Dogs are gifted with enthusiasm — a good trait if you and your pet are playing fetch in a field. On the other hand, it can be a potentially dangerous trait if you’re strolling along a busy sidewalk. An untethered animal poses many risks: It could jump on strangers, get into fights with other dogs, or run into oncoming traffic. That’s why leash training is so essential. Leash training should begin as soon as you get your dog, regardless of its age. In fact, in many areas, leashes are required by law. 

Authors of the Handbook of Behavior Problems of the Dog and Cat (Butterworth Heinemann) offer the following advice when beginning to leash train your dog.

• Be patient. Dogs, like people, learn at different rates. Some dogs may take weeks and even months of patient training before learning how to heel on command entirely.
• Young dogs usually take well to wearing a collar and leash, though temperament and energy level can influence how quickly they learn.
• Some breeds, such as Beagles and Dachshunds, often require more intense training because they are very easily distracted. This isn’t to suggest that a dog is less intelligent if it doesn’t calmly walk at its owner’s side after a week of training, only that it may require a more extended learning period.
• Older dogs may take a little longer to get used to a collar and leash, especially if they haven’t had leash training before. 

Five Easy Steps to Leash Train Your Dog

1. Begin by placing the collar and leash on your dog while it eats, letting the leash hang loosely by its side. Doing so allows your dog to associate the leash with something pleasant (food) and helps it get used to having a collar around its neck.

2. After two or three days, take the leash in your hand and follow your dog around the house for a few minutes after it has finished eating. Do this for more extended periods until your dog is used to both the leash and having you walk beside it. 

3. Next, go outside and let your dog drag the leash around, occasionally picking up the leash and following it. Offer a treat while showing the leash. 

4. While walking, hold the leash in your right hand and coax your dog along your left side by holding a treat in your left hand. As you walk, repeat the phrase, “Let’s go!” Praise your dog when it does well.

5. If your dog starts to pull forward, do a clockwise turn and walk in another direction; the leash will pull its head to the side, so it will have to hurry to catch up with you. Repeat this exercise until your dog learns that if it wants to walk beside you and receive your praise, it’ll have to stay by your side. 

Expert Advice on Leash Training

Make sure your dog’s leash isn’t too long. Four to six feet is ideal. Conduct your outdoor training sessions in an area with few distractions, such as your backyard or a quiet park. If your dog is overly excited, tire it out a little with some vigorous play before placing it on the leash. A slightly tired dog is more attentive. And never yell at or strike your dog while training. Patience pays! 

Proper Training Equipment

Using the right kind of leash and collar can help make your training successful. Most pet supply stores carry a wide selection. Here are the most common types of leashes and collars.

• Flat leash and buckle collar

These standard leashes are available in leather, nylon, and metal chain of various lengths.

• Retractable leash

Much like a fishing pole, this leash lets your pet wander up to 20 feet ahead while still under your control. Pushing the button takes up the slack. (Not a good choice when teaching to “heel.”)

• Headcollar

This unique collar, attached to a leash, keeps your dog under gentle control with a loop around the mouth as well as a collar around the neck.  It doesn’t restrict the mouth, and it thwarts lunging by transferring the forward motion into a sideways head turn. This type of lead is beneficial on energetic or difficult-to-control dogs.

• Choke and prong collars

When attached to leads, these collars control dogs by tightening around the neck or jabbing the throat with spikes. You pinch and release for the corrective action and quick attention — not to choke the dog. They’re not for novice handlers and can be dangerous in inexperienced hands. Before you use this technique, check with an expert for instructions. 

With a lot of patience and a little bit of time, you can leash-train your dog and keep it safe and sound no matter where you go.

Article written by Author: Mary Kirkland

In 1973, Kay Laurence got her first dog, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and a life-changing piece of advice from her father. “You’d better take a training class,” he said. Thirty-five years later, Laurence is the head of the class. Based in the UK, she runs Learning About Dogs, a business that organizes conferences and offers classes all on dog training. In her latest book, Learning Games, Laurence advocates teaching dogs through play. Below, she explains both how and why.

The Nature of Dogs

“Playtime is nature’s classroom,” says Laurence. “Puppies will wrestle, stalk, rip toys, carry and explore. All of these behaviors are rehearsals for real life. Play is where life skills are learned.” For example, puppies of Border Collies descended from gathering breeds will stalk each other during play to prepare for their adult role of herding sheep. Gordon Setters, traditional bird-hunting dogs, will practice for adult life by neck-snapping small stuffed toys. In nature, many of these games are guided by a trainer — the pup’s parent.

