One of the most cherished aspects of dog ownership is enjoying serene walks together. However, this joy can quickly diminish if your dog consistently pulls, transforming a peaceful stroll into a strenuous tug-of-war. If you dream of walks that don’t resemble an unpleasant version of “Red Light/Green Light,” then it’s time to teach your canine companion loose leash walking skills!
Teaching your dog not to pull on the leash is one of the more challenging behaviors for them to master, as they aren’t naturally born with an understanding of polite leash manners. Despite its difficulty, loose leash walking is a highly sought-after skill that countless dog owners struggle with. The frustration of being pulled down the street is undeniably significant.
Walking your dog should be a relaxing and enjoyable experience, but this becomes impossible when you’re constantly bracing against their pull. With patience and the right positive reinforcement techniques, every dog can learn to be a delightful walking partner. This guide will help you achieve this using only positive training methods. We strongly advocate against the use of choke chains, shock collars, or any other aversive tools, believing that if you wouldn’t use something on a toddler, it shouldn’t be used on your dog.
There’s a common misconception that a dog pulling on the leash is an attempt to exert dominance or control. This is entirely untrue. Pulling simply indicates that your dog hasn’t been taught polite boundaries and is currently more focused on the stimulating environment than on you. This is a normal canine behavior, and it is our responsibility as owners to teach them what we expect during walks. Unfortunately, these misunderstandings have led many owners to believe their dogs are “being bad” when they pull, resulting in impatience and even punishment during training. Punishments, ranging from mildly aversive to outright abuse, are ineffective and harmful. Be assured that you can absolutely 100% train your dog to walk nicely using positive training methods.
This article is intentionally comprehensive. Many articles offering “5 steps to stop pulling” fall short of providing actionable, in-depth guidance for real dog owners. This guide aims to be a complete resource for everything you need to know about teaching your dog not to pull on the leash, helping you strengthen your bond through pleasant walks. We strongly recommend reading the entire article without skipping sections, as each part builds upon the last to help you resolve your dog’s pulling habits.
Understanding Why Your Dog Pulls on the Leash
Contrary to popular belief, your dog’s pulling behavior has nothing to do with dominance, control, or them intentionally being difficult. The actual reasons are far more straightforward:
1. Insufficient Exercise
Many dogs don’t receive enough physical activity for their breed, leading to an abundance of pent-up energy. For some, a 30-minute walk is their only opportunity for exercise that day, which is often inadequate. It’s unreasonable to expect your dog to walk politely beside you if they’re bursting with energy. To succeed in loose leash training, ensure your dog is sufficiently tired beforehand. Consider off-leash play, chasing a ball or frisbee, or a visit to a dog park. If you lack the time, hiring a dog walker or enrolling them in doggy daycare can help. Providing adequate exercise is a core responsibility of dog ownership. Research your dog’s breed to ensure their specific needs are met before expecting them to perform for you.
2. Humans Are Slow
Most dogs naturally move at a faster pace than their human companions. Imagine walking a turtle; eventually, you’d likely grow impatient and want to quicken your pace. To dogs, we often embody that “turtle” speed. It’s important to acknowledge that slowing down their natural gait requires significant effort and can feel unnatural for them. While it’s challenging, they can certainly learn.
3. The Outside World Smells Incredible
Consider this truth: if you’re with a friend and your phone buzzes, you might be tempted to check it, even knowing it’s impolite. Or, how difficult would it be to concentrate on work at your desk if a favorite TV show was playing nearby? Dogs experience a similar level of distraction from outside sights and smells during the “job” of walking politely. Dogs possess approximately 50 times more scent receptors and 40 times more brain space dedicated to processing smells than humans. We can’t fully comprehend it, but dogs can detect scents diluted to 1-2 parts per trillion. What might appear as a simple patch of grass to you is a “nose bliss” sensory overload for your dog.
This extraordinary sense of smell also means that sniffing can be a powerful reward for dogs. If your dog has been pulling you towards interesting smells for months or years, they have effectively been rewarded for that pulling behavior. Changing this habit will require time and the introduction of new rewards.
How Dogs Learn: Foundations of Positive Training
For a deeper understanding of canine cognition and learning, exploring how dogs learn is crucial. In simple terms, there are two primary approaches to dog training:
- Reward desired behaviors: This involves reinforcing actions you want your dog to repeat, such as giving a treat for walking politely or making eye contact.
- Punish unwanted behaviors: This method seeks to stop behaviors you dislike, such as using a prong collar when a dog pulls.
As positive trainers, we believe it’s our responsibility to clearly teach our dogs what we want from them. We discourage training methods that rely on punishing a dog until they guess the desired behavior. Imagine learning that way from your parents or boss – the stress would be immense. Instead, focus on guiding your dog towards success.
