Leash Training Your Puppy: Helping My Puppy Overcome Fears On The Leash 20/06/09
This part in the complete guide to leash training deals with walking fearful dogs on the lead.
- 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
Fearful Puppies on The Leash
If your dog is fearful due to sound then you may want to look into doing some in-home training, see the article ‘fear of sounds’. If your dog is afraid of people or novel objects when out and about you want to build up a positive association. Make sure you reward your dog by having ‘safe zone’ walks, which are areas where your dog feels comfortable and reward your dog for any confident behaviour seen. You many want to look at ‘reading my dogs body language’ for help in recognising this.
Walking to the park
Walking your puppy or dog to the park or somewhere fun will allow them to make a positive connection between going out on the leash with a reward at the end. So walking to a friends house where they have a doggy playmate or the beach where they can run free can reduce the stress of having to walk along a pavement to get there.
Socialisation in new environments
You can also take your dog out in the car to show them your area. A DAP collar or spray (available from your vets) may be useful to calm nervous dogs. Sitting at a bench in a quiet area and ignore the fearful behaviour, when you spot a slight improvement (raised ears, gentle wag of the tail) say ‘good’ and reward. Allow people you meet to pet your dog in a calm manner and give treats.
If your dog is showing high levels of fear you must have a professional trainer assess your dog as fear can often lead to aggression problems and high stress levels can develop into physiological problems later on.
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17 Responses to this article
Ever time I stop when my puppy pulls, she’ll just eat the grass beneath her and still pulling slightly. She does not look at me to continue walking. What should I do?
Can I ask what breed she is?
It sounds like she is displacing (doing something else to avoid the reality of the walk) ie. if your nervous at a job interview you may bite your nails. This means you need to socialise her as much as possible, to everything new people, sights and sounds.
The best way to get her head up is with a head collar or a halti. I am going to write a post today about the fitting of these and how to use them etc.
Before you get the halti for a quick solution to your problem. When you stop and she ignores you quickly jog backwards and call her name (good for the recall too as it happens) this may take you being a little firmer if she is set on pulling but you should tell her sharply no (no physical needed, just good intonation) if there is still tension on the leash. As you jog backwards the tension on the lead will encourage her to turn around to face you, the reward to her is a slack leash. I will get another post up today specifically in response to this question so keep your eyes peeled!
It would be useful to know if you are waiting until she pulls to stop or anticipating the pull and stopping?
I’ve successfully completed up to Step three with Megan on her Lead training but when doing Step four she constantly goes onto her back legs and jumps up at my arm holding out the treat or jumps towards the treat itself when I hold it at the end of her nose. What do you suggest I do as we can’t progress while she keeps doing this. Also she is so little that in order to hold the treat near the end of her nose I’ve got to walk along bending myself right over!
Many thanks.
Tam
This is a common problem with little dogs. You can buy those long tubes of cream cheese that they can lick the end of. It works as an extension to your arm too. Just squeeze a bit out of the tube as a treat for her every now and then.
I’ll give it a go and let you know how we get on.
Many thanks.
Tam
How do I get my puppy to stop when I stop? Even when she’s walking beside me, I’ll stop and she’ll still be walking until the lead tightens and she’ll sit there.
“When you stop and she ignores you quickly jog backwards and call her name (good for the recall too as it happens) ”
How can I jog backwards when she’s sitting at the maximum length of the lead? Mine is only 1.2m
Stopping – use the ‘good’ as a secondary reinforcer. So when you stop give her a ‘halt’ command then ‘good’ followed by a treat. It is like any other command really you just need to teach her to stop when you do as at the moment she is probably slightly confused.
Jogging – It should not matter on the length of the lead, although keeping her on a shorter lead may be to your advantage at this point. The jogging back breaks the fixation.
Hope this helps you out
HI,
I have a 7 week Springer Spaniel called Scottie, I have him two days. One the first day I put on the Collar, he got used to it after about and hour or so. I put the lead on him this morning, let him run around supervised before if was breakfast time.
I then left the lead on when he was getting feed, so he will associate the lead with fun and food.
after he ate I took it off, he normal need the relive himself within 20mins of eating, so after 20mintues and put the lead on the let him walk to the garden and go.
He was bitting it at first but then let it go when I started to play with him have him follow me.