Explains Laurence: “Pack members do not teach their youngsters with leashes and praise. They play games with young learners. They set rules and decide when to let their pups succeed.” Though humans have designed their methods of training young dogs that do not involve play, Laurence believes these techniques are not the most effective. “Traditional dog training relies on our opinion of how a dog should perform. For example, a ‘dog sits when you press its hips down.’ Unfortunately, this fails with many dogs since their reaction to pressure is often to push back.”

What Play Can Teach Dogs

“Play training seeks to induce natural responses in the dog,” says Laurence. Those natural responses can then be elicited from the dog on command when obedience is crucial to safety or well-being. For example, Laurence uses play to teach her pupils how to sit still, essential for excitable dogs that tend to jump on visitors to your home. “Through play, we can stimulate a dog to maintain absolute stillness in anticipation.”

In a game, she calls, “Where’s the Mouse?” Laurence uses the canine tendency to focus intently on small prey. “When a dog spies a mouse or rabbit disappearing down a hole, it will maintain a focus on that hole for many hours. It will be able to stay perfectly still for a long period,” she says. For this game, then, Laurence puts a counterfeit “mouse” — in this case, a piece of cheese or sausage — in her hand and waits until the dog fixates on it. At this point, Laurence puts the “mouse” in her pocket, leaving the dog frozen, still in excited anticipation of its feast. Laurence eventually feeds the treat to the dog, reinforcing the pup’s behavior.

Other “life skills” imparted by Laurence, her trainers, and students of her methods include focus, balance, coordination, self-awareness, and puzzle-solving.

Try This Game at Home with Your Dog

For safety’s sake, your dog should be able to run from one location to another based on your direction. If Fido is in the street staring down an approaching car, you need to be able to convince him to run to the curb and fast. To train your pet to move on command, Laurence suggests teaching “The Sausage Bowling Game,” appropriate for dogs 20 weeks and older. Here’s how to play:

• Begin on a non-slippery surface, showing your pup a treat in your hand.
• Make sure it watches your hand as you slowly bend and make an underhand arc as if you were bowling in slow motion.
• Release the treat once your arm reaches the end of the arc, just as you would a bowling ball. Allow the pup to chase and then eat the treat.

• Repeat, “bowling” the treat to a different location each time. Once the dog has mastered following the arc of your arm to your area of choice, make the game harder by turning suddenly just before you release.
• With regular “training,” your dog will follow your command whether or not you’re throwing a reward.

“This uses all the elements of nature’s purpose of play,” says Laurence. “The older pack member, you, has alerted the pup to a chase situation, and the pup is instinctively drawn to join you. Every time they get to employ a natural, instinctive behavior, they enjoy it more and more. What a fabulous way to teach safety!”

Article written by Author: Darcy Lockman

Try a little experiment with your dog:

1. Have it stand perpendicular to you, with another person facing your dog about 3 feet away.
2. Ask the other person to call your dog.
3. As the dog moves toward that person, look at which foot it moves first.

Chances are, you won’t be able to tell — but you’re not alone. According to a study recently published in the science journal Cell Biology, experts who create museum exhibits, veterinary textbooks, and other visual depictions of four-legged animal motion incorrectly illustrate movement almost 50 percent of the time.

Which Foot First?

The study’s lead author, Gábor Horváth of Eötövos University in Budapest, Hungary, was surprised by the widespread confusion. The mystery of how four-legged animals walked was solved way back in the 1880s. Photographer Eadweard Muybridge demonstrated through still-shot images that all quadruped animals move by first moving their left hind foot, then their left front foot, followed by the right hind foot and the right front foot.

But Maryna Ozuna, founder and practitioner of Canine Kinaesthetics and training director of the Arizona Doggy Dude Ranch in Sierra Vista, Ariz., wasn’t surprised by the confusion and how many people tend to forget Muybridge’s breakthrough. “To expect dog owners to incorporate such acute visual assessment is expecting owners to see stuff that not one veterinarian in 100 can see,” she says. It could merely be that dogs walk too quickly for most of us, including veterinarians and other experts, to observe the detailed movements, which Muybridge could capture with his camera.

That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t become more aware of how your dog walks and moves. The benefits of such awareness are considerable. “Dogs live in their bodies, and any restrictions to their bodies affect their ability to absorb information, process information, and respond to information,” Ozuma says.

Walking in Step With Your Dog

In other words, even if you can’t tell which foot your dog moves first, you can still help your dog to stride with greater comfort. Here are some ideas:

Ditch painful dog collars 

Your dog is more comfortable walking with you when it’s wearing comfortable equipment. Most modern-day dog trainers strongly advise against using choke chains and prong collars, even if that dog tends to pull hard on its leash. Such collars can lead to serious behavioral problems because of the discomfort they cause.

