One of the greatest joys of dog ownership is sharing a peaceful walk together. However, that tranquility can quickly disappear when your dog transforms into a miniature sled dog, pulling you along as if their life depends on reaching that fascinating scent ahead. If your walks feel less like a leisurely stroll and more like an intense tug-of-war, it’s time to teach your canine companion the art of loose leash walking.
Teaching your dog not to pull on the leash is often one of the most challenging behaviors for them to learn, largely because they aren’t born with an innate understanding of polite leash manners. It’s a common struggle for many dog owners, and the frustration of being constantly pulled can make what should be an enjoyable experience feel incredibly unpleasant. This guide aims to provide you with a comprehensive, positive reinforcement-based approach to transform your pulling pup into a pleasant walking partner. We firmly believe that with patience and the right techniques, every dog can learn to walk nicely by your side, even if they’re a puppy that pulls on the leash. We advocate for positive training methods only, eschewing aversive tools such as choke chains or shock collars. If it’s not suitable for a child, it’s not suitable for your dog.
It’s important to correct a common misconception: your dog isn’t pulling to show dominance or control. This notion is completely false. Pulling simply indicates that your dog hasn’t been taught polite boundaries and is currently more captivated by the environment than by you. This is a perfectly normal instinct! Our role as owners is to guide them and establish clear expectations for walks. Misunderstandings about pulling often lead owners to become impatient and punish their dogs for a behavior that stems from a lack of proper guidance, not malicious intent. This article is designed to be thorough, ensuring you have all the information needed to succeed without resorting to outdated or harmful training practices.
Why Do Dogs Pull on Leash?
Despite popular belief, your dog pulling on the leash has nothing to do with dominance, control, or them being “naughty.” The actual reasons are far more straightforward:
1. Insufficient Exercise
Many dogs don’t receive enough exercise for their breed, resulting in a surplus of pent-up energy. For numerous dogs, their daily 30-minute walk is their primary opportunity for physical activity, which is simply not enough. It’s unreasonable to expect your dog to walk calmly beside you if they’re bursting with unspent energy. To increase your chances of success, ensure your dog is adequately tired before starting loose leash training. This could involve off-leash running, playing fetch with a ball or frisbee, or a visit to a dog park. If you lack the time, consider hiring a dog walker or enrolling them in doggy daycare. Providing sufficient exercise is a core responsibility of dog ownership; research your dog’s breed and ensure you’re meeting their specific needs before expecting certain behaviors from them.
2. Humans Are Slow
Most dogs naturally walk at a faster pace than their human companions. Imagine walking a turtle – eventually, you’d likely grow impatient and want to move faster, right? To a dog, we often resemble that turtle. Acknowledge that slowing down their natural pace is difficult and requires significant effort and an unnatural adjustment for them. Can they learn? Absolutely.
3. The Outside World Smells Incredible
Consider this truth: If you’re with a friend and your phone buzzes, would you be tempted to glance at it, even knowing it’s impolite? Or, how hard would it be to concentrate on work if a captivating TV show was playing nearby? For dogs, the sights and, especially, the smells of the outdoors are equally, if not more, distracting during the “job” of walking politely. Dogs possess an astonishing sense of smell, with approximately 50 times more scent receptors and 40 times more brain space dedicated to processing smells than humans. We can’t fully grasp it, but dogs can detect scents diluted to 1-2 parts per trillion. What appears to you as a simple patch of grass is, to a dog, a blissful sensory experience.
Dog smelling intently on a patch of grass during a walk
This intense enjoyment of scent also means that sniffing can act as a powerful reward. If your dog has been pulling you towards interesting smells for months or years, understand that this pulling behavior has been reinforced by the reward of sniffing. Changing this ingrained behavior will require time and the introduction of new, more desirable rewards.
Understanding How Dogs Learn
To successfully teach your dog, it helps to understand the basic principles of canine learning. In simple terms, there are two primary approaches to training a dog:
- Reward desired behaviors: This involves giving your dog a treat or praise when they perform an action you want them to repeat, such as walking nicely or making eye contact with you.
- Punish undesired behaviors: This might involve using a prong collar or other aversive tools when a dog pulls.
As positive trainers, we believe it’s our responsibility to clearly teach our dogs what we do want from them, rather than focusing on punishing them until they guess correctly. Imagine if your parents or boss expected you to learn that way – how stressful would that be? Positive training emphasizes what to do, while punishment-based methods only teach what not to do.
To teach your dog not to pull, you must start in an environment where they can succeed. This is crucial because there need to be opportunities for you to reward them! For many dogs, this means beginning loose leash training inside your home, where distractions are minimal.
