Does your dog try to pull on their leash when you’re walking them? It’s quite common, so if they do, you’re not alone.
Of course, this might be scant consolation when you’re just trying to enjoy a relaxing stroll with your pup. You may be wondering what you can do to stop or reduce pulling – if you are, you’re in the right place. And remember, some of the best dog treats can be a real help!
Amelia Steele, a professional dog trainer and behavioral consultant who goes by Amelia the Dog Trainer on Instagram, has offered three simple games that can help stop your dog from pulling. Let’s check them out.
1. The up-and-down game: “This is super simple,” explains Steele. “All we’re going to do is hold some treats, wait for our dog to look up into our eyes, and then reward them to the floor.
2. Follow me: For this game, move in lots of different directions with your dog while they’re on leash, and reward them for following you.
Steele adds, “We always want to do this facing our dog to start with because it really helps to build that engagement and teach them to stick with us.”
3. Running back and forth: “All we’re going to do is run or jog backward and forward and drop a treat down for our dog,” says Steele. “This is going to teach them to orient to us and it’s really going to help boost that engagement and teach them that great things come when they stick with us.”
It’s only natural that dogs pull on their leash. For many dogs, walks are the highlight of their day, and you can see why they might want us to walk faster so they get to explore as much as they can. And, by pulling, dogs often learn that it gets them to move forward. Even if we take just one step with them, it reinforces that pulling works.
If you want to know how to stop a dog pulling on a leash, remember that it can take time and patience – it’s got to be worth your dog’s while for them to wait and walk nicely, so we need to teach them that it is. That’s where games like the three Steele recommends come in. If your pup knows that they’ll be rewarded for walking nicely and not pulling – whether with treats or praise – they’ve got an incentive for doing so.
If you’re really struggling with leash pulling, you might find this article useful: My dog’s leash pulling made walks miserable until I helped her reactivity, here’s how.
