5 Hacks to Improve Your Dog’s Leash Walking Skills!

A common reason that clients reach out to us for help revolves in some form around their dog struggling with needed leash walking skills. Whether your dog is easily distractible in the neighborhood, can be reactive towards certain triggers on leash, or drags you down the street like they’re pulling a sled, there are several hacks that can help you better reach your training goals. And some of them require no formal training at all! Try some of these approaches with your dog and you’ll see improvement on your walks right away:

Hack #1: Get A Longer Leash

When you are struggling with a dog who wants to pull, it can feel instinctual to want to shorten up the leash and try to use it as a “steering wheel” to keep their dog close by while walking. However, most people don’t realize that the less length you give a dog, the more opportunity they have to resist and pull harder. Think of your leash to your dog as a security tether or a seatbelt, and your voice/body language as the guides to prompt them on how you want them to walk. We recommend using as long of a leash as the environments you’re walking in allow for: in a neighborhood setting, try using an 8-10 foot leash. In an urban park setting, try a 15 foot leash. In rural areas or open spaces with low foot traffic, try a longer line of 20+ feet. Not sure how to utilize a longer leash and manage all the slack? We have a video tutorial here just for you!

Sometimes we misinterpret a dog’s leash pulling problem as a lack of “obedience,” when in reality many of our dogs just simply walk faster than we do. Constantly having to regulate their pace to our human walking styles can be difficult or frustrating to some dogs, especially if you have a larger breed or a dog who tends to cover ground quickly. Think of the last time your dog had the opportunity to move outside, completely unrestricted by a leash: how fast were they trotting, running, and exploring? Likely, you’ll realize that their “natural” pace is simply just faster than ours, and allowing them extra leash where you can will bring much needed relief for them to have a few more feet of range to move a bit more naturally and have less opportunities to pull you.

Disclaimer: When using a longer leash with your dog, we recommend attaching this leash to a well fitting harness instead of a collar in most cases.

Hack #2: Create Distance From Your Dog’s “Triggers”

Whether your dog is reactive towards specific triggers (other dogs, people, cars, etc) or is just easily excited by certain stimuli in the environment, after a few walks together you are quickly able to recognize what distractions in the environment your dog is likely to struggle with encountering. You know that the incoming handler and dog approaching you on the same side of the sidewalk is likely to have your dog pulling hard and struggling to respond to your cues while you pass by. The closer they get, the more chaos ensues!

While we are training new behaviors with our dogs, it’s really important that we present distractions to them in controlled ways so that we know they can still remain successful while building their skillset. Over time, as our dogs improve, we can increase the intensity of those distractions, but until we have better confidence in their fluency of the behavior we’re working on (in this case, loose leash walking), we need to manage these distractions well. On leashed walks in public, you don’t necessarily have full control over other distractions being presented in the environment. So, in order to account for this while still keeping your dog successful, utilize distance as much as possible. The further away a stimulus is from your dog, the less distracting it will be. When you do see that dog walker approaching you from the same side of the sidewalk, cross the street in advance so you don’t have to pass each other in such close quarters. If you’re at the park and see a squirrel you know your dog will want to chase standing under a tree, give yourself a wide berth around the area to keep your dog under control. When walking around a corner and another person pops up and takes you both by surprise, quickly make a u-turn with your dog and walk back the direction you came to give yourself some room to move away. The more practice your dog gets encountering their “triggers” at far away distances, the more likely they will be able to perform the skills you need during that unanticipated “real life” moment.

Hack #3: Let Your Dog Blow Off Steam BEFORE The Walk

It sounds a little silly to “pre-exercise” your dog if their walks are considered a main form of energy expenditure, but this approach can save both you and your dog a ton of frustration in the long run. The most common time for dogs to pull hard and struggle to respond to cues is in the very beginning of a walk when they are raring to go and have a lot of pent up excitement to get out of their systems. Walks are exciting, stimulating, and at times can be a little stressful or overwhelming. Asking our dogs to “hold it together” while leaving the house when they are essentially wound up rubber bands ready to snap is almost always going to turn into a battle. Let them get their bodies moving a little before asking them to walk with you on leash!