Within 20 mintues of playing with him he was walking with the lead on and was not pulling. What I plan on doing is every time he has to go potty is to put the lead on him.
I haven’t reached the part where we walk him in a park yet, he is still just used to our house and large garden, he was so excited this morning because he walked to the side of the house for the first time and saw another big grass area for him t play in.
Sounds like you are doing really well with him. It is common for him to bite at the lead as a puppy so as you already said distract him with you, a toy or a treat.
Well done!
Our puppy (6 months) throws a total tantrum everytime we try and leave the park where we walk her. On the way to the park she’s great and in the park her recall is good and she comes and sits while we put the lead on to go home. Then she just goes mental. She bites the lead, pulls, growls and tugs on it with her teeth. No matter how much we ignore her she seems to really enjoy pulling the lead with her teeth. Even if we stand on the lead she doesn’t stop growling and tugging for ages. When she eventually stops, the minute we try to continue the walk home she kicks off again. What are we doing wrong?
Ah she is pretty bright then! You are not do anything wrong, just you can add a few things to sort this out. When you go to the park begin letting her off the lead, calling her back walking a few paces on the lead and then take her off. The first few times don’t even walk the few paces just clip it on then let her back off again. You can build up to walking with the lead on after a few little goes. You only have to keep her on the lead for around 20 seconds. This will break the chain of behaviour and she will not know when its just a game and when its home time. Make sure you lavish her with praise and treats for the times she is on the lead to stop her not wanting to come back. If the grabbing the lead continues… give her a job! Take a toy out that she is allowed to carry but only on the way home. Do not let her have this toy at any other time, in the house or when out, its only for walking home with. It will reward her, give her a purpose and keep that mouth busy! Hope this helps
This was interesting.
hi i have a 13 week old staffie and she will not walk outside on her lead she is fine off it but wont move when i put it on her so i have to carry her to the park what shall i do.
Hiya, welcome to the site, nice to hear from you. Have you read this article – stubborn pups on the leash (click this link) and take a look at scenario two. If this is not enough detail then get back to me and if you include favourite treats, toys and details of whether your puppy has ever had a bad experience outside? Also did you do lead training with her in the house before you went outside on the lead? This will help me give you some further info. Thanks
Why does my 16 week old lab puppy suddenly with no warning jump up at the lead and nip my arms whilst out on a walk? There’s no trigger and up until that point she walks very well, she is ok with other dogs and I just can not understand why she suddenly does it. I’ve tried a firm no which doesn’t work, I try and keep her at arms length but she still goes mad like a flying crocodile if I turn my back she will jump and nip my legs or as high as she can get…the only thing that eventually calms her down is if I give her a sit command – she then will calm down after a couple of minutes and off we go again and she’ll be fine. Whilst she doesn’t break the skin it’s enough to mark up my forearms and it’s getting VERY frustrating! Any sympathisers out there with advice?!
I have a 15 week old Mastiff that is absolutely terrified of the leash. I got her at 12 weeks and on our first trip to the vet, a loud noise scared her and she pulled from my hand (stupid mistake on my part, I know). She ran full speed into a woodlot and it took us an hour to find her. Hence the traumatic incident that started all of this. Since that time I have been working with her in the house, rewarding her every time I put the leash on and letting her drag it around the house. Many times, she will just go lay in her crate and go to sleep. I have also let her drag the leash around outside, with similar results. When she does get “active” I reward her with play and maybe a treat, but when I take up the lead she either sits down or pulls on the leash and once she feels tension (which I try to avoid), she goes crazy; yelping, deficating, and trying to run. I can’t let go or I’ll lose her again.. which leads to another traumatic incident (there has only been two more to this point, but I want to avoid more). I’m thinking I just need to let her drag it around until she will continue to play with or without the leash (i.e., not go lay down). I’m seriously concerned though as she will get to be 120-150lbs. Definitley don’t want this behavior at that size. Am I on the right path, or would you recommend another technique? Any advice/guidance would be greatly appreciated!
You are doing the right thing so far. I would consider using a harness so that the pressure points are different for her. She will have made an association between the pressure on her neck and the fear she felt when she ran off. Keep being positive with her and throw out the old leash you had when she has been displaying fear. Have you considered using a head halter?