Lately I’ve had a lot of occasions in which I needed Willie and Maggie to walk beside me, whether on or off leash. It has reminded me what a joy/time saver/relief it is to be able to walk with your dog and know he or she will stay right beside you. That’s not something that dog’s naturally do (unlike us primates), but it is something that most of us want and expect, often unrealistically. That’s why I’m repeating this post Making Leash Manners Fun from November 2014. I’ve added some updates in italics. While you are reading, please think about what advice from any source was most helpful (or the opposite) when working on your dog’s manners.
[From Nov 2014]: Maggie, all 35 exuberant pounds of her, has lousy leash manners. That is because 1) she is a dog and walking beside me, shoulder to shoulder, makes no sense to her. And 2) because I couldn’t resist working her on sheep when we have training time together. Not to mention teaching her to come when called EVERY TIME and stop when told EVERY TIME, which is critical to dogs who live in the country and are off leash most of their lives. Leash manners are not critical, but that doesn’t mean they are not important, because of course Maggie needs to be on leash when we go to town or the vet clinic. I’ve put leash manners in the “I’ll deal with that when the weather turns,” and given that it was 4 degrees Fahrenheit this morning, I think our time has come. We’ll still work sheep until the snow gets too thick or the ice too dangerous, but it’s definitely time for me to add leash manners to Maggie’s growing repertoire. [Bless her, Maggie was the easiest dog I’ve ever had to teach leash manners. My aces in the hole were pieces of chicken in the beginning stages and a release to work sheep in the later ones.]
Here’s the thing about leash manners, people and dogs: Most owners don’t understand why it is so hard to teach dogs not to pull on a leash. Don’t we humans tend to walk at the same pace, shoulder to shoulder with our other friends? And aren’t dogs our “best friends?” But dogs aren’t primates, and they don’t come hard-wired to walk side-by-side like we do. In The Other End of the Leash I described walking politely beside a human from a dog’s perspective as “walking at the speed of death and ignoring everything interesting.” That’s why we need to teach leash manners as if it were a circus trick. Here’s how I do it; I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences on the issue. I’ll keep you posted on Maggie’s progress as the weeks go on.
[If I was writing this now I’d swamp the order of Step One and Two.] STEP ONE: Begin by doing what you can to prevent pulling in the first place. That means using the right equipment. I like body harnesses that attach in the front (not the top of the dog’s back), like SENSE-ation Harness and Easy Walker. [See the comments in 2014 about the experiences of others re harnesses.] These types of harnesses, as well as head halters, give you more control over the dog and prevent them from pulling you along like a hay wagon attached to a set of draft horses. (I should note here that I only suggest head halters if the dog is especially large, exuberant or the person needs extra help controlling the dog. It is possible to injure your dog’s neck if you misuse head halters, so one needs to be cautious. But they do give you the most control and sometimes are the best option in early stages of training.) [ I dislike head halters even more now than I did before.] A great article comparing different ways to attach yourself to your dog is still on Sophia Yin’s website. Bless her and her memory.
STEP TWO: Decide how you are going to reinforce this great trick your dog is going to learn. (Remember, it IS a trick to your dog–surely it makes no sense to them otherwise.) Food is always my first choice for reinforcing leash manners, because food is highly motivating and easy to deliver in small bits. I’m starting Maggie out with dried beef bits, because she loves them and I can put a handful of them into my pocket without them turning into mush. However, once the behavior is established I’ll add in other reinforcements, like a release to go play with Willie or a release to go run up the hill and find the sheep. Nothing will motivate Maggie more than access to the sheep, but on the other hand, nothing will be a bigger distraction for her. Thus, I won’t ask her to walk by my side on the way to the sheep until she’s mastered the behavior in easier contexts, and then only expect a few steps before I release her to the sheep. Gradually I’ll ask for longer and longer periods in which she stays beside me while we walk up the hill to the sheep.
