Espresso Dog Training

Training a dog to walk nicely on leash can be difficult for many owners! Walking nicely seems to be a foreign concept for so many of our beloved pets, and many owners learn to just deal with being dragged around because nothing seems to help!

Dogs have what’s known as the Opposition Reflex. This means that when they feel pressure, their automatic response is to pull against that pressure. (Fun fact: People are the same way!) This is why many dogs also lean against you harder when you try to push them off. It’s just instinct. We, the big-brained humans, have to teach them a way to respond that isn’t instinct – and that’s tough for everyone!

My training approach here is two-pronged. First, I like to start teaching a dog where I want them to be – right next to me. Then, I like to teach them to “give in” or respond to leash pressure. This means that I like to teach a dog to go with pressure, not against it. You can read about teaching your dog to respond to leash pressure here: Give In! To Leash Pressure!

This post will focus on how to teach your dog where you want them to be.

STEP ONE: REWARD FOR PLACEMENT
Even though this is a loose leash exercise, I like to start off leash. This approach does two things at once: Teaches your dog to walk politely next to, and helps teach your dog that being near you is the best place to be! This really helps when you start working on off leash exercises. Of course you’ll want to add in the leash later, but if you always work on leash, then teaching off leash skills will become much more difficult.

Pick the side you want your dog to walk. You can easily teach him that both are acceptable once he understands that walking next to you is desirable. I always start this training in the house, where the dog is least likely to pull at all, and is happy to pay attention to you. Take one step, say “Yes” or click the clicker, and drop a treat on the floor next to you or slightly behind you. I drop food on the floor because it allows you to take a step and reward your dog *as* he’s catching up to you, which further helps teach your dog that you want him to walk next to you. Take a step, mark/click with a clicker or “Yes,” reward. Step, mark/click, reward. See the pattern here? This is building the foundation of loose leash walking!

Start taking more steps. Remember, you want to start super super easy so your dog really “gets it” before you start making things more difficult. Following a similar pattern, you’ll take a few steps, mark/click, and reward. Few steps, mark, reward. Then, you can increase the amount of steps you take so you’re taking a few more before you mark and reward. You’ll essentially be gradually increasing the amount of steps you take before you reward your dog, always making it super easy so your dog can “win.”

For example: We started by rewarding every single step for a few times – ideally, at least 4, but some dogs will need more. Then, you reward for every other step, at least 4 times. Then every 3 steps. 4 steps. As you’re increasing the amount of steps you’re taking, you do want to also add in some easy ones. Let’s say you just took 4 steps and your dog aced it. Awesome! It can be tempting to do 4 steps again, but instead, try 2, then 4 again. If you constantly just up the difficulty, and don’t allow for some breathers, your dog is more likely to become frustrated.

Let’s say Fido does decide to move ahead. What do you do? If he just happens to be moving a little faster, stop, pat your leg, and call him back to you. You may want to use a treat to lure him back into place next to you, but don’t expect perfection. Mark/click when he turns back around, and toss the treat a little behind you. Remember, the goal here is just that he’s next to you. Don’t focus on the “losses” as much, focus on teaching him where to be.

BONUS: To help move things along even faster, teach your dog to sit next to you. Then teach him to sit every time you stop walking. The more you practice, the more likely your dog will automatically sit next to you. Because he wants to sit next to you all the time, he’ll be less likely to run off ahead of you!

STEP TWO: TAKE IT OUTSIDE
Your dog is doing really well inside! Now, take it to the backyard. When you first bring this outside, you’re going to want to almost “start over.” This means, you’ll go back to taking one step, mark, and reward. The good news is, this is a refresher for your dog, so you’ll progress much faster – usually within the first outside lesson! If you’re teaching your dog to sit next to you, you definitely want to start practicing that out here, too, and if you haven’t practiced it outside, then remember to lower your criteria so you can provide a refresher for your dog. If you start expecting too much, too soon, you won’t see any progress. So remember, start easy, and increase the difficulty – the amount of steps – as your dog is successful.

