I can't stress enough how important this is...

Many owners when taking their dog out for a walk will head to the local park, usually taking the same route every day. Their dog will pull their arm almost out of their socket to get there as they are so excited. Upon arrival at the park the owner will let them off to run around with other dogs and burn off their excessive energy.

As a dog trainer I see this all the time!

The thing is your dog pulls for three reasons:

1. They have learned the route to the park

Taking the same route is never a good idea when your dog isn’t trained to walk without pulling. Dogs can learn a route very quickly and if that route leads to the park or open field where they get let off to play with their buddies. Then you can bet they will be getting more and more excited the closer they get, usually pulling more too.

2. You don’t walk quick enough

A simple matter of fact, we’ve two legs and a dog has four. They can walk quicker than us which is another reason why they pull. When training a dog to not pull I’ll usually pick up my pace to begin with to teach the technique, then I teach them to slow it down.

3. You’ve rewarded them for pulling with every walk

This usually happens when owners are in a rush, such as if they are going to be late for work and are yet to walk the dog. I can guarantee they’ll let their dog pull and that is one of the biggest mistakes owners can make.

There is one golden rule you have to remember when training your dog to walk without pulling and that is:

There is no destination to get to when lead training your dog!

When training your dog its not about doing a loop around the block or getting them to the park. For most owners the work starts on the driveway and your street, you’ll be walking back and forth before you attempt a loop or the park route.

Think that your dog needs to go to the park to burn off that energy? Think again. Training your dog to walk on lead is both physically and mentally tiring. 20 minutes of lead training is equivalent to a 40 minute walk so you will be tiring your dog out while training, that’s a win win.

So if you finally want to train your dog then why not check out my other blog next on ‘3 steps to a successful lead walk’ and learn how to get started.