STEP THREE: As I’ve already noted, you need to be aware of how difficult it will be for your dog to concentrate on you. Think of it as a competition for your dog’s attention–you and the environment are competing and you need to know your competitor well. Always start when it will be easiest for the dog, and gradually work up to asking for walking by your side as the distractions increase. Last night I went outside with Maggie to begin working on leash manners, and quickly discovered she was too distracted to pay attention even to the fantastic food I had in my hand. So I moved into the garage (I also could have gone inside, I choose the garage because it was simpler, given that the other two dogs were in the house). Problem solved, now I could easily get her attention. If you haven’t done a lot of this in other training, it is useful to write down training context as a hierarchy. Easiest environments first, then moderately challenging, then hardest of all. After you finish your list, break down what you’ve written into smaller and smaller units. Success is all about teaching your dog to win, and you have to make it possible for her to do so.
Have you noticed that Steps 1-3 are all about planning? That we haven’t even started training a dog yet? Ah, but those steps are critical ones. Thinking through how you are going to train a new skill is as important as prepping a house before you put on the paint. It’s taken me years to beat it into my thick skull, but the time you take to think through how you are going to approach an exercise can save you massive amounts of time later. Of course, you have to modify as you go along. I thought that working in the driveway wouldn’t be that distracting for Maggie, but it was, so I immediately moved into the garage. But I only was able to do so because I had a hierarchy of distractions already in mind, and knew how critical is was to create a situation in which Maggie could win right off the bat.
STEP FOUR: Now you get to start the fun part! Get your treats, easily accessible to hand out one at a time, and begin working in the context you’ve determined is the one in which it is easiest to get your dog’s attention and where you dog is 100% off leash. You may or may not work with the leash attached, but don’t hold onto it, lest you be tempted to use it instead of letting your dog decide on her own to walk beside you. Start walking around in erratic circles, and give your dog a treat every time she is on your chosen side (left is traditional and that’s the side I use just because…). When I begin I don’t say a word, I just walk around in sloppy circles and give the dog a treat whenever she is beside me.
Be VERY generous with treats. For reasons I don’t quite understand, most owners have to be encouraged to give their dog a treat every time it is in the right place. (If you are worried about your dog’s weight, use part of your dog’s dinner for training.) The idea here is to let your dog learn to initiate the behavior by herself. At this stage I may prompt the dog on rare occasion (I smooched to Maggie when she first started to leave the garage before she got her first treat), but in general I let the dog learn on its own that it is really FUN to be beside you. There’s a video in my website’s Reading Room that illustrates Step Four. See Go for a Peaceful Walk (and enjoy the sound of the crunchy leaves).) You can use a clicker when the dog is positioned where you want her, click yourself with your tongue (like I did on the video) or not say a word, just deliver a treat.
I’ve described this process in detail in the book The Puppy Primer. Even if your dog is older I recommend reviewing the steps described here. (I did!)
STEP FIVE: After several sessions of this, you are looking to have a dog who pays a lot of attention to you, and chooses to walk beside you much of the time in a quiet, non-distracting environment. I’m too impatient to never use any prompts–if a dog seems to be losing interest completely I might smooch or slap my leg a few times–but guard against using them very often. You don’t want the prompt to become a cue, such that the dog never learns to initiate what you want by him or herself. Once things feel like they are going smoothly, increase the level of distraction, but do so gradually. A common mistake is going from the equivalent of kindergarten to graduate school in one step. Look at the list of distractions that you wrote out from smallest to largest, and increase the level of distraction (thus, of difficulty for your dog) only one step at a time. For Maggie, tonight we’ll walk out of the garage into the driveway, but only about 10 feet max. If she does well then, the next session we’ll go another ten feet toward the barn. At this point I still won’t have the leash in my hand and I won’t use a cue yet either. I’ll wait to use a cue once I know that the behavior is well established at moderate levels of distraction. However, if I didn’t live in the country and my dog could only be outside on leash, I’d have the leash in my hand and do all I could to move around in any interesting way (NOT straight down a sidewalk in one direction, how boring!).
