Wondering what you can do when your dog pulls on a leash?
1. Braces vs. collar
The first basic condition for me personally is to switch from collar to braces. Even a dog walking "on a loose leash", from time to time, will still pull towards the smell or another dog. This is perfectly normal and you should be prepared for it. The neck of our dog, like our own, is a very sensitive place of the body. Run on collars often suffocates, whooping coughs, wheezes, and yet pulls on a le
ash. It is not a pleasant experience for him. A lot of people will say, "Well, if it pulls, it doesn't hurt!", which I completely do not agree with, such dogs are simply focused more on the external factors of walking, which does not mean that it will not lead later to damage to the body, or to the creation of an unnatural posture of the body and tensions.
A dog brought out on braces, on the other hand, will be much calmer from the moment you leave the house, without feeling tension and unpleasant discomfort on the neck (I recommend putting on the collar yourself and pin to the rope- I personally immediately feel an increase in feelings of anxiety and panic- so how can the dog feel safer?). I talk about what damage it can cause to get my dog out of the collar in this video.
But how to choose the appropriate braces? It's not as easy as it sounds, which is why I decided to record the material about it too.
2. Creating tension on a leash
But what can we do if the dog is so agitated with the whole walk that he does not care what happens to him? Forward, sideways, snatching our hand and not heeding all circumstances. We do not want to be pulled by our dog, so (often already very annoyed) we pull or even jerk the leash in its direction, to
copies reacts with an even stronger pull. This creates continuous resistance on the leash and thus a closed wheel.
When you pull the leash in your direction, an opposition response is created. This phenomenon consists in bringing the dog to a state where by pulling our end of the leash, the dog feeling resistance pulls us even more to resist this resistance. He becomes more annoyed, his frustration grows.
Our behavior described above will never bring the desired effect, that is, it will not cause the dog to stop pulling and begin to go quietly. So it is necessary to look at your own body postion and the ability to use a leash, however it sounds. 🙂
3. Experience pulling on a leash
Below I will show you some experience that I conducted together with my fiancé, Martin. In this experience, he will feel on himself what a dog pulled on a leash feels. He will tell about his feelings in the situation of being pulled on a leash (min. 2:26). At some point, by contrast, I'll start stroking the leash. Let's see what happens then.
4. Leash stroking technique
One of the techniques very often used in the Tellington Ttouch method is the so-called stroking of a leash. This technique consists in simply stroking it instead of strenuously attracting the dog, jerking it, tightening the leash and thus creating a strong tension. Stroke the leash by grabbing it from underneath and slipping one hand under the other. By such gentle strokin
g we send the dog a much clearer and better received message.
But what if our dog is standing still is looking at something to the point where it doesn't allow us to move on? In such a situation, we are unable to pay his attention by standing behind him. By stroking the leash, you can make the dog pay your attention sooner than it would be if it were pulled or jerked. However, in order to
make sure that it will draw attention to us, we should find ourself in the peripheral visi
on of the dog. That is, in such a situation, we should move into the field of vision of the peripheral dog while stroking the leash. Then, using stroking and our body, we point the dog in the direction in which we want to go. Most dogs respond to these signals brilliantly!
Sarah Fisher also talked about this technique at the Animal Training Methods Conference in Warsaw. This trainer often uses this technique in her work with dogs. It claims that this technique can also be successfully used to calm the dog. She told how by stroking the leash, she calmed down the terrier, who was very agitate
d on the walk, jerking and biting the leash. Stroking the leash caused the dog to calm down after a few minutes.
5. Giving up flexi leash
Of course, it is equally important to give up the flexi leash. Because even being locked causes a very unpleasant sudden jerk to the dog when it is unlocked or locked again. The usual material loose leash will be much better. Only on such a leash it is also possible to perform a stroking technique.
A summary of the
If your dog pulls on a leash, you should give up the collar in favor of harnesses. The leash you use should be material, not too heavy. Pulling a dog towards you creates only extra tension, and your dog's frustration (and yours) grows. Instead, stroke the leash, not pull.
And that's probably so much in a nutshell – thanks for reading the article, in case of which I invite you to 🙂