# Loose Leash Walking - Accomplished!!



## Harbud (Aug 27, 2013)

After 5 months and a lot of painfully long walks Ozzy has finally mastered loose leash walking!! 
I waited a few weeks just to make sure it was solid as he has psyched me out a few times.... but I think we have it!!
*happy dancing*


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## lalachka (Aug 13, 2013)

Can you share how you did it?
You used the 'give to leash pressure' method?

Any pointers? And congrats of course, that's an accomplishment in my eyes at least


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## WendyM (Aug 21, 2013)

Congratulations and any tips would definitely be appreciated. My pup is a little under four months and we walk her twice a day, but she's nowhere close yet. We stop every time she pulls, but I don't think she's made the connection. Short walks can take a LOOOOONNNNG time.


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

Go Ozzy!!  Great job!


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## Harbud (Aug 27, 2013)

Thanks Everyone! I'm very proud of him.
Well its not a very glamorous answer  Patience and hard work!
My best tip is to set these walks aside as training activities. Save the exercise for off leash activities like fetch and dog play. Trying to mix the two just created frustration for me and Ozzy!
As far as technique I really mixed it up. 
Some days we did home base heeling. Set the treats on the porch walked one step away, clicked and ran back to the bag for his treat...then two steps, click, run back for a treat....and kept increasing the number of steps. If he disengaged or caused the leash to go tight then no treat and we started back at one step, click run for the treat.
We also did the "If you pull we stop" but Ozzy did way better with a consequence. He didn't understand nothing happening and it just caused him to get stressed and confused. At home Ozzy has a cue ('that's enough')that tells him to knock off whatever he is doing or he will get a time out ('too bad' and to his crate), I modified it for walk. I called out "far enough" just before there was pressure on the leash. If he ignored it and pulled then I called out "too bad" and we walked backwards until he caught up to me. 
We also did an activity called follow the leash. I would stay stationary and pull the leash to one side until there was pressure then I stopped and waited for him to walk in that direction in order to create slack. As soon as he created slack I clicked and treated then repeated with pressure in another direction. We worked up until he was actively trying to avoid pressure being created on the leash.
I hope one of these methods can help you but it will still take a lot of time!


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## WendyM (Aug 21, 2013)

Patience and hard work? Next you're going to tell me that to lose weight I need to work on my diet and exercise! Pbbbbt! 

Thanks for the tips. Not understanding the consequence is a good point. Morgan will often sit when we stop walking because that's what we do when we get to corners. I think she doesn't know what we want and with no command she goes to her first "go to" answer. I'm fine with her sitting because she stops pulling, but it's not really teaching the behavior I want. I'll work on it!


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## Harbud (Aug 27, 2013)

No problem Wendy. Your girl is still quite young hopefully it will click faster for her. I got Ozzy at 14months so he had over a year of poor leash manners under his belt already...very frustrating for me and confusing for him.
I really do wish there was a faster easier way to teach loose leash, heel and 'stand'... I do not enjoy teaching any of them but so satisfying once it makes sense to them!


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## WendyM (Aug 21, 2013)

Harbud said:


> I really do wish there was a faster easier way to teach loose leash, heel and 'stand'


We haven't even tried heel yet, but ugh, stand. We work every day on a series of commands (sit, stay, down, stand, etc) and stand is the worst. She _maybe_ _sort of _understands it, but it's the one that almost never works without a treat, which means she's mostly just standing to get the treat, not as a result of the command! It's fun to work with her and I know that not all - if any - of this is truly "sticking" with her yet, but it's nice to see the light bulb go off when she goes "Oh, so THAT'S what you wanted!"


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## Harbud (Aug 27, 2013)

Admittedly if my dogs don't know 'stand' or heel...it's my fault. lol I always teach them last. I will start teaching it because Ill get it in my head that I WILL teach it finally and then 2 days later we are working on something else more fun.  I'm bad.
Seeing their eyes light up in that "AhHA!" moment is awesome!


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## atourya (Mar 23, 2013)

WendyM said:


> Congratulations and any tips would definitely be appreciated. My pup is a little under four months and we walk her twice a day, but she's nowhere close yet. We stop every time she pulls, but I don't think she's made the connection. Short walks can take a LOOOOONNNNG time.


Wendy! My trainer taught me a trick on this and it works like a charm. 

Always walk your dog on one specific side of you (I'm sure you already do this). Cosette walks on my right side. Whenever she would start to pull, make a U-turn immediately to your left side, walk 10 paces, then make another left u-turn and resume the walk. This disorients the dog and can be mentally taxing for them to lose focus... plus it uses your torso to control the dog, not your arms... so it's less fatiguing too. 

I only had to do it around 10 or 15 times and it broke Cosette's habit. I could tell it was exhausting her too much, so she just preferred to go with the flow.

Another thing we did was to create an obstacle course where the dog could easily be "clotheslined" by her lead if she did not follow my movements. The trick here is to just continue walking forward even if the dog gets stuck. By making the paths you take random the only thing she has to follow is you. We did about 10 minutes of that and now she won't leave my side when walking. 

Hope this helps.


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## Speedy2662 (May 27, 2012)

Congratz! 

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## WendyM (Aug 21, 2013)

Huh. Thanks so much for the idea. Yes, she always walks on the left so we'd turn to the right. I had seen other people say turn around and walk the other direction, but often she's not particular about which way we walk, so she'd be fine with that. For some reason I didn't figure out that you then turn around AGAIN and redirect her back the way you came. And anything that would give my arm some relief is worth a try. Thanks!


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## JackandMattie (Feb 4, 2013)

Harbud said:


> After 5 months and a lot of painfully long walks Ozzy has finally mastered loose leash walking!!
> I waited a few weeks just to make sure it was solid as he has psyched me out a few times.... but I think we have it!!
> *happy dancing*


High FIVE!


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## gmcwife1 (Apr 5, 2012)

Woohoo - congratulations!!


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

let the fun begin again. teach him to heel on either side
with or without a leash and with distractions.



Harbud said:


> After 5 months and a lot of painfully long walks Ozzy has finally mastered loose leash walking!!
> I waited a few weeks just to make sure it was solid as he has psyched me out a few times.... but I think we have it!!
> *happy dancing*


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## BigWhiteGSD (Nov 4, 2005)

Next Step: No Leash Walking!


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## Harbud (Aug 27, 2013)

Actually walking without a leash has never been an issue. 80% of our time together is off leash. But I live in the city so I can't escape the requirement for a leash and I was having a heck of a time explaining to him how to keep it loose.


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## erfunhouse (Jun 8, 2013)

atourya said:


> Wendy! My trainer taught me a trick on this and it works like a charm.
> 
> Always walk your dog on one specific side of you (I'm sure you already do this). Cosette walks on my right side. Whenever she would start to pull, make a U-turn immediately to your left side, walk 10 paces, then make another left u-turn and resume the walk. This disorients the dog and can be mentally taxing for them to lose focus... plus it uses your torso to control the dog, not your arms... so it's less fatiguing too.
> 
> ...


Or you just look like a jerk......Those are the looks I got when I tried it.


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