Training your Puppy to walk on Leash? A Complete Guide
Leash training a puppy is not the very hard it involves very simple, but regularly repeated training steps.
Most people think that puppies are innately trained with every skill, but this is not true, along with other skills like Come, Stay & leave it etc, walking on the leash is one, dogs need to be trained.
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How to leash train a Puppy?
If your dog is not accustomed to of wearing the collar and leash it could be fearful or even have the temper tantrum at first, so you need to make your puppy Habitual of these things first.
For this don on collar and leash before all those activities the dog love, like before playing and giving him treat, he will take wearing as part of those activities, it is as same as we make children do different things for prize or gift. Puppy will love it because it represents its favorite things like food and fun
At first, a puppy may bite the leash and start pulling, to avoid this to happen to try to wear collar and leash for short intervals of time and during time puppy is in enjoying mode. When you feel that the puppy is not biting or pulling the leash, try very simple and short practices with collar and leash donned on. Some are discussed down.
Teach a cue: Leash training a puppy
To turn your puppy towards you introduce him to a Cue which may be Word like “yes”,”Game time ” etc or it may be wrestle or clucking of the tongue. Now to train the puppy to walk on leash produce your cue, at first puppy may not respond well, but with some repetitions, he will, and once puppy turns towards you or even look at you, reward him with the treat and repeat the practice. Try to carry out this practice in a quiet distracting area.
Make puppy come
To make puppy more use to with collar and leash call him with that cue again, this time when you see him coming move back few steps to make him follow you. at once dog may not follow you because it’s totally a new thing for him, try again. Once he comes to you never forget to reward with a prize. when you repeatedly will do this puppy will realize that his master wants him to follow.
Inside a Room Leash training a Puppy
keep in your mind that your sessions should be short because dogs have short attention spans. Further practice can be done inside a room with a small distance between you and puppy having leash and collar worn, with little distraction as collar and leash are enough challenges for him. Call your puppy with cue if he does come to you reward him with the treat and repeat the process.
Outside training
When you realize that puppy is walking on a leash properly and is responding well in inside practice, take him outside with some extra challenges. Here puppy may not behave and respond as same as he did in room, the reason is the smell, noise, and sights along with leash and collar, all are pretty new to him. So you have to keep an eye on him, keep producing cue, and have to reward him with his following you. This is just like you are making a baby to do some thing you need to avarice him for prize and bounty.
How to make a dog stop pulling on the leash?
During leash training a dog a fearful thing is leash pulling of dog. Leash pulling often becomes successful for dogs because most people are of thinking that firstly as the puppy is not familiar with leash let him go into either side he wants to, and will soon be okay with it and everything goes wrong.
you can change this by changing the consequences for your dog.when he pulls immediately stop and stand completely still until the leash relaxes by dog taking step back . when the leash is again on relaxing position proceed your walk and try to limit your walks to very short distance initially.
Dog Leash Training Tips and guide
Till now we are almost done with leash training of dog let’s summarize our training into simple tips
- Introduce your puppy to leash to make him familiarize, during his entertaining times
- Teach a cue to call him
- Use your cue to make him come to you
- Practice inside your room as your puppy is well familiar with your room
- Take your puppy outside when you feel that he is doing very well in inside practice
- Keep on rewarding with treats until he is used to with these things.
How long should I walk with my dog?
Walk on the leash for the dog is new until he is trained properly and all walk without pulling is considered as training. Follow above-discussed tips for leash training a dog regularly for few days to completely familiarize your dog with the leash.
During training keep your walks short as according to a mode of your dog if he is pulling and biting leash try to stop him from doing so by feeding him or letting him play with toys if not stop walking, your dog still need more practice.