Account for this exercise as part of your “daily walking time” with your dog to incorporate it into your routine. If you normally take your dog for a 45 minute trek around the neighborhood each day, spend those first 10-15 minutes engaging them in another high energy activity that allows them to move their body. Get your dog chasing and playing with a flirt pole. Engage them in a game of fetch or tug with you. Hide a few treats around the backyard/around the home for them to sniff out and forage for. Set up an obstacle course and get them maneuvering around it with you for rewards (make sure all obstacles are safe and reasonable for your dog’s fitness level). Simply let your dog run some laps around the backyard or up and down the hallway inside if they have been home alone all day and need a few minutes to get their excitement out of their system. If the activity gets your dog moving and they enjoy it, it’s fair game!

Hack #4: Change Up Your Reward Delivery

There’s no getting around it: your dog’s leash skills are going to best improve with thoughtful training and consistency. Just like going to the gym consistently to keep your muscles strong, your dog’s training requires lifelong maintenance if you don’t want the skills you worked so hard for to diminish over time. But, we do need to make sure that the way we are training is the most effective approach for our individual dogs. One common change you can make to keep engaging with you on walks exciting for your dog is to make sure your reward delivery is dynamic and exciting for them.

Instead of reaching down and feeding treats to your dog by hand, try dropping them on the ground, tossing them for your dog to catch in the air, or rolling the treats for your dog to chase down and “catch.” When treats are delivered in a high energy manner or allow our dogs to “capture” them in some way, this can increase their value and show our dogs that we can be interesting on walks too. This can also be helpful as an alternative for our dogs who tend to want to chase after critters: disengage from that squirrel up ahead and I will toss a treat for you to chase after instead! When delivering a treat to your dog on the ground or by tossing it to them, it may be helpful to put this delivery on a cue like “get it!” or “catch it!” so they know how the treat will be delivered to them while walking.

You may also find more success with your leash walking training when you work WITH what your dog finds interesting in the environment as rewards for desired behavior. Many people find their dog’s desire to sniff and explore on their walks frustrating, as this is a common time that we find dogs wanting to pull on leash, but did you know that you can use access to sniffing as a reinforcer for your dog? Teaching them that cooperating with you means access to the things they want in the environment can be an extremely impressionable way to motivate your dog to work with you on walks instead of against you. This approach does require a bit of foundational training before putting it into practice on walks, but we have a tutorial for you here!

Hack #5: Practice “Doing Nothing” On Your Walks Sometimes Too!

A lot of dogs who tend to chronically pull on the leash are doing so because in some form, they find walks overstimulating or struggle with regulating their arousal levels in the face of all the stimuli the outside world has to offer. And while these dogs definitely need plenty of exercise and outlets to engage their environment, we also need to make sure that our walks aren’t ONLY “riling them up” and causing their excitement levels to just continue to rise. The more worked up a dog is, the less likely they are going to be able to walk with you on a loose leash.

A great way to put this into practice is to be intentional on your walks to spend some time just existing with your dog while out and about in the world. A dog who is able to “just hang out” sometimes on a walk is an extremely valuable skill for them to have, and can help in the long run with reducing their overarousal, and subsequently improve their leash manners. After  your dog has had some time on their walk to move and explore, try finding a nearby bench or sitting area to stop and spend some time just being relaxed with your dog. It helps in initial stages to find a space that is low in distraction level, so look for quiet areas away from heavily trafficked sidewalks or high energy activities going on (like next to a busy playground or sports field). When you sit with your dog, speak to them calmly and quietly, patting them with long, slow strokes so as to not rile them up, and you may want to encourage further relaxation by luring them with a treat into a “down” position and rewarding them for laying at your feet. Suzanne Clothier’s “Really Real Relaxation” protocol is a great way to put social relaxation together into practice, check out an example video here.

In the initial phases of training, it may take time for your dog to start settling in to just “hang out.” This is okay, and don’t force it! But after lots of practice, relaxation should be an easier state of mind for your dog to access in the outside world. Once you are at this level, you may also want to use sitting and relaxing with your dog on walks as a means to help them “come down” after a highly stimulating or stressful encounter. As an example, if you have a reactive dog who just had a large reaction on their walk, remove them from the situation/trigger entirely, go find a quiet place to sit, and encourage them to settle and relax with you for a few minutes before continuing on your walk. Allowing them this “pause” to slow down can often help with their regulating of their nervous system so they can come back to a more normal baseline and have a calmer rest of their walk, despite the stressful encounter.

Try putting some of these hacks into practice with your dog, and see the frustration diminish! Life is so much better with our dogs when we can enjoy our outings with them. If you still need help improving your dog’s leash walking skills, please reach out to us. We can help you in-person in the Atlanta GA area or virtually anywhere in the world.