Punishment-based techniques emphasize what not to do, while positive training teaches dogs what to do. To successfully teach your dog not to pull on leash, you must begin in an environment where they can easily succeed, ensuring ample opportunities for you to reward them. For many dogs, this means starting loose leash training inside your home, where distractions are minimal.
It’s vital to understand how the training environment impacts your dog’s ability to perform. Consider saying the alphabet: you could easily recite it in your head (low distraction, like heeling indoors). You could likely tell it to a family member (slightly more distracting, like heeling in your backyard). But imagine being asked to sing the alphabet on a stage in front of 10,000 people – you’d likely be too overwhelmed to even speak (highly distracting, like asking your dog to walk politely in a busy environment).
It is unfair and ineffective to punish your dog for an emotional response or for becoming overwhelmed in a challenging setting. Similarly, it’s not effective positive training to place your dog in an overly stimulating situation where they’re too overwhelmed to learn, then attempt to control them with treats. To use positive reinforcement effectively, start in an environment where success is achievable, creating opportunities for praise and rewards to solidify your expectations. Your ability to say the alphabet doesn’t change, but the context of where you’re asked to say it drastically alters your success rate. Dogs are no different. Gradually increase the difficulty, allowing your dog to build confidence and cement their skills. They can learn to walk nicely in highly distracting environments, but this will not happen overnight.
3 Essential Skills to Teach Your Dog BEFORE Loose Leash Walking
It is crucial not to skip these foundational skills and jump directly into loose leash training. These behaviors are essential for developing impulse control in your dog and teaching them that focusing on you leads to positive outcomes. When you eventually transition to more distracting environments for loose leash walking, these skills will be invaluable for maintaining your dog’s focus. A focused and engaged dog is significantly less likely to pull on the leash. Mastering these prerequisites will save you much frustration and prevent sore arms. We suggest practicing these skills consistently for at least a few days before beginning any loose leash walking training. Ensure your dog is solid on them!
1. Sit
The “sit” command is a fundamental obedience skill that every dog should know. It serves as a helpful transition between “heel” and “ok” during loose leash walking, or as a brief time-out in highly distracting environments.
2. Focus
Every dog benefits from learning the “focus” command. Teaching your dog to check in with you 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 make eye contact with you, which is paramount for effective communication. In distracting settings, a well-trained “focus” command can help calm your dog and re-engage their attention.
3. Leave It
“Leave it” is an indispensable skill. It is incredibly useful during distraction training, such as loose leash walking, but it can also literally save your dog’s life. Puppies and dogs are notorious for attempting to ingest random items found on the ground. A solid “leave it” command can prevent your dog from consuming something dangerous, allowing you to communicate to them to ignore an object without physical restraint. “Leave it” is essentially a promise to your dog that if they refrain from grabbing or interacting with something they’re interested in, you will reward them with something even better instead. These foundational skills are essential for supporting a well-behaved puppy as they grow.
Heeling vs. Loose Leash Walking: Understanding the Difference
The term “loose leash walking” can have varying definitions. In our view, there are two distinct ways to walk a dog: in a perfect heel or with a loose leash. We recommend and encourage the use of both!
Heeling
For us, “heeling” means the dog walks precisely at your side, without falling behind or advancing beyond your knee. We personally train dogs to walk on the handler’s left side. The expectations and boundaries for heeling are much stricter than for loose leash walking. The dog is expected to stay exactly at the left side, matching your pace, with no allowance for sniff breaks or greetings with other dogs.
While this may sound incredibly strict, it is! Teaching your dog to heel is an excellent method for establishing clear boundaries and expectations during the learning phase. It provides very clear rules that dogs often grasp quickly. When you are actively training your dog to not pull on leash, we suggest incorporating “heel” approximately 50% of the time. This communicates precise boundaries and rules to your dog. Once a dog is fully trained, we 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 your dog needs to “behave.” While too stringent for constant use, it’s a worthwhile skill to learn and maintain. You can manage various challenges with this approach, including addressing unwanted behaviors.
Below is a video of a dog named Kiki, whom we trained. She pulled so severely that her owners were hesitant to walk her in winter conditions. It took only about a week to train her to heel as seen in this video. Positive training truly works!
https://vimeo.com/645569975/a8e875ce90
However, we also believe that walks should be enjoyable for the dog! As your dog becomes more trained, you should increase the amount of time they spend on a loose leash rather than in a perfect heel. Loose leash walking provides them with the freedom to sniff and simply “be a dog.” Remember, the walk should be as much for your dog as it is for you.
