which scare him.
Regards
Avinash