STEP SIX: If you are ready to bet $10 bucks that your dog will choose to walk beside you 80-85% of the time in a non-distracting environment, it’s time to put the behavior on cue. I distinguish between a perfect “heel” and polite leash manners, so I’ll use a cue like “By Me” or “Left.” To put it on cue, get your dog’s attention, say your cue and move forward one step. If your dog moves along side, give her a treat instantly. Dr. Susan Friedman has a good article on Shaping a Behavior that includes good information about when to add a cue; check it out. Continue walking in an interesting way, and reinforcing your dog every time she is in the right position. Every time you move forward after stopping, say your cue and be ready to reinforce her with a treat if she walks beside you instead of in front of you. Pay attention to the context in which she succeeds and those in which you struggle, and continue to work toward helping her win. Remember that your job is to compete with the environment: It is always interesting and worth your dog’s attention. Are you? Remember too that people don’t have to be trained to walk side by side with you. Even if they aren’t paying attention to what you are saying (!), they automatically walk beside you because it’s what we primates do. No so with dogs; it is hard work for them to walk beside us and anticipate every move while ignoring everything else. I won’t expect Maggie to have great leash manners for many months. She is young and exuberant and doesn’t yet have the emotional maturity to be able to stifle herself for long periods of time in a stimulating environment. But she is also killer smart and fun to train, so I expect her to make great progress.
STEP SEVEN: And Step Eight and Step Nine and … This is the tricky part to write about, because it varies so much depending on the dog and the environment. This is also the stage at which people most often need help, so don’t hesitate to get a coach if you can. At least have a friend observe you–it is hard to know what you are doing while you’re doing it (if that makes any sense!) [A video is ideal… although don’t beat yourself up too much when you watch. I’ve seen the greatest trainers in the world slap their heads after watching that their timing was off, or they missed an opportunity. Don’t be hard on yourself, we all hate watching ourselves on video!]
These next steps are all about gradually increasing the difficulty of the exercise while not going so fast that your dog simply is unable to succeed. For example, I’ll use a body harness for Maggie next time we go to the vet clinic, no matter how far we’ve progressed in her training. That’s one of the contexts that will be especially hard for her, so I’ll avoid a set back by using equipment to keep her from pulling on the leash. Basically, you want to gradually increase the difficulty of the exercise. As you do, remember to increase the frequency of the treats. Say your dog has been doing really well in the back yard, and you give her a treat every 12 or 15 steps. You should increase that to a treat every 2-4 steps for the first session in the front yard, at least until you are sure you still have her attention.
TIPS AND PROBLEM SOLVING: Think of this as a sport that you need to practice. I used to have clients try it with me playing the part of the dog first, to get their timing and movements right. The common mistakes to guard against are:
1. Not enough treats in the first place. Of course you eventually want to never use them at all, but start liberally and always go back to frequent treats when the level of distraction is higher than usual.
2. Stopping the dog yourself. You want to give your dog a treats as it is walking beside you, so don’t stop and unintentionally lure it around to the front. Watch the video in my Reading Room of me doing a first session with a young Border Collie to see how it’s done.
3. Making sessions too long. It is hard work to focus your attention on another when there are lots of other things to watch, smell and hear, so keep your sessions short. You are better off doing three 2-minute sessions a day than one six-minute session.
4. Not understanding that the gap between a dog who walks beside you in a quiet environment when you have treats in your hand, and actually taking a long neighborhood walk with a dog who never pulls is large. How long it takes for your dog to learn not to pull is a function of a) how often you train, b) how good a trainer you are, and c) the dog itself. Some dogs are easy, and come as if uploaded with the requisite software package. Others are born to push into their shoulders and drag you across the county. Don’t despair if your friend’s dog is perfect with almost no training whatsoever; we’re all good at something and not so good at something else! Example: My Maggie. She learned to drop her toys on cue in one session. ONE. She learned to Sit on cue in two minutes. But anything that requires her to stifle her energy for more than a second or two is hard for her. After she sits she gets up. After she drops her toy she play bows and paws at me, or goes to get another toy. In addition, I find teaching leash manners boring. Important but boring, so I won’t work on it as often as I should. I expect it will be spring before Maggie behaves on a leash like I’d like her too. But that’s okay–the sheep are always calling to us!