Loose Leash Walking
Once a dog has mastered heeling, we recommend transitioning to loose leash walking for the majority of your walks. We suggest using a 6 ft leash for walks. This length provides enough freedom for your dog to explore and sniff, allowing them to truly enjoy being a dog. However, we strongly advise against retractable leashes! [Teaching polite greetings](https://dogcarestory.com/how-to-stop a puppy jumping up on the sofa/) and ensuring your dog’s safety are always paramount.
So, what exactly is loose leash walking? We define it as your dog’s ability to explore within the boundaries of a 6 ft leash without any tension or pulling. If we can’t easily hold the leash with one finger, it doesn’t qualify as loose leash walking. There should be no pressure on the leash. If your dog wishes to sniff during a loose leash walk and does so politely (without pulling), we stop and allow them. Sniffing is a healthy and natural activity for dogs. However, if a sniff break extends too long and we wish to resume walking, we expect the dog to join us with just a verbal cue. Neither you nor your dog should be pulling each other.
Watch Kiki loose leash walk in this video. We allow her to sniff something of interest, and then, without any leash tension, she joins us again when asked.
https://vimeo.com/645644957/8964eedaf1
Training Your Dog to Heel and Loose Leash Walk Using Positive Reinforcement
Training your dog to heel or loose leash walk requires patience, but the rewards are immense. We take our dog, Neirah, everywhere; she walks so beautifully that we rarely have to actively manage her leash. The ability to get lost in your thoughts and relax during walks is truly wonderful, and we sincerely believe you and your dog can achieve this! We have helped countless dog owners teach their dogs not to pull, and we can help you too.
Every dog possesses the ability to walk politely on a leash; they simply need time and guidance to learn. Your goal is to build an association that positive experiences occur when your dog is close by and attentive to you 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 nicely. We rarely carry treats on walks with our dog anymore, yet she consistently chooses to check in with us.
Important Considerations for Teaching Loose Leash Walking
- Gradual Distraction Progression: We will gradually increase the level of distraction during training. It may take several weeks before you can take your dog on a “real walk” as opposed to a dedicated training walk. During this initial period, we recommend exercising them through activities like fetch, dog parks, or backyard play. Ensure your dog is sufficiently exercised; otherwise, expecting them to walk nicely is unfair to them.
- Consistent No-Pull Policy: It is critical that from the very first day you begin teaching your dog not to pull, this behavior is no longer rewarded. This means pulling should never result in a positive outcome for them. Remember, if they pull you to sniff something, that scent serves as a reward for pulling. You must commit to completely stopping the pulling behavior, rather than intermittently allowing it. If you give in when your dog pulls hard enough, you inadvertently teach them to pull even harder next time to get what they want. From day one of training onward, pulling should never lead to your dog getting what they desire. Dogs learn best with consistent training. Reinforce that good things happen through polite walking, not pulling. This consistency helps in managing puppy manners effectively.
- Start in a Low-Distraction Environment: It’s crucial to begin training in an environment where your dog can be successful, creating ample opportunities to reward them for doing things correctly. We always suggest starting the first session inside your home to minimize distractions.
- Reward Lavishly: You are asking your dog to learn a challenging skill, so reward their efforts generously! If you feel like a “Pez dispenser” with treats while teaching loose leash walking, you’re doing it right! Ensure you have a good supply of small, high-value treats in your treat bag for every session (we typically pre-break them into tiny pieces). Use treats to clearly communicate to your dog when they are performing well. To avoid overfeeding, you can reduce the amount of food given at meal times during intensive training periods. While treats will eventually be phased out, ensure this transition isn’t rushed.
Dog and owner walking politely on leash during training
What You’ll Need:
- A comfortable, well-fitting harness (front-clip preferred for pulling) or flat collar.
- A standard 6-foot leash (avoid retractable leashes).
- High-value treats.
- A treat pouch.
Teaching Your Dog to Heel
Preparation: Begin with your dog on a leash, in a sit position on your left side. Hold a small quantity of treats in your left hand and the leash in your right. 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 being held in place by tension.
Movement Cue: Choose a phrase you will consistently use to signal your dog to start moving. We prefer “Let’s go!”, but any phrase that suits you is fine.
Gain Attention: Ask your dog to focus on you, and reward them with a treat when they make eye contact.
Start Walking: Say your chosen phrase (“Let’s go!”) and use the treat hand as a lure in front of your dog’s nose to keep them precisely at your side. Take three steps with them, and then reward with a treat. Once your dog begins to understand this game, start saying “Heel” as you initiate walking.
Practice: Dedicate time to practicing this! Gradually work up to taking 10 steps in a perfect heel. When your dog consistently masters 10 steps a few times in a row, they are likely ready to move outdoors to your yard.
Every time you increase the distraction level, you need to take a step back in difficulty.
