How to STOP Your DOG From Pulling on the Leash!

Use these tips to stop your dog from pulling on leash!

Getting your dog to be well behaved on leash not only makes walks something to look forward to, but it can prevent future reactivity and aggression issues. In this video, we are showcasing one of the dogs we recently trained! Her main issue was pulling on leash specifically towards other dogs. She is a typical Lab, and of course is very friendly, but she is too friendly! As you can see she pulls, barks, lunges, and jumps! Not only does this make a walk her stressful, it can be potentially dangerous for her and her owner!

When you watch the full video you will notice that Millie learned not to pull and made a ton of progress. That being said, all of this work was done in one week and it will take work to maintain it! She is still a young lab with lots of energy and if she is allowed to go back to pulling she would probably love to start pulling again! However you train your dog make sure that you have plans to maintain their training life long!

In this video, we used a Herm Sprenger Prong Collar. A prong collar is not for every dog, but the majority of dogs will do well on it if they are acclimated correctly. Just like we always say, know your dog! While acclimating them, we recommend taking your dog to a calmer environment that is away from a ton of distractions.

The collar we use is a 3.00mm and we have included a link here if you want to check it out: https://amzn.to/3E3eBUZ

We also recommend having a good leather leash with a brass clip like this one: https://amzn.to/3E89Rxg

The fit of the prong collar is important! It needs to sit high on your dog’s neck, and you should be able to only get 2 fingers underneath. The exact fit though depends on each dog. If a dog is sensitive to the collar, you can attach the prong to their flat collar, or just have them practice wearing it during non training times. Although that process can help, most dogs do not require this. To start, we will not ask a lot of our dogs when we first put the prong collar on. We will practice walking in a circle with some change of directions. At this point, we are not expecting them to heel, we are just getting the dog used to the tugs and feeling the new collar. This part can take a few minutes to around 20, but there is no rush!

Once your dog is used to the prong collar, now it is time to teach them heel. Heel for us means the dog’s eyes and ears are at our heel and they are facing forward. This is our walking command that we use during the majority of a dog’s training walks. For most dogs we will have them heel 90-95% of their walk when they are new to training. To help reinforce the command, we practice a lot of turns (Left and Right).

Heel gives us 3 main things that are beneficial for us and our dogs. It establishes control and leadership, It gives your dog a job to do which mentally taxes them, and it can be used to calm them down in excitable situations (Like in this video).

Please watch our video on our Heel Command:    • Three Reasons To Teach Your Dog To He...  

The mechanics for heel are simple. We do everything we can to keep our dog’s walking calmly and nicely at our heel. We focus on giving small tugs on the collar to get our dog back into the heel positions. For example, when they get in front we tug back, if they look left, we tug right. These quick tugs are meant to break any staring or fixation they have. It is very important to make sure we are not too tight on the collar. The collar will form a “V” shape if you are. If the collar is too tight, it loses its effectiveness and it is unfair to your dog. Do not forget to praise your dog when they are doing well!

Once your dog has learned heel it is now time to practice heeling around distractions. In this video we are focusing on Millie’s main issue which is being too excited around other dogs. In just a few days, we see a night and day difference. Keep in mind this took multiple hours with a professional handler, so quick results can vary if you choose to try this alone!

When you start this process we recommend giving yourself as much space as possible and slowly work on passing dogs closer and closer. We do not want robot dogs, so some interest is fine as long as they are listening. In tight spaces remember to utilize your turns, give yourself more room, and you can always angle 45 degrees away if needed!

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:27 Collar Fit And Acclimation
02:50 Utilizing Turns And Heel Mechanics
06:16 Millie’s First Dog Pass!
06:40 Millie’s Progress!
07:29 More Dog Passes and Walking In Crowds
07:51 Closing Thoughts

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