Do This!
First, you need a good fitting body harness.
I like: Haqihana, Perfect Fit, and T-Touch Harmony harness for dogs who are sensitive to something going over their head.
Any collar can do damage when a dog pulls, and particularly one that tightens around the neck. That includes a slip lead. Choke and prong collars, and also the ever-so-popular nose harnesses, are nothing more than aversive control tools. Abusive is a strong word, but applicable with some dogs.
Check out above-mentioned harnesses and you get an idea what a good fit looks like. Free shoulder and arm movements, fairly light weight, and the straps should not impinge on the armpits.
What about front-clip harnesses? They are often a design that doesn’t meet these criteria, but even when they do clipping the leash in the front always affects gait—which is more harmful than you might think. If the gait is altered, muscle strain and pain can result, like it does with us when we continuously walk off balance. Pain always affects behavior at the moment, and longterm it could cause structural problems, and more pain in other parts of the body. Clipping the leash in the front is acceptable when one temporarily has to have more physical control, but it is not a permanent solution.
We have to deal with the underpinnings for pulling instead of making things too uncomfortable for your dog to forge ahead. If you use a front clip harness now, you can transition by clipping the leash in the front and then allow some pulling, and when there are no distraction clip the leash on the back and then enforce a loose leash.
Why do dogs pull?
One reason is because the leash is too short. More about that in a moment.
Another is because the dog is anxious or overstimulated. No control equipment will change how she feels. Addressing the core issue, will. Suss out what the issues are with the help of an experienced force free behavior consultant.
The third reason I want to discuss here.
The reality is that, compared to our dogs, we are slow-moving bipeds. At best boring, at worst annoying nags who spoil their outing. A dog who pulls isn’t dominant! He simply wants to get to where he wants to be, often it’s a scent that keened him, faster than you’re able to.
A key aspect of successful leash walking is to understand and meet your dog’s needs. A walk should be togetherness. I am aware where my dog is and what he wants, but I also expect him to be aware what I am doing. Neither heel nor eye contact is necessary, just keeping the leash loose. How do you get there? It’s two-pronged: stop to inadvertently reinforce pulling, and teach your dog a few cues so that you can verbally direct her.
Walking faster when your dog pulls in nicely accommodating, but don’t do it unless you always want to race around your neighborhood. This frenetic, and at times aimless, rushing from one spot to another fires your dog up even more, and that is not conducive to a calmer walk the next day. As counterintuitive as this sounds, we must slow our dog down. Slowing down your pace lowers overall arousal; your dog finally has time to smell the rose bush, especially enticing when someone has peed on it.
Unless your dog has a precise destination, penalty yards, so walking backwards, is equally futile. Your dog still gets to move, does he not? And that is innately reinforcing. Circling around you is reinforcing especially for herders, and can create a habit most people don’t want: an entangled leash and no straight forward walking more than a few steps at a time.
Instead, stop moving when your dog pulls hard. Not one more step. Not one more step for your dog in the direction she headed. Hold out until she creates a loose leash, then walking commences. The critical factor is that you are handing the responsibility to slacken the leash, and keeping it that way, to your dog. Once she has figured that out, she’ll do exactly that to maintain being able to move. In contrast, if it’s you who steps toward your dog, thereby creating the slack, pulling will continue. Just to be clear, neither sitting nor returning to you is necessary here. Your dog also doesn’t have to look at you for the walk to continue. Taking a step back or to the side, which automatically slackens the leash, is enough. And no treats either; continuation of the walk is the reinforcement. In fact, a treat can actually delay success—because it also delays what the dog really wants: to get to where he wants to be.
To set your dog up for success, you’ll need an at least 10-foot leash.
6 feet are too short to get into a normal-for-a-dog walking rhythm. As soon as she is in the groove she hits the end of the leash, and it becomes tight. If you continue to move, your dog classically conditioned learns to walk on a tight leash. That is the complete opposite of what you want, and your frustrated badgered “heel” won’t make a dang difference.
I like leather or biothane leashes because they are sturdy and feel nicely in my hand. 1/4-1/2 inch width is enough for most dogs, which has the benefits that it feels light on your dog and allows you to easily shorten it in moments you must, for example in a busy environment.
I dislike retractable leashes. They are awkward, can lead to injuries, when you lose grip it bounces behind your dog and that can scare the crap out of him and cause him to bolt, and each time you press the stop button your dog gets a tiny jolt.
As long as your dog doesn’t pull, allow her to sniff. Free sniffing is critical for mental and emotional welfare—it is meeting your dog’s needs.
Let’s face it: compared to our dogs we are slow-moving bipeds, and we are also scent-dense. However, we don’t have to have a dog’s nose-ability to comprehend the importance of sniffing. Humans have the brain power to be sympathetic even when they don’t share someone’s pursuit. It is not hard to imagine a non-reader driving their book-wormish partner to the library or a parent with zero interest in sport signing their hockey buff kid up for a classes. Normal people do things for their loved ones regardless whether they identify what drives them or not. Now imagine that hypothetical book lover’s partner would stipulate which book the person they are with can pick up, and for how long. Or the parent taking their kid out of the game 10 minutes in. Frustrating? You think? For dogs, this could even be worse. Denying to freely sniff is also denying them to get an understanding of their environment. This, I argue, contributes to reactivity. Olfaction such a critical sense that when the head is forced up—whether with a choker or nose halter or a cookie, when sniffing is prohibited and corrected, discouraged or controlled, the dog’s world becomes less predictable and more scary, and he’s on alert, with his eyes and ears trying to get a fix on what could be lurking around the corner. Then, when a stimulus appears, he overreacts.
