Loose Leash Walking

Loose Leash Walking

By Benah Stiewing

In order to train a pleasant, enjoyable loose leash walk for you and your dog, we must first recognize that walking in a straight line at a steady pace may seem simple to us, but to your dog it’s an incredibly unnatural behavior. Leashes prevent dogs from doing what is natural to them: roaming, sniffing, and generally exploring the world! Though our goal is to have our dogs walk at a steady pace near our side, understanding the difficulty of what we’re asking can help inform our training going forward. 

In order to train a leash walking behavior, first we need to identify our criteria. Do you want your dog at your side, in front, or behind? Do you want a leash to be loose with a J shape, or is it okay for it to be taut? Where are you going to be walking your dog - a rural road where you might only see a few people, or a busy city street where other people and dogs are a constant? The more consistent we can be with our expectations, the more clarity we can provide our dogs and set them up for success. 

Next, let’s consider your walking equipment! We prefer a front-clip harness, especially if you’re new to or struggling with your leash walking journey. View our Recommended Gear Page to check out all our favorite walking equipment! When you select your leash, refer back to your pre-selected criteria. If you want your dog walking at your side and you live in an urban environment, a shorter leash (5-6 feet) is going to make the most sense. If you want your dog in front of you and live in a more rural environment, a long-line (10-30 feet) will make more sense. 

Now we are ready to begin walking! The first concept we want to teach is giving in to leash pressure. Dogs pull because usually, it works! If they pull you towards that good sniff, they will generally be successful. If they don’t pull towards that sniff, they won’t get to enjoy the activity and the otherwise boring walk will continue. Loose leash walking is all about teaching your dog that it is more reinforcing to remain close to you, so we start by letting our dog know that when the leash tightens, this is a cue to give in to the pressure from the leash rather than pulling against it.

Teaching Give to Leash Pressure:

• Step 1: With your dog on a leash, make some space between you (see video linked below for

visual example!) and add a light amount of tension in the leash. This level of tension should

be about pinky-finger strength, so not very much at all! Watch your dog carefully, and pay

attention to that feeling of leash pressure as you stand stationary. As soon as your dog

moves to release the pressure in any way, even if that isn't looking back at you directly, mark

with your clicker or verbal marker and offer your reward close to your knee.

• Step 2: Repeat! Again, apply a slight amount of tension, stand still, and watch for your dog

to move in a way that releases that tension. As soon as they do, mark and offer your reward

from your hand placed at your knee so that your dog has to come back towards you all the

way to retrieve it.

• Step 3: Move around a bit, find different places to rehearse this skill! Remember, for this

stage of the exercise, your dog doesn't need to look back at you all the way. They just need

to give in to the leash pressure and work to release the tension on the leash rather than

adding to it. When you are seeing your dog quickly turn back to you when they feel leash

pressure, you can start adding in a few steps backwards before you reward so that they are

following and engaging with you for longer each time they check in.

Watch a video on how to give in to leash pressure:

Start practicing this game indoors, in a low-distraction environment! As your dog is successful, start to add in distractions (like your friend or partner doing jumping jacks). Eventually, take the game outside! Can your dog give in to leash pressure in the backyard, on your front porch, on the sidewalk in front of your house? On walks, start to generalize the behavior. When your dog pulls you towards a certain area, stop moving and wait for them to redirect their attention back to you. When they do, mark, and reward by allowing them to continue moving. On walks, we can use movement as reinforcement! It’s a lot more fun to walk than stand still and do nothing, so use that to your advantage. 

Teaching your dog to meet your expectations for loose leash walking is no easy task - it’s a complex behavior that requires consistency and effort. If you’re struggling, consider our Loose Leash Walking virtual course! This course, developed and taught by certified dog trainers, is a comprehensive dive into teaching your dog leash skills, and transitioning those skills into the world. Not ready to enroll? Check out our Loose Leash Walking Playlist on YouTube!

If you want additional support for you and your dog, we offer in-person Group Classes and Private Lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado and Chatham, New York, and virtual coaching right in the comfort of your home. As you work through your dog’s leash walking, it’s vital to remember that your dog is simply being a dog and working to access what is reinforcing - the more we can understand this and pay our dogs well for desired behavior, the better we may serve our dogs.

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Reactivity on Walks

Supporting Your Leash-Reactive Dog

By Benah Stiewing

A dog who barks, lunges, and experiences elevated stress when another dog or person appears during a walk is a difficult habit for you and your dog to experience. The word “reactive” is a label we use to describe a certain set of behaviors that dogs exhibit

under specific conditions, such as exposure to a “trigger” like another dog or person. Since we all might have slightly different visions of what a “reactive” dog looks like, below are some of the behaviors that might put your dog into this category. Having a dog who displays any of the below behaviors is stressful at best and extremely emotionally draining at worst for both you and your dog. 

• Fixation on the trigger (orienting towards, unable to turn away)

• Pulling toward the trigger 

• Hard staring (no blinking, jaw stiff, often includes a freeze as well)

• Barking

• Lunging

• Snapping / Biting

Though your dog’s reactivity may be frustrating and invoke anger from you or folks on the receiving end of their reactive behavior, it’s important to understand that your dog is having a bad time, not being bad. All behavior is affected by what comes before it (antecedents) and what comes after it (consequences). Understanding this sequence can help us understand why your dog does what they do, and how we may successfully modify undesirable behavior, like leash reactivity.

