Diablo Dog offers off-leash dog walks for our clients in Contra Costa County (In and around Concord, Martinez, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda), California. But in most situations away from legally designated trails, it's not usually feasible to have your dog off-leash. So it's important to make sure you can control your dog on-leash, no matter how big and strong they are.
When I asked our trainer Anthony what training issue new clients most often have trouble with, he answered "pulling on leash," without hesitation. Anthony Travaglini is a dog trainer certified by the CCPDT (Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers) Pulling is one major issue. Leash reactivity is another. I'm an animal training myself, and my wife and I adopted a Pyrenees/cattledog named Blue Roo this year, and she has developed some leash reactivity. Anthony has been working with her to correct that issue. So Men's Warehouse style, I'm not only the owner of the company, I'm also a client. I'm writing this blog with Anthony next to me dictating most of the smart parts.
Anthony says, “as we know, dogs who have a problem with pulling on their leash are far more likely to have a problem being reactive on leash.”
In this blog we will give you some tips on how to help curb pulling on leash, but if your dog is having major reactivity issues that are posing a danger to yourself, other people and other dogs, then please let us know and we can set up a free in-home training consultation so we can give you some help in person. If you’re located outside of our service area we will include a resource at the end of this article that may help point you in the right direction.
Before we begin thinking about how we’re going to correct the pulling issues, we should discuss what your goal is for your dog walks.
There are two types of walks: (Foraging and Following)
1. "Foraging" is the type of walk we’re most accustomed to, which is when we allow our dog to sniff and explore, and they actually have some autonomy on the walk. This type is totally fine, as long as they’re not pulling us around.
2. "Following" is a more focused experience, where they’re expected to follow, and have their attention mostly on us. This is most useful if you have a dog you want to bring into public spaces, as we need to have them be able to ignore other dogs and distractions.
This guide is more focused on helping you work on those "Foraging" Walks, as that’s what most people are asking for help with. The "Following" Walks may take more advanced training as they have a higher expectation for behavior. We can help with both types in person.
Before breaking down the steps, we should discuss equipment. Anthony points out that often "we’ll find “no pull harnesses” that are harnesses with just a back clip. Those are our worst enemy if you’re looking to clean up pulling issues."
Have you ever seen where they clip up sled dogs? They clip on the back and they’re designed deliberately to encourage dogs to pull you. That can be a lot of fun, but generally we aren’t looking for our neighborhood walks to be like that. Below are some sled dogs I had a chance to meet in Alaska! (clipped on their bakcs)
The correct types of harnesses can be useful, though. If we’re using a harness, we want to use one with a front chest clip. I’ve run Diablo Dog Walking for 11 years now, and I’m in total agreement with Anthony on this. And that’s why we sell Easy Walk Harnesses in our store. I will say that about 10% of dogs that pull will pull even if you’re using an Easy Walk Harness (that's my estimate). If your dog is too strong or not deterred from pulling even using the Easy Walk harness, you may want to start with a Gentle Leader. We do encourage some training to get your dog comfortable with that piece of equipment as well (or let us know if we can help).
There's a lot of cookie cutter type advice on the internet but Anthony wanted to really impart knowledge he’s acquired from lots of personal experience working with numerous dogs which will hopefully help your training process move along more smoothly.
Leading Up to Training
1. Before we even leave the house, you want to manage how your dog is acting. It’s beneficial to put the collar and leash on, and practice walking around the house and yard to make sure calm and the experience is a positive one at the start. The more time you spend with them on leash in the house the better. You can put the leash on and loop it around your belt loop or buy a hand free leash and just have them follow you around the house on leash. It not only helps set them up to be in the follow position, but it ensures that the dog isn’t too exuberant when you pull out the leash, as they think you’re immediately going on a walk.
2. You set the tone for the walk with the energy you carry as you leave the house. So the next step is working on having your dog sit before you leave the house, and waiting for you to let them go through the threshold of the door. A lot of these steps require some initial training, so if you struggle at getting past any of them, it wouldn’t hurt to look for a professional dog trainer to help you. If you’re outside our area, we can tell you where to look later in this article.
3. At this point you need to take your dog’s perspective of a walk, which doesn’t necessarily involve “going anywhere” specific. Instead of having a destination in mind, you really should have the goal of walking only when the dog isn’t pulling. So if you don’t end up leaving your block, it can still be a successful walk. It can help to set a time limit, so it becomes less about hitting the spots you’d like to, and more about having a walk where your dog isn’t dragging you around. 30 minutes is a good start.
There are two techniques to use to correct pulling as outlined in the Canine Good Citizen guide by Mary R Burch, Phd.
Training Techniques
Technique 1:
1. Stand still. Don’t move forward with the dog.
2. Wait. The dog will pull, but eventually he’ll stop.
3. When he stops pulling, you can praise him and move forward. Uh-oh. He is so excited that you’re moving forward, he’s pulling again. Now what?
4. Repeat the procedure. It won’t take long until he figures out that you aren’t going anywhere as long as he pulls.
Technique 2
1. When your dog begins to go in his own direction, briskly turn and go in the opposite direction. He’ll have to come along and will likely hurry to keep up with you.
2. When the dog begins to follow along in the direction in which you are now moving, praise him and, during the beginning stages of training, give him a treat for coming with you. Your dog will soon learn to watch you.
Anthony and Roo working out and about on walking without pulling.
There are three other things we’d like you to think about.
While using these techniques, you should use treats, a ball, or whatever reward will be most exciting for your dog.
You don’t want to only reward them for walking by your side. You want to reward any interaction they have with you, which can include checking in and focusing on you or just looking at your face. We want to make ourselves positive and exciting for them.
Anthony's parting thought: do your best to make it fun and rewarding for yourself too. If you find yourself getting frustrated, you should just cut the walk short, head home, and try again another day. Or work around your house or in the yard some more. It’s not a failure to go back a step. If you’re not having fun and you’re just yelling at your dog, they’re not going to have fun, and they won’t learn what you’re trying to teach them.
Anthony demonstrating loose-leash walking with Roo for Drop-in Class
If you are struggling on fixing these issues on your own even with this handy-dandy guide, we do strongly encourage getting some help from a professional dog trainer. Anthony is a CCPDT certified dog trainer and we do have availability. Sign up on our site here and book a free in-home consultation. We can set up one on one training sessions with just our trainer and your dog, private sessions with your dog and your family, drop in training classes with a small group of "students", and our day-long Day Academies which we have Monday-Wednesday and involve exercise, socialization, training, pick ups an drop offs. Or we can do any combination of those.
If you’re located outside our service area, the CCPDT website has a resource for searching for certified dog trainers located around you.
This article was written and assembled by me, Matt Heikkila, and most of the info was dictated to me by our CCPDT certified dog trainer Anthony Travaglini, who is responsible for designing our dog training program here at Diablo Dog.
I'm a graduate of the Exotic Animal Training and Management program at Moorpark College, otherwise known as America's Teaching Zoo, or "The Teaching Zoo." Following my time there I worked as a professional tiger trainer for four years. In 2013 I opened Diablo Dog, which today services most of central Contra Costa County with dog walking, dog grooming, and dog training services, and sells premium pet foods and supplies.
Feel free to comment on this article if you have additional tips or tricks or questions, or contact us if you'd like to learn more about our company and our services.
Matt Heikkila
Diablo Dog
(925) 215-0410
725 Alhambra Ave, Martinez, Ca 94553
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