If you’d like a visual sample of what this all looks like, I highly recommend Kikopup’s YouTube video on “loose leash walking.” She does a great job making the steps clear, so ideally, read through my suggestions and then watch the video. And also, please add your comments to all of our readers. Pulling on a leash is one of the behaviors that most owners find most irritating and hardest to fix. I know readers would love to hear what you have done yourself that has worked, or, equally valuable, hasn’t worked. (Note: The hands-down winner of the “Doesn’t Work” category is jerking on the leash when the leash gets tight.)
Good grief that was long! Sorry, we are all advised to keep our posts short. Sigh, that’s what happens when someone who writes books also tries to write blogs. But please add your comments in here; I truly believe that the comments are as helpful as the post itself for people looking for advice. And LOTS of people read the comments, so your time is well spent. Some great comments from readers in 2014 added the importance of pace (speed up!) and doing all you can to not use the leash (some attach it to their belt, but there is a safety issue here with some people and dogs).
Also, Julie Child said: Never apologize. Okay, I won’t bring up my sloppy pants and sandals in the photo with Maggie. Hey, it was Sunday and hot and a long day.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Well, we’re not! Although a sitter is here taking care of the house, the kitties and the sheep, Jim and I and all three dogs are in northern Wisconsin. I’m speaking at the Mercer Library July 10th, and we’re taking a few extra days to stay in a cabin on a nearby lake. I truly hope that when you are reading this I am swimming in the cool waters of a north Wisconsin lake. I’ll post some photos next week.
At home the day lilies have pretty much lost their colorful minds, all blooming at once instead of spread out through the month as usual.
andrea heitzman says
Thanks so much on this article about heeling. My two year old German Shepherd and I are learning this skill.
Casper O' Hane says
Loose leash walking is definitely a foreign concept to most dogs it would seem.
I agree about the Kikopup video, it helped me a lot.
On the subject of front clip harnesses, it’s important to get a well made one, as they can restrict the dog’s movement and alter their gate. In my experience, the Easy Walk harness by Petsafe is one of the worst. I was sure to follow the directions and to my knowledge it was fitted properly, but it still chafed the dog and was very restrictive. It also tightens around the chest when they pull, which doesn’t seem like it would be very comfortable to me. Over all a cheap and poorly made harness. So there’s my mini review of the Easy Walk, haha. The ones people seem to like and that look a lot less restrictive to me are the Balance harness and the Perfect Fit harness. I have personal experience with neither of them though. I used a regular back clip harness from the beginning and didn’t have difficulty teaching loose leash walking with it. It’s the human who trains the dog, not the tool.
Casper O' Hane says
I couldn’t help but laugh at the comment on the original post about the dog eating dried earthworms on the sidewalk. My dog LOVES dried earthworms and it grosses me out so much! LOL!
Vienna Romesburg says
Thank you SO much for this repost. I’ve been working with my Border X for a while on his leash manners with very slow progress. I’d like to try this method to see how he does!
Kathryn Campbell says
Thank you for this. We have a Jasper who is a Landseer Newfoundland/Standard Poodle mix. He is close to 10 months old, about 105 pounds, and adorable. His Newfie side is strong, and he is just now not pulling us all over the place all the time. We are down to about 50% of the time, and continue to see improvement. Smartest dog we have ever had, and has been training since we brought him home at ten weeks. Instantly picked up basic commands, but will totally ignore them still if it is more important to see/smell/play! He’s still very much a puppy, which is fine.
Frances says
I found teaching mine when pups to walk with me without a leash made it much easier when I added in the leash. We played Follow the Leader round the garden, with me twisting and turning and changing pace while singing and laughing and raining treats. It created a solid foundation for the With Me cue, although some polishing was needed during the challenges of adolescence.