Even when that is not the case, a walk without autonomy to sniff is unsatisfactory if you’re a dog. Only your dog knows what is sniff-worthy; he gets to decide where he wants to sniff, and for how long.
Spazierengucken is a word we used in our home. It’s German, and there isn’t a one-word equivalent in English for its meaning: going for a stroll with one’s eyes from one’s home, on walks, but also while driving. I love spazierengucken, visually exploring new places or rediscovering where I haven’t been for awhile. It makes me happy—in a calm way. For me it is a must to have good welfare, and I need it often. Dogs spazierengucken, too. With their eyes when they watch out the window (which you can allow as long as your dog doesn’t overstimulate and practices all day long ushering passerby by to, well, pass by with his barking). But as I just laid out, dogs also explore with their nose.
Depending on personality, your dog might want to revisit familiar ground more, or likes a variety like I do and two of our past dogs did. Once again a treat is not only unnecessary, but interrupts the normal behavior of investigating. Being able to do that is innately, and powerfully, reinforcing. So roam with your dog, including when she is on the leash. That is what’s natural, and quality time for the dog—and the human. As a nice side effect, you create a positive association to the leash. The even nicer side effect is that the duration of such a quality-rich walk becomes irrelevant. Not having to cover distance at all cost alone can relieve pressure the person feels, which also positively affects the dog. Plus, without the pressure you can take your time working on leash manners. Owners who believe they have to walk far in order to meet their dog’s physical need often are the ones who grin and bear the pulling because enforcing a loose leash with an untrained dog for an hour or more is tedious and frustrating.
Mostly a walk should unfold like this and as said, when you roam together you don’t need treats. However, don’t leave your reinforcements at home. You’ll need them when you specifically ask your dog to do something and she yields to your request.
Wait
Leave
Over
Keep Going
Right and Left
Are words I taught our dogs and we used on walks, on and off the leash.
And this way. Which stands for: my way. Follow! Not up for debate. Not negotiable. Neither eye contact nor being right by your side is the goal. The only criterium is your dog walking in the direction you insist on.
Teaching this way is super easy and begins in your home. Have a few treats in your hand and start walking with your back turned to your dog. That is important. Don’t look at her either. Just walk. If your dog follows, hand over a treat as soon as she catches up. Then turn your back on her again and repeat. Once she follows consistently, add your signal word. Change directions, move zig-zaggy, make it fun for your dog to follow, and treat her each time she catches up with you.
Why is it important that you face the direction you are headed and not your dog? Because in the real world if your body is even just slightly turned toward your dog she knows that you’re paying attention to her, which allow her to pay attention to whatever you don’t want her to pay attention to. It is equally important that you move the moment you said your signal word. If you hesitate, your dog has time to focus on that which you don’t want her to instead of paying attention to what you are doing. In contrast, you turning your back and moving decisively forces your dog to mentally connect to you—and she’ll follow. Like magic. Dogs are visually sensitive to motion and also understand when you mean it.
Unlike leave, with this way the leash can be tight and you can pull your dog along with you provided she is wearing her properly fitting body harness. Never on a collar, not ever on a nose halter. And without jerking. There is no harshness, but you must calmly insist. Move with conviction and tunnel vision. Imagine there is a box with a million bucks you can claim if you get there first. Reinforce generously the moment your dog resigns into the walk your way. You will feel the slack in the leash and that’s good enough. Following is the target action, not an eye-contact fully attentive heel right by your side.
If pulling your dog with you is allowed, then why start this way on home turf? Because introducing it in an area of least distraction allows you to create the foundation and build a high rate of reinforcement, and the chance that your dog follows you more quickly when there is a distraction is high.
Use this way when it’s spilling buckets and you want to get home but your dog wants to sniff, and it’s also your emergency signal to get out of dodge when something frightened her or she really really wants to greet that dog who communicates “no way”.
Leave and Wait are discussed separately and you can find both on this website.
Keep going means moving in a straight line and not bothering what is going on to the sides. It is a valuable roadmap for a dog in a momentary situation that makes him a tad uneasy, and also gently moves the dog along on a narrow pathway. You can prompt the action by tossing a treat out in front of your dog, or capture it when it naturally occurs.
Over means: step to the side to let others pass by. You can gently manipulate the behavior with the leash when you both move to the side, and also capture it when your dog naturally curves out.
Left and Right are directional cues that come handy when your dog walks ahead of you and doesn’t know how to proceed. You can teach it by tossing a treat or toy in the corresponding direction and naming the action as your dog goes for it, but I simply capture it as it naturally occurs on a walk when we turn right or left.
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