How To STOP LEASH Pulling From Start to Finish!

today i'm gonna show you everything i've been doing over the past year to train my dog inertia to walk on leash i'm zach george i train dogs this is my new dog and i'm gonna show you how i train her from day one things definitely won't always go smoothly you can start from the beginning or you can pick up anywhere subscribe and hit the bell notification so you never miss an episode when you put into motion an approach based on love and respect your results will forever remain in motion this is inertia welcome to the dog training experience lease training can be one of the toughest things to train a dog getting a training box sent to you based on your dog's specific age is a way to keep you motivated to keep you on track so that your dog is awesome in no time for example this is the six month box and let me show you how this works you get a surprisingly detailed training guide for a six month old dog it's time to start refining and getting those leash skills looking better in addition to the training guide they send you training supplies too you'll find that you can never have enough leashes lying around the feeling of this is really dynamic i think a nurse is going to be like what is that alien material they sent honey coconut scented shampoo and it smells exactly like that only your dog can hear this apparently all right let's see if she can hear it oh my gosh so it's like a silent squeaker to us but they get the satisfaction of hearing a squeak go get it oh yeah she's gonna love that these are turkey tendon strips really interesting texture on these you definitely need good training treats if you're gonna train a dog and because inertia is over a year she gets an adult box too this came in her adult box check this out she's gonna go crazy over this oh my god this is like extreme tug of war look at this but when you just have something new and random that you would never think to get in a million years and you find that your dog just goes crazy over it that's really a way to energize your training enter my special code zack to get 50 off of your first pop box when you sign up for a 3-6 or 12-month plan at pupbox.com zac i'll have that link and discount code in the description of this video leash walking for many people it's one of the most challenging things about training their dog leash walking typically takes many months to master but there are a lot of variables involved like how consistent you are how energetic your particular dog is and your pre-existing communication with one another first a very important piece of advice if you have a high-energy dog it's critical that you get their energy out of them just prior to doing these lease training sessions it's these high-energy dogs that we've selected for over the centuries and their energy made them very valuable to us so we have to be fair to those genetic tendencies by giving them an outlet for all of that energy before these leash walking sessions in other words walking nicely on leash for energetic dogs is a pretty unnatural thing if you're at a plateau on this and you've been struggling with this with your own dog you might find that exercising them just before a lease training session might make all of the difference now you'll also want to make sure that your dog has a basic grasp of the basics like leave it and look at me and that you've taken the time to get them comfortable with wearing their collar and their harness if your dog doesn't know a lot of these basic things you can start at the beginning of this series and maybe pick up a copy of both of my books too to learn how to train them in detail once you have those basics down you're ready to start with leash walking training one of the big secrets about dog training is that whenever you're teaching your dog something new do it in an easy environment like inside of your house you'll remember with inertia her first leash walking lessons were all indoors that's because it was a lot easier for her to listen in an indoor familiar environment than it would be for a dog to listen in an outdoor environment of virtually any kind if you've tried leash walking outside before it's possible that you've encountered a dog who is far too distracted by their surroundings i mean think about it they see you all of the time but being outside is far more stimulating because so many things are different and new and dogs are really curious by nature so making it easy for your dog to succeed especially early on is going to make things way smoother during my first leash walking lessons with inertia we would practice walking around inside the house while she was on leash so i like to do these early lessons which are basically just look at me while moving i do that so i can verify that my dog is paying attention to me at first there's literally nothing wrong with holding up a treat just like this if you've got to get your dog to voluntarily stay with you and stay on a loose leash and the logic here behind using treats for this is that you're keeping your dog in a really upbeat frame of mind see that very good at first you might find it really natural to kind of manipulate them and jerk them around a bit with the leash and their harness or collar but that doesn't really teach them we have to really show them how to voluntarily go through the motions if we're concerned with long-term success and the reason i like to have a dog look at me is to verify that i have their attention when i ask for it so in other words the goal of these early sessions are to get them to take sometimes just one or two or three steps in a row without having any tension on the leash take it any way that you can get it you'll find that your dog seems to learn at a much faster rate when they're eagerly paying attention to you once i really felt that inertia was starting to grasp this concept of look at me while we walked then i would start to ask her to change directions more randomly while you're practicing if you think your dog is about to start speeding up or pulling stop immediately or even start walking in the opposite direction in order to preempt the pulling doing this consistently will teach your dog that if they pull on their leash they're not going to get to go where they want to go remember the best time to address a behavior that you don't want to see is before it occurs not after it occurs this applies to leash walking as well as virtually any other bad habit you can think of too in the beginning when you're introducing this concept really focus on a couple of weeks of doing this a few times a day in like five minute increments i do want to talk briefly about using corrective collars like choke chains prong collars or even electric collars i don't recommend using any aversive tools like these when training dogs because there are too many side effects and it could actually make training take even longer i mean let's take a common example where you might be tempted to physically correct with one of these collars say your dog is reacting to another dog on a walk and barking vigorously you may inadvertently be creating a scenario where your dog learns to associate the harsh correction with