Leash Training Your Dog

Someone was asking the other day how they could get their puppy to walk on a leash. I'm sure there is ton's of tips on this, but I thought I would give my advise on how I accomplished this.

First, 6 months might be a little young to accomplish great leash walking skills, but if you have patience, it's not too young to start.

Second, this works best with small treats, or treat bits, that your dog loves. I use our BBQ Trainer chips, but anything small that will motivate them will do the trick. Sam will do anything for Taste Of The Wild - Salmon flavor - which is just dog food. You don't want too big of a treat or you break their concentration for too long, and then they forget what they are doing, or they have to stand up and drop some of the treat on the floor because they can't eat it in one bite, and if you are teaching sit, this can be a problem.

The first thing that I would do is acclimate my puppy or dog to accept treat reinforcement. Teach them the sit command. This is one of the easiest commands to learn, and it gets them "paying attention to you" instead of paying attention to something else. To get them to sit, start with the dog facing you, speak the word "sit" in a clear, commanding tone (not too scary) and slowly raise the treat up and over them, so that they have to sit to be able to follow it over their head. Let them smell the treat, but don't give them the treat until after they have performed the sit.

This is a natural motion, which makes it the easiest command to learn. They don't even know that they are doing a command yet, they just know that you have a treat in your hand, and it's going up over their head, so they need to sit to hopefully get it out of your hand. This may take some practice, but you should be able to get this one without too much problem. Just remember to keep it within reach, so they can smell it, maybe even lick it through your fingers, and keep moving your hand slowly up and back over their head (like you are going to set it on their forehead) and their mouth should follow you up until they have to sit to follow it further.

After they do the sit, reinforce it with the command in a clear, commanding voice, give them the treat, then heap lots of praise on them. Soon, they are going to associate that when you are happy, they get a treat, and then you have just acclimated your puppy to positive treat reinforcement. Slowly begin advancing the sit command, to not need the treat raised over and back over their head, and then slowly not showing them the treat at all, and before you know it, you will have a dog that will sit on command - every time.

Now, once you have achieved the positive treat reinforcement, you want to begin on heal, which is the formal leash walking command. This is accomplished by saying the command "heal", and with the leash and a treat in your left hand (this requires a little more dexterity on your part) guide them around to your left side until they are facing the same direction as you are, parallel with you, and then tell them to sit. A short leash will keep them in place. Take up any slack there might be between your puppy and your hand, so you can direct them with the leash. The treat in your left hand should help hold their attention - let them smell it, lick it - just don't give it to them until they are seated to your left.

Once they are seated to your left, facing front (the same direction as you), then give them the treat that you were holding in your left hand. Repeat this by moving to face your dog in front of them, putting a treat in your left hand, and guiding them back to your left again. Practice will make this automatic, and soon, the "heal" command will prompt your dog to always sit on your left side, facing forward.

The last step, is to start walking with your dog after they are in the sit-heal position. walk a few steps, then stop, and what you want to happen is your dog to resume the sit heal position after you stop. Coax this behavior with the "heal" command if needed, a treat, and if you raise the leash up on them, they will want to sit up to relieve the pressure on their neck. Once they resume the sit-heal position, give them lots of praise and treats.

Once you have them healing with you, and sitting anytime you stop, and resuming the heal position when you are walking, then you have effectively leash trained your dog or puppy. This really focuses your puppy on you while you are walking, because this training has reinforced good walking manners with praise and treats, and in the end, they just want to make you happy, plus it makes for a positively enjoyable walking experience, and won't you two look sharp walking in unison!