If your dog’s a puller, invest in a head collar or a no-pull harness. A professional, positive reinforcement trainer can also help teach your dog that the sidewalk is no place to be a sled dog wannabe.

Get the right leash 

Walking a dog is a lot easier for you both when using the right leash. A 6-foot leather leash is more comfortable to hold than commonly used retractable leashes — a handy feature if your dog suddenly decides to chase a squirrel and you need to grasp the leash.

Hold the leash correctly 

To walk your dog comfortably:

1. Place the leash loop around your wrist, and then grasp the leash with your looped hand just below the loop.
2. With the opposite hand, hold the leash about halfway down its length.
3. Have your dog stand next to you on the side opposite your looped hand so that the leash falls diagonally in front of your body.

This way, you can use both hands to exert greater control over your dog when you walk together.

Watch for changes 

One of the most significant benefits of paying attention to the way your dog moves is that you can spot signs of trouble quickly. “Many times in my training classes, as I watch a dog walk or work, I can see a subtle limp,” says trainer Liz Palika of Oceanside, Calif. 

“The limp might be just a touch of soreness but could turn worse if not paid attention to.” In such cases, a dog needs to see a veterinarian, to diagnose and fix the problem.

That was true for Palika, who found that a change in her Australian Shepherd’s gait indicated a larger problem. Four years ago, she noticed that Riker had a problem because he used his body to help move his rear legs forward. She took him in for X-rays and discovered the problem: severe hip dysplasia. By keeping Riker’s weight under control, giving him a baby aspirin every day, and allowing plenty of playtimes, the now-10-year-old Aussie remains happy, healthy, and on the move.

Article written by Author: Susan McCullough

Some dogs may inherently have more self-control than others, but proper training can solve most canine behavioral issues.

Self-control is a complex behavior that involves many components. For example, it’s tied to an individual’s state of mind. If you — or your dog — are anxious, you will likely feel more jittery and less in control. 

Self-control, however, is also a product of teaching. When you were younger, your mother probably taught you to sit up straight, be quiet under certain circumstances, and more. Without such teaching, you may fall back on other behaviors. The same is true for dogs. As Gerilyn Bielakiewicz and Andrea Mattei point out in their book The Only Dog Training Book You’ll Ever Need: From Avoiding Accidents to Banishing Barking, the Basics for Raising a Well-Behaved Dog, dogs will never develop proper concentration, which is critical to obedience skills, if they do not learn self-control.

Can You Teach a Dog Self-control?

Bielakiewicz and Mattei suggest playing the following game with your dog to help teach or reinforce self-control:

1. Go into a quiet room with your dog and sit down. Have a clicker, some dog food treats, a radio or TV, and toys nearby.

2. Wait a while. Appear to ignore your dog, but then suddenly click. When your dog pays attention to you, offer a treat snack.

3. Repeat this a few times.

4. Now, create a distraction. You could turn on the radio, roll a ball on the floor, or do 

something else. The goal is to distract your dog.

5. Now, use the clicker. Per before, when your dog pays attention, offer the food reward.

Repeat with various types of distracters.

6. While outside, you might also use the clicker in a controlled situation with another dog, or even a cat, present. The next step would then be to reinforce the “Sit” and “Stay” commands after your dog has learned to pay attention to you. Even if your dog is thinking, “I want to get at that dog!” it will use proper self-control and restraint if it is trained correctly.

Article written by Author: The Dog Daily Expert

If your dog gets a bit overeager on walks, it might pull you along, making it hard for you to control it. That’s where a head halter comes in handy. These devices are also used by people who have service dogs, again, for better control.

The Humane Society of the United States provides instructions on using head halters, consisting of a strap that fits around your dog’s nose and a second strap that fits around your dog’s neck and behind its ears. You attach the leash under your dog’s chin. It’s also connected to the nose strap. While this might all seem a bit severe, the device is relatively safe and is considered a “humane method of restraint,” according to The Humane Society.

Make sure the device fits properly, and give your dog some time to get used to it — but not too much time. Dogs that are left with a head halter on while inside the home usually find a way to remove it. Once your pet learns how to do this, it can be challenging to keep the halter on.

The Humane Society advises that you should not:

• Think of the halter like a muzzle; they are two entirely different things
• Jerk the leash hard while your dog is wearing the halter
• Use the head halter with a retractable lead
• Allow your dog to run speedily to the lead’s end because this could jerk your dog backward

Do, on the other hand, only use the head halter during on-leash walks when you are present for supervision. Additionally, take time to read the informational sheet that comes with your particular halter.

Article written by Author: The Dog Daily Expert