How To Teach Your Dog Not To Pull On The Leash?

2023 Author: Molly Page | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 22:49

Many smart and useful articles and books have been written about difficult adolescents; unfortunately, there is practically no information in the literature about difficult dogs and how to re-educate them - trainers hide their secrets. Let's try to give some tips.

Here is a two month old puppy. He is playful, carefree and defenseless - a kind of jumping fool. Listen to its owners: their stories about him are full of love and tenderness - this lop-eared charm has already crept into their hearts …

At the age of three to five months, conversations about a puppy are still full of affection, but concern is already showing through them, because the owners have problems with raising him. The puppy has grown up, stretched out, has become more active and independent, but … less obedient. Without special knowledge, it is already difficult to cope with it; the intervention of a training instructor is required.

Finally, a long-awaited consultation. Lots of questions and tips. But here's the paradox: listening carefully to the advice, and sometimes (which is especially surprising) and writing it down, novice dog breeders actually very rarely follow these advice. Apparently, the essence of this phenomenon is that every sane person, especially an adult, considers himself to be a specialist in a number of professional sciences (pedagogy, psychology, medicine, veterinary medicine, etc.), including in matters related to education. and dog training.

Relying on their own common sense, puppy owners rarely use professional advice or use it as they see fit. As a result of their efforts, by 8-12 months (depending on the individual characteristics of the dog), the problems grow like a snowball, the emotion in the stories about the pet becomes less and less, and the bitterness more and more.

How to avoid this? The answer is simple: any business, be it driving a car, working on a computer or controlling a dog, requires special knowledge and effort on the part of the person who wants to master it. Unlike the most perfect machine, the device of which was originally predetermined by man, a dog is a living creature, has a complex inner world, has its own canine will, cunning, emotions and the ability to love and hate. When controlling a dog in response to seemingly the same words and actions of yours, there can be completely different reactions. Therefore, it is not enough just to want to control the dog, you also need to want to learn to see, understand and foresee, i.e. learn to "read" the dog's behavior, understand its aspirations and anticipate their consequences.

It is useless to complain and lament. The only way to solve the problems associated with raising a dog is through your deliberate and purposeful actions. Sometimes the problems that torment dog breeders for years are solved with the help of a specialist within a few hours or days. If the dog is mentally healthy (and this should be determined by the training instructor), you can and should still be helped.

Very often, unwittingly, novice dog breeders develop in the puppy the bad habit of dragging the owner on a leash. This greatly spoils their life together, sometimes turning it into voluntary hard labor for the owners of the dog, and each walk becomes torture for the owner.

Teaching your dog not to pull you is much easier than teaching him to walk beside you on command. This skill in the process of working out is much easier to bring to the level of the norm of behavior (that is, one that becomes natural for the dog, habitual), rather than the skill of "walking beside". This is explained by the fact that the boundaries of the formed skill (ie what and according to what rules should be done) of “walking on a free leash” are simpler and easier to observe for both the trainer and the dog.

A dog taken on a leash should not pull on its owner, regardless of the length of the leash, direction and pace of movement, as well as the place of walking. When changing the direction of movement of the handler, the dog must also change direction, following him.

The signal to change the pace or direction of movement is the degree of tension on the leash, determined by the trainer's subjective feelings. It should also be noted that a dog trained not to pull the leash, with further training, learns the skill of "walking alongside" much easier and faster.

In order to bring your requirements to the dog with minimal physical costs and not torture her in vain, you first need to learn how to manage it with a leash.… "Yes, I already know how to pull!" - you will be indignant. And you will most likely be wrong. Indeed, as practice shows, in 95% of cases, novice trainers do not know how to use a leash. However, with proper training and proper technique, even a fragile woman and a weak child can have a strong enough influence on a dog's behavior. And with inept handling of the leash, a large man sometimes turns out to be incapable of effective management. Unfortunately, subjective feelings do not always reflect the actual training and technique of a novice trainer. That is why I recommend that you master the technique of using a leash not on a dog, but on some model object - for example, by tying the leash to a fence or to the hand of your own husband. Pulling the fence, you yourself will feel the power of your influence, and the person will confirm or refute your opinion.