Leash Pressure

One of the most common requests I get from dog owners is to help them teach their dog to walk politely on the leash. I don't want to confuse this with heeling, a very formal and complicated thing to teach, which requires a lot more training, patience and time than one might think. Rather I am referring to the dog not pulling its human around on the end of the leash and stopping as soon as it feels pressure on its collar, no matter the length of the leash, even without a command. Unfortunately, for dogs who have rehearsed pulling this can be a difficult thing to learn.

The reason for this is that pulling is a self rewarding behaviour, the more it is practiced, the more rewarding it has become. The dog is simply reacting to a natural resistance reflex. When you pull back on a dog, it wants to pull forward. So how do we stop our already pulling dog from repeating this activity? I suggest switching the dog onto a harness to manage the pulling and training with a new collar, one with action. Active collars tighten evenly around the dogs neck when they pull and release as soon as the pulling ceases. The idea of a martingale or choke collar is not appealing to some people, but an active slip or an active collar is often the only way to get a dog who is already used to pulling on a flat collar to give to leash pressure. Snug fitting martingale collars are often active enough to train more sensitive dogs, but more resistant dogs will be more likely to need a choke collar or a slip collar.

To begin with, if your dog is pulling all the time, you won't get it to stop dragging you around by just changing its collar. You must manage the behaviour on walks with a halter or front clip harness and teach the dog about the collar and how to turn off leash pressure as a separate thing. This training on the new collar must not be done while walking the pulling dog. You begin teaching leash pressure somewhere familiar, like in the house, with treats in hand, to ease the stress. You want to set the dog up to succeed. The point is to teach the dog the skill of turning off pressure without any other variables at play. These training sessions should be short and sweet until the dog gets the idea that pressure from the collar means back up or stop pulling. Eventually, you can transition to walking the dog on the collar, but to start with you need to work on this as a completely different sessions than the daily walks.

I like to put a properly fit slip or martingale collar on my dog ten minutes before I use it, so the dog doesn't associate the stress of learning this exercise with the new collar. If you don't know how to fit a collar properly, it should be snug and fit high on the smallest part of the dogs neck. Looser collars are not "nicer", they are just less accurate timing wise, there is a delay on the pressure release and they require more muscle to be effective. The dog may scratch at or be aware of the collar at first, but if you put it on well ahead of time they will get used to it before you begin the conditioning process. To begin the conditioning session, simply attach the leash to the collar and pull the dog forward, leash parallel to the floor and level with the dogs shoulders. The dog will probably resist, at the point in which it takes a motion or step forward, drop all tension on the leash and verbally reward the dog. Don't give it treats immediately...wait a few seconds before food rewards. Then repeat the exercise. The treats are just for reducing stress if the dog starts to shut down and to help break up the drill. The dog won't want to keep working if every time it shuts off the pressure by giving to the leash you immediately go right back to pressuring it again. So use the treats and praise to break up the process.

Next you want to teach the dog to move with the leash in other directions. To teach the dog to go to one side or the other, pull on the leash, parallel to the floor at the level of the dogs shoulders, toward one side, right or left past you. As you did with the forward pull, as soon as the dog moves in the direction you are pulling drop all tension and verbally reward the dog. If you are using treats, give the dog a treat after a few seconds to ease the tension. The dog should move a bit easier now that it is beginning to get the hang of it. If not, do not back down...keep the leash short in your hand and keep the pressure steady until the dog gives to it. If you let go, the dog will learn that if it resists pressure it can shut it off, the opposite of what we want. Repeat this on both sides so the dog is moving to the right across you and also to the left across the front of you. Remember to break the stress up with praise and even some treats if the dog is shutting down, however, don't use any obedience commands during this learning phase. This type of stress can be hard on some dogs and we don't want to colour it with any other variables. We are just concerned with the dog's giving to leash pressure outside any other activity or situation.

Finally, you want to teach the dog to back off the leash. You want the dog to feel the pressure from behind and stop or back up as soon as it feels you pulling on the leash from behind him. This is what will help us teach the dog to NOT PULL. So stand beside the dog, on whatever side you walk it on and line the leash up behind its head, parallel to the floor at the height of its shoulders and pull back along its spine, steady and slow. You must have the leash short, so only your arm moves. You must not pull up or the dog will most likely sit. You want the dog to back up...as soon as it does, even an inch, release all pressure. If the dog is used to pulling, this will be challenging, but don't give in! You need the dog to give to the leash, even if you just feel it stop resisting, that might be enough to reward. You can work on this for a few repetitions and then shelve it for the day. I stress, keep your sessions short and do them daily for few days if the dog isn't giving readily at first. Then go out and have some fun with your dog...make sure if you are going to walk him, do it on a harness, or even a haltie, but keep the collar on for a while after training. Keep in mind not to switch to the collar for walks right away because you have just taught him to give to leash pressure, don't undo your work by rehearsing pulling right after.

Now that you have introduced your dog to the idea of giving to leash pressure, it is time to put it to use. To begin with, just attach the leash to the active collar and work it in the house without distractions. Remember we want to set the dog up to succeed. You can just use a treat to lure and treat your dog into a desirable position, on your left or right, your choice and take a few steps. If the dog gets ahead of you, stop dead in your tracks, lean back and become a post. When the dog stops pulling, release the tension and praise the dog. Call him to you and give him a treat. We don't want there to be extended pressure on the collar, so don't pull your dog to you. Encourage your dog to come to you, rather than correcting the dog for pulling and making him associate coming with something negative. I would recommend keeping training to a couple short sessions a day until you can get the dog to give easily to pressure and recall in the house or back yard with success. Then you are ready to take it out into the world. Don't be in a rush, you only want to do a block of this at a time and build up to durations. As a management tool, use the harness or haltie and practice calling your dog to you for treats or a bit of play while out on walks. Walks and training will be separate at this point, but don't let the dog rehearse bad behaviour on walks either. Just try and get the dog to stop excessive pulling by calling it back to you and rewarding it with treats for not pulling. The most important thing is that if it is pulling it isn't doing it on the training collar and becoming resistant to the feel of the pressure.

Although, positive punishment (like leash a correction) is sometimes necessary, we can use positive reinforcement, toys, treats, playing and other reinforcement to get the dogs to do most what we want them to do. I read recently that corrections make some dogs crazier. It is true in certain cases. I have seen corrections used intentionally to frustrate a dog to make him more excited and intense. The fact is, in the case of highly motivated dogs restraint and physical pain actually lead to more frustration and the heightening or the building of the behavior that most people do not want! People think that strong leash corrections will actually stop a behavior, but constant leash pressure and ill timed leash corrections are actually a form of restraint. Restraining a dog bred for sport or protection dog is actually how trained professionals get the dog to commit more to an object to want something more. This is how they get police dogs and hunting dogs to want an item more...not less. So if you want your dog to stop pulling, teach it to give to leash pressure as a separate skill and then incorporate that skill into your daily walks bit by bit. Eventually, with consistency and patience you can get your dog to be polite on leash.

A work of caution, don't use the heel command with this type of training, as it won't lend itself to formal heeling. The point is to teach the dog leash manners. To begin heeling work is an entirely different approach, of which giving to leash pressure is only one component. If you have the dog understanding how to back off the leash, you may one day want to teach it to heel. So don't pollute or poison that command or you won't have it at your disposal in the future.