Once your puppy is ready to go out into the big wide world, it is time to start leash training. Most puppies need time to adjust to the leash and learn what it is all about. If you don’t take the time to train it, your puppy can get frustrated and confused and bite at the leash or pull like a freight train. Before taking your puppy for a walk, try following these simple tips and steps.
How to leash train your puppy
Posted by Pet Direct on 21st Oct 2020
Before you get started, some simple tips:
- Create a positive association for your puppy with wearing the harness and leash
- A leash is a management tool, not a training tool. The leash is simply a safety net that keeps your puppy or dog from running on to the road etc.
- The leash is not meant to be jerked, yanked or pulled around to punish or manipulate the dog.
- There are different of leashes. Street walk, around the neighbourhood, and use a leash that is 1.8m – 2m long like the EzyDog Soft Trainer Light Leash for small breeds or EzyDog Vario 4 Leash for larger breeds of dogs.
- Go for sniff walks in the park can use a light weight long line.
- Choose a comfortable harness to clip the leash onto.
- A harness is better than a collar for most puppies but if you prefer to use a collar make sure it is a plain flat collar.
- Assess your puppy’s baseline of behaviours before you start teaching a new one. Identify what they already know and start from there.
- Ideally your puppy will know ‘Watch Me’ (puppy gives eye contact), 'Sit/Wait' and eventually 'Leave It'.
- Make a plan, and focus on training one thing at a time.
- Keep your training sessions short and sweet. Two minutes is plenty with a young puppy.
- Remember to check the guidelines for appropriate amounts of exercise for your puppy at their current age.
Introduce the leash and create a positive association
Clip a lightweight leash to your puppies harness. Don’t worry about going for a walk yet. This is a brand new experience for your puppy. The goal is simply to have fun and create a positive association with wearing the leash. Play, praise and give healthy treats to your puppy. If your puppy is struggling, you can start by tying a ribbon to your puppies harness and working up to the real leash. Quite often puppies are surprised by this new feeling and want to play tug with the leash. The goal of this step is to have a happy and calm puppy when you attach the leash. If your puppy is cowering or trying to move away, practise rewarding her for sitting calmly while you attach the leash. Use lots of healthy treats and praise. When your puppy is very young you can introduce the harness, collar and leash at short intervals with lots of rewards creating a positive association with wearing those accessories.
Practise walking at home
With your puppy on leash and healthy treats ready in your pockets or handy treat pouch practise walking inside your home. Walk slowly to begin with and reinforce your puppy for following you by saying “yes” or clicking your clicker once and feeding a treat. Feed your puppy in the position that you are rewarding her for. For example, if you are reinforcing following, say “yes” and feed a treat to your puppy while she is still following behind or next to you.
Change direction often so that you have more opportunities to reinforce your puppy for following. Add a verbal cue like “lets go” to let your puppy know you are going to change direction and for her to follow. Say “let’s go” before you change direction, when the puppy turns to follow you mark that behaviour at the exact moment it happens by saying “yes” or clicking your clicker once and immediately feeding a treat.
Keep the leash loose. The leash should always have a nice smile bend in it. If you always hold the leash short and tight, that creates tension on your arm and shoulders and also on the puppy’s body. I have found that a lot of puppies or dogs pull on leash because they are trying to get away from the constant pressure from the leash. Aim to keep a nice U bend in the leash at all times. Reinforce your puppy with praise and healthy treats for walking with a loose leash.
Walk outside, in a controlled environment
Your backyard or in a quiet area where there aren’t too many distractions is a good place to get started. Remember every new experience is a lot for your new puppy to take in. Starting your training at home and in low distraction environments sets your puppy up for success. Slowly build up the amount of distractions you introduce.
Practise, Practise, Practise
Once you feel like your puppy is starting to reliably follow you when you say “lets go” and is walking happily on leash, keep practising! Continue to reinforce desired behaviours like following, walking on a loose leash, and waiting when asked. This helps your puppy learn that it doesn’t matter where you are or what distractions are around, walking on a loose leash is the best choice.
The more you positively reinforce a behaviour the more likely it is to continue or strengthen. Your dog will start to offer the behaviours you have trained without even being asked. How nice! Your consistency and reinforcement history will pay off throughout your entire life together with your dog. So have fun practising and reinforcing behaviours you want to see more of like nice leash walking.
Tip: Play red light, green light
If your puppy pulls on the leash, that is the red light, stop walking. Once there is some slack in the leash again, that is the green light, start walking again. With consistency, patience and positive reinforcement your puppy will catch on that walking on a loose leash is the best choice.
Things to remember
The big wide world has so many new experiences your puppy can easily get distracted and seem to forget all of your training. Don’t worry. This is normal.
If your puppy is overwhelmed by the environment or seems to have forgotten everything you have taught, simply take that as information that you need to keep practising with different environments and with different distractions. Go back to a point of success for your puppy and go from there. If it is just too much on that day or in that area, consider trying again another time.
Remember that your puppy is never being naughty or trying to dominate you when she pulls on the leash. Puppies and dogs simply walk faster than humans naturally, so it takes consistency, patience and positive reinforcement to teach puppies and dogs to walk on a nice loose leash. Go at a pace that keeps your puppy happy and confident while out and about. Having a puppy that is calm and confident and curious about the world is more important in these early stages of life than having perfect leash walking.
Do not use your leash to punish or train your dog. Dogs that have the leash jerked or yanked each time they see another dog or person can become fearful of people and dogs. If you are finding yourself scared or frustrated about your puppy or dogs behaviour on leash, get in touch with a professional dog trainer. Click here to find a professional dog trainer in your area.
Guideline for appropriate puppy exercise
A good rule of thumb is 5 minutes of exercise per your puppy’s age in months, up to twice a day.
For example: a three month old puppy should only be getting 15 minutes of exercise, twice a day. A four month old puppy should be having 20 minutes of exercise, up to twice a day. Over exercising a puppy can lead to ongoing injuries and behaviour problems. Once they are fully grown they can go out for much longer.
If you have any questions or would like some more guidance about what you will need for your puppy, don't hesitate to reach out to one of our Customer Service Experts on 0800 200 240.