Loose Leash Training



image from http://www.encyclopedia.com/video/fuuYTY0DTOk-dog-training-how-to-loose.aspx

Last night the new training we were given for the week was "Loose Leash Training". This involves walking with a large quantity of tiny treats, your hand down so that your puppy is nibbling at your fingers while walking beside you. If you can keep his attention on the reward, he doesn't bound about. Eventually, you can use fewer and fewer incentives until just walking with you calmly is incentive enough.

I tried it today on our morning walk. Zeus was fairly receptive to this technique (he is very food motivated). 80% of the walk went very well, though did make the tips of my fingers sore (those baby teeth are sharp). That last 20% (as it was mostly at the end) was not so successful, but for 8/10ths of a mile the boy was very well behaved and pulled very infrequently.

I am encouraged!

Walkies!

Zeus is finally learning the subtle secrets of "the walk" -- that is, he gets a lot farther if he isn't spinning, pulling, darting off, turning around, crossing in front of me, lagging behind me, and in general not acting like a wild animal. The secret? Clicker and a pocket full of tiny treats. Oh, the difference a treat makes!

He is still a crazy dog going in and out of the house. Yesterday he half-pulled me down the stairs, much to the detriment of my knee, but we are beginning to work on that. We've had two long walks now that went fairly well, so he's catching on. In a month or so, I think he will be a pleasure to walk. We have to try it in different areas -- we have one local neighborhood that we are using which provides about a mile of walking (about all I can currently stand, and just about enough for the beast). Dogs being dogs, however, it takes them a while to connect the dots that rules for walking in one place are rules for walking in ALL places.

Maybe I've been doing the walk wrong!

image from http://www.training-puppies.net/

Over the last couple weeks I've been walking Zeus, he's become more and more resistant to "the walk", especially since the snow when we can't give him easy roaming. We've also had to be very cautious on our walks not to let him sniff or nose areas other dogs have used, especially pooped, because his immune system is not yet up to snuff. This has led me to make our walks more "marches" than "fun explorations" together, and Zeus is beginning to resist having any tension on his leash out of habit. (he may want to go out and pee, but if I pull on the leash he will automatically plant his paws and resist)

So, what to do? I want walks to be fun and enjoyable for both of us while still enforcing that I am the pack leader. Today I decided to bring a crumbled dog treat with me and every time Zeus dug in his heels, I turned his attention to doing tricks (sit, down, up, etc.) and rewarded him with a treat for doing them. This distracted him from "resisting the walk" and we'd get another 50-100 feet before he remembered "no, I don't WANT to go where you want to go!" We repeated this pattern, going way past where we normally got without any need to drag him.

I did end up dragging him the last 50 feet or so because the end of the road had two houses with barking dogs that kept Zeus from focusing... but beyond that, the whole walk went without a "drag". YAY!