the presence of other dogs on a walk so this could further amplify issues like that i'm not saying people who use these collars are in any way bad people i'm just saying that there might be more benefits to using a different approach another thing is that dogs are pretty smart so they come to know when that special collar is around the neck versus when it's not so if they're wearing a normal collar or harness then you're likely to see the behavior come right back so essentially those collars can act as a patch and we all know that patches can eventually fail so i recommend actually taking the time to teach your dog and really walk through the motions of how to walk nicely on leash over an extended period of time while being very patient that way you'll end up with a dog who listens to you regardless of the type of collar or harness they're wearing okay so once your dog is walking well while indoors you're ready to start taking your training outdoors but this is a big step now don't expect to just take off down the street and have a perfectly well-behaved dog as we discussed before moving from inside to outside involves a lot of training challenges since the outdoors is so tempting and distracting for most dogs it's a good idea to give your dog some time to observe sniff around a little bit and take in that new environment before you ask them to start focusing on the training lesson at hand so be tolerant of leash pulling and things like that during this adjustment period ideally at first with these outdoor lessons you'll want to stay very close to your home and practice over a short distance like walking in circles in your driveway or back and forth on the sidewalk just in front of your house or apartment the first time i did a lease training session with inertia outside we just stayed on a little patch of pavement in our backyard and remember your mindset when you're doing a training walk like this must be different than a more casual walk for example during a training walk you don't have a destination in mind you're not even trying to travel any significant distance especially early on you just want to be able to get your dog to take 10 steps in a row without pulling so be willing to cover the same stretch of ground over and over when you're training your dog in the beginning if you're trying to get somewhere specific or if you're trying to go a certain distance to exercise your dog you're much more likely to feel frustrated during your walk so let your training walks be 100 focused on leash training and remember to be tolerant when you're doing other types of walks like potty breaks or free walks which i talked about in a recent video this will really help you stay consistent and get the fastest results possible as you walk reward your dog big time when there's no tension on the leash and give them a big jackpot reward every time they offer their attention to you ideally you'll get good at reading your dog and you'll be able to detect when pulling is about to occur so if you notice that your dog is picking up the pace or you're approaching something really exciting this is your cue to slow down or change directions proactively and again i want to be very clear about that distinction between a training walk and say a socialization experience so for example when inertia was a puppy i would take her down to the french quarter here in new orleans just to give her exposure and the priority in those sessions was just to show her things not to teach her to walk nicely on a leash while in public we have to work up to those things especially with young dogs and so it's always important to be mindful of what is surrounding you and your dog when you're asking them to listen to you if it's a brand new place with new smells sights and sounds then you have to be very tolerant of that with an inexperienced dog and just let them check things out and remember by new environments i'm not necessarily talking about a place miles from home just another 20 feet down the street may have all sorts of new things that get your dog's attention so be understanding every time you take your dog to a new place even if you think it's not really that new when you do encounter a genuine distraction in the real world like another dog or a squirrel look at this as a golden training opportunity rather than force the issue and get very close to those things that you know your dog is likely to be heavily distracted by create a little bit of distance when you think that you've created enough distance you can test your dog for compliance by asking them to do something that they're usually really good at like sit for example and when you find that spot and your dog does sit that might be your working distance from the distraction for some dogs that working distance might be a half a mile away and that's okay if your dog is too distracted to give you their attention try being a little bit more interesting this can work sometimes with some dogs or even putting a treat at their nose to let them know that you have something good another thing you can do is to walk backwards to encourage your dog to follow you that's a bit more natural for some dogs now there's no doubt that training polite leash walking to a lot of dogs is definitely easier said than done it's unrealistic to resolve this overnight but let your focus be on good leash skills trending better and better in the meantime as you're working on this you might wonder how consistent you need to be in many areas of training it's very reasonable to be 90 plus percent consistent with your training for example if you're training leave it you can with 90 likelihood cover up the treat before your dog gets to it right but we must build in exceptions for lease training for example let's say you've got a five month old dog who doesn't have the best leash walking skills you must be tolerant of natural behavior to a point dogs walk more quickly than we do they're curious and this idea of walking slowly while attached with a leash is very foreign to them so in cases where you really have to get somewhere if you're walking your dog and you've got to take them to the vet for example you'll just have to be tolerant of the leash pulling for now but just be sure to set aside lots of time of leash walking practice when you're able to focus exclusively on your dog keep the big picture in mind especially during your dog's first couple of years if your dog was unruly on leash ninety percent of the time when you first started and now they're only terrible on leash fifty percent of the time then remind yourself you're still headed in the right direction check out pupbox2 you'll get 50 off of your first pop box when you enter discount code zach i'll have a direct link and discount code in the description below subscribe to our channel and follow us on instagram too get both of my books they're great companions to these videos all of the links will be below and we'll see you next time you

Channel: Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution

Views: 673,919

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Id: ItiRNkYT0oY

Length: 12min 39sec (759 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 18 2020