The one problem I have is that Sophy has decided that if she is not allowed to pull then neither am I, and freezes if the leash goes taut. As it is usually when I have not paid sufficient attention to making sure she knows where we are heading next and am trying to hurry the dogs across a busy road it is just as well she is small enough to pick up if all else fails! I wonder if it is connected to teaching her to freeze at the side of the path if there are bicycles or farm traffic during our off leash walks – she has learned to stay at a safe distance from them, and then suddenly I am expecting her to cross right in front of cars with their engines running. The law of unintended consequences, perhaps?
Renee Dunaway says
This article is lovely encouragement for me to revisit walking skills. Walking my dog used to be like parasailing … I could hardly keep up! Now that he is a senior, I have the opposite issue. He puts his feet down when he doesn’t want to move, and I usually cave in and let him sniff around as long as he likes. However, we need to get back on the bandwagon and practice these life-saving skills … they are great for emergency, and to gently keep him in shape. I like the idea of using sniffing time as a reinforcer in the maintenance phase. Thank you for the detailed protocol!
Jayne says
Practice, practice, practice! I walk my dogs off leash everyday and in different locations. I don’t require the dogs to walk quietly next to me but they are expected to stay within a reasonable distance, return immediately when called, and pull over to the right side of the path and sit until released whenever we meet anyone. They don’t approach any person or animal unless given permission. I’m still working on preventing them from running up to some friends’ cars and stopping them after they’ve seen deer.
Jenny Haskins says
The funny thing is my current bitch (Sallee) heels beautifully off-leash but is a bu88er on-leash. She runs around and around me in clock-wise circles 🙁 I think this is because when she’s on-leash she knows that she has me on leash. Off leash I might just run away from her 🙂
Jenny Haskins says
>Also, Julie Child said: Never apologize. Okay, I won’t bring up my sloppy pants and sandals in the photo with Maggie. Hey, it was Sunday and hot and a long day.>
Huh? Why would you even think to apologise. Isn’t that the sort of thing we all wear when out with the dogs? Now IF you had been wearing the sort of gear that Conformation People wear when showing , I WOULD have expected an apology 🙂
diane says
I’m going to read this again and again…..and again because no one is giving me any darn treats!
I have a 3 year old and with us 4 months. I am confident he will get it….maybe faster if I get it.
Thanks. This is very much needed at this time.
Jenn says
I was really happy to read this post today since I am spending a lot of time on loose leash walking and working on on-leash reactivity. She is getting good at auto watches, but I often wish I could separate the loose leash walking and the reactivity and train them in their own nice neat boxes after the early stages of training. Am I missing something?
I recently switched from a head halter to a front clip harness because while she tolerated the head halter well, it was irritating the skin on her muzzle (speaking of, I am interested in your viewpoints regarding head halters vs harnesses).
I think I have traditionally been in the “not feeding enough treats camp,” partly due to my previous/other dogs being much easier to leash train. I am definitely feeding more treats these days and your post was a good reminder to not skimp on the treats. The most high value food I could find, especially for working on the reactivity, was raw meat… so we’re using that, although it’s not super fun pulling it out of the bait bag.
I also liked the long post – it was interesting and worth the read!
My Huynh says
We have a Border Collie and my husband trained him to walk loose leash by his side when he was about 8 weeks old. He started in our garden and then progressed slowly outdoors. Once outdoors he went nuts and smelled everything in his way (the BC, not my hubby). It took my husband months of walking on a harness by walking erratically, turning 180 degrees and zigzagging to make sure our puppy was following him (luckily no one reported my husband for being drunk). It was a tremendous effort and worth all the pulling and frustrations because now he walks like a treat by our side. Our work wasn’t done yet as he was very energetic and I started click training him at home for basic obedience training and then discovered your books on dog psychology. Now we have a well balanced, much loved by everyone and stress free dog at home. We are so proud of our BC as we both never had a dog before! Your books and blogs about your love of dogs have sparked a passion in me I never thought I’d ever experience. Thank you so much.