• Antecedent: whatever happens BEFORE the behavior. (e.g. trigger entering the

  environment, a cue that you give, etc.)

• Behavior: whatever observable actions the dog takes following an antecedent (e.g.

  whine, bark, lunge, respond to your cue, etc.)

• Consequence: whatever happens AFTER the behavior. (e.g. the trigger leaving the

  environment, the trigger getting closer, the dog being pulled from the environment, you

  delivering a tasty treat, etc.)

• We can visualize the whole sequence like this: Antecedent → Behavior → Consequence

To understand how to modify behavior and change the reactivity we see in our dogs, it is helpful

to think about what consequence the dog might get out of the behavior they are currently

choosing. What function does the reactive behavior serve for the dog? If a dog’s behavior functions in a way where the consequence is advantageous to the dog (i.e. it is something the dog wants), the behavior is more likely to occur again in the future. For example, if your dog barks at another dog on a walk, and what your dog really wants is for that dog to go away, when the other dog walks away with its human, your dog will learn that the most effective way to achieve their goal is to bark at dogs that make them uncomfortable.

This is important to understand because a critical key to behavior modification is to prevent rehearsal of the undesirable behavior. The more the behavior is practiced (and reinforced), the stronger the behavior will become. To prevent undesirable behavior, we need to understand your dog’s threshold. Threshold is the term we use to describe the point at which a dog transitions from a comfortable state of mind to a more distressed mental state, in which we see outward behavioral symptoms of their discomfort (i.e. reactive behaviors). Before we are able to effectively modify a dog’s behavior, we need to recognize situations that cause them to become distressed and work to prevent them so we can keep our dogs comfortably just below that threshold level while we teach them new coping skills. 

Things that can bring a dog over threshold:

• A separate event that has caused the dog stress recently - i.e. a thunderstorm during the night before or a recent vet visit.

• A trigger becoming more intense and/or coming closer to you - i.e. dog walking towards

  you rather than away.

• The dog being tired / hungry / thirsty (like at the end of a walk)

• Encountering multiple triggers in a row / at the same time - this is called trigger stacking.

The goal threshold for training sessions with our reactive dogs fluctuates at the borderline between their comfort-zone (no reactions) & over-threshold (big reactions), and well within their comfort-zone. We want to give our dogs exposure that will help them learn, and then contrast that exposure with easy recoveries at a distance where they feel as comfortable (and non-reactive) as possible. Initial learning (such as foundation skills like focusing on you, responding to basic cues, etc.) is best done well below the comfort-zone threshold line. If you are trying to teach your dog new skills for the very first time at or above their level of comfort, this will be very difficult. Start by rehearsing good behaviors and skills in practice areas where your dog feels most comfortable, like your living room or your backyard.

Our goal through behavior modification is to create a different set of behavior patterns for our

reactive dogs that fit better into our human expectations of appropriate canine behavior. In order to help our dogs do this, we need to set them up for success with some environmental management. This means facilitating situations where our dogs can be successful and guiding them, through our training, to make better choices. Management comes into play to prevent our dogs from rehearsing the unwanted behaviors until the dog has a better behavior built up to replace the reactive behavior. Pushing your dog into uncomfortable situations just because they haven't reacted yet is not necessarily setting them up for success. They don’t need to cross their threshold to learn!

Management ideas:

• Cross the street or duck behind a car if a dog is approaching and you won’t have the space you need for your dog to be successful.

• Install visual barriers on your windows and play white noise so your dog can’t practice their reactivity in the home.

Behavior modification is the process by which we teach our reactive dogs a different set of

feelings and, most importantly, behaviors about situations they would typically default to reactive

behaviors. To help change your dog’s current association to the sight of other dogs, we provide VERY HIGH VALUE treats (think diced chicken, liverwurst, and hotdogs) when your dog is in the

presence of other dogs (or other triggers). Over time, and with proper desensitization, your dog will learn to associate the presence of other dogs with yummy things. Your mantra should be “good things happen for my dog when other dogs are around!” We would prefer if the presence of another dog was a happy, exciting event for your dog. Our goal is for your dog to see another dog and immediately look to you as if to say, “Yipee! I see another dog! That means I get chicken, right?!” No barking or lunging, just an excited, expectant look on your dog’s face.

Behavior modification is a complex task, and if you are struggling with leash reactivity we  recommend seeking the support of a certified trainer. This post barely skims the surface of all the components that could be part of a leash reactivity training plan! Consider starting with our Reactivity in Dogs Webinar that dives deeper into the complexities of this behavior, and how we may support our dogs in developing different behaviors around their triggers.

If you want additional support for you and your dog, we offer in-person Group Classes and Private Lessons for reactive dogs  in Fort Collins, Colorado and Chatham, New York, and virtual coaching right in the comfort of your home. As you work through your dog’s leash reactivity, it’s vital to remember that your dog isn’t giving you a hard time, they are having a hard time - the more we can understand this, the better we may serve our dogs.

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.