Help, my dog ​pulls on the leash!

It’s pretty much the most commonly used phrase in the emails I receive at the dog school: how do I stop pulling on the leash?
Does your dog also pull on the leash? What have you already tried to solve it?

Help, my dog ​pulls on the leash!

I often hear people (with larger dogs in particular) sigh: their dog pulls so terribly hard on the leash. As a result, walking is actually no longer fun at all. In order to do something about it, we first have to understand why a dog actually does that. Why does the dog pull on the leash?

For starters, the average dog walks a lot faster than us humans. Constantly maintaining our ‘slow’ pace demands quite a bit from a dog. They prefer to run free and sniff wherever they want. But, that is not possible always and everywhere. So we will have to work together to reduce pulling.

Furthermore, many dogs have had great success pulling towards other dogs in order to get to know them, which only makes the pulling worse in the future.

What can you do to solve the pulling on the leash?

First things first, and this isn’t going to be the most popular advice, but trust me, it helps: don’t introduce your dog to other dogs while on a leash. This can be hard! But if you only allow interactions while off leash, it will really help you stop pulling on the leash in the long run. An additional advantage of this is that when dogs are allowed to run free during an introduction, everyone can simply leave whenever he or she wants (without being hindered by the length of the leash), and there is therefore much less chance of a negative learning experience.

Clicker training

Furthermore: teach your dog that it is much more beneficial for him to walk next to you with a slack leash than to pull on the leash. You do this by rewarding the desired behavior (walking with the slack line). I like to use a clicker for this myself. Especially in the beginning, when I have just started teaching a puppy to walk together, with every step I take and the puppy walks along with a slack leash, I click, grab treat, give treat. Walk one more step with a slack leash: click, grab treat, give treat.

If this goes well, you can click every other step, grab treat, give treat. This way you walk a little further before the click occurs. If the dog does pull, I stand still. Does he stand still in front of me with a tense line, or does he just sit there with that tense line? Then I gently take him in the other direction. As soon as he walks nicely next to me again, we turn around and walk in the right direction again. Then I start clicking and feeding again as soon as the dog walks with a slack leash again.

If you continue to do this consistently, your dog will soon understand what is expected of him, and because you reward that desired behavior, he will continue to perform it. Herja I taught to walk together in exactly this way, from an early age. See also the video below.

Good luck, and if you have any questions, let me know! I’m happy to help.