The environment significantly impacts your dog’s ability to learn. Consider this analogy: Do you know your ABCs? If asked to recite them mentally, you likely could. This is akin to asking your dog to heel indoors. Now, if asked to recite them to a spouse or child, it might be a little awkward, but still doable. This is like asking your dog to heel in your backyard – comfortable, but with slightly more distractions. Finally, imagine being on a stage in front of 10,000 people and asked to sing your ABCs into a microphone. You’d likely be too overwhelmed to speak. This mirrors asking your dog to walk politely in a highly distracting environment.
How stressed would you feel if threatened with punishment for not saying your ABCs perfectly in that scenario? That’s the equivalent of punishing your dog for not being able to “perform” in a situation they haven’t been given time to adapt to. It’s unfair and an ineffective training method. Never punish your dog for an emotional response or for being overwhelmed in a more challenging setting. Effective positive reinforcement requires starting in an environment where your dog can be successful, allowing for frequent praise and rewards to establish your expectations. You know how to say your ABCs, but the context changes your success rate. Dogs are no different. Build up the difficulty gradually, giving your dog ample opportunity to solidify their skills. They can learn to walk nicely in highly distracting environments, but this takes time and consistent effort.
Essential Skills to Master Before Loose Leash Training
Before diving into loose leash training, it’s vital to teach your dog a few foundational skills. Skipping these will make the process much harder and more frustrating for both of you. These skills will help your dog develop impulse control and learn that focusing on you leads to positive outcomes. When you eventually move to more distracting environments, these prerequisites will be invaluable for maintaining your dog’s focus (a focused dog is far less likely to pull!). Master these skills to save yourself frustration and sore arms.
I recommend practicing these skills for at least several days before beginning any formal loose leash walking training. Get your dog solid on them!
A dog looking attentively at its owner, demonstrating focus
Sit
“Sit” is a fundamental obedience command that every dog should know. It’s incredibly useful for loose leash walking as a transitional command between “heel” and “okay,” or as a brief “time-out” cue in distracting situations, allowing your dog to gather themselves and refocus. Learning how to get your dog to sit is the very first step in many training journeys.
Focus
Every dog should learn the “focus” command. Teaching your dog to check in with you regularly is a critical building block for more advanced obedience skills and strengthens your overall bond. Focus teaches your dog that wonderful things happen when they look at you, and eye contact is crucial for clear communication. In distracting environments, a well-trained “focus” command can help calm your dog and redirect their attention back to you, preventing pulling before it even starts.
Leave It
“Leave it” is an essential life skill. It’s incredibly valuable during distraction training like loose leash walking, but it can also literally save your dog’s life. Puppies and dogs are notorious for trying to snatch random objects off the ground. A solid “leave it” command can prevent your dog from ingesting something dangerous. You want to be able to communicate to your dog to ignore something without needing to physically intervene. “Leave it” is essentially a promise to your dog: if they don’t grab or engage with the tempting item, you’ll offer them something even better in return.
Heeling vs. Loose Leash Walking: What’s the Difference?
The term “loose leash walking” can be interpreted differently by various trainers. In my view, there are two distinct ways I walk a dog: a perfect heel or a loose leash walk. I advocate for using both methods!
Heeling
To me, heeling means the dog walks precisely at your side, without falling behind or advancing past your knee. I personally prefer dogs walking on my left side, and that’s what I teach. The expectations and boundaries for heeling are much stricter than for loose leash walking. I want the dog exactly at my left side, matching my pace. During a heel, I do not permit sniff breaks or greetings with other dogs.
If that sounds incredibly strict, you’re right – it is. However, teaching your dog to heel is an excellent way to establish clear boundaries and expectations during the learning process. It has very explicit rules, which dogs often grasp quickly. While teaching your dog not to pull on the leash, I suggest incorporating “heel” approximately 50% of the time. This communicates clear rules and boundaries. Once a dog is fully trained, I’d recommend using a strict heel about 10% of the time or less. It’s a valuable skill for navigating busy sidewalks or other highly distracting environments where a dog needs to be under tight control. It’s too restrictive for constant use, but a crucial skill to learn and maintain. Training a dog to maintain a heel position is also a building block for more complex tasks like therapy dog work.
However, I also firmly believe that walks should be enjoyable for the dog! As your dog becomes more proficient, you should increase the amount of time they spend in a loose leash walk rather than a perfect heel. Loose leash walking provides them the freedom to sniff, explore, and simply be a dog! Remember: the walk should be as much for your dog’s enrichment as it is for yours.
Loose Leash Walking
Once a dog has mastered heeling, I recommend transitioning to loose leash walking for the majority of your time outside. I suggest using a 6-foot leash for walks. This length allows your dog sufficient freedom and the ability to sniff and explore naturally. Let them be a dog! However, I strongly advise against retractable leashes.