Tricia says
And remember that they have a different structure, different number of legs, different natural gait and pace. They are not trying to be difficult. They are trying to move comfortably.
Beth says
I taught Jack to walk by my side off-leash, in the basement. He was an adventurous pup which means he needed a leash from the time he was 11 weeks old and far, far too young to be expected to walk nicely. So by the time he was old enough to start leash manners he already had bad habits built in. I started with no leash at all, then added the leash but let him drag it, then picked up the leash. All in the basement. After that we repeated from step one outside in a safe, quiet place. I am a lazy leash trainer though so he will still pull sometimes.
Occasionally while we are walking (at 11 he does not pull often but he also rarely is asked for a formal heel) he will drop into heel position and look up at me, matching my pace, and grin. I figure (and I may be a sap here) that he saw something interesting he wanted to go investigate, but decided on his own to be extra-good and thinks he deserves a reward, so he always gets treats for this.
He does it seldom enough and randomly enough that I truly don’t think it’s begging. I think he assumes my nose is as good as his and thinks that I know that he smelled something awful and wonderful just off the path and decided to not lunge for it so he thinks I know he deserves a reward. And so he gets one.
It makes us both happy, so I figure what the heck.
Trisha says
Love this story Beth!
Karen says
I don’t train my dogs to heal…just walk with a loose leash…not pulling. I have had success training my neighbors’ dogs just by stopping in my tracks when they begin to pull me. They realize they are not going anywhere and learn to walk with loose leash. Give lots of praise!
Lulu says
What would you do if you want the dog trained to walk properly on a leash but your husband does not wish to have this behavior? He thinks the dog should be able to wander on a 20 foot retractable leash and hunt, fish, smell, pee, and poop whenever and wherever he wishes. He also does not care to work on recall though he gets frustrated that the dog ignores him when he wants to leave the dog park or beach.
Nora says
We’re working on leash walking/heeling too!
The Kikopup channel is great but what helped me most was advice in Victoria Schade’s book ‘Bonding with your dog’. She essentially gives the same advice as you and Kikopup do but puts emphasis on the ‘unnatural’ aspect of leash walking for dogs. She uses the term ‘polite leash walking’ and stresses that teaching the dog to do that also requires us to be polite to them too, i.e. let them do their thing on the leash sometimes, leash walking cannot equal nofunever. I like that term because it reminds me that I’m teaching her this in order for us to be able to make the most of our city life, not for obedience’s sake 🙂
To make them stop: VSh recommends – and it worked for us – using “one, two, three… let’s go!” so that the dog is notified that we indeed must move on. Mine picked it up really quickly.
What was essential for me: I realised that I am often in senseless hurry and make my dog progress with the walk (whether on or off leash) even if we are on no schedule whatsoever. Made walks much nicer.
We encounter only one problem which brings me to a question I’ve had ever since she came to me (but I know you don’t take topic requests, sorry about this): scavenging.
I tried to find articles about it (scientific and popular, don’t care) and couldn’t really find anything helpful. My dog was a stray for probably her whole life (about 4 years) and she’s extremely focused on food – also the only time she pulls on the leash is if she sees food on the street. At home she’s perfectly behaved, waits for a signal to eat (gulp it down rather), we taught her a soft mouth, I can take away her bowl, taught her to not dive for food if I drop it accidentally etc.
The people I have them from (dog trainers/rescuers) say that she looks for food so much because she’s bored during walks but I’m not 100% convinced that’s the case. I’m sure I could do better but I do pay a lot of attention to communicating with her, rewarding her a lot, incorporating some fun obedience/trick training or games into our walks etc. It’s very frustrating in a city because people leave tons of food lying around and then there are also these stories about poisoned food which terrify me.
