3 REASONS WHY YOUR DOG KEEPS PULLING ON LEASH

OVERWHELM / PAIN OR DISCOMFORT / YOUR EXPECTATIONS

One, or more, of these three reasons might just be why your dog won’t stop pulling on leash.

Albeit your very best efforts to patiently, and positively, train your dog to walk with you, rather than drag you sailing down every path or road. 

Is your dog overwhelmed? This can be excitement, or fear, or frustration, or a bit of everything. And this happens often with young dogs, puppies and adolescent dogs. 

Your dog may have some discomfort or pain and walking slowly, at your pace, could elevate the discomfort. Observe your dog’s gait: at the beginning of a walk, at the end, after they’ve been resting etc. Check in with your vet!

Are you expecting too much? Teaching a reliable loose leash walk takes time and dedication, don’t expect too much too soon from your young dog. Does your dog really have to walk by your side all the time? Try giving your dog a slightly longer leash (in the right environment), maybe they simply prefer walking a little ahead of you. 

There are of course many other reasons why your dog may be pulling on leash and if you feel you could do with some help, please get in touch.

We've won an Award!!!!

Very excited to announce that we have won another Award 🎉🎉🎉🎉

🐾 'Best Canine Behaviour Consultant 2024 (Southern Sweden)' at the Scandinavian Business Awards.

🙏 A massive thanks to all my wonderful clients who’ve taken the time and have left me great testimonials which hugely impacted on the judging panel’s decision.

🐕 And the biggest thanks to the one and only, Miss Wolfgang. This one is yours my little golden nugget ❤️

Setting up your dog for training success

How to create a good dog training environment:

🐾 To begin with, train in a non-distracting environment to help your dog stay focused, then generalise the behaviours to more distracting environments.

🐾 Train when your dog is motivated.

🐾 Break behaviours down into small easy to learn steps.

🐾 Always allow your dog to opt out of the training when needed. For example, you may find your dog starts to sniff the floor suddenly, that’s her asking for a break. 

🐾 Minimise opportunities for your dog to choose an incorrect response, providing you with repeated opportunities to positively reinforce all of your dog’s correct responses (mark & treat).

Loose Leash Walking Tips

Leash Walking Tips - whether you are starting from scratch with a puppy, working with a bouncy adolescent or adult dog or even a rescue dog who’s not used to a leash.

🐕‍🦺 Good equipment is key: I’d opt for a well-fitting harness but there are, as always, exceptions to the rule. Get a long leash and/ or a training line (3m - 5m, depending on your long leash handling skills).

👩🏻 Understand that you, the human, are a bit boring when it comes to walking. You walk in straight lines, probably a bit too slow or fast (depends on how your dog sees the world), you never stop to sniff or wee. Look at it from your dog’s perspective and allow for all the sniffs and exploration they need. 

🌭Get your dog used to good things happening when moving with you (NOT by your side but moving with you). You can use pattern games for this, capturing (mark/ reward) check-ins and more. 

🐾 When outside; start practicing in an area where your dog has the option to move more freely. 

🩺 Don’t forget that underlying medial issues can feed into leash walking behaviours. 

Things I tell my clients to make their puppies’ and adult dogs’ day to day the best they can be

1. Everything starts with and is influenced by learning to ‘talk dog’ and understanding your dog’s needs (both physically and emotionally).

2. Good quality socialisation and habituation, working at your dog’s pace, is so much more important than teaching traditional behaviours such as sit, down, etc. 

3. On that note, a ‘sit’ isn’t as important as you think it is. And can matter of fact become an aversive for a dog with physical ailments. Don’t make it a default part of other behaviours you teach your dog.

4. Be your dog’s safe place and provide as much choice and agency as you can for your dog. 

5. A happy tummy and gut makes for a happy dog! 

6. Be more dog, you fur friend will love you for it.

Why a trusting relationship with your dog is worth a million times more than any ‘obedience’ training

Yesterday, Wolfgang got a special, big treat (‘cause she’s the best!) in form of a sausage. And whenever she gets too big a piece and it needs dissecting, she usually finds herself a quiet spot to attend to it.

But we were all cosy on the sofa and I saw in her little face how she was ‘debating’ over whether to pop down or how to go about it. 

So I offered my cupped hand and said ‘Do you want Mami to help?’. And she immediately dropped that juicy sausage on my hand and sat back, looking at me in anticipation while I broke it up into bite-sized pieces for her. Patiently waiting for me to feed her every delicious bit. 

And these moments of trust are what it’s all about (for me, at least).

For a dog to let go of such a high value food without a worry in the world (and no, I’m not in her head but she looked blissfully zero bothered). 

I use the ‘can I help’ cue for all sorts of situations including:

• When she stepped into something and can’t get it out of here paws (I walk to her or she hobbles over to me).

• When there is a little poo stuck and she can’t bum-shuffle it off (and gets quite freaked out over it).

• When she tries to get to the end of the Kong but can’t quite get that last bit right at the top out.

• If she tries to get to something but can’t quite reach….and much more

A few tips on how you can build a trusting relationship with your dog:

• Learn to talk dog so you can understand and communicate with your dog, and within this….

  • Allow your dog choice and control over their environment

• ALWAYS be your dogs safe place

• Don’t mess with your dog’s resources, AKA what’s important to them.

  • That includes simply letting them eat their meals rather than making a whole song and dance around waiting for five minutes, then reciting the alphabet before they can dig in.

• Accept your dogs personality: teach them cues so you can easily navigate this human world together but also accept that they might not want to allow strangers to pet them and that they, too, have crappy days where they might react to the environment.

• Don’t use aversive methods!!!!