So, what exactly is loose leash walking? I define it as my dog’s ability to move wherever they want within the boundaries of a 6-foot leash, without any pressure or pulling on the leash. If I cannot easily hold the leash with one finger, it’s not a loose leash walk. There should be absolutely no leash tension! If your dog wants to sniff during a loose leash walk and does so politely (without pulling), I stop and allow them. Sniffing is a healthy and normal activity for dogs. However, if a sniff lasts too long and I wish to continue walking, I expect the dog to rejoin me with just a verbal cue. Neither you nor your dog should be pulling each other.
Positive Reinforcement Training for Loose Leash Walking
Training your dog to heel and loose leash walk using positive reinforcement requires patience, but the rewards are immense. Imagine being able to enjoy a relaxing walk, lost in your thoughts, without constantly managing a pulling leash. This is an achievable goal for you and your dog. Every dog has the capacity to walk nicely on a leash; they simply need time and consistent guidance to learn. Your aim is to build a positive association: wonderful things happen to your dog when they are close to you and paying attention during walks. We use treats to condition this behavior. Eventually, treats can be phased out (or significantly reduced), and your dog will continue to walk politely out of habit and positive association.
A person giving a treat to a dog with a leash, demonstrating positive reinforcement
Important Considerations for Teaching Loose Leash Walking:
- Progress Distraction Slowly: We will gradually increase the level of distraction. It may take several weeks before you can take your dog on a “real walk” rather than a dedicated training walk. During this initial period, supplement their exercise with fetch, dog park visits, or backyard playtime. Ensure your dog is sufficiently exercised; otherwise, expecting them to walk nicely is unfair.
- No Pulling is Rewarded: It is crucial that from the day you begin training, pulling never results in a reward for your dog. If they pull you to sniff something, that scent is a reward for the pulling. You must commit to completely stopping pulling, rather than sporadically accepting it. If you give in when your dog pulls hard enough, you only teach them to pull harder next time. From day one of training onward, pulling can never achieve what your dog wants. Dogs learn best with consistent training. Reinforce that good things happen when they walk politely, not when they pull.
- Start in a Successful Environment: It’s critical to begin in an environment where your dog can be successful. You want ample opportunities to reward them for doing things correctly. I always suggest starting the first session inside your house, where distractions are minimal.
- Reward Lavishly: You are asking your dog to learn a difficult skill, so reward their efforts generously! If you feel like a “Pez dispenser” with treats while teaching loose leash walking, you’re likely doing it right! Make sure you have a good supply of small, high-value treats in your treat bag for every session (I typically pre-break them into tiny pieces). Use treats to clearly communicate when your dog is doing a great job! You can avoid overfeeding by slightly decreasing the amount of food given at meals during intensive training periods. Treats will eventually be phased out, but ensure this isn’t done too quickly.
Teaching Your Dog to Heel
Get Yourself Ready: Start with your dog on a leash, sitting at your left side. Hold a small supply of treats in your left hand and the leash in your right hand. Remember to give treats with your left hand to prevent your dog from learning to cut in front of you for a reward. The leash should always remain loose! Your dog will be learning to pace themselves, rather than you holding them in place.
Choose a Phrase for Movement: Decide on a consistent phrase you will use to ask your dog to start moving. I personally use “Let’s go!”, but choose whatever suits you.
Get Your Dog’s Attention: Ask your dog to focus on you, and reward them with a treat when they do.
Begin: Say your chosen phrase (“Let’s go!”) and use the treat in your left hand as a lure, holding it in front of your dog’s nose to keep them right at your side. Take 3 steps with them in this position, then reward with a treat. Once your dog seems to understand this game, start saying “Heel” as you begin walking.
Practice: Spend time practicing this. Work up to being able to take 10 steps in a perfect heel. Once your dog consistently performs 10 steps correctly a few times in a row, they are likely ready to move outside to the yard.
Increase Distraction (Move Outside): Remember, you want your dog to be successful! Since you’ve moved outside, go back to luring for 3 steps, then offering a treat. As this becomes easy for your dog, slowly increase to 10 steps again.
Phase Out the Lure: Once your dog has mastered 10 steps outdoors, it’s time to stop luring them with treats directly in front of their nose! Reward your dog for sitting next to you, then say “Let’s go!” and “Heel.” Gradually try to increase the number of steps you can take with your dog in a perfect heel position. If you sense your dog losing focus, try talking to them to keep their attention. Reward your dog every time they make eye contact with you. Aim to keep your dog in a heel for a full minute between treats.
Continued Practice! If your dog is accustomed to pulling, you’ll likely need to spend several days practicing heeling in your yard. They are learning a brand new skill. Remember to progress slowly! Behavior change is hard and takes time. I suggest keeping training sessions short (around 20 minutes, twice a day) to prevent either you or your dog from becoming overwhelmed or frustrated.