When your dog is once again doing well, start adding some low-level distractions! Ask a friend to help you out by standing outside doing absolutely nothing. It doesn’t matter who it is, your dog should just be very familiar with them and they should follow these rules: Do not look at the dog, Do not talk to the dog, Do not do anything that might interest the dog. Your friend’s job is to be boring so that your dog is more interested in what you’re doing, than what your friend is doing. As your dog gets better and better at ignoring your friend, he or she can then start to do things such as walk around, whistle a tune, wave at you, talk to your dog, etc. etc. This way, you can practice real-life scenarios that you and your dog will encounter. To make this particular part even better, start adding in other people, that way your dog doesn’t start to think it’s only one person that he has to ignore.

It’s important to note: Whenever you add in a distraction, you’ll again want to decrease criteria. You won’t always have to decrease all the down to one step, mark, reward, but it’s good practice to do that anyway. Your dog will better understand what you’re asking from him if you take things slow.

STEP THREE: TAKE IT ON THE ROAD
Finally, right? You’ve spent a lot of time working towards this! Once again, when you step out that front door, you’re going to start with one step, mark, and reward. In many cases, you can quickly increase that without a problem as your dog gets better and better. When you encounter a distraction, however, you will want to make sure your rewards are rapid-fire. You really want to cement it in your dog’s head that it doesn’t matter what is going on around him: His job is to walk calmly next to you! You can ask neighbors, family, or friends to continue helping you work with distractions so your dog is prepared for everyday life, and knows how to respond appropriately.

If your dog is reactive this will not really work out well for you. If your dog is reactive, you should bring in a professional trainer to help you deal with that first. The underlying problem isn’t that he’s not walking on a loose leash; it’s usually that he’s afraid of whatever he’s reacting to. Once you resolve or mitigate his reactivity, working on loose leash walking is much easier.

Why do I have to “start over” each time I bring my dog to a new location?
Dogs don’t generalize well. At all. Some do a fairly good job at it, but for the most part, dogs really don’t understand that walking-nicely-in-the-backyard also means they have to walk nicely in the front yard, or in the park, or in the woods. You have to teach them that whenever that leash is on, they need to be walking calmly next to you. I, personally, teach my dog to walk next to me always unless I give her a cue to go explore. I find that I have better control over her in general, and she’s more likely to focus on me and respond to cues no matter what else is going on. Being near me is highly rewarding.

What do I do now when my dog pulls me on walks? Should I just not go on walks at all?
If you can get your dog’s exercise in any other way that isn’t a walk, then honestly, your dog will be okay without walks temporarily. There’s this huge pressure on dog owners to walk our dogs, but walks are only necessary if you have no other way of getting out that physical energy. You can scatter their meals around your yard for sniffing and mental stimulation, and using meals means you’re not increasing their food intake, you’re just letting them work a little for their food – which a lot of dogs genuinely enjoy doing. You can also play tug, fetch, and other retrieve games for physical exercise. Adding obedience to all of these activities can also help with impulse control and will add mental stimulation as well. You can read more about mental and physical exercise here: Mental vs. Physical Exercise

If walks are absolutely necessary, I recommend trying the “Circles” technique by Denise Fenzi. To briefly explain it: You simply let your dog hit the end of the leash, and then do a big circle. You want the circle to be as big as possible, especially if your dog is the type who speeds up right away. Your circle may even resemble a square or oval – that’s fine. You want to also be circling toward something – usually whatever the dog was initially pulling towards – so that you’re moving forward when the leash is loose. This helps cement it in the dog’s mind that pulling doesn’t get them what they want – walking a loose leash does.

Those are the general steps, but keep in mind that all dogs do learn differently, and some dogs won’t do well with these specific steps. For some dogs, teaching them to sit next to you isn’t going to have much of an impact, and for others, it will be the reason they walk next to you at all. Experiment a little, and see what your dog responds best to. These steps are broken down this much because this is the path of least resistance, so to speak – it’s going to be less stressful for your dog, and less stressful for you. If you start expecting too much, you’re likely to set your dog up to “fail” over and over again – and I can tell you from experience that allowing your dog to “fail” over and over again is not beneficial for you or your dog.

So be patient, be consistent, and most importantly, remember to have fun. Happy training!

For help training your dog, contact me.