Pulling on the lead
So why do our dogs pull on the lead, in particular on the outward part of the walk when the dog knows where he is going. The answer is simple he wants to get to the best part of the walk quicker. So we go through all the scenarios of lead jerks, holding the lead short, prong collars, choke chain, slip leads, head Halti, or even smacking the dog none of which seems to work as the dog is hell bent on pushing through the pain and reaching his goal, he’s going to be released and gets to play with his beloved ball so who wouldn’t be excited.
Where is the True Blame
Who gets the blame for this unwanted behaviour? No sorry not the dog but the person on the other end of the lead! Yes you! We always shout commands at the dog, but in our despair, we become angry and lose our tempers and issue threats. The dog does not understand human language except for the odd few cue words, e.g. sit, down, stay so all the dog is hearing is us making lots of noise similar to barking and growling so the message given to the dog is – ok your excited I’m excited, lets have an excited trip to the park!. Our dogs communicate by body language which they understand completely, it is indeed the human who needs training in this scenario.
The Root cause of Lead Pulling
Every time the dog pulls forwards, he is reinforced by his own actions, and we double the reinforcement by going with him, any reinforcement of the behaviour will result in the behaviour being repeated. We need to give a negative result to this by simply stopping dead and refusing to move until the dog returns to heel, then we can procced if we take one step forwards the dog is reinforced to pull. Taking control of the walk is essential, we do this by changing direction, turn back the other way 3 paces and then turn and carry on. Also crab walking taking side to side steps, three paces left 3 paces right. By carrying out this simple body language the dog becomes calmer and looks to you for direction leaving us with a happy enjoyable walk
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