If your dog tries to sniff or pulls sideways while heeling, say “Leave it” and apply the slightest amount of leash pressure (as practiced in leash pressure training) to guide them back to your side. Reward them every time they return to your side. Remember, pulling no longer gets your dog what they want. If they try to pull in front of you, say “Let’s go” and immediately turn to walk in the opposite direction. Reward them when they follow you! This teaches your dog that they need to stay next to you and pay attention. Teach your dog that you might change direction at any second, and wonderful things happen when they follow.
I don’t recommend adding in loose leash walking until your dog has consistently mastered one full minute of heeling in your yard. Learning two skills simultaneously requires more effort and mental capacity, so focus on heeling first. Take sniff and play breaks between heeling sessions to keep the training fun and engaging.
Once your dog can easily heel for a minute in your yard, gradually increase the distraction levels of your walking environment. Start with a quiet street or path without other dogs (the new smells will be distracting enough). Remember: when you increase the level of distraction, take a step back in other areas of difficulty. I usually suggest reverting to rewarding your dog for 10 steps with each new walking environment. Your dog will likely learn quicker and quicker in each new setting, so adjust the pace to their individual needs. Once your dog can heel for a minute, you’re ready to integrate loose leash walking instead of just stationary sniff/play breaks.
Introducing Loose Leash Walking
Once your dog has learned the basic rules of heeling, it’s time to add loose leash walking! As a reminder, I define loose leash walking as the dog being allowed to go anywhere within the boundaries of their leash without any tension. If I can’t easily hold the leash with one finger, it’s not loose leash walking. There should be no leash tension whatsoever! If your dog wants to sniff during a loose leash walk, stop and let them! While I don’t allow pulling, loose leash walking provides your dog the freedom to truly be a dog. Walks should be enjoyable for them too.
How to Teach Your Dog to Loose Leash Walk:
Have your dog sit at your left side. Again, say “Let’s go” to initiate movement, then immediately follow it with “Okay!” and point in front of you. Your dog might hesitate slightly, as they’re used to heeling. Keep walking and allow your dog to slowly move away from you. If they stop to sniff something, let them! If the sniffing lasts too long, say their name followed by either “Let’s go” or “Leave it,” and reward them with a treat when they start walking again.
It’s valuable to practice transitioning in and out of heeling and loose leash walking. While your dog is learning, make it easier by having them sit between transitions. “Let’s go” always signals that you want movement, then “Heel” or “Okay” communicates the boundaries of where they should walk. Consistency is incredibly important for dogs, so ensure you use your verbal cues correctly every time.
Your dog will be enticed by more smells and greater freedom during loose leash walking, so keep in mind that this can be a more difficult skill for them to master.
A Few Tips for Success:
- Maintain a No-Pulling Policy: You must still enforce a no-pulling policy. Be careful not to accidentally reinforce pulling by letting your dog drag you to an interesting smell. Dogs earn their freedom on walks by being polite on the leash. If you’re wondering how to get a dog to stop biting the leash out of frustration, this consistent no-pulling rule helps establish calm behavior.
- Encourage Check-Ins: You want your dog to want to check in with you and maintain awareness of your position. You should notice them looking up at you more after practicing “focus” and heeling. Keep encouraging this! Give your dog a treat every time they look up at you without being prompted.
- Observe Body Language: Watch your dog’s body language carefully while loose leash walking. Most dogs have a “tell” before they start to pull. You can often see their eyes lock onto something or their ears point downwards. If you notice these signs, say “Let’s go!” and turn in the opposite direction before they pull you. Reward your dog for following you in the new direction! The best time to correct pulling is before it even happens.
- Manage Unexpected Distractions: If a distraction unexpectedly arises during training, try to create distance between it and your dog. This might mean crossing the road if you see another dog, or turning to walk in the opposite direction. If your dog seems very distracted, get them to sit and practice “focus” work (with a treat for every successful focus). Sometimes your dog just needs a brief mental break! Understanding how to break a dog from jumping up also contributes to managing overall excitement and preventing leash pulling.
- Dealing with Irresistible Smells: If you encounter a spot that smells so amazing your dog can’t help but pull towards it, tell them to “Leave it” and use a treat to encourage them to switch directions. Then, turn and try to pass it again! If they still can’t help but pull a second time, instead put them in a “Heel” position and use a treat to lure them past. It’s okay to make mistakes, but never reward pulling by giving in.
- Gradual Progression: Slowly increase the duration and distraction levels of where your dog is loose leash walking. Remember – build up the skill gradually! You want to provide ample opportunities to reward your dog for making the right choices.
Step-by-step guide illustration for teaching a dog loose leash walking
Both You and Your Dog Deserve Enjoyable Walks
It can take time and consistent effort to undo the ingrained behavior of pulling on the leash, but the payoff is immense. Just imagine: in as little as a month, you could be confidently taking your dog for a walk with no pulling at all! How wonderful would that be?
Happy training!