Anyway, if anyone knows any good sources on scavenging behaviour in dogs (and how to deal with it) I’d be extremely grateful…
Chris from Boise says
Lulu – you might try using different equipment than your husband. If he attaches his long line to a collar, you can attach your leash to a harness – or vice versa. The dog can learn which rules apply in which circumstance. You’ll have to work harder at the beginning (REALLY good treats pays off!!) but it can be done. (But I feel your frustration too – it’s hard when the family is not on the same page about expected behavior. You’re not alone with this difficulty).
Hope that helps.
Ruth A Crocker says
I do formal obedience but live on a farm where the dogs are loose and walking with us. I taught my Irish Water Spaniel puppy to do loose leash walking without a leash. I rewarded her for _noticing_changes_of_direction, not for being beside me. Whenever she got about 6 feet away or her attention would wander or when there was a decision as to which direction to go I would chirp “this way” and reward her for going in that direction. She understood it so well that used the same command in Barn Hunt competition. She went with some friends to our national specialty one year. When they brought her back they raved about the fact that she didn’t pull on the leash. Once she “got it” off leash it was easy to transfer the concept to on leash.
Katie says
Agree with a previous commenter about the Easy Walk harness. I’ve had dogs it worked for nicely, but my current dog found it very uncomfortable, and developed chafing. He also obviously hated it. Which leads to another thought – why do people like to consider the Easy Walk harness and head halters “humane” and “gentle” but a prong collar “cruel”, when almost every dog I’ve ever worked with has the opposite opinion? I’ve never had one balk at or refuse to wear a prong, but the hatred of a head collar is well known, and the easy walk harness isn’t much better. Sometimes I think we let our human sensibilities override what the dog is actually telling us. (and don’t get me started on the trachea damage I’ve seen as a vet tech from people that let their dog pull on a flat buckle collar for years on end…a cruelty for sure but they thought they were being nice to let the dog pull.)
Trisha says
Katie, I’m not a fan of prong collars by any means, but I think your overall point is extremely important. Dogs are the ones who can tell us most about what is comfortable or uncomfortable, and we are wise to pay attention to them. Well said.
Suzanne Gilbert says
We have a one year old GSD male puppy. Since we brought him home at 10 weeks he has been a champion puller. I have tried several different harnesses on him. I have also worked with him since early puppyhood on loose leash walking. He does great in the house and driveway, however when we are in a situation like a busy parking lot or the vet’s office I feel a prong collar helps for safety. I don’t want to get pulled into the traffic! That being said we are going to keep working on loose leash walking using the information in the article and instructions from our trainer. My goal with this dog is to walk with a flat buckle collar or a harness. I know we can do this!
Mark Buell says
The reading room links don’t work?? At least, not for me!
Trisha says
Oh, Mark! The Reading Room was renamed. The link is here. Look at https://www.patriciamcconnell.com/learning-center
Happy Reading!
Manuela says
Hello! I have read and revisited your blog many times since getting our golden–thank you!
You have recommended two particular harnesses time and again (Easy Walk and Sense-ation, if I recall correctly), both cross-shoulder harnesses. I was getting ready to pull the trigger and buy one of these but then I came across some recommendations against the shoulder harnesses (such as the ones you recommended) from Dr. Chris Zink, whom you also respect and have recommended. How do you reconcile these seemingly conflicting pieces of advice?
Thanks a bunch!
PS. For the record, my well-trained but still ever-pulling retriever seems to do well with the gentle leader type head collars but I’m also asking on behalf of my boisterous dog-nephew who is averse/too powerful for a head collar.
Trisha says
Thanks for the good question Eagle Eye Manuel. I haven’t had time to check, but I’m guessing that my recommendations for the shoulder harnesses were made not too long after they came out. Remember, when I started in the late 80’s, it was all prong or slip collars and collar corrections. Head collars were such a great alternative, but lots of dogs wouldn’t tolerate them, and so the shoulder harnesses seemed like a good next step. My own advice now is to follow Dr. Zink’s advice. She so good at evaluate structure and movement, I’d follow what she says now!