Move Outdoors: Remember, you want your dog to succeed! Since you’ve moved outdoors, revert to luring for three steps before offering a treat. As this becomes easy for your dog, slowly increase to 10 steps again.
Phasing Out the Lure: Once your dog has mastered 10 steps, 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!” followed by “Heel.” Gradually try to increase the number of steps you can take with your dog maintaining a perfect heel position. If you sense your dog is losing focus, try talking to them to keep their attention. Reward your dog every time they make eye contact. Aim to keep your dog in a heel for a full minute between treats.
Consistent Practice! If your dog is accustomed to pulling, you will likely need to spend several days practicing heeling in your yard. They are learning a new skill. General obedience skills are built on consistency.
Remember to progress slowly! Behavior change is hard and takes time.
We recommend keeping training sessions short, around 20 minutes twice a day, to prevent both you and your dog from becoming overwhelmed or frustrated.
If your dog attempts 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 leads your dog to what they want.
If they try to pull ahead 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 positive things happen when they follow.
We do not suggest adding loose leash walking until your dog has mastered one full minute of heeling. It requires more effort and mental capacity for your dog to learn two skills simultaneously, so focus solely on heeling for now. Incorporate sniff and play breaks between heeling sessions to keep the training enjoyable.
Once your dog can easily heel for a minute in your yard, slowly 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 difficulty areas. We usually suggest reverting to rewarding your dog for 10 steps with each new walking environment. Your dog will likely learn faster in each new setting, so increase the difficulty at their pace. Once your dog can heel for a minute, you’re ready to integrate loose leash walking instead of stationary sniff/play breaks.
Teaching Your Dog to Loose Leash Walk
Once your dog has learned the basic rules of heeling, it’s time to introduce loose leash walking! Again, we define loose leash walking as the dog being allowed to explore anywhere within the boundaries of their leash. If we cannot easily hold the leash with one finger, it doesn’t count as loose leash walking. There should be no leash tension!
If your dog wants to sniff during loose leash walking—stop and let them! We do not permit pulling, but otherwise, loose leash walking provides them with the freedom to be a dog. Walks should be enjoyable for your dog too.
How to teach your dog to loose leash walk: Have your dog sit at your left side, then say “Let’s go” to initiate movement, immediately followed by “Ok!” and a gesture forward. Your dog may hesitate slightly, being accustomed to heeling. Continue walking and allow your dog to gradually move away from you. If they stop to sniff something, permit them to do so! If a sniff lasts too long, say their name followed by either “Let’s go” or “Leave it,” and reward them with a treat when they resume walking.
It’s valuable to practice transitioning between heeling and loose leash walking. While your dog is learning, we simplify this by having them sit between transitions. “Let’s go” always signals movement, while “Heel” or “Ok” communicates the boundaries of where they should walk. Consistency is incredibly important for dogs, so ensure you use your verbal cues precisely.
Your dog will be enticed by more smells and freedom during loose leash walking, so keep in mind that it can be a difficult skill to learn.
A few tips for improving dog behavior during loose leash training:
- Maintain a No-Pull Policy: You must still enforce a strict no-pulling policy. Be careful not to accidentally reinforce pulling by allowing your dog to drag you to a smell. Dogs earn their freedom on walks by maintaining polite leash manners.
- Encourage Check-Ins: You want your dog to willingly check in with you and be aware of your location. You should notice them looking up at you more often due to practicing “focus” and heeling. Maintain this! Give your dog a treat every time they look up at you without being cued.
- Observe Body Language: Carefully observe your dog’s body language during loose leash walking. Most dogs exhibit a “tell” before they 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 most effective time to address pulling is before it even occurs.
- Manage 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 spot another dog or turning to walk in the opposite direction. If your dog seems highly distracted, have them sit and practice focus work (with a treat for every successful focus). Sometimes, your dog simply needs a mental break!
- Handling Irresistible Smells: If you encounter a spot with a smell so amazing your dog can’t help but pull towards it, tell them to “Leave it” and use a treat to change directions. Then, turn and try to pass the spot again. If they still can’t resist pulling towards it a second time, instead place them in a “Heel” and use a treat to lure them past. It’s perfectly fine to make mistakes, but never reward pulling by giving in.
- Gradually Increase Difficulty: Slowly increase the duration and distraction levels of where your dog is loose leash walking. Remember to build the skill gradually! You want to create ample opportunities to reward your dog for making correct choices.
You and Your Dog Deserve Enjoyable Walks Together
It can take time and consistent effort to undo the ingrained behavior of pulling on the leash, but it is undeniably worth it. Imagine: in just one month, you could be confidently taking your dog on walks with no pulling! How truly amazing would that be?
We hope this comprehensive guide assists you in teaching your dog to walk politely on a leash. Happy training!
