Loose leash walking
Hello all,
I was just wondering how long it took you guys to master the loose leash walking.
I'm talking about the type where the dog is loosely walking right next to you.
Any tips and tricks?
Kenji is 5 months old and he's pretty curious when we're walking him out in public.
I was just wondering how long it took you guys to master the loose leash walking.
I'm talking about the type where the dog is loosely walking right next to you.
Any tips and tricks?
Kenji is 5 months old and he's pretty curious when we're walking him out in public.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mel K on
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Caleb is quite young yet and still has bouts of 'OMG LOOKIT THAT I MUST SEE' and 'OMG YOU THERE PET ME!!!!!' on the leash so I can't claim he's a true loose leash walker yet but my previous dogs have all been as previously mentioned. Turn the other way, at first I always gave an indication sound so it wasn't such a surprise but they catch on quick to watch that left leg. :)
I am not a dog halter fan. Call me old fashioned or stubborn but I've seen far too many people use them incorrectly and quite a few dogs with neck injuries from their heads being wretched around.
Nope, I use a regular nylon collar until 'real' training starts and then we move to a simple chain collar.
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Permalink Reply by Cindi on
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The trick to halters is to keep the dog close. You cannot give them a lot of leash because if they take off, they will get yanked. As for chains, I'm not a fan simply because people use them incorrectly. A choke should be carried high on the neck and the walk right beside the owner. Otherwise, the dog just pulls against the chain and can, in some cases, actually cause tracheal collapse.
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This is true as well. Too many people don't bother to learn the correct way to use any tools.
What kills me (and sadly many dogs) is when I see a dog tied with a chain collar. Ugh, I go batty and have been guilty of knocking on quite a few strangers doors when I see this. It also grates on me when I see a puppy in a prong collar, I don't use them but know of some very good trainers who use them on older dogs but never in a million years on a puppy.
I'm getting irate just typing this. But yes, I agree with your general idea of improper usage.
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Oh Melissa! Yes! I actually had a vet send a guy in with a 12 week old pit puppy with instructions to buy a prong collar! I wanted to scream. And he did NOT leave with one.
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Permalink Reply by Sky and Lyla on
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What?! Dogs on master loose leash walking?! Lol, just kidding (kind of). This is a tough one for my dogs. For me as a trainer, it ranks right up there with recall in terms of teaching. I think this one depends a lot on the individual dog too. Lyla, who is only 9 months, is MUCH better about this than Sky, who is a year and half. But Sky is naturally more energetic and curious. With both of them I have taken an approach similar to Beth's, starting in the house. With Sky, because he is my hardest one, what I have been doing lately is taking him to the park near our house that usually only has one or two people, and walking him around the trials every minute or so saying his name and when he looks at me click (I clicker train) and treat. This gets him looking at me, and it's really hard for him to look at me and be pulling ahead. Then, after he seems to get the hang of that, I wait, do not call his name, but the first time he looks up at me on his own, click and treat and lots of praise. He'll usually try it again, "looking at her got me a treat last time, maybe it will work again." After he seems to understand I want him to look at me, then I only click every few looks, or if he looks at me for a long time. When he really has it down, then we go to a harder place, like a busier park and start all over from the beginning again. Eventually, we should be able to go anywhere and he will always focus on me. (I've been concentrating on focus because if his focus is on me, he's not ahead of me, I don't know if all dogs operate like this, but both of mine do) Lyla is doing very well, as she naturally is easier to focus. Right now she is training in Lowe's. We'll walk up and down the aisles and she gets treated for looking at me instead of people. Just be sure that when you go to a harder place they are really ready for it or it just gets frustrating for you and the dog and is very unproductive. (my dogs have to be 97% perfect in one place before we move on to the next harder place). Probably after they graduate Lowe's, we'll try PetSmart, but that's like the holy grail of focus. =)
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Permalink Reply by Beauty and the Beast on
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Do you think I could do that to prevent him from jumping and flying when there's another dog in vicinity? He'll run and pull like every dog is his long lost friend.
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I think you could with A LOT of practice. I really like this method ( I don't know if its really "a method," I made it up because nothing else was working, lol) because it teaches him focus on me. Anytime we pass another dog or person I say his name. If he really pulls I simply stop and we don't go until he looks at me. Sometimes it takes a while, sometimes it doesn't happen. My goal is to shape the "looking" behavior to the point where it becomes ingrained in his mind, "I see a dog/person, I better look at mom and get my treat." Its coming along and I have to remember than focus is very hard for the herding breeds when things are moving and the dog's drive is kicking in, especially for the younger dogs, and to be patient. Sky is getting a little better each time though, and one day I hope to have him to the point I want. Baby steps!
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Good method. I use this in my Intermediate classes to teach heel. It works quite well.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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I do think that would help in your case, Maria. I do something similar as mentioned above, but without the clicker.
I can't do negative reinforcement training very well (i.e., correcting bad behavior) as you really need to be 100% consistent for it to work and I'm just not that way. So I work on reward.
I have a similar problem with Jack as you do with Shiro, and for the same reasons: I socialized him with every dog we saw and now he thinks we'll meet every dog we see.
What I do is if there is another dog, and Jack looks at me, he sometimes gets a treat. I started out by saying his name and reaching into my pocket and jiggling my treat bag to get his attention, and when he shifted focus from the other dog to me and the treat, he'd get rewarded. Pretty soon he would start looking to me to see if I might be getting out a treat. Now he'll only get the treat if he looks at me and stays focused on me instead of the other dog, and I happen to have treats. LOL But it's the same idea as the clicker training but without the clicker to mark it. You are rewarding random behavior with no command given, which makes the dog offer you the behavior in the hope of getting a reward. You can later add a command to that if you want the dog to offer the behavior on command, but in this case I want him to always offer the behavior when he sees another dog.
I have him to the point where if the other dog is more or less ignoring Jack, he'll focus on me. BUT if the other dog is play-bowing or jumping, forget it. I might as well be invisible.
I mentioned this to my father, whose dog will sit by his feet and wait while other dogs are bounding around (the dogs he's had all hunt and need to stay focused no matter the distraction; he can leave his dog on "stay" and get in the car and drive away and she won't move.....). Anyway, I mentioned it to my father and he explained what should be obvious to me but I overlooked: it is very confusing to the dog that sometimes we go over and greet other dogs and he's allowed to play, and sometimes he is meant to ignore them.
It is all well and good to expect our dogs to stay by our side until we give the "release" command and then expect them to socialize with others, and certainly it can be done and there are plenty of people who do it, but it really is relatively advanced training. It's easy to train your dog to ignore other dogs if you do that from the beginning, and easy to train them to be sociable with other dogs if you do that. But it is tough to get them to understand "today I can play but tomorrow I am expected to walk on by."
Jack is improving, but it does take a very long time.
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This is interesting. I never thought it might be confusing for him. I think it wil be a bit easier to teach him that socializing off leash is OK and on leash is not.
Yesterday we met a puppy that he loves to play with and both guys were jumping forward on their hind legs, silly dogs. They were not allowed to play until we reached the play area, but omg that was a heck of a walk.
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One of the commands we teach is "look" or "watch me." Many other trainers blow this one off but it is really a good one to retain attention in your dog. You're talking about jumping at other dogs out of excitement. If you use "look" prior to your dog becoming over-excited, in many cases you can control your dog's response.
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Working on that. He'l usually jump at least once then watch me, and back and forth. I've heard that dogs can only do one thing at a time and making them work distracts them from other things, well mine